ACL in a nutshell

So as you may have already guessed this weekend was ACL. I must say it almost lived up to the Dust-bowl of 2005...and overall I would have to give it a 8 out of 10 compared to the past 3 years I have gone. That being said it was not without it's great fun and music!

Friday - Day 1:
1. Asleep at the Wheel - a blues band, not too shabby.
2. What Made Milwaukee Famous - a sort-of rock band. not all that impressive.
3. Yeasayer - not all that impressive.
4. Vampire Weekend - This band was great! Seemed like a fun group with a pretty exciting show and decent playlist.
5. Patty Griffin - a country artist. I'm not a huge fan
6. Jenny Lewis - kinda of folk-rock. Great, I mean she had such a fun show. Good lyrics, nice mix of songs.
7. The Swell Season - These guys were pretty good. The sort of thing I would put on for a relaxing mood.
8. The Mars Volta - boo, I was not impressed. Very much a 1970's throwback kinda feel
9. Manu Chao - This seemed to be an interesting mix of spanish/rock kindof music. He was ok.

After the bands, later that night I met up with Eric at Anthony's place then went home with him only to have him hug the toilet all night :(... That crazy kid needs to watch his drinking.

Saturday - Day 2:
1. The Fritellis - typical rock band. they were ok.
2. Jose Gonzales - nothing really sticks out about this one. it was ok.
3. The Driveby Truckers - I thought these guys were pretty good. Had kind of a folkish-rock feel
4. Band of Heathens - meh
5. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - Wow, She was so much fun!! got an audience member up on stage to dance with! lol definately a jazzy Amy Winehouse feel to it.
6. City and Colour - rock band from Canada. I thought he was great! awesome show, good commentary.
7. MGMT - these guys were ok.
8. John Fogerty - He was a Creedeance Clearwater revival. Pretty good show! I liked it.
9. Iron and Wine - boo...I was pretty dissapointed.
10. Robert Plant and Allison Krause - This x-led Zeplin member with the singer/songwriter from O' Brother Where Art Though made an interesting combination. I liked it.
11. Beck - Great, as was expected

Saturday night I had a bunch of friends over for an after party. No one stayed too long (which was good b/c I was sooo tired), but we had some beers and chilled. Eric backed out b/c he was sick, and I was a bit disappointed over that too. The dust was pretty aweful today. couldn't see very far and I could just taste the grittiness.

Sunday - Day 3:
1. Belleville Outfit - my friend Sam is dating the lead singer. They were playing when we came in and sounded pretty good and fun.
2. Octopus Project - LMAO! these guys were...different...had the Austin High band play a few songs at the beggning with them. totally instrumental group, no vocals.
3. Adelle - following in the footsteps of Amy Winehouse two years ago, and Buffy last year...she pulled a no show...BITCH!
4. Massacoustics - Awesome band. the drummer was also a back-up singer and bass player...at the same time...literally
5. Stars - these guys were ok...nothing to write home about... (lol, ironic that I would write that as I'm writting about them).
6. Against Me - meh
7. Xavier Rudd - This guy was pretty cool. Played a dijery doo (spelling?) and was a great band.
8. Neko Case - Country, not my thing but not bad
9. The Heartless Bastards - these guys weren't too bad...
10. Blues Travelor - I liked this group. Fun to listen to.
11. White Denim - meh
12. South Austin Jug Band - these guys were ok. very much folk music.
13. Gnarles Barkely - he was ok. Don't know if I could listen to his whole concert though.
14. Galactic - great Jazz group from New Orleans!
15. Band of Horses - meh

So today wasn't my favorite. We bounced back and forth between a lot of groups and only heard a few songs from most of them. I really did like massacoustics and Galactic. Octopus project was fun too. one highlight of the day was this couple during White Denim that was arguing in front of us. The girl kept yelling and shoving the guy! then they stormed off and met up again later and cried. We also saw a guy in a knitted one-piece bell-bottomed outfit that he wore last year (I remember because it was just so odd).

The weekend was definitely fun. As always (with one exception) the food was AMAZING! and the boys...or lawdy lawd...there were just oh so many half-naked boys.....dear god it was like I had died and gone to hell...(they were almost all straight) lol...but it was such a wonderfully scenic hell.

The dust this year was also really bad. I work up every morning sneezing black goo and coughing up dirt...I'm sure tomorrow morning will be the worst yet as today was the worst for dust.

My next mission will be of course to start the downloading extravaganza...got to support those artists I liked and get copies of their albums :) Anyway I can't wait to see what next year has in store...here's hoping for a Regina Spektor encore and maybe Incubus?!?!? lol