ACL Recap

If you’ve never been to Austin, I would highly recommend you go.  I’ve been to most major cities in Texas, and a whole lot of minor ones too, but I think I like Austin the best.  The place in literally littered with quirky little shops and restaurants full of interesting things and foods.  Sure, there are a few chains, but they seemed few and far between, and not nearly as popular as the locally owned places.

Austin City Limits Music Festival is quite an event.  We spent almost all day there on Friday, which was fun but exhausting.  It really is hotter ‘n hell too, and there is NO  shade.  We just sort of sat there and baked.  Luckily it wasn’t nearly as hot as it has been in past years.  We also learned the hard way about how to stay in contact with each other.  We had heard the suggestion that we bring a “flagpole” and some chairs and just set up camp in particular spot.  We decided against lugging a bunch of stuff around and just brought a blanket to sit on.  That was fine until I walked off to do something and couldn’t find my friend.  There are like 60,000 people there on any given day, so yeah, it’s kind of easy to get lost.  Plus, my cell phone wasn’t working right (probably because there were 60,000 other people using their cell phones too) so I nearly panicked when I couldn’t find my friend.  

We had decided to stay all day on Friday to see Van Morrison and we quickly figured out that if we wanted to be anywhere near the stage we needed to set up camp early.  We tried to see Gnarls Barkly, but we were so far back we could hardly hear, so as soon he they finished and the crowd thinned we moved in and prepared to sit through a band we’d never heard of.  Luckily the band turned out to be Thievery Corporation and they totally kicked ass. The crowd was singing and dancing along the whole time.  It was a lot of fun.  I did have a little trouble watching three boys get baked right in front of us however.  They looked like they were about 13 and apparently they were not familiar with the phrase “too much of a good thing.”   First they smoked a blunt, then they passed around a fat joint, then they pulled out the pipe.  I nearly got a contact high from just standing near them.  At one point they became so stoned they had to sit down.  I think I saw one of them drooling.  My friend and decided to mess with them and shouted out “Hey!  You’re Mom’s coming!” but they were too baked to notice.  

Van Morrison I finally took the stage and looked quite dapper in his suit and hat.  His voice was clear and strong and beautiful.  Unfortunately he didn’t sing anything that I wanted to hear.  The set was down right boring for the most part.  He did play “Bright side of the road” and “Moon dance” but they were so jazzed up they were hardly recognizable.  “Brown Eyed Girl” was the highlight.

After Van my friend and I and about 60,000 other people tried to leave.  What a mess.  We stood in line for about an hour and a half to catch a bus that would take us back to the city.  We decided then and there never to stay to the end of the day again.  

The next day we did some sight seeing around Austin and had lunch before going to the music festival.  We checked out a few bands and then we checked out.   Our hosts took us to a lovely dinner and a really cool old Texas style hotel with a grand bar complete with longhorns and cow hide chairs.  Next we went to a wine bar where you can order a “flight” of wine and taste three different wines.  I thought that was pretty cool.  

The next day was stormy so we decided to not got to the festival at all.  Instead we went to a real live Texas BBQ called Salt Lick.  Oh man, that was some good BBQ.  I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much so quickly.  Afterwards I slipped into a food coma.  I did take a few pictures but I don’t have them with me right now, so I’ll post those later.

Thanks to boudin for having us.  We had a great time.