ACL WAS AWESOME… and i am never doing it again.
THE DREADFUL HELLACIOUS HEAT
why, oh why, did i spend an extraordinary amount of money to watch
bands under the white-hot burning sun with 75,000 other people? if you
know me at all, you would agree that i’m practically a vampire when it
comes to my enjoyment of pure streaming sunlight. which is what i got.
all weekend long. lord have mercy it was like standing on the edge of
the pit of hell with a kickass soundtrack. honestly i can’t believe i
survived. it took a LOT of water and many, many breaks under the scarce
shade (a precious commodity, perhaps more valued than even beer…
which was $4). to illustrate just how bad it was, i actually sat on the
sidelines of the old 97’s show, clinging to my diminishing life energy.
people, this was a sad, sad day. i could barely make out rhett miller’s
beautiful face on the jumbotron, although the music vaguely made its
way towards my deathbed.
THE BANDS
the pixies: it would not be an exaggeration to say that i’ve waited my
whole life to see this band. therefore, i hope you will not be shocked
by what i (and my fearless concert buddy erik) did in order to get as
close as possible to the stage– we endured the entire dashboard
confessional set. i know, i know, it was a crazy thing to do. we could
have seriously hurt ourselves, you say. i realize this… but please
understand, it had to be done. erik and i stood, sandwiched between
lots of teenage girls (the ones behind us kept giggling about
homecoming; when i snuck a look at them i realized with horror that
they all had VIP passes… the world is an unfair wretched place), and
watched with morbid curiousity as the entire audience sung/wailed along
to every single song. it was, to say the least, intense.� after
discussing the fact that the band used to have the guitarist from sunny
day real estate and now has one from the promise ring, erik and i
decided that dashboard is the emo version of “hollywood squares”. it’s
sad, really. when johnny carraba asked everyone to clap, we singled out
the clappers as bodies that would be vacating their space for the
pixies (sweet). after eons of time, the show ended and erik and i
PUSHED forward as much as possible. the audience was a writhing mass of
hardcore pixies fans and small tween people. we ended up about 20
people back from the barricade and could go no further (literally… i
was pressed up against some guy’s back with a girl pressing behind me).
“we made it!” i shrieked… then realized that we’d be standing like
this for an hour before the show actually began. i almost cried like a
dashboard fan. as the minutes ticked by, i began to lose feeling in my
body and grew almost comfortable with my sardine state. i wish. instead
i just continued to feel gross and sweaty as i absorbed all of the
germs and pot smoke around me.� FINALLY, after i began to lose
feeling in my legs (which was a blessing), the lights went down and the
PIXIES CAME ON STAGE!! AND THEY ROCKED!!! AND THEY WERE AMAZING!! AND
IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!! wow. i couldn’t believe i was seeing them for
real. the only downside was the fact that some of the dashboard tweens
stuck around and started CROWDSURFING. i know. it was so dumb. and
really really really annoying. the girls behind me got so angry that
they started yelling, “pull that fucker down!! pull him down!!” every
time a crowdsurfer came near us. at one point they actually managed to
pull a guy down and they started PUMMELING him while calling him lots
of lovely names. it was awesome. so inspite of the heat, the emo and
the stupid crowdsurfers, the pixies rocked my heart out.
wilco: sigh. wilco was so amazing. but, since they performed on sunday,
i didn’t get too close cos i was still recovering from the pixies. it’s
a shame but i’ll see them again. they just totally rawked. incredible.
jeff tweedy is the new american hero.
franz ferdinand: scottish accents make everything fun! these guys were
great, although i wish i could have been closer (and still had space
for dancing, which was impossible). the crowd was totally adoring them,
and we all sang along to “take me out”. i also sang along to “michael”
and made small, restrained dancewhore movements.
modest mouse: the sound on the cingular stage was terrible. this show
wasn’t *nearly* as good as their set at sxsw. tis a shame, but it was
still fun to see them.
cat power: i love chan. she is so cute and nervous and low-key. her
voice mesmerized me,� even in the stifling heat (which says a
LOT). as her time drew to a close, she started a song then abruptly
stopped, said, “sorry i suck” and walked off stage. i wanted to give
her a hug.
broken social scene: canada does not disappoint. this show was equally
as impressive as their sxsw performance. they were the first band i saw
at ACL, and they set an incredibly high standard. the energy and
musicianship was stellar.
the roots: are the roots ever bad? their set was perfect for the
festival setting, with everyone getting into their own sweaty little
groove. i kept wondering if the roots felt weird, performing in front
of an audience that was at least 90% white? seriously, i only saw 5
black people over the entire weekend of the festival. i felt weird
about that.
calexico: i’m so glad i finally got to see this band live. their music
is so beautiful and also super fun. they had a GREAT horn section plus
a guest star from a mariachi band. erik and i totally grooved to their
set, even though the sun was beating down on us. afterwards beatle bob
(a mystical figure from st. louis, according to josh) went on the mike
(he had been dancing on the stage) and said, “give it up for calexico,
the best party band in the world!!!” awesome.
spoon: this is my good ole’ reliable austin band. every time i see them, they make me happy. go spoon.
cake: i thought it would be fun to check out their show… and then i
got there and realized, amidst thousands of cake fans, that i don’t
know any of their songs (ok, i know like 3 but they’re all from 8 years
ago or something). the crowd, on the other hand, knew all of the lyrics
and was dancing up a storm. who knew cake fans were so devoted?
ben harper: he makes me smile. so did all of the pot smoke that
immediately floated above the crowd the minute he started playing. he
was the last show of the whole festival, so erik and his friend jessica
and i just stood far from the stage and watched him on the jumbotron as
the cooler evening air crept around us. it was a really nice way to end
the festival.
THE PEOPLE
there were too many people. period. it looked like a scene from some
weird hipster apocalyptic movie. erik and i kept joking about being
israelites wandering through the desert of zilker park, always
searching for the promised band (ha ha ha). but seriously, it’s hard to
describe what 75,000 people in a small space looks like. it’s
awe-inspiring… until you smell them.
THE BEST HAIR
i saw a lot of hair adventures this weekend. my favorite was sported by
a punk kid i named “aquaman”. he had a 3 part mohawk– one on the top
of his head and one on either side. they were bright blue and bore a
striking resemblance to fish fins. “aquaman” became my unofficial ACL
mascot.
THE BEST TATTOOS
also saw lots of tats at ACL. surrounded by skin roasting under the sun
(sorry but it’s true). i cursed myself for not having a camera when i
saw a guy whose whole back (literally) was covered with tattoos devoted
to BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN. i am not kidding. there was a big, full body pose
of bruce playing guitar with two close-up portraits on each side. his
name was written across the top with lyrics twisting around the
pictures. it was incredible. i was inspired.
THE BEST RUN-IN
i ran into a girl i haven’t seen since high school, raina harris. she’s
a person i actually was *glad* to see again. very cool. i also got to
see josh twice and matt for like a second, which was nice.
THE PORT-O-POTTIES
i had to use one. twice. GROSS. but only twice. once on saturday and
once on sunday (this was due more to being dehydrated than my
revulsion, probably). i didn’t breathe inside, cos i was too scared,
but erik said that the one i used on saturday smelled like pot inside
so it wasn’t so bad. how fitting, marijuana air freshener for ACL?!
anyhoo, i should probably wrap up since i’m supposed to be working.
so that was my ACL experience, the good, the bad and the very smelly.
p.s. check out josh’s most excellent commentary as well.
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