Wallows at ACL Fest: messy charisma and an appreciation for Austin

Yes, the young actor you’ve surely seen on TV has a band from Los Angeles.

Like Jason Schwartzman’s Phantom Planet or Ryan Gosling’s Dead Man Bones, Wallows benefits commercially from its Hollywood connections. But on a scale from Steven Segall’s ironically titled “epic guitar solo” to Zooey Deschanel’s dignified She & Him, Dylan Minnette’s band does have real fans for whom his inside-the-locker prose matters a great deal.

Saturday at the American Express stage, many showed up with signs and knowing the words to teenage dirtbag anthems like “Scrawny.” The music was not cynically written with an eye on cornering a market. It was not unpleasant.

More:ACL Fest is Sloppy Jane's show now

“I’ve been watching Boy George this whole time,” drummer (and fellow Hollywood actor) Cole Preston said toward the end.

The comment was self-deprecating and jovial, virtue-signaling that he too is baffled by his backstage access. Here are five things we saw or learned about a band that sounds like the Strokes during its Austin City Limits Festival engagement.

Minnette remembers the ‘90s.

The 25-year-old frontman wore baggy pants, Dr. Martens-esque platforms and a Backstreet Boys T-shirt. He whisper-crooned like turn-of-the-century scenester Julian Casablancas. You can understand why young people are drawn to his band’s affable coolness and messy charisma. “Your hair looks good Braeden,” a fan-made sign read about guitarist Braeden Lemasters. He is also an actor who appeared in TNT’s “Men Of a Certain Age.”

As a frontman, Minnette didn’t direct the crowd to move because that would apparently be unchill, saying instead, “Feel free to jump around if you want to.”

Tight.

I do think the appeal of Wallows among teens is not unfounded or grossly manufactured despite the band’s obvious privilege.

Minnette has been in Wallows long enough to have performed at Warped Tour 2011. His music can spruce up a playlist with its sardonic lyricism, washed-out production and curt, cool-guy singing.

After Minnette moved from the Midwest to L.A. with his family to pursue acting, Wallows got together at the Keyboard Galleria Music Center’s Gig Masters program. A string of EPs culminated with 2019’s “Nothing Happens” and March’s “Tell Me That It’s Over.”

More:Death Cab for Cutie possesses aging emo hearts at ACL Fest

At worst, self-serious Paul Simon-to-Vampire-Weekend-pipeline singles like “I Don’t Want to Talk” register on the pop scale as “chaotic neutral.” Sometimes, a trumpet player would play whole notes.

But for a front row of young people (and one old guy mouthing along who was possibly someone’s dad), these songs meant a great deal. Heck “Marvelous” is about how Minnette plans to go to therapy. We’re down with therapy.

'Pictures of Girls' wasn’t a standout.

“You and I, we grew up in the suburbs,” Minnette sings on the 2018 song, which the band performed on the AmEx stage. It borrows ‘80s new wave bass lines like those from New Order’s “Age of Consent,” and the three-part harmonies do little to juice up Minnette’s low-tone singing.

The boys remember Austin fondly.

“This is our last show in this country for a good while,” Minnette said as his hour-long set wound down. “We’re in good spirits.”

Besides closing this tour at ACL Fest, Lemasters recalled debuting “Drunk on Halloween” live here in Austin: “We thought since it’s October, we might as well play it again on this stage.”

Minnette went into the crowd and sang into phones during 'OK.'

“Can we get up and try to feel OK again?” goes the song. Can’t think of a better descriptor for his performance or call to action for the morning after a long weekend at Zilker.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Wallows at ACL Fest Weekend 2: an affable afternoon in Zilker Park