Fun Fun Fun Live Shot: Sun Kil Moon

“What’s the name of that fucking band playing,” challenged Mark Kozelek to an uneasy crowd clearly familiar with the frontman’s recent beef with the War On Drugs. “Just kidding, whatever you’re called,” he waved toward Run the Jewels’ concurrent set. “I love you guys.”

Backed by a trio, the denim-clad singer stood tall, hand planted in pocket for opener “Michelin,” which led straight into “I Can’t Live Without My Mother’s Love,” both from February’s Benji.

“All you Austin motherfuckers – shut the fuck up,” he countered, unable to shake the sound wafting from surrounding stages.

Three songs in sans guitar, Kozelek finally strapped on his acoustic for 2013’s “Hey You Bastards I’m Still Here,” a welcome variation to a set teetering on tiring.

“Play the War On Drugs song!” requested a fan, referencing the songwriter’s recent band-basher, “War On Drugs: Suck My Cock.”

“We’ll play some beer commercial lead guitar,” he quipped, again slighting the Adam Granduciel-fronted group whose sound bled into Kozelek’s during September’s Ottawa Folk Festival. From sour to sweet, the Almost Famous actor then pledged a penchant for Austin.

“I say this sometimes and don’t mean it,” he began, pacing the stage. “But I mean this: I fucking love Austin.”

He went on to explain a residence here in the late Nineties during the recording of his Red House Painters’ swan song, Old Ramon, and a threesome with a Kerby Lane waitress. Otherwise, aside from some slurs, he fell short of his notoriously cranky reputation, delivering instead stellar songs better suited to singer-songwriter rap than hip-hop-like feuds.

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