Boasting two stunning albums since 2015, Houston’s Khruangbin mines Sixties psychedelic funk grooves from around the globe. When the trio took the stage inside a packed Tito’s tent late Sunday afternoon, the only question remaining was how their languid, instrumental shoegaze funk would translate to a festival setting.
The band’s expressed genuine befuddlement at their own success, not helped by the fact that even some of their most ardent fans cannot pronounce their name, which derives from the Thai word for airplane. And still, a mix of indie cool kids, Phish heads, and rare groove nerds descended on their ACL slot well before the appointed hour.
Once Khruangbin hit the stage, virtually zero banter ensued. Shared cheers with red Solo cups between bassist Laura Lee and guitarist Mark Speer was the closest they came to showmanship. Instead, the group enraptured the audience with spellbinding grooves elicited from an intricate dance between Lee and Speer, and perfect in-the-pocket timekeeping from drummer DJ Johnson.
In a pre-festival interview, Speer copped to “constantly doing little shout-outs and winks” in live sets. Indeed, the band left a trail of Easter eggs for discerning listeners. The guitar riff on “Dern Kala” briefly morphed into Isaac Hayes’ “Hung Up on My Baby,” source material doubling as a nod to their hometown and the Geto Boys’ “Mind Playing Tricks on Me.” Toying with early-Eighties roots reggae burner “Police in Helicopter,” the dub-tinged “August 10” played out more subtle.</p
After staying true to their low-key album cuts, Khruangbin went all-in on the breaks. A killer, late-set medley of G-funk era classics from Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Warren G, and Luniz (or David McCallum, Isley Brothers, Leon Haywood, and Michael McDonald, depending on your perspective and birth year) blew minds. “Maria También” winks at the Incredible Bongo Band’s “Apache” on the album, but that connection fleshed out fully onstage.
Sunday, Khruangbin proved that for an instrumental outfit with a funny name, the music is enough.
This article appears in October 5 • 2018.
