(Sorry for the delay in getting this post out!)

Austin City Limits recap:

Friday

So I didn't bother to find out exactly where Zilker Park was, and Whateley had a vague idea where it was, and thinking that we may take the free shuttle from a nearby downtown park, we just drove to downtown and parked at the first lot we found (for an outrageous $20, what a rip-off!). We then started walking... and walking... and walking.... Past the South Congress bridge (home of the famous Austin bats), past a smaller park, past buildings, and we just kept walking. We were joined by more and more people heading off in a general direction. We opted not to take the shuttle since the line for it was gi-normous. We saw more and more people and stores advertising the sale of cold water and other drinks and food. The number of scalpers started increasing. But the end was just not in sight!

Finally, after what seemed like an hour of walking, we finally managed to get to the park (with Whateley and me going, so this is where it is! We should totally come here when there isn't a festival going on.), we went through the line and got in!

I gotta say, Austin weather this weekend was miles of improvement over the summer. There were clouds, a nice breeze, and very little humidity. I think, actually, that September/October and March/April has the best weather in Austin. Still, taking all that into consideration, the conditions were still endurance-breaking. At least until the sun starts going down. Texas is just a really hot state. I made the mistake of wearing jeans and it was soaked in sweat. Every breeze was a welcome relief.

We saw Gogol Bordello first, and they were a hoot! Gypsy punk music... can I say any more? BP and SP, our old roommates from Cali, joined the crowd up close and spent the entire hour jumping up and down. Whateley and I, being old farts, decided to sit off to the side under a tree. Yes, we did spend most of the weekend watching TV in a park with a bunch of strangers.

Afterwards, we got something to eat and drink and waited for David Byrne. Sad to say, when these names were presented to me, all I can say is... who? He was in the Talking Heads, apparently. There was one song I recognized called "Once in a Lifetime" but that was it. But man, as Whateley put it (and he was stealing from Patton Oswalt... ah, Patton...) David Byrne is catnip for old people. There was an older crowd and people were totally rocking out to him! This gray-haired lady was dancing like a maniac, like a maniac, on the... grass. He had these dancers that were doing weird, channeling-the-spirits, interpretative dance moves. The only clue that they were actual dancers and not just stoners he picked up off the streets was that first, it was rehearsed, and second, one of them did a pirouette and it was actually good.

Last performance of the night (that we saw, at least) was Manu Chao. He was fun, though I don't know if any of the songs were in English. It's hard to describe his style of music, other than it's international and very energetic. And he thanked Austin after each song.

We walked back to the car and vowed to park closer the next day.

Saturday

We debated getting to the festival early to catch a local band consisting of a 16-yr old, 14-yr-old, and 13-yr old boys. But we opted to sleep in instead.

We managed to find a paid parking lot (only $10!) which cut our walk down to less an 30 minutes, most of it through a shaded park. Much better! We got in in time to watch Erykah Badu. She was... okay. I'm not that into soul, and the only reason we went to see her was basically because I recognized her name.

Afterwards, we decided to check out John Fogerty based purely on the fact that he got a larger segment in the program than the other guy on the other big stage. Turns out, this guy was really popular back in the 60's and 70's when he was part of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Um... yeah, I had to look that up. Anyway, turns out, I recognized a lot of his songs, including the one that goes "theeeeeeere's a bathroom on the right." Yeah, I know, #2 on the most mis-understood lyrics list, right after "'scuse me while I kiss this guy."

Finally, after that, we had a choice between Robert Plant & Alison Krauss or Beck. (I'm not going to link these guys since you probably have heard of them before.) We went to Beck cuz Whateley really likes Beck. Well, him and a million other people, it seems. We got a nice spot, spread our blankets, and then people started to fill in around us. They got as close to the edge of our blankets as we could, and then got closer. Then the drunk guys behind us got drunker and spilled their beer on our blankets. Then one of them tried to stub out his cigarette at his feet. But since his feet were at the edge of our blankets, he ended up stubbing it out on our blanket. Ugh. When we shared that story, people said that they would've punched those guys out. Except that they were really, really apologetic. But they're drunk, so it's not like they can keep themselves from doing stuff like that. We packed up our blankets anyway, which we had to wash later that night.

Beck, surprisingly, was also not a great stage performer. He just went in from one song to another with hardly a break in-between. He didn't say hi, he didn't even thank the audience after each song. That, and where we were standing, we were too far away from the front speakers and not far away enough for the rear speakers, so when people decided to sing along, I couldn't hear anything but the people around me. And I was reminded of an SNL skit with Matt Damon who was playing a south Bostonite at a Bruce Springsteen concert. He yelled to the crowd, "Yo, I came here to hear the Boss sing, not you losers. So when he sings, you better shut the hell up." (paraphrased) Well, I was thinking, I came here to hear Beck sing, not a bunch of drunk college kids.

Anyway, Whateley was getting mad also, so we ended up leaving and caught the last 20 minutes of Alison Krauss & Robert Plant. Their crowd was much less rowdy. We should've gone to that concert instead.

Well, Beck ended his set 15 minutes early, so we met back up with BP and SP, and we got back to the car and headed towards Kerbey Lane. We called up some of our friends so they could meet BP and SP, especially since BP is in our WoW guild. Fun and good food was had by all.

Sunday

We headed out to the festival earlier than usual to catch some of the smaller bands. We went to the same paid parking lot, but the guy wasn't there. But we saw that people were parking on the street there, so we did too. Free parking!

We first caught The Octopus Project, which is actually a local band from Austin. Their sound can best be described as "weird." I'd say it was techno-ish, except that they're a band. They don't sing, they switch instruments between songs to keep things interesting, and one of the instruments they use is the Theremin. When the girl was playing it and the camera zoomed in on her hands, it just looked like she was waving her hands in the air in some funky dance. Whateley liked them a lot, so we ended up getting their latest CD.

We then caught the Massacoustics (cuz they're from Massachusetts). It was funny to go from Beck, who was probably used to playing in bigger stages than the one he was on so he gave a so-so performance, to this small band playing on the smallest stage in the festival in the middle of the day and being really excited about it. One brother is the lead singer/guitarist, and the other brother plays the drums, back-up vocals, and the bass guitar... at the same time. Yeah, he's playing bass and drums at the same time. It was funky. I liked their music a lot too. It was catchy rock/pop with quirky lyrics. We tried to get their CD, but they weren't selling many at the music tent and they were sold out by the time we got there.

Afterwards, we tried to catch another guy, but his stage was next to some shady trees, so we spread out our blankets, got some food, and ended up napping during the performance. Oh well, it was a tiring weekend.

The next performance was for Blues Traveler which I had been looking forward to all weekend. Except that I realized I only knew one of their songs, which is "Runaround" which, it turns out, is totally unlike the rest of their music. They're a jam band, which means that songs like more like a jam session than a carefully laid out song with arrangements. Turns out, I'm not that crazy about jam music. Sad.

Next up was Gnarls Barkley. BP and SP were excited about them, and I wanted to see what they would end up wearing on the stage, since they're known for their outrageous costumes. Well, turns out, it was rather tame blue suit for the guy with the fro and black duster jacket for the other guy. Their music was okay, but not my cup of tea. Whateley and I ended up just walking around and checking out the Raconteurs, which includes Jack White, from the White Stripes. They sounded pretty good too.

We ended up catching the very beginning of Tegan & Sara which is a band consisting of two identical twin sisters. They were very cute, though their music can best be described as "femme rock." (Or to be more accurate, "lesbian femme rock.") It was cute though, that they thanked the audience with the same inflected "thank you very much." They're from Canada, you see. =)

Finally, the last performance of the festival was the Foo Fighters. Now, they put on a good show. The lead guy was chatting it up with the audience, getting them to cheer, and while introducing the band, he had the guy playing the triangle play a triangle solo. It was actually pretty good. I didn't know that triangles could be played solo.

We learned our lesson from Beck and sat in the back to avoid the drunks up front. But we were still able to see and hear them (thanks to speakers and big screens). We had to leave 15 early since SP had to log in to take a test by a certain time. But it was an altogether enjoyable show. I even recognized a few songs.


Anyway, we might do this again next year. Even though the park's grass turned to dirt by Sunday, and there was icky black stuff coming out of my nose at the end of the night. And there were more than a few times where I blew my nose and grass parts came out. Ewwww. Perhaps next time, I'll get a straw hat to keep the sun off my neck, get a kerchief to put over my nose, and perhaps a portable lawnchair. Eh, I've got a year to mull it over.

I had more thoughts about it last week, but I was too tired to post it. Anyway, it was good to finally experience something this city's known for, we got to try some good food, and I found out this city has a lot of hippies... and people smoke a lot of pot. Heh, latez!