Chad's ACL Review

This weekend, Sadie and I attended the ACL Fest in Zilker Park. It was hot and crowded, but we still had fun. Here is my review:

FRIDAY
We arrived around 4:30 to see Joss Stone. I don't know any of her songs, but I think I remember seeing her sing the national anthem before a baseball game or football game. She was entertaining and put on a good show. Much better than the other "big names" that were there. Spoon was okay but not very memorable. A lot of those bands sound alike to me. The Killers closed out the night for us and also played the one song of the night that I recognized. I think it is called "Somebody Told Me". We also saw a few minutes of MIA, The Gotan Project, and Reverend Horton Heat during the down time between shows.

The food was pretty good at the festival. It was all local restaurants serving some pretty nice items. I had some fish tacos from Saba Blue Water Cafe. Sadie had a falafel sandwich from another place.

I tried to stay off my feet as much as possible because I had a long run (24 miles) to do the next morning at 5AM.

SATURDAY
After completing my run and resting up, we went back to the festival around 5:30PM. Sadie was very excited because Muse was playing at the end of the night. The first person we saw was Andrew Bird. He put on a good show and captivated us with his whistling ability. It was really cool to hear someone work that into their performance. After that we moved over into the shade and listened to Kelly Willis. It was nice to finally hear some songs I was familiar with. That's more my style of music. The Indigo Girls played next on a different stage. We had good seats for once and were able to see and hear them sing. I snuck off in the middle of it to get some food. I had a BBQ sandwich from Stubb's (pretty good) and I got Sadie a veggie wrap from Iron Cactus. Muse closed out the night and Sadie loved it. They had a good sound and put on a pretty good show. I was getting pretty tired by this time since I had been awake since 5AM, but I was still able to enjoy it.

SUNDAY
We thought about going early to see Robert Earl Kean, but he was playing at 2:30 and I don't think either one of us wanted to spend all day out there. We arrived around 5 or 5:30 again. Regina Spector was playing and all I remember is her saying the "F" word a few times and getting loud cheers. We saw Billy Joe Shaver on a smaller stage and settled down in the shade to watch him for about 30 minutes. It was fun to people watch from that spot. Towards the end we saw our only celebrity: the girl who plays Julie on Friday Night Lights (one of our favorite shows). After Sadie could't take it any longer, we move over to get ready for Ghostland Observatory. Wilco was finishing up on a close stage so we sort of listened to them. After waiting for about 30 minutes, we lasted through 2 songs of Ghostland Observatory. Their laser show was cool, but it was mostly a bunch of noise. The Decemberists were our next stop. Their lead singer had a voice I could understand better and sang some fun songs. Bob Dylan was the headliner of the whole festival and started right after The Decemberists finished. It seemed like the entire crowd came over to watch because it was packed at the start. We were so far away we couldn't see him (even on the screen) and we obviously couldn't understand a word he said. After 4 songs we hit the road along with everyone else.

RECAP
The festival was fun, but I don't think either one of us feels the need to go next year. Been there, done that. It might be fun to get a one day ticket if someone shows up that we really want to see, but 3 days is a little much.