Austin City Limits Music Festival

My wife and I were very excited to go to the Austin City Limits Festival (ACL) - so excited, in fact, that we arrived early and determined to stick it out for the whole day. We even thought that we would repeat the routine on Sunday.

ACL kicked our butts on Saturday. And not in a good way.

This is not a completely negative story. There were highlights:

1. We "discovered" some bands that we really liked. The Gospelaires (the guitarist was the best in ACL - of the bands we saw), the Greencards (transplanted Australians and an Englishman who play bluegrass really well), and Los Amigos Invisibles (a Venezuelan dance band whose set inspired one of the best crowds in ACL) were all pleasant surprises. I picked up CDs for these bands at the convenient Waterloo booth located near the entrance to ACL.

2. We saw shows from several acts we love. Kelly Willis (the Greencards accompanied her), Elvis Costello and the Imposters (I am conviced that the sound people were on their lunch break during this show because the quality was not up to the high standards met by other performances in ACL), and, of course, the Pixies.

3. The food was pretty good. I think ACL took a page from the New Orleans Jazz Fest playbook. The booths were laid out in an orderly way, the lines were short and manageable and several great restaraunts were represented there. There was lots of water to be had too.

4. There was some shopping. My wife picked up some stuff and I bought some CDs on site. The crowds at the booths were nuts but we still got our hands on the goods.

Here's what we didn't like (we experienced most of this on Saturday. Being the adaptive primates that we are, we learned from this experience and applied that knowledge on Sunday. But more ont hat later):

1. The heat. My god, the heat. There is so little shade. The main stages are completely open and the sun was relentless. I am surpised I didn't hear more reports of heat exhaustion and sunstroke. Perhaps it was because my own heat exhaustion and sunstroke muddled my brain. The heat sucked the energy right out of us. Why can't ACL be scheduled during a cooler time of the year?

2. The crowds. I don't know why people loose their ability to think when gathered in groups of three or more. People talked during shows, they didn't watch where they were going, and they were inconsiderate of others. For instance, we set up some distance from the stage during the Pixies show. Due to the fact that it was the last show of the day, many people left early. I think they all passed in front of us. People stepped on my feet for the better part of an hour. They ran into our chairs. They nearly knocked my wife over. And we didn't have much of a choice; it was so packed that we would have experienced the same things no matter where we went. There is a dissertation on chaos theory waiting to be written. And the "death march" out of the park after the show was frightening. If some idiot had shouted "fire", people would have died.

We took it much easier on Sunday, though. Thanks to my wife's eagle-like vision, we spotted a place underneath a shade tree not far from a main stage. We parked our chairs and stayed there all day. We had a good view of Kelly Willis and Elvis Costello and we were within feet of the beverage stand and the port-a-potties. We relaxed and had fun. We left earlier that day so we didn't have to fight the crowds. It restored my faith in the human ability to learn and adapt!

And thanks, Mary, for letting us park in your driveway so close to the park! It made the festival much easier and more fun.