ACL
Well, Saturday was the big day! $80 a ticket, 11 hours, 8 stages, 46 bands and 3 happy people (give or take the other several thousand who filtered in and out the same day). It was a lot of fun. The beau and I left the house about 9:30 to grab some coffee and breakfast, then drove to get the 3rd member of our party. Her husband was great enough to drive us and do a drop off/pick up so we did not have to deal with traffic/parking.
We got there a little after 11am
We were lucky enough that they had a chair check so we got to drop off the chairs we brought leaving each of us just one bag/backpack each and a water cooler we passed between the three of us. We wandered around the SoCo art stuffs/merchandise booths and got some lunch. About 1:30 is when the concert hopping really started. First up was Jose Gonzalez. Very acoustic and I'm really the only reason we went, but I loved it. Next up, Spiritualized :) The beau got to meet one of his favorite peoples, get autographs and talk about weird noises. That made him happy indeed. After that, we actually heard them play. They were pretty awesome and I really enjoyed the show even more than I would have expected (though after Spectrum last summer I was prepared for any and all weirdness haha). They put on a great show and there were some awesome harmonies. The best part though, was the lead started clapping a beat on stage during one of their songs. To my right were three men, each clapping their own beat, none of which matched the one on the stage. Awesomeness.
Next up was Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band. Apparently a forerunner of Indy Rock, but I'd never heard of him. Still a pretty good sound though.
From there a quick bite and bit of coffee and then it was Roky Erickson. Lots of fun there. And more people my folks age smoking pot than I'd ever seen lol
Finally the ones I'd been waiting for (and the highlight for the other two in my party as well); Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. Incredible. So many strings and amazing harmonies. And I would pay insanely large amounts of money to have that woman's ability to play her violin. Fuck if I can get those short bows down... but now I'm sidetracked. In any case, a great show.
On our way out of the fest (with a few thousand others), two delightful things happened -
1 - I was beamed with a frisbee. Didn't see it coming, just following those in front of me and BAM a blur of orange smacked into my face knocking my glasses off. How do I always find myself in the middle of such things?
2 - I stopped a political chant lol. Thousands, THOUSANDS of people are flooding out of this one park and a 18 something girl to my right starts chanting "O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!" trying to incite some political BS while we all just want to get into our cars and go the fuck home. I looked over in her direction and said, just as loud, "NOT-THETIME-ORTHEPLACE! NOT-THETIME-ORTHEPLACE!". She looked back at me, blinked, and then it was over. Fun stuff lol
All in all it was a great day. The only band I missed out on that I really wanted to see was Iron and Wine, but it was simply not in the cards. Maybe next time :)
We got there a little after 11am
We were lucky enough that they had a chair check so we got to drop off the chairs we brought leaving each of us just one bag/backpack each and a water cooler we passed between the three of us. We wandered around the SoCo art stuffs/merchandise booths and got some lunch. About 1:30 is when the concert hopping really started. First up was Jose Gonzalez. Very acoustic and I'm really the only reason we went, but I loved it. Next up, Spiritualized :) The beau got to meet one of his favorite peoples, get autographs and talk about weird noises. That made him happy indeed. After that, we actually heard them play. They were pretty awesome and I really enjoyed the show even more than I would have expected (though after Spectrum last summer I was prepared for any and all weirdness haha). They put on a great show and there were some awesome harmonies. The best part though, was the lead started clapping a beat on stage during one of their songs. To my right were three men, each clapping their own beat, none of which matched the one on the stage. Awesomeness.
Next up was Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band. Apparently a forerunner of Indy Rock, but I'd never heard of him. Still a pretty good sound though.
From there a quick bite and bit of coffee and then it was Roky Erickson. Lots of fun there. And more people my folks age smoking pot than I'd ever seen lol
Finally the ones I'd been waiting for (and the highlight for the other two in my party as well); Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. Incredible. So many strings and amazing harmonies. And I would pay insanely large amounts of money to have that woman's ability to play her violin. Fuck if I can get those short bows down... but now I'm sidetracked. In any case, a great show.
On our way out of the fest (with a few thousand others), two delightful things happened -
1 - I was beamed with a frisbee. Didn't see it coming, just following those in front of me and BAM a blur of orange smacked into my face knocking my glasses off. How do I always find myself in the middle of such things?
2 - I stopped a political chant lol. Thousands, THOUSANDS of people are flooding out of this one park and a 18 something girl to my right starts chanting "O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!" trying to incite some political BS while we all just want to get into our cars and go the fuck home. I looked over in her direction and said, just as loud, "NOT-THETIME-ORTHEPLACE! NOT-THETIME-ORTHEPLACE!". She looked back at me, blinked, and then it was over. Fun stuff lol
All in all it was a great day. The only band I missed out on that I really wanted to see was Iron and Wine, but it was simply not in the cards. Maybe next time :)