Austin City Limits Music Festival
Well, I only gained .2 lbs during ACL (which puts me at a pound lost over the last month...). I could've made better food choices (I didn't *have* to eat the bacon wrapped jalapenos stuffed with cheddar cheese) but with all the walking around and festival feelings, I wanted to have the whole experiance. So, before the updates, I want to clarify my position on music: I am not a music person. I like a good number of music styles without the focus to pay attention to who the artist/name of song actually is. I don't seek out new music on my own, and will listen to the same CD over and over again in the background. I wanted to attend ACL for the experiance of it all.
On Friday, I went downtown to work a half day from the agency. My account team took me to Moonshine's for lunch where I had the portabella and zuchinni sandwich. It was amazing! Thier drinks were great too, and I ended up a bit tipsy when I collected MJ and we went to get our wristbands. When we got to Zilker park, Blues Traveler was playing on the big stage right past the entrance. MJ and I went to the back of the crowd and set up our chairs to listen.
Also, let me just say, MJ is the best music festival partner evah! We both had the same ideas for what we considered a good experiance, ie no desire to get into the thick of the crowd, willing to leave if we didn't like a show, and also willing to catch half a show in order to catch another show. There are 2 "headliner" stages (opposite ends of the park), 2 large stages, 2 medium stages and one small covered stage (oh and the kiddie stage - more on that later).
So Blues Traveler was everything you think they'd be. They have a similar live sound to thier album, and it was a good start to the day. Next up was Band of Heathens, who for the life of me I can't remember anything about thier show now. Following that we caught Spoon, who I didn't realize I knew so many songs by them. They were really good, and I enjoyed thier show a lot. MJ wanted to see Vampire Weekend, who I'd never heard of, so we moved stages to catch thier show. They were deff my Friday Favorite, and MJ s gonna burn me thier latest CD. The headliner on Friday was Phish, and we only stayed for a few songs before we decided to head out.
Our lessons learned from Day One were less clothes and more booze to sneak in. We made plans to meet up the next morning with flasks and boxed wine that we could put into the camp chair bags (which weren't searched on our way in). Amazingly, we weren't the only ones to think of this, and it took me 4 stores Saturday morning to find flasks, and the ones I found were not great quality (but cheap!) and one sprung a leak. MJ found "adult juice boxes" at target (wine in an individual box, no straw, only a drink spout). So after artfully hiding everything in our chairs we set off. There were some recommended shows that all played around noon, but nothing "must-see."
We arrived a little before 1pm, and heard Grace Potter and the Nocturnals from the outside of the festival. As we got into the festival, we went straight to her stage and was entranced till the end of her set. She is my hands down Festival Favorite. I went and purchased all 3 of her albums on the spot - and that says a lot coming from me. After her show, we went to get some food, and stopped to listen to a bit of NinjaSonic. They were very Beastie Boys, and I liked them, but we didn't stay for the entire show. Next up was Gaslight Anthem, who was really good and reminded me of Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys. After that we went back to the other side of the park to keep the punk alive with Manchester Orchestra. I was not impressed.
We decided to walk back accross the park and catch another recomendation: Beats Antique, who was well worth the walk. We caught part of Silversun Pickups (who was ok) and Monsters of Folk (who I don't remember) on our way to another recomended show: Gogol Bordello. They brought back the happy punk tunes, and made us feel like we should be in an Irish pub. Unfortunatly, they were up aganist LCD Soundsytem, and we wanted to catch the end of thier show. After them was Deadmau5 (pronounced Dead Mouse) who was amazing. The Saturday headliner was Muse, who are (as Tarcos says) serious fuckin business musicians. They are rock stars, man, and thier show was fantastic. We stayed till the very end and it took us an hour and a half to make it back to downtown.
Saturday was deff the best day, but we also put the effort into it to see all the shows we wanted to see. On Sunday, we were tired and lazy. We did arrive as the park opened to see Shearwater (not impressed). And the bag checker totally found my bag of sangria in my camel back, but let me keep it anyway. (It was gross and he should have taken it, damn karma.) While waiting for the show to begin, someone recommended Ashley Cleveland since we liked Grace Potter so much. So we headed over to see her. And then we wanted to kill ourselves, so we headed over to one of the smaller stages to listen to jazzy tunes (JD and the Straightshot and MyNameisJohnMichael) and take a nap under a tree. It was good. We got moving to see The Verve Pipe, who was playing at the kiddie stage. Really - they put out a childern's album (I'm so glad I read this in the program before showing up, btw). The stage manager got up before the set and informed the crowd that no matter how many times we asked, they would not play The Freshman, and they were here to play for the kids. There was a mass exodus. We stayed for a few songs, and it was exactly what you would think ex rock stars would play to entiertain thier kids. And then realize they could make an album off it.
We were practally beat by this time, so we headed back to find a spot to chill. Stopped and listen to Yeasayer on the way to find a place under a tree near the main stages. We caught the end of Trombone Shorty as we settled in, which was good (I was obviously in a jazz kinda mood). The rest of the shows we caught were dictated by the fact we didn't want to walk anymore (and this is a little sad, cause all of these sucked). Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (sucked), Band of Horses (not impressed - shoulda gone to see Switchfoot), and Norah Jones (srsly, whoever put her at 7pm on a main stage up against Cage the Elephant and The National was a moron. She shoula been in the afternoon on the covered stage so it was more intimate of a show, since that's her music).
The Festival/Sunday headliner was the Eagles. There was a mass exodus for 20 yr olds as their show started. We stayed for a few songs and they played Hotel California 20 mins into the show, after which there was a mass exodus of 30 yr olds. I felt complete at this point, but MJ wanted to see what the next song was (Witchy Woman), so we stayed. The following song was Lying Eyes, and at this point I reminded MJ of the hour and a half wait for the bus, and the fact we had to work Monday. We would know every song, and we'd be able to hear from the bus line. It only took us 30 mins to make it downtown since we left somewhere in between the exoduses.
Overall, it was a fantastic time, and if I can get tickets for next year, I'll go again. I think I'll try for more tickets, though, so I can convince more people to attend with me.