| so a few days after...i am getting around to my acl post at 3:00 in the morning while watching animal planet. so...here i go as well as i can remember: FRIDAY-
we (me and nick) depart abilene a few hours later than expected, at 6:30, and enjoy the nice scenic rout of one lane highways, small town hoping and hopeful deer spotting. thursday night i had started to develope a chest cold, which i feared would hinder my music experience. so i was sure to buy half the walgreens pharmacy and departed armed and ready for what these micro-organisms could throw at me. we arive in austin about 3 and a half hours later, tired, a little soar, and in need of a little nicotine. as much as i regret to say, we werent in the peachiest moods. so we meet nicks friends from austin and decide on what to do for the night. we all decide that going down to 6th street is the best plan. so we get down there and the group kind of splits, with half going to a club, and the others to roam the austin habitat for a while. just fyi...tons of people everywhere. so we weave our way to babalo's cigar shop. im excited to see that they have the cigars ryan has suggested that we buy boxes of, just a little more than i expected. so we decided to wait on any huge financial decisions til we have the opinion of one of our co-funders (ryan). anyways...there is still a few hours til the other friends get out of the club, so we decide to head back towards campus and see whats up there. after utilizing austins mass transportation system, we arrive at campus. we were all fairly hungry so we head to kerby lane. after getting our "dining on", we start making our way back to the appartment to finally goto sleep and rest before the concert the next day. i think our final bedtime was about 3am or so. SATURDAY-
first we wake up and get on the first bus towards downtown, where we will walk a few blocks and catch a free shuttle to the festival. we ge there and one of the first things i do is get some water because of the heat and i was told to consume lots of liquids. so here is our general schedule of the day:
Murder By Death- at first, they seemed like nothing special, they had a cello player sure...but the opening song wasnt impressive at all. so we walk around for a few minutes, then decide to go check the rest of their set out...wow...they really turned it around i think. the cello was put through some sort of distortion and really addad a good sound to the set. i will look further into this band.
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness- an austin local. they were alright, i could see listening to them occasionally, but nothing that they really did grasped me. dont get me wrong, they were fine, but just that to me, fine. so we roamed a little to see what else was playing which lead toooooo
Ghostland Observatory- a dude playing synth, and some dude/chick yeller who was a little too weird for me...just listen to them and tell me what you think...
Ben Kweller- this was one i was told to be sure to check out. i had never really heard much of his stuff, but when he took the stage 10 minutes late...it appeared that this guy was ready to be a rockstar. he first appologizes for being late, due to a nosebleed that he was being assisted with by the paramedics backstage. he appeared over his ailment, but soon through the first song it started up. blood was going down his chin, down his throat, then splattering on his guitar. he plays a few songs in this form, wiping the blood between songs from his face, when eventually he jokingly asks for a tampon. then about 20 fly up on stage and next thing you know he is playing with one in his nose. after the song was over, he said he wanted to try a slower song, so he gets behind teh piano and after the song, the camera showed the pool of blood on the keys. kweller then stood up and appologized for the major inconvenience, but he was not going to be able to complete his set, but the crowd was more than supportive for this decision. for the half set he played...this guy rocked out and i liked it alot.
Nada Surf- a band that i've listened to in ryans car but never gave much of a though to listening too. well...now its time to go buy their cd...their song popular is pretty good i sugest you all check them out.
The Shins- saw some theta guys before hand. i hope you dont want a huge explanatoin about the shins show...cus its just like you can imagine it...amazing...heck yes.
we then chill out for a while and see a little bit of a band called string cheese incident. they are a jam band and nice to chill to. but then to one of the bands i anticipated most...
Iron & Wine- started out with Sodom, South Georgia. it was great. i could notice that some of the people we were attending the show with were tired (as were nick and myself) and were not too into the show. so we decide after a few songs that we would leave. so after hearing Freedom Hangs Like Heaven, i was content with leaving...so we did.
aftergetting something to eat we decided it was time to drop some money on cigars. so $250 bucks later im walking around austin with two boxes of cigars and a big grin on my face.
SUNDAY-
i wake up around 11 and see it is pouring outside...so i moan and turn over...so a few hours after that i wake to see that the rain had subsided a few hours earlier. after me and nick talked about it...we decided there werent many bands we wanted to see on sunday except flaming lips and muse...so we stick to that.
The Flaming Lips- it was about 6:30 when they hit the stage...holy crap...people were freeking everywhere...on the stage that is. the show was pretty amazing. simply the best theatric performance i have seen. i would go into more but its late.
Muse- AHHHHHHHHmazing. they rocked out. flawlessly. i loved it. and one of the coolest parts was tehre was lightning in the background throughout the whole show...amazing.
so after getting lost in downtown after leaving acl...we finally get on a bus to go to our desired destination and get the heck out of austin at around 10:30. during the course of our 3 and ahalf our epic saga, i saw 7 deer. sorry if this kinda ends terribly but i have a test in the mroning...so im going to leave you all with the quote of the night...
"Max Fischer: I saved Latin. What did you ever do? " |
