Let it rain!

We don't even really try to go to the ACL Festival anymore. It's harder for us to be on our feet for 12 hours a day than it used to be - where you have to walk a mile to find a spot to sit - crowded and sweaty. This year it wasn't just sweaty, on the penultimate night of it we got something like 4 months worth of rain in one night, so they cancelled that day. A lot of the bands did 'popup' shows, last-minute-arranged stuff you need to be on twitter to find out about. One band played at the homeless shelter for just food donations. Atoms For Peace, which sells out venues at the $100 range, played for $10 a ticket. Many bands put on free shows! Lionel Ritchie picked up a house concert and played for maybe 50 people, don't know what he charged though.

I got happy because one of my favorites, The Lone Bellow, played a couple of free shows -- one of them at 5:00pm (perfect for us old timers who just wanted to get home in time to watch The Walking Dead, then hit the sack for the workweek) (priorities).

I love these guys! This one is a slower ballad but most of their songs are up-tempo -- check them out if you like this:


Still getting some rain (so wonderful) and later this week it will cool down enough to maybe turn off the air conditioner.

ACL Festival Day 3

Sunday

little hurricane (whole set, near front center rail)
Got to this stage by Rock Island in order to maneuver into place for The Greencards. This is a good band with a configuration like White Stripes: guy on electric guitars ("Tone") and girl drummer ("CC"). Their band tagline/self-applied genre is “dirty blues.” CC threw her sticks to the crowd, and there was a big scuffle over one of them right by us. One man tackled another one and they both landed hard with our backpack underneath them! Luckily nothing in it was broken. We manage to yank that free, and since the area was rather cleared then, I was able to easily grab my territory. The man on the bottom continued to hold onto his prize drumstick for dear life while the man grappling on top of him refused to give up, despite security guards promising him that they’d get him another one. Totally crazy.
The Greencards (whole set, front center rail)
This is one of our favorite bands. We’ve been seeing them as often as possible since 2003. Incredible instrumental work, songwriting, and vocals. They never fail to make our day. They are amazing.
Ryan Bingham & the Dead Horses (front rail far right, whole set). Bingham is hot as a firecracker right now. He worked on the Crazy Heart soundtrack with T-Bone Burnett and co-wrote "The Weary Kind". Over the past year it's won him an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a Grammy, Critic's Choice for "Best Song," and Americana Music's "Artist of the Year." First time for us to see him live was on Sunday. The video below is from that very event. The film crew with Malick, Bale and Bennett was there again backstage, there were sightings of the actors (in fact, you can see Haley in the video below, the pretty girl in the black camisole). They filmed MrB a lot (close up crowd shots) and maybe Blueberry too. I was keeping my head down for the camera.
We headed for home after Bingham. We had sunburns, hurting feet, a mile yet to walk to the bus stop, and Monday morning, 4:30 AM coming around too soon.

ACL Festival Day 2

Saturday

A little more rain fell, and it was wonderful even though we were out in it. Alison Krauss & Union Station restricted stage seating to her band's guests (which included Robert Plant and Patty Griffin - I think the cat is finally out of the bag on this local celebrity couple) so we watched from the front. Beautiful show. I sooo love this band and everyone in it.


After AK&US, we went to the tented stage for
Gillian Welch (and David Rawlings). Gillian has played this festival a couple of times previously, and they put her on one of the big stages. For some reason they didn't this time. The smaller stages at ACL, especially if the acts are somewhat acoustic, fall victim to really awful sound bleedover from the other stages. I have been front rail center for a small stage band before, and could still hear the band from another stage equally well. This thing is the elephant in the room, performers put up with it because they are troopers, and not enough audience members complain or if they do, it doesn't make any difference - the festival will sell out.

Anyway, here is Gillian and David: The Revelator

And here is the band that was playing on the nearby stage and was scheduled to continue for another half hour, the first half of Gillian's set. Skrillex: "Kill Everybody"

She went out on a limb and had them postpone her start time until Skrillex was finished. It was sooo much better that way for everyone, but it delayed the stage schedule and some people may have felt inconvenienced by that.

Here is a bit of prime ass-holery from Billboard Magazine's tweet:

The aged + child crowd in Gillian Welch tent seems not amused by the rave happening across the way at Skrillex. #ACL #dealwithit

Deal with it? So it's perfectly alright to have both those performers going at the same time and place? It takes nothing away from the listening experience of the acoustic, quieter performance? Our only problem is that we are old? Or there are kids in the audience? (there are all ages in ALL the audiences.) This is the opinion offered by a representative of a MUSIC magazine? #assholejustdoesntgetit #goodongillian

My Morning Jacket was the headliner we chose for the night, and again, did not really attempt to get close. It was a beautiful night, and little damp and cool and cloudy, unlike the nights we've had here for several months when it might still be 100° out. Most of the crowd was at the other end of the park, so we had the opportunity to have some space around us, look up at the sky without feet stepping over your face, and dance in big wide circles (like nobody was looking). They sounded really good. They've been around for awhile and never caught on with me, but I'm ready to listen now. Nothing like an old new discovery.

ACL Festival Day 1

We had the kind of passes that allowed us into artist backstage area as well as limited stage-side seating. These are wonderful to have because you can recharge your psychic batteries (as well as your *literal* batteries) in a place that’s not a marching throng of sweaty humanity. They also have free (for tips) beverages, snack food, somewhat air-conditioned restrooms with flush toilets and actual soap+water. These things make a LOT of difference, and we are grateful to our friends for this gift.

I like to see my favorites, but also really like the opportunity to see someone I've never seen, and in some cases I might not have even heard of them. Just walking by the back of the crowd doesn't count, gotta stay for at least a song.

Friday Highlights

Ha Ha Tonka (3 songs, front)
Good indie band from Missouri. Yes, that's right. Our old stomping grounds.

Delta Spirit (whole set, stageside)
Have been wanting to see this band for awhile. Don't have any of their music but plan on changing that. It was great to be able to watch them from the stage.While we were there, we noticed below us that one of the cameramen below us (we are on a kind of railed catwalk) is totally obsessed with this gorgeous blonde and keeps filming her instead of the band. Well... these things happen. More about her soon...

Cave Singers (2 songs, tent stageside)
Have seen this great band before, but got there too late to get a good viewing spot, and the side seating had obstructed views PLUS bad sound, so we moved on.

Ray LaMontagne (2-3 songs, side rail)
Everybody has heard Ray's music. It's been used in television shows and I think) commercials. Very soulful, great voice.

Bright Eyes (whole set, stageside)
Had never seen this band before. An exciting and intense show. Here’s a zoom-in of center stage.Lead singer Conor Oberst about to crowd surf. I love this one because of the facial expressions in the crowd!
While standing in line, the woman ahead of us mention that the “Tree of Life” guy was making a movie here, so that explained the previous 'groupie-ogling cameraman'. The woman being filmed on the stage for Delta Spirit was Haley Bennett, and during Bright Eyes, the movie crew came striding down the center aisle of the crowd and proceeded to enter the stage from the (audience) left. Here is one of my shots, and we didn’t figure out who the actor was from that distance... and, in fact, did not until Monday...... which is probably a good thing because I probably would have melted on the spot. Here is someone’s video of them as they were preparing for the stage approach:


We missed all but one song by Gary Clark Jr. for that bit of excitement, but he is a hot local gee-tar player so we hope to catch him soon in Austin somewhere.

We didn’t make the most of the headliners at the festival, mainly because the only way to get close to the stage is to “camp out” there for many, many hours during the day. I have done that plenty of times, but not this time. Stageside viewing was not available for Coldplay, so we watched about half of it from way back on the lawn in a throng of people. Other than the in-person laser light show, I think I would just as soon watch on Palladia or ACL-TV if I can’t get close to the stage. Anyway… Day 1 was a blast, and a tiny bit of rain fell, which made us all ecstatic.

Here’s a collection of links about this still super-secret Terrence Malick film starring Christian Bale that was filmed at ACL-fest.

Superhero Hype <---- check out these great photos!
Collider
NY Mag
IFC
The guy (on twitter) who got the candid video
First showing

(I did not care for Tree of Life, but will have to see this one - just because...)

Art and music: It's All Too Much

Peter Max has an exhibition going at a gallery here, and this weekend they had a couple of "meet the artist" events. I haven't attended any events like this before even though the opportunities arise. As we walked in, the crowds were still fairly light, and there he was, Peter Max, sitting right there on the window display ledge!

The entire gallery was filled with gorgeous color. He paints many very similar paintings, and the one above was there twice, both originals. I believe it is (they are) from 2007 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love. This is the style of his that I love, the psychedelic pop art that was animated in Yellow Submarine. He also has a style that is Fauvist/Expressionist that is much more unconstructed-looking than the ones I generally associate with him, and you can see several examples of those here.

I think what really inspired me to go see his work in person was picking up the "ACL 2010" special issue of the Austin Chronicle. He created this art especially for the ACL Festival [more on that], and I really loved it. It captures a very important part of the festival experience, in that there are 2 sides to Zilker Park, each with a headlining stage, and the acts on those stages will be playing at the same time. Then there are 2 smaller but-still-pretty-big stages at each end that are going when those are not. You can stand in the middle and get a cacophony of both at any one time. (I will reserve the rest of my usual sound-bleedover rant for another time)
While we were visiting the gallery (red circle) we could easily hear the music coming from one of the big stages (larger red shape).That's OK. I love loud music. I just don't like being able to hear several bands at once (they have 8 stages, not 4, it's way too many in my opinion) [must. not. rant.]

I thought beforehand that autograph-seeking might be considered tacky, and that was so true... nobody did it, he did not really mingle while we were there (although he walked right past me at one point), and I believe that the security people would have prevented such a thing. I found out the next day that at another show he was signing copies of his coffee table book if you brought them with you. If I had known that in time, it would have happened. A Peter Max art book would be delightful to have, especially with an added doodle. I did bring my copy of the Chronicle, just in case, and hoped that they might be selling posters that could be autograph-able. As it turns out, there were posters, but the posters were there as a gift to anyone buying a piece of art. If you bought something, then he would sign a poster for you and even pose for a photo with you and your prize.

As for these prizes, they were well out of our price range. Most of the big attention-getters and ones I'd love to own were priced between $20,000 and $50,000. There was another level of much smaller or lower-profile things that you could get for about $5,000. There were many delightful things in that range, but some others that bring on a different kind of rant when it comes to art. For example, there was a series of paintings of the Texas flag, which is very simple and highly recognizable. I think that when it come to establishing the value of art, so much of it is merely the who and not the what. Here is a series of paintings depicting the Texas flag. Some of them are quite expressive. Some are less so.






One of these can be had for about $5,000, and the others, I would imagine, for quite a bit less.

Other artist links: [Timothy Raines] [Mark Merrill] [KAT]

The question of what is art/not art, and what is valuable/not valuable is a very loaded question that you can stay up all night talking about but will never resolve it. There is no right answer. Sometimes, it's just about the signature. Sometimes, it's so much more!

* title is a reference to a song from Yellow Submarine.

Get it in gear - high or low - let's go

Took this video Thursday morning, 9:30AM, at Threadgill's (Morning radio party with lots of bands). It's a laid-back pop ballad from Charlie Mars called "Listen to the Dark Side." Charlie has played here many many times but this was the first time I saw him.

ACL (Austin City Limits Music Festival) starts today (Friday) but we are not going this year. There is really a lot going on though. The side events that orbit the festival are growing every year. Lots to do and see, paid events, free events, and perfect weather predicted.

ACL - Days Two and Three

The Mudder of all FestivalsSaturday, it rained. It was raining in the afternoon when we left for the festival, and pretty much rained all day. We had been planning to see The Decemberists and Levon Helm (one followed the other on different stages), but realized on getting there that a choice would have to made - and we went with the Decemberists. Couldn't quite get that front rail, but watched their Hazards of Love rock opera played in its entirety from a couple of people-rows back. Awesome! We had missed seeing them a few times this year due to scheduling, lack of funds, or both. No pics at all from Saturday - rain, rain, rain, followed by mud and lots of it. See you Sunday, ACL.

Sunday... the main story:(Click for muddy people photo gallery) I wore my old old hiking boots for the mud, and here, above, you see one of them on the last day I owned them. The mud was sticky slick, and it sucked the soles off of both boots! With a slurp! (the soles had started to come off before, and had been glued back - not good enough). It was not only mud, but smelly mud. It definitely smelled like the mud in the animal pens on a farm (think pigpen), and the stink of it meant that I tried very hard not to fall down in it - not easy. Come to find out, there was a reason for the smell, the grass had been fertilized with "Dillo Dirt," which is a compost made from grass clippings and treated sewage sludge (yes, human). Click here for more info on that, and be sure to read the comments. This mudder is fodder for discussion. (:::oh man, that pun stunk worse than the mud:::) Seriously, though... I think it's time for the festival to move from Zilker. No, I don't have any answers.

First band on the big AMD stage was Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears (thanks to MrB for his interest in these guys). Outstanding show from a hot local soul band!

 Anyway, we slogged our way back to the artist backstage to chill. Did see a few people I recognized back there, Brett Dennon headed into the john, and here in this sneaky candid is Britt Daniel (from Spoon). MrB did go up to young celloist-singer-songwriter Ben Sollee (Sparrow Quartet) to tell him how much we like the CD we bought from him earlier this year, but that was it for schmoozing except for some hiyas to some biz people I've worked with locally. The area back there was covered in hay, which was a great idea!! (Also, wood mulch prevented mud but is a little tough on tender barefoot feeties.) I drank exactly one too many beers, and we headed back out. Went to the BMI stage, saw some friends, and saw Jypsi, a bunch of Nashville cuties. That was it for us for the weekend. We were tired, I had a noseful of that mud smell, and we needed to get to our car while the busses were running and Central Market was still open for some odds and ends shopping. Our cat overlords were not happy at being left alone so much over the weekend, but have since forgiven us.

ACL - Preshow event and Day One

[Photos - all days]
Friday was a lot of fun - probably the best entire ACL day we've had for years. First of all, the temperature was cool - only got up to around 85° - what a world of difference from being 15-20° hotter. Wow.

Got up really early and was at Threadgill's for the HAAM benefit by 7:00AM, where we saw Low Anthem, The Greencards, Sara Watkins with David Garza, Todd Snider and more. Admission was $5 for the charity and included a coffee and breakfast taco.
Very, very nice!

Miles and Miles of Zilker
Rode the city bus to ACL (not the free shuttle) which worked out great. I had forgotten about the "no food" prohibition and fixed a peanut butter sandwich. The security guy looked in our pack, pointed at it and declared "SANDWICH," so we exited the line and snuck off nearby to try and hide it deep in the pack. Went through the line again, where security asked MrB to pull some stuff out of his pack. First thing he pulled out (accidentally) was the damned sandwich, so it got tossed in the trash can, still in its ziploc bag... grrrrr... I hate to throw away food when it could at least feed a grackle, or even a homeless person.

Well, as it turned out, we didn't need sandwiches or even the water we brought, because we were soon to find out that our Guest Passes included access to backstage and hospitality! Believe me, this is the way to go if at all possible! Here's a stageview shot of Sara Watkins, her brother Sean Watkins (both ex-Nickel Creek) and John Paul Jones (ex-Led Zeppelin). JPJ is on mandolin.

A couple of the stages (and the main backstage area) offered beer, other beverages, snacks, swag, shade, tables and chairs, TV (for football or Guitar Hero). Several offered stageside viewing, which is a very cool way to watch a band. After Sara, we went over to one of the main stages to watch The Avett Brothers (pronounced with a long A). I didn't know much about them, but they are catching fire right now. They put on an excellent show and we really enjoyed it. Not sure how I would characterize their music, pretty spread out over genres.

After Avett Bros we milled around, went backstage for a tasty beverage. Chatted a few minutes with fiddler-singer-songwriters Sara Watkins and Eamon McLoughlin (Greencards)... his band is my client and the ones who got us in, along with their management (who also happen to be the people who put on the festival). The Greencards put on a great show right around sundown, which we watched from the front of the stage. [I will have a slideshow up from the whole festival. Watch this post, or the one following.] After The Greencards, we dashed backstage for some quick goodbyes (we will not see them again until sometime next year), and went over to finish up the day with Reckless Kelly, a damn good roots rock band from Austin, Texas.

ACL festival

This weekend (beginning Friday) is the ACL festival, and we've been lucky enough to get a couple of 3-day passes again this year. Friday is a very long day of music (12 hours plus the getting there and back - our cat overlords Henry and Jax will not be happy with that much alone-time). The getting there and back is really the most challenging part. City busses will help the situation (except for Sunday night).

This year it looks like it might be nice weather for a change, yes... it will probably include rain but highs only in the 80°s. It's practically earth-shattering. Should we bring a light wrap for nighttime? This festival is known for being brutally hot, high 90s to mid-100°F, with the worst case being the 108° that took the prize in 2005.

{deep sigh of relief after going through the hottest summer on record down here}

Anyway, blogging may be light for a few days. Have a good weekend.

ACL Day Two

We found free parking about 4 blocks from the shuttle, and there was a really long line to get on the bus, but it went fast. So far so good. This time it was really about trying to get a front rail for a headliner (Plant and Krauss) so we got to the big stage around 3:30 (to acquire turf for 8:15). Robert Earl Keen was on next, followed by John Fogerty.

We didn't manage a front rail right then. There was a group of Fogerty Superfans in front of us. They were nice folks, all around our age, a married couple from California, a man from S. Carolina and a woman from New Orleans who they described as the biggest John Fogerty fan in the world. They knew each other pretty well, as is typical of superfans. They meet up at various locales in the country and even the world, then stay in touch online, so they are pretty close (I know what it's like!). Amazingly, I had not seen Fogerty before, and it was fun to see him with them in front, as they were having a great time -- and so was he, apparently. This is a guy who really enjoys playing... and from a distance he looks the same as he has always looked.

During the break between Fogerty and Robert Plant / Alison Krauss the crowd surge occurred, but there were no problems other than primarily one obnoxious drunk right behind us -- luckily not a mean one.

Plant and Krauss were unbelievable! I really love the sound of this T-Bone Burnett concoction. He is brilliant. Buddy Miller and Stuart Duncan were in the touring band as well. Stuart Duncan simply amazed me. I've heard him play some bluegrass and other acoustic-styles before but what he was doing with that fiddle was really not like anything I've heard before, I didn't realize that was possible. We were awestruck by the whole event. The Fogerty superfans gradually left except for one holdout, allowing us to finally get some front rail for the show we came to see. The show was kind of over for them anyway, and one of the women rolled her eyes at me over Alison Krauss getting stage time without Plant -- obviously not impressed. Oh well. Different strokes.

The show was over at 9:30, and that's when the ordeal really started. The line for the shuttle busses went for a few blocks, it just took forever to find what we thought was the end of it. The only way you could tell was that the shuttle "line" was forced to walk in the wrong direction, against the flow of a crowd of 65,000 people (including those trying to leave on one of about a thousand bicycles - there was even a motorcycle trying to plow through). We had to do that for the entire distance we'd just walked to find the end, then we had to get through one of those rat-maze barricade sorters which made us walk first a block in one direction, then the other, then back, then back again... until we finally got to a bus. {sigh}

The bus filled right up and we had to ride it standing, holding on tight to the grip-loops - and it was a horrible ride because the part of the trip that was not u-turns and other sharp turns the bus was stop-and-go in very heavy traffic. Not only was ACL letting out, the UT/Arkansas game was that day, which had an attendance of 97,833 -- plus -- it was Saturday night in Austin. When we finally got dropped off, we still had to walk 4 blocks to the car. We were absolutely convinced that we could have walked the distance to the car faster, even though it was a few miles. When you are limping on both feet, it gives you a very silly walk. Feet. Hurt. Bad. We finally got home by 11:45, after pretty much standing and/or walking since 3 in the afternoon. Also, the dust was really starting to kick up on Saturday. Lots of folks looking like bandidos in face bandanas.

I told MrB that I really believed that for me, ACL was over. It won and I was done (he was too, after we finally made it to the car). I had a good time, but it takes a bit of something to endure certain aspects of it, and that something for me was gone. Sunday would have been worse, and it got up to 95°, at least in our backyard. Whew. Sunday morning I got up and put the wristbands on Craigslist, (thanks to ACL for making it easier to slip them on and off this year) and was inundated with calls and emails within minutes of posting.

ACL Day One

The Steps. We really like this Austin rock and roll band. They played this festival last year and this year they got voted in.

 Paula Nelson (aka Willie's daughter) sounded great with her band.

Another one with a legendary dad, Jakob Dylan. We got up pretty close, but the sound was absolute crap, so we moved pretty far back. They fixed the problem by then, but we ended up listening to the rest of his set from the one air-conditioned oasis on the grounds, the AT&T tent. Once you go there and get comfy, it's hard to go back out.

 But we did head out in time for Patty Griffin. We have been fans of Patty's since Flaming Red (1998). She still has the perfect voice. I have to say this though, every time I see her she seems thinner. She is way too thin - enough to be worrisome. I would be happy to donate 20 lbs. to her, then we'd both be just right. :-)

MrB took this video of Patty on Friday.


The festival provided a few extra hassles this year. They had our favorite secret free parking area blocked off this year (it was only a matter of time before that little prize went away), so we went down to Republic Square to ride the shuttle in. Seems like last year we parked there free, or maybe it was just cheap. Anyway, this time it was $10 for the day and $20 for day and night. Trouble is, we weren't too sure when they were going to decide that day was over and night was here (would it be 5pm? 6pm? 8pm? Nobody had a clue) so we crammed a ten in the slot and got back there around 6 with no ticket or towing. On the grounds they had ramped up security on the stage that's represented by people I know, and in the past I've been able to get backstage for a band I worked for by simply getting waved through. Not this time. No official VIP cred, no access, no exceptions. Day One was pretty tiring for these old bones. It's cooler than year's previous, but still in the 90s. By 5:30 I had a sun headache, a blister forming on the bottom of my foot, in need of food, and worried about the car being towed. Henry (the cat) was restless all night, so I got probably not more than an hour of sleep.

Today I am a zombie in pink. See you out there.

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music - ACL

ACL Day 3

Today, still recovering from humid heat, I wasn't physically prepared to endure another long day in the blazing heat so I talked MrB into getting there later in the day, and that's how it went. I mainly wanted to see the Decemberists, and the rest of the festival was optional. We watched Amos Lee from the same stage right before, but the Decemberists' fans were more hardcore than I was, so I was unable to get closer than second level back -- so when MrB bailed, I compromised and settled for a spot in front of the sound board. This band is very popular and get lots of airplay in Austin. Are they as popular in your town too? It was our first time to see them, although they've played here a few times. We loved this show and can't wait to see the band again in a better venue. Check them out.

Another ACL Festival done come and gone.

Decemberists review, Statesman blog
Day 3, AustinIST
Day 3, Drublood

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Decemberists - ACL

ACL Day 2

This day was another humid scorcher, and I wasn't able to endure a whole day of it. Also, there was no one on the schedule that I simply had to see, so it was mostly spent seeking shade, coolness, and other relief. We really only saw one band which was around 1 PM, and that was Mario Matteoli. We are fans of his now. He used to be with The Weary Boys, a bluegrass outfit who just broke up. His music is not bluegrass at all, I guess you could include it in that catch-all genre of "roots music" if you had to, anyway, he rocked our socks off. Good songwriting, singing, 2 good guitars, slide trombone, keyboards...

We got tired of trudging around in the sun, so we walked down to Chuy's -- which was packed of course -- and ended up sharing a small table with a nice Austin couple. Turned out that the man was my pharmacist!! What are the odds of that? He said he didn't want me to get a bad impression of my pharmacist when off duty, but frankly, I am more concerned that the next time I am instructed to get the pharmacist's counseling with a new prescription, that it's not one of those "apply to infested area" type prescriptions!! LOL!! Anyway, they made a good music recommendation for the afternoon in Ocote Soul Sounds. The band sounded great, but this was our view of them. They played in that white tent in the background. Note the guy sitting in the tree. Anyway, it's a good choice of a band to see in a proper music venue sometime. We came home to our lonesome kitties after that, and here I am blogging and looking through my pics.

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music - ACL

ACL Day 1 and pre-Day 1

Started out the weekend with a private party on Thursday (sponsored by BMI), just a nice little happy hour (6-8pm). There was a certificate presented to Tommy Shannon, Chris Layton (a.k.a Double Trouble, Stevie Ray Vaughan's rhythm section), Bill Carter and Ruth Carter for one million broadcasts of the song Crossfire. (all 4 are the composers of the song). Then there were performances by Adam Hood and Kara Grainger. Kara is from Australia but works with a lot of Austin musicians. Chris Maresh and Michael Ramos are in her performing band. Here's a pic of Guy Forsyth at the party. I wanted a pic of his shirt.

We usually get to the festival each day before gates at 11:00 so we can get free parking within walking distance. It's a hot day in store, in the 90s, and humid too.

Sahara Smith (local) started the day for us (and the entire festival). I was reading in the paper that she got her name from her Dad, who was trying to pronounce "Sarah" and hiccuped in the middle of it. Asleep at the Wheel, as is the tradition, were the first band to play on the Big stage on the west side of the park. If you don't feel like dancing for Asleep at the Wheel, then you aren't listening.

My big plan was to get front rail for Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, then hang on to it for Crowded House. Asleep at the Wheel started at 12:30, and I got my rail for Bela, whose band put on an awesome show. They are a 4-person powerhouse, just unbelievably great. I was in front of Futureman, who is one of the coolest-looking people on the planet with his Drumitar invention looking like something straight out of The Road Warrior. He managed to shatter a drumstick to pieces playing it with one hand and the Drumitar in the other. The Security guy offered me the broken stick afterwards, but I fought my collector instincts and let the kid next to me have it. While Bela was playing, the big fire erupted on the other side of the park, a propane tank exploded in a trailer, injured a few people pretty badly and burning a bunch of stuff including some port-o-potties.

My plan to hang on to my front spot went awry due to being roasted in full sun on a hot metal slab for 3 full hours, so I really wasn't physically able to do it for the next 2 hours it would have required to be in the front for Crowded House. I took a little break and watched Neil Finn and company on the video monitors, I still loved it.

James Hunter was my remaining "must-see" for the day. James and band are a bunch of Brits who play old-style American soul music ala James Brown, Sam Cooke and Ray Charles. He is a delight. I was really ready to leave the grounds after that, but tried to hang in there for the sake of Mr. B, who wanted to see one of the headliners: Bjork.

Seeing the evening headliners at ACL has been problematic and stressful for me for the past few years. The sound on the stages is turned up too loud to be so close to the other stages, so there is massive bleedover. We couldn't get close to Bjork because that takes an investment of time and suffering that were not made, so we found a spot mid-crowd. The plan is for the stage nearby to be finished as soon as the other one starts (except for the 2 smaller stages, which have to simply put up with being drowned out). I was enjoying hearing the music from the nearby stage, which was Gotan Project, when Bjork started her little pre-show which unfortunately started about 15 minutes earlier than she came one -- so instead of creating a mood and dramatic effect, it just made an ugly cacaphonous din that there was no escape from. Here is our view of her show. That's not a giant, it's a guy standing on something. The view sucked and I was dead-dog tired from 10 hours in oppressive heat and humidity, so we started the mile-long walk back to the car.

On the way, I could see the sharp contrast between the real Austin and the corporate shebang that is the ACL Festival. There were a couple of bands playing on the sidewalks -- just some fantastic percussion-only bands playing for tips and exposure. One was Rattletree (listen to them here), and the other one was The Oziene Experience. Awesome! Our walk was also enhanced by some wonderful wild cherry shaved ices. It really rescued the evening. I love this town.

Tags: Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music - ACL

ACL this weekend

We are at the Austin City Limits (ACL) Festival all weekend. Should be some coverage here whenever I get caught up and recovered from yet another September roaster.

ACL festival 2006 - September Simmering Boil

Almost back to the land of the living this fine Monday after the big ACL bash. I have a real love/hate relationship to that festival. There is soooo much hype over it on all the local media outlets, and I always want to go so bad I just wouldn't want to miss it... but in reality the whole experience balances out as far as it being worth all the hell and aggravation. The media is not getting or giving a true picture of what it's like to trudge through this affair as a regular non-VIP grunt, so their coverage is not only spun but their experiences not typical.

Cons and rants:

1. Too damned hot here in September for an outdoor 3-day event.
2. Way too crowded.
3. Really long lines for food.
4. Too many stages, too close together, sound bleeds over to the wrong stage.
5. Not "Austin Weird", as corporate as it gets around here.
6. The Power$-That-Be seem to be inflexible toward changing any of this stuff.
   

Positive:

1. There's always a couple of really good experiences that are memorable for each day.
2. Get to hear some bands that you would not normally be exposed to.

Friday
A day of blasting hot sun (98 degrees) and high humidity with no relief. We were troopers and held out for hours at a big stage, saw Guster and Asleep at the Wheel before Nickel Creek came up, the band we were camped out for. Went through their autograph line, and had time to catch 2 songs by Del Castillo. The rest of the night was spent wandering through the crowd without a main focus as we could not really hear some of the bands we wanted to hear due to sound bleed. Listened to John Mayer from a half mile away for awhile (still plenty loud though) and called it a day. Exhausted from the heat and humidity.

Saturday
Same weather as Friday, 98 degrees and humid. Couldn't handle the full sun but enjoyed the music of Galactic from the shelter of a misting tent. Great live band, gotta see them at a club soon. I was really frustrated all day until I was able to get a rail-spot for Calexico along with some welcome cloud-cover. They were great, and we hurried over to another stage for a great set from The South Austin Jug Band, and were done in for the day. No headliners even attempted today. With the extra layer of sunburn we went to dinner, then home to a houseful of cranky cats.

Sunday
At last! Some rain and cloud cover. It still managed to get up to 98 - and sticky! Kathleen Edwards was a highlight. We camped out at a smaller stage for The Greencards, so we got to see local Austin's own MTV Rockstar Patrice Pike (pictured), and also Matt Costa. The Greencards were another big highlight for the day. We miss them!

After they played we intended to see Tom Petty, who was the big headliner for the day and one of our favorites. It was a solid mass of people, all headed somewhere in a hurry. One of the problems of the festival being too crowded and too many stages is that there is no "back" of the crowd... that nice mellow place where people are resting on blankets, playing frisbee and hacky-sack (sp?) and having room to dance like nobody's looking. I was hoping to find that place for Tom Petty because it was really not possible to get a front rail view without investing the time, and by that point was too hot and tired to stand up for 2 more hours. We tramped around looking for "that" place, and when Petty started playing we were surprised to hear that for some reason they had his volume turned down lower than any band of the weekend!! A major headliner and we couldn't hear him from a half mile away, not well enough. Disappointed, we decided to call it over and try to hear Petty from the sidewalk outside. Here was our view of Tom Petty below, and we could hear the show much better from this spot than we could inside. (sad.) It started to rain, and Tom Petty took a rain delay, so it really was over then. I got more sunburned on this cloudy day than I did the rest of the weekend. I guess the old wives tales about clouds and sunburn are really true.


Why do I do this festival? It's hard to resist, with all the hype and the lineup it really makes you want to go! Like a lot of things, it's not as much fun as it sounds like it's going to be, but I always end up with some nice memories.

- Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music - ACL - Festival - Austin City Limits -

AY CEE EL time again

Well, I was calling sour grapes back when I wasn't able to get the early bird cheap tickets for this, but it's all sweet now with these passes! Thank yoooou, nice person who got these for us! I like the lineup a lot, and it's looking like the temperatures will stay in the 90s (even 97 is better than the 108 degree record-breaker they had last year).

Would dearly love to go to the Austin City Limits TV taping tomorrow night starring Calexico. My friend called frantically to let me know that if I had super powers I could get over to the location where the tickets would be given out for the next 20 minutes. [sighh] One of these days I want to go to one of those. Oh well, I can see them on Saturday at the heatfest.

- Music - Austin - Texas - Texas Music -

ACL festival - sour grapes!!!

This sucks! Here I am, checking email all day, then when I'm having dinner and keeping up with the latest Dynasty Reunion news and Star Jones' boob job on Entertainment Tonight, the big super-duper ACL festival $35-for-3-days ticket offer goes out. An hour after it arrives in the inbox I am a sore loser again -- they sold out of the initial 3,000 tickets in 42 minutes.

Like I really want to pay more than that for that over-crowded heat-fest! grrrr.
Well crapinthepants! I will probably go if I can win free tickets. Maybe.

- Music - Austin - - ACL -

Chillin' in ridiculous heat

Rita left us completely unscathed weather-wise in Austin, except for providing a nice breeze for outdoor activities, which was most welcome in this searing heat.

The festival in Waco with Del Castillo and the Jug Band that I had been planning was cancelled. Waco was originally right in the path of the inland storm track before it turned eastward, but I doubt they ended up with more than just a little wind and rain. The other non-weather Rita situation we have in Austin and all over east and central Texas is that we are out of or very short on gasoline. Austin was already packed with evacuees from Katrina and then Rita, plus we've got just a few folks in town for that little shebang, the ACL festival.

This is our first time to not go to the ACL festival. (My 2004 recap and pics are linked from this page) Usually we have gotten lucky and gotten the super-cheap early-bird tickets, but that didn't happen and we didn't care to pay the high-prices for something destined to be overly crowded and possibly overheated (as it has been way too hot for 3 out of the 4 years they've had it, the other year it was cooler and raining. I have one word to say to the people who put on this show: October... make that 2 words: late October. Forget September. Ugh.) On Sunday afternoon as I post this, here's the current reading, just a degree or so hotter than yesterday. They just said on News 8 Austin that ABIA (the airport) just broke the heat record with 108. September. It's the new August.

Instead of ACL we went down to the Pecan Street Festival, the freebee they have on 6th Street. had lunch at a great new Korean restaurant, Koriente, which has lots of veggie (vegan even) selections, healthy and low fat options. Some people pics from Pecan Street. On the left is a street musician named "19th Street Red", and on the right is a living statue. He scared the total crap out of a girl passing by when she saw him move. She screamed!

At Pecan Street we saw Dave Sebree, who is one of the best guitarists in Texas. He is president of the Austin School of Music and plays very few gigs, so it was a real treat to see him. I had seen him play acoustic a couple of times before at a private party, very informal, and he is awesome. He's very melodic, a little jazzy here and there, kind of in the same mode as Eric Johnson, Van Wilks and maybe Steve Morse. Beautiful stuff. You can listen to a song of his by going to this page, and under ALL FACULTY select David Sebree. (It's a flashy site so I can't give a direct link, and the navbar is a little tricky but worth it. Lots of other nice samples from other musicians there too). His final song was a rockin' cover of Led Zeppelin's Moby Dick.

In the evening we went to the Alamo Drafthouse and saw "The Corpse Bride". It was really wonderful, very funny, great characters! Cutest spider and maggot I've ever seen. Recommended!

After that we went to Momo's for a late set with the South Austin Jug Band. Watched them for 2 hours and ran out of steam. We were the old folks in the crowd, it was 1:30 a.m., we'd been at it since 11 a.m. (now technically the previous day), and were beat.

Monday it's supposed to be nearly, if not just as hot as today, then some clouds should be rolling in taking us down in the low 90s. I hope so.


- Music - Austin -