So, it's definitely taken awhile for me to get this up and running, but hopefully I'll be writing more regularly for real this time. I'm starting to regulate my schedule a little better and caring less and less about work, so I think I'm going to be spending more time goofing off (read as blogging, reading, and playing video games).
Now that you've granted me this small bit of self-indulgent personal life bullshit, let's get on with the dishing.
As I said in the previous blog, I visited Austin, and the main reason for me doing so was to attend the Austin City Limits Music Festival or ACLMF. What I didn't know until my arrival was that this was actually different from the Austin City Limits that I had grown up watching on PBS. The ACL concert series is a series of concerts that began filming in 1976 and take place on campus at the University of Texas at Austin complete with a mock image of Austin's skyline. The ACLMF takes place in Zilker Park and is now counted amongst the country's premier music festivals.
My personal preparations for the festival were relatively simple. Upon arrival I spoke with my friend Ryan (thanks for letting me crash at your pad) about how we were going to work the schedule. He informed me that the website (which I had failed to check since I bought the tickets back in June or whenever) had a tool where one could simply look through the schedule of bands and highlight the bands you want to see. He showed me how the iPhone even had an application that showed you the schedule of bands (p.s. ACLMF iPhone app, please be clearer about who's on what stage). We discussed what we wanted to see but really didn't do anything until the next morning.
After waking up slightly hungover from the previous night's craziness at Midnight Rodeo, we looked through the schedule of the day and blocked out which bands we would see at each stage. It was agreed that Zilker was too far for us to walk there, so we called very early for a taxi. Due to complications with Ryan's friend showing up late, we had to drive into the city and grab one of the convenient shuttles to Zilker. As pulled into the parking lot, it was stunning to see how many people rode their bikes to the event. The articles I had read on the internet boasted the show topping out between 60,000 and 70,000 guests; and it looked like half of them biked there. The stage setup was great, very easy to flow from one act to another and very rarely was I forced to choose between two bands resulting in only seeing half a set the entire weekend.
The things I noticed immediately were the enormous amount of flags that were being held by groups, which in hindsight is super-smart. If you're going to be in a sea of people, it makes sense to bring a mobile landmark that will readily identify you. It looked like a scene out of Braveheart, except you had different factions of music lovers instead of Scots.
One of the cool things I really enjoyed about the concert series as a whole was the keen attention to supporting the local commerce. There were local vendors comprising a very interesting outdoor mall. The Austin Eats food court was comprised entirely of local eateries and restaurant. I made a point to eat at a different stand each meal so that I could sample as much of the local eats as possible.
All things equal, I found the food from the Mighty Cone to be the best of the bunch. This was evidenced by the line of hungry, eager patrons that stretched nearly a quarter mile. The mighty cone was essentially a soft taco served in a snowcone paper cone. Your tortilla went in first accompanied by either chicken, shrimp or both; coleslaw; and fried avocado should you elect to add it; and two distinct yet complimentary sauces. I'm not sure what they were exactly, although one was definitely some sort of southwestern ranch while the other had a sweetness and salitness suggestive of some kind of Asian soy-based sauce. Delicious either way.
An interesting phenomenon occurred as well. Each day had what I started referring to as a "pleasant surprise" act. These were bands that we had scheduled to see even though we were not familiar with their work; and when we arrived we were pleasantly surprised by how great they were. Each day also had a band that just seemed to exemplify what rock and roll really means to me in my mind. The showmanship, the attitude, you all know what I'm talking about.
The crowd was way different from any other festival show I've attended. I don't know if this is a function of the show taking place out West, or if it was unique to ACLMF, but the crowd was incredibly nice to one another. There were tens of thousands of people there but moving through the crowd was simple and easy. For the most part pushing and shoving didn't really happen (although there were a few youngsters who "just had to be up front" that annoyed the older heads in the crowd). Everyone was willing to share just about anything from food to drinks to drugs (none for me thanks, I'm high on life, Arthur). The swaying, collapsing crowds of the HFStivals of my youth were nowhere to be seen or be crushed under.
One weird thing, I mentioned above how readily drugs were being circulated throughout the concert. It may just be me in my advancing age, but I have never seen kids this young doing drugs like this. I wanted to threaten to "beat them up for their lunch mon-I er mean your drugs..." or threaten to text pictures of them to their parents. Yikes a whole other topic for a whole other day.
All in all, ACLMF was everything I'd hoped it be and more. I'm not sure if I could afford it if I didn't have a friend with whom I could stay; but should you still be out there, Ryan I'm coming back in 2010!
