Last weekend, in the fair city of Austin, Texas, was a blitzkrieg of all the diverse, jangled, fangled demographics that seep up through the cracks of this metropolis when there’s any kind of musical festival.  This time, it was the ACL Fest in all her microwave heat and steam-room glory, with all the dust suffocation and UV radiation a man can handle.

Personally, I spent the better part of last Saturday in the living room watching college football, drinking beers, and finding little to no motivation to step outside my front door, beyond which I knew lay the torching torment of Texas’s late summer sun.  I was safe inside my shaded, air-conditioned cave.

That was until I found myself, at some point last evening, stepping out of an elevator at the Communications Building on the UT Campus for the ACL/PBS showcase of Gnarls Barkley.

I’ve never really listened to Gnarls Barkley, honestly.  Sure, I’ve listened to the radio tunes, “Crazy” and what-have-you, but I’ve never invested much time or effort listening to their work beyond the dial, the occasional play at a party, or the background music of a department store.

I first noticed Cee-Lo during his days with a certain hip-hop outfit out of his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia known as The Goodie Mob, who gained a bit of notoriety in the mid-’90s with the rise of a certain other act you might know as Outkast.   I’m telling you all this because first impressions mean a lot in human perception — particularly when it comes to the world of music.

After grabbing a free Dixie cup of Zeigenbock (yes, they have free beer at those tapings for which I was much obliged), I took my seat and awaited this band, Gnarls Barkley, for whom I had only periphery knowledge and very nonchalant expectations.

The band finally took the stage dressed in all black –- a rather hip handful of college-aged-looking folks.  The famed duo of DJ Danger Mouse (or Brian Burton) and Cee-Lo Green (Thomas Calloway) were soon to follow.   Cee-Lo sauntered on stage with what appeared to be a black clerical robe over a black shirt and black pants.  Danger Mouse, beer in hand, lumbered in just behind the strange, charismatic front man and, with a wave to the crowd but not a word, took his place hunched over the Korg like a debonair street-urchin incarnation of Duke Ellington.

The collaboration of Gnarls Barkley then proceeded to launch into “Charity Case,” the opening track of their latest studio effort, The Odd Couple (released on Downtown Recordings in March), Cee-Lo standing before the mic and Danger Mouse moving between the keys and a xylophone.

Now, I’m considered a hard sell by some of my peers when it comes to music (especially the “new” stuff, they say), but these guys took me (even me) by surprise (he played a xylophone for God’s sake!?!). Whether it was my lack of physical activity that day, the free beer, or the church house, soul-stirring, alter-calling, gospel acoustics of Cee-Lo’s vocals (I’ll bet the latter), I was converted –- more than impressed.

I’ve never seen or heard anything like the sort of music that lies beyond the radio plays of Gnarls Barkley.  These guys rattled out a smorgasbord of sounds and influences that caught me completely off guard.  From the surf rock rolls of “Surprise” to the sit down, slow down, groove blues of “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul,” I found myself asking myself (perhaps out loud to no one in particular), “How have I missed this band?”

They performed like the consummate professionals they are without all the pretensions and arrogance that can kill a band and betray the artform.   At several points in the show, Cee-Lo apologized for a pain in his throat (Cee-Lo, that was the Texas ragweed in the air, by the way –- the stuff could kill a man) and its detrimental effect on his voice.  From the crowd, we couldn’t notice.  God blessed that man with a mean set of pipes and I’d place last Saturday’s show as one of the finest vocal performances I’ve ever seen.

Yes, of course they played “Crazy,” with every individual in the intimate crowd of 300 or so packed into the studio carrying the chorus.  They did a phenomenal cover of The Violent Femmes’ “Gone Daddy Gone” (a gem I’ll not spoil for you now and leave for you to discover for yourself on the broadcast November 22nd). The Gnarls Barkley gig was essentially the equivalent of taking every record from nearly every major genre from the last 40 years, putting it together in on the slowcooker, pouring a bottle of Tabasco sauce over it, and washing it down with a frosty beverage.

In its entirety, the set included:

“Charity Case”
“Surprise”
“Gone Daddy Gone”
“Run (I’m a Natural Disaster)”
“Just A Thought”
“Going On”
“Neighbors”
“Crazy”
“Who’s Gonna Save My Soul?”
“Smiley Faces”

“Smiley Faces” only begged for more, which the we, the crowd, desperately cheered for, but the band had to move on, as they were “contractually obligated,” or so Cee-Lo confessed as they finished up the set and the lights came up: “You know…this is just a part-time gig.  I’m a male exotic dancer on the side.  Gotta pay my way through school, you know.  They call me Mr. Lo Dangles.”

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