I am a bad blogger...but I have been relishing in actually being town for the weekend and not having anything I HAD to do. We just got back from the Austin City Limits Music Festival. It was a great time and I will go back, assuming the band schedule is acceptable. However, I have to tell you, the first two hours of the first day of the festival, I was thinking I would never make it through the heat and dirt for two more days! We were listening to 'What Made Milwaukee Famous', doused in SPF 30, in 90 degrees. I was sweating and my sunscreen caused all dirt particles to stick to me. I am slightly OCD so this was not a happy situation. But I decided we paid money to be here all weekend, 200,000 other people were making it, so could I. Through port-o-potties and all I managed to keep it together...until it was time to see
MGMT. Out of 130 bands playing at the ACL, This was the band I came to see. Apparently, everyone else did too.
We made our way to the small stage (ACL didn't comprehend the draw either) 30 minutes ahead of show time to cop a spot. Needless to say, we were in a sea of 90,000 people, I was hit in the head with some passers by folding chair, I could not even see MGMT, but I could hear the band. In order to get my MGMT fix I am now threatening to take off to Chicago or NY this month to catch the remainder of the US tour.
Despite that too close for comfort experience, we saw great artists/bands such as Manu Chau, Gnarls Barkley, Old 97's, John Fogerty, Allison Kraus & Robert Plant, Band of Horses, Gillian Welch, Vampire Weekend, Silversun Pickups, Beck, and the Foo Fighters, just to name a few. Old 97's were my fave...perhaps because we were shaded from the sweltering Texas' sun and there weren't a billion people at Zilker Park yet.
We had two days to kick it in Austin, outside of the ACL. I love it there and I want to move to Austin. Maybe I can get BRR to open a satellite office, but then again, does TX even have reciprocity? I ain't taken no more bar exams! Anyway, the city where W. resided as the governor of the big red state, is friendly, progressive, and environmentally conscious. thaKing and I were eating lunch in SOCO, and a woman sitting next to us asked if we would watch her stuff while she went to the restroom. Of course we obliged, but we were both shocked at the trust this person held. The same afternoon we were walking back to our hotel, on the trail around Town Lake. There was a woman just napping on the hillside. I want to live there, where you can nap in the middle of the afternoon, or anytime, for that in public and not be bothered.
Our last night in Austin was spent watching the bats fly out in downtown Austin and by catching Dale Watson's performance at the
Continental Club. 750,000 bats live under a bridge right in the heart of Austin. It was an amazing sight to see them flying out into the night air, but not photographable due to the darkness and their speed. Jeremy had seen Dale several times before. One time was a Lynaugh's which resulted in Dale writing a song, Kentucky in a Spin, about the night's events. We talked to Dale, bought him a tequila shot, and danced to Kentucky in a Spin. This was all way more fun than getting hit in the head with a camping chair.
