ACL report
You guys didn't get to go. Ha ha! (in Nelson from Simpsons voice).
Very, very cool set of shows. 130 acts, 15 acres, three days.
I left my house at around 1:00 on Friday, much later than I thought I would. By the time I got to Austin, it was around 3:45 or so. I was geared up with a serape, water bottles, an extra shirt, sunscreen, some insect repellant, my camera (which of course, I never used), my cell phone, and a print out of the Austin Chronicle's recommendations on who to see. On Friday it maybe got to the high eighties, and it was fairly sunny, with only a few clouds. I wore long white linen pants, a red halter top, a straw cowboy hat with a "fur" (aka fuzzy ostrich feather) band, and tevas. One of the people from my lawyer board lives in the neighborhood where the concerts were being held, so I parked in front of their appartment and hiked to the site. I was really lucky to have this space, because there was no official parking anywhere near the site. Everyone was encouraged to take shuttles, and the parking in the neighborhood was reserved for residents. Fortunately, I had a resident's ok to park where I did. I could tell that it was going to be a packed event when I saw all the people walking and biking, even across the bridge of the Colorado River, towards Zilker park. The main road wasn't closed yet, but I could tell it would be soon. There were vendors along the side of the road selling hats and water and chairs and other useful items. There was a literal acre of bike racks at the park enterance, and it looked almost full.
I got into the park without incident or event. I could hear music playing and I was happy. I went in search of my friends as soon as I got there and I found them at the HEB Stage listening to the Charlie Hunter Trio. I was confused at first, because I couldn't figure out who was playing bass, since there was only one guy with a stringed instrument on stage (there was a drummer and a keyboardist), and then my friend J. explained to me that Charlie Hunter plays this cool eight stringed insturment with five on the front for guitar and three on the back with the bass. He plays both simultaneously. Very, very cool jazz.
We all formally met everyone, and began the hike to the main stage to listen to Galactic, a jazz funk band out of New Orleans for those of you who don't know them. They have this awesome drummer, that kept on leaping out of his chair to reach all his drums. There was a great harmonica solo in there too, and it was a great, energetic show.
After Galactic, we headed over towards the American Original Stage to hear Los Lonely Boys, a group out of San Antonio that is sort of Los Lobos-y but a little more Texan. They were great, and the area that they were in was very packed. We ended up having to sit underneath some bleachers in order to hear them, but they were a lot of fun, and I ended up picking up one of their albums.
After Los Lonely Boys, we went and got some food, and I think here is a good place as any to comment on a very cool aspect of the event. All of the food was from local establishments. The main drink vendors were a local iced tea company that probably competes very well with Snapple and RC Cola. The beer was Lone Star and Heinekin. There were a couple of very large corporate sponsors, like Cingular, SBC, The Four Seasons and Fiji waters, but for the most part, all of the sponsors were local, and it made it feel much more like a hometown event. People cleaned up after themselves, and there weren't hundreds of beer cans all around. There were trash recepticals everywhere, and people were generally fairly friendly to each other. I only saw one minor scuffle, and considering there were more than 50,000 people around it was a very cool atmosphere.
Anyhow, we listened to Mavis Staples while we sat on a blanket and ate barbeque and falafel and drank beer and iced tea. After we were done with the food, we got up to go see Spoon, because J. had heard them on the OC. The nice thing about a show like this one is that you can find out really quickly that you don't like someone and move on to the next stage.
After that, we went back over to the main stage to go set up for Al Green, who was great. He was dancing around, flirting with the crowd, and had some nice dancing boys backing him up. J. and I particuarly appreciated their mesh shirts.
When Al Green was over, we headed back to the cars. Everyone headed out at the same time, and the entire street was filled with thousands of people. We decided if they ever need footage for zombies heading in a particular direction, the end of a music festival in an urban environment is a good as place as any. At one point, inevitably, people started mooing. It was also a demonstration as to the coolness of Austin. There was a line maybe a mile long to get on the shuttles back to the parking lots, and no one was complaining. Everyone just got in line and joked or laughed or stood or got their folding chairs out, and made the best of it. Everyone did sort of laugh at the cars that were trying to get through. There were 30,000 plus people walking and a few cars idiot enough to think they'd get onto the main road away from the park. Every now and then one would try to turn around and go back the way they came, and they'd get pulled overy by the police for whatever traffic violation they'd committed. One guy tried to go around the police entirely, and the verbal lashing that followed was accompanied by a lot of hooting and hollering by pedestrians amused at the idiocy of the driver.
J. and A. led me out of their apartment complex the back way, so I didn't have to fight the pedestrians leaving the scene. I got back to the freeway and drove to the ranch. I was so tired that I was worried that I'd fall asleep at the wheel, but a diet coke and some loud music kept me up. Just as I pulled off the road to get to the ranch, R. called me to tell me that he'd be heading up to Austin the next day, and he couldn't wait to meet me. I got to the ranch, found my clothes, and fell fast asleep.
Much refreshed, I drove into Austin earlier than necesary and wandered around a bit. I got some breakfast at the Swedish Hill Bakery, and then I went to the Whole Earth Provision Company to look around and ended up with a water bottle and a new shirt. Next, Book People, an awesome independent bookstore next to Whole Foods, where I got my daily ration of water.
I headed over to the park, and got there a little earlier than I had expected. The Old '97s were still playing when I got there, but they wrapped up before I could get to their stage. I heard a few of their songs, though, on the walk over. I then listened to Endochine, who I thought was Jeff Klein, until they said "We're Endochine, thanks for listening" at the end of their set. They were quite good. Then I went over to Tift Merrit's stage and heard a good part of her act. Very engaging.
I called J. who told me that we were meeting L. and M. at the big globe next to the big stage before Los Lobos started. So I called R. and told him to meet us there. Of course, this was one of those internet meeting things, so we weren't sure what other people looked like. I decided to just set up camp with my orange serape and tell everyone that I was near by the orange globe. J. and A. found me no problem, and they went out and found L. and M. and brought them back. R. and his girlfriend were heading our way, and we sent out several expiditionary forces to see if we could find him. All we knew was that he was wearing a Pearl Beer shirt that said "Mike" on it. Los Lobos started, and I went out one more time to check. My phone rang, and R. said that he was near the port-a-potties near the globe. I looked, saw a guy on a cell phone and pointed and said, "Is that you?" He pointed back and we did the cell phone talking, never met, but know each other anyway hug, and we all went back to the blankets to hang out with the others. The Los Lobos set was fantastic, and we all danced and had a good time. When it was over, some of A.'s friends came over and they set up their blanket near ours, and we all decided to hang out a bit and wait for the next act on that stage. We chatted, got beer, chatted more, got more beer, and chatted even more. This was the first time most of us had met, so it was cool do to the whole name to face thing. Very cool people.
The next set started and no one said anything for a full hour. My friends, if you ever, ever get the chance to see Robert Randolph and the Family Band live, do it. I feel like I saw Jimi Hendrix play at Woodstock. He was absolutely amazing with a slide guitar. I mean riviting. He made the crowd do whatever he wanted. We could have all drunk poisoned kool aide and we would have done it with a smile. He was that good.
After that, we were exhausted. R. and his girlfriend wanted to take a look around, and L and M had to meet friends, so J and A and I went for more food and then went to sit down at the tent to wait for ReBirth, a marching band out of New Orleans. Also a lot of fun. We danced like there was no tomorrow, and I didn't see a single person in that tent that wasn't moving.
After ReBirth, we went over and sat down near the HEB stage and heard a little bit of Michael Franti and Spearhead, which was good, but nothing compared to the stuff we'd heard earlier in the day. J and A and I didn't really want to stick around for the String Cheese Incident, so we headed home a bit earlier, and I was back at the ranch by 9:30. I fell into bed again, exhausted.
I woke up Sunday morning to the ringing phone and my mother wondering if I was going to go to Austin because of the rain. I looked outside, and indeed, it was raining. I geared up, and headed out. I stopped and got a poncho just in case, and by the time I got to the park, it was still raining. I headed over to the intersection of teh HEB and Cingular stages to catch the end of Soulive, and wait for the beginning of Lucinda Williams. Since I was alone, I moved much further up front to listen to Lucinda Williams. She was great up until the very end, when she lost place in her words, and couldn't remember the rest of them. She apologized profusely, but it was such a good performance otherwise, I dont' think anyone cared.
I moved on to listen to the beginning of the Polyphonatic Spree, and I didn't like them very much, so I moved on. I thought about stopping for Ian Moore, but I've seen him before and decided to check someone else out instead. Ben Keweller it was, but that didn't enthrall me, so I headed over to the main stage to listen to Yo La Tengo. I've had a few of their albums, but I've never seen them live. Imagine three dorky people, two guys and a girl, and you've got them. The best part of their set was when they told us that they're moving with teh times and going all electronic, so they played a track and did a dance number in slow-mo. It's impossible to describe, but it was clearly a slam on the boybands. The crowd absolutely adored it. Especially with a chunky bass player and a plain woman doing the moves.
Through all of this, I was trying to hook up with J. and A. and M. and L., but my phone wasn't working properly. I got all the little arrows telling me that I had a signal, but it wouldn't go through. A rumor was going around that Cingular was blocking all other signals. Anyhow, I never was able to hook up with anyone else that day.
After Yo La Tengo, I headed back up to listen to OAR at the HEB stage, and they sort of sounded like a Dave Matthews cover band. Next up at the Cingular stage was Ben Harper, who was amazing. I had no idea. I thought he was more soft and fuzzy, but he was great. And he brought on Robert Randolph, and they did dueling slide guitars. It was fantasatic.
Then I went over back to the main stage to hear the last part of the Ween show, and to secure my spot for REM. Because I was alone, I was able to get as close as possible. One row back, a little to the right. I hung out there for a full hour and a half with other fans and we ran a commentary on the set up of the stage. Very cool people, and lots of fun.
REM was amazing. Energetic, good music, popular as well as lesser known pieces, engaging to the crowd. Appreciative of the setting and the place. Everything you'd want in a show. I loved it. They did three encores and finished around ten thirty last night. Michael Stipe was within five feet of me at one point. It was an awesome end to an awesome weekend.
I walked back to my car with 55,000 other people, drove to get something to eat, and then drove home. I got home last night at two in the morning.
Very, very cool set of shows. 130 acts, 15 acres, three days.
I left my house at around 1:00 on Friday, much later than I thought I would. By the time I got to Austin, it was around 3:45 or so. I was geared up with a serape, water bottles, an extra shirt, sunscreen, some insect repellant, my camera (which of course, I never used), my cell phone, and a print out of the Austin Chronicle's recommendations on who to see. On Friday it maybe got to the high eighties, and it was fairly sunny, with only a few clouds. I wore long white linen pants, a red halter top, a straw cowboy hat with a "fur" (aka fuzzy ostrich feather) band, and tevas. One of the people from my lawyer board lives in the neighborhood where the concerts were being held, so I parked in front of their appartment and hiked to the site. I was really lucky to have this space, because there was no official parking anywhere near the site. Everyone was encouraged to take shuttles, and the parking in the neighborhood was reserved for residents. Fortunately, I had a resident's ok to park where I did. I could tell that it was going to be a packed event when I saw all the people walking and biking, even across the bridge of the Colorado River, towards Zilker park. The main road wasn't closed yet, but I could tell it would be soon. There were vendors along the side of the road selling hats and water and chairs and other useful items. There was a literal acre of bike racks at the park enterance, and it looked almost full.
I got into the park without incident or event. I could hear music playing and I was happy. I went in search of my friends as soon as I got there and I found them at the HEB Stage listening to the Charlie Hunter Trio. I was confused at first, because I couldn't figure out who was playing bass, since there was only one guy with a stringed instrument on stage (there was a drummer and a keyboardist), and then my friend J. explained to me that Charlie Hunter plays this cool eight stringed insturment with five on the front for guitar and three on the back with the bass. He plays both simultaneously. Very, very cool jazz.
We all formally met everyone, and began the hike to the main stage to listen to Galactic, a jazz funk band out of New Orleans for those of you who don't know them. They have this awesome drummer, that kept on leaping out of his chair to reach all his drums. There was a great harmonica solo in there too, and it was a great, energetic show.
After Galactic, we headed over towards the American Original Stage to hear Los Lonely Boys, a group out of San Antonio that is sort of Los Lobos-y but a little more Texan. They were great, and the area that they were in was very packed. We ended up having to sit underneath some bleachers in order to hear them, but they were a lot of fun, and I ended up picking up one of their albums.
After Los Lonely Boys, we went and got some food, and I think here is a good place as any to comment on a very cool aspect of the event. All of the food was from local establishments. The main drink vendors were a local iced tea company that probably competes very well with Snapple and RC Cola. The beer was Lone Star and Heinekin. There were a couple of very large corporate sponsors, like Cingular, SBC, The Four Seasons and Fiji waters, but for the most part, all of the sponsors were local, and it made it feel much more like a hometown event. People cleaned up after themselves, and there weren't hundreds of beer cans all around. There were trash recepticals everywhere, and people were generally fairly friendly to each other. I only saw one minor scuffle, and considering there were more than 50,000 people around it was a very cool atmosphere.
Anyhow, we listened to Mavis Staples while we sat on a blanket and ate barbeque and falafel and drank beer and iced tea. After we were done with the food, we got up to go see Spoon, because J. had heard them on the OC. The nice thing about a show like this one is that you can find out really quickly that you don't like someone and move on to the next stage.
After that, we went back over to the main stage to go set up for Al Green, who was great. He was dancing around, flirting with the crowd, and had some nice dancing boys backing him up. J. and I particuarly appreciated their mesh shirts.
When Al Green was over, we headed back to the cars. Everyone headed out at the same time, and the entire street was filled with thousands of people. We decided if they ever need footage for zombies heading in a particular direction, the end of a music festival in an urban environment is a good as place as any. At one point, inevitably, people started mooing. It was also a demonstration as to the coolness of Austin. There was a line maybe a mile long to get on the shuttles back to the parking lots, and no one was complaining. Everyone just got in line and joked or laughed or stood or got their folding chairs out, and made the best of it. Everyone did sort of laugh at the cars that were trying to get through. There were 30,000 plus people walking and a few cars idiot enough to think they'd get onto the main road away from the park. Every now and then one would try to turn around and go back the way they came, and they'd get pulled overy by the police for whatever traffic violation they'd committed. One guy tried to go around the police entirely, and the verbal lashing that followed was accompanied by a lot of hooting and hollering by pedestrians amused at the idiocy of the driver.
J. and A. led me out of their apartment complex the back way, so I didn't have to fight the pedestrians leaving the scene. I got back to the freeway and drove to the ranch. I was so tired that I was worried that I'd fall asleep at the wheel, but a diet coke and some loud music kept me up. Just as I pulled off the road to get to the ranch, R. called me to tell me that he'd be heading up to Austin the next day, and he couldn't wait to meet me. I got to the ranch, found my clothes, and fell fast asleep.
Much refreshed, I drove into Austin earlier than necesary and wandered around a bit. I got some breakfast at the Swedish Hill Bakery, and then I went to the Whole Earth Provision Company to look around and ended up with a water bottle and a new shirt. Next, Book People, an awesome independent bookstore next to Whole Foods, where I got my daily ration of water.
I headed over to the park, and got there a little earlier than I had expected. The Old '97s were still playing when I got there, but they wrapped up before I could get to their stage. I heard a few of their songs, though, on the walk over. I then listened to Endochine, who I thought was Jeff Klein, until they said "We're Endochine, thanks for listening" at the end of their set. They were quite good. Then I went over to Tift Merrit's stage and heard a good part of her act. Very engaging.
I called J. who told me that we were meeting L. and M. at the big globe next to the big stage before Los Lobos started. So I called R. and told him to meet us there. Of course, this was one of those internet meeting things, so we weren't sure what other people looked like. I decided to just set up camp with my orange serape and tell everyone that I was near by the orange globe. J. and A. found me no problem, and they went out and found L. and M. and brought them back. R. and his girlfriend were heading our way, and we sent out several expiditionary forces to see if we could find him. All we knew was that he was wearing a Pearl Beer shirt that said "Mike" on it. Los Lobos started, and I went out one more time to check. My phone rang, and R. said that he was near the port-a-potties near the globe. I looked, saw a guy on a cell phone and pointed and said, "Is that you?" He pointed back and we did the cell phone talking, never met, but know each other anyway hug, and we all went back to the blankets to hang out with the others. The Los Lobos set was fantastic, and we all danced and had a good time. When it was over, some of A.'s friends came over and they set up their blanket near ours, and we all decided to hang out a bit and wait for the next act on that stage. We chatted, got beer, chatted more, got more beer, and chatted even more. This was the first time most of us had met, so it was cool do to the whole name to face thing. Very cool people.
The next set started and no one said anything for a full hour. My friends, if you ever, ever get the chance to see Robert Randolph and the Family Band live, do it. I feel like I saw Jimi Hendrix play at Woodstock. He was absolutely amazing with a slide guitar. I mean riviting. He made the crowd do whatever he wanted. We could have all drunk poisoned kool aide and we would have done it with a smile. He was that good.
After that, we were exhausted. R. and his girlfriend wanted to take a look around, and L and M had to meet friends, so J and A and I went for more food and then went to sit down at the tent to wait for ReBirth, a marching band out of New Orleans. Also a lot of fun. We danced like there was no tomorrow, and I didn't see a single person in that tent that wasn't moving.
After ReBirth, we went over and sat down near the HEB stage and heard a little bit of Michael Franti and Spearhead, which was good, but nothing compared to the stuff we'd heard earlier in the day. J and A and I didn't really want to stick around for the String Cheese Incident, so we headed home a bit earlier, and I was back at the ranch by 9:30. I fell into bed again, exhausted.
I woke up Sunday morning to the ringing phone and my mother wondering if I was going to go to Austin because of the rain. I looked outside, and indeed, it was raining. I geared up, and headed out. I stopped and got a poncho just in case, and by the time I got to the park, it was still raining. I headed over to the intersection of teh HEB and Cingular stages to catch the end of Soulive, and wait for the beginning of Lucinda Williams. Since I was alone, I moved much further up front to listen to Lucinda Williams. She was great up until the very end, when she lost place in her words, and couldn't remember the rest of them. She apologized profusely, but it was such a good performance otherwise, I dont' think anyone cared.
I moved on to listen to the beginning of the Polyphonatic Spree, and I didn't like them very much, so I moved on. I thought about stopping for Ian Moore, but I've seen him before and decided to check someone else out instead. Ben Keweller it was, but that didn't enthrall me, so I headed over to the main stage to listen to Yo La Tengo. I've had a few of their albums, but I've never seen them live. Imagine three dorky people, two guys and a girl, and you've got them. The best part of their set was when they told us that they're moving with teh times and going all electronic, so they played a track and did a dance number in slow-mo. It's impossible to describe, but it was clearly a slam on the boybands. The crowd absolutely adored it. Especially with a chunky bass player and a plain woman doing the moves.
Through all of this, I was trying to hook up with J. and A. and M. and L., but my phone wasn't working properly. I got all the little arrows telling me that I had a signal, but it wouldn't go through. A rumor was going around that Cingular was blocking all other signals. Anyhow, I never was able to hook up with anyone else that day.
After Yo La Tengo, I headed back up to listen to OAR at the HEB stage, and they sort of sounded like a Dave Matthews cover band. Next up at the Cingular stage was Ben Harper, who was amazing. I had no idea. I thought he was more soft and fuzzy, but he was great. And he brought on Robert Randolph, and they did dueling slide guitars. It was fantasatic.
Then I went over back to the main stage to hear the last part of the Ween show, and to secure my spot for REM. Because I was alone, I was able to get as close as possible. One row back, a little to the right. I hung out there for a full hour and a half with other fans and we ran a commentary on the set up of the stage. Very cool people, and lots of fun.
REM was amazing. Energetic, good music, popular as well as lesser known pieces, engaging to the crowd. Appreciative of the setting and the place. Everything you'd want in a show. I loved it. They did three encores and finished around ten thirty last night. Michael Stipe was within five feet of me at one point. It was an awesome end to an awesome weekend.
I walked back to my car with 55,000 other people, drove to get something to eat, and then drove home. I got home last night at two in the morning.