This is going to be a long one!

This past weekend, Lisa and I attended the Austin City Limits Music Festival and I must say, it was by far the most organized and entertaining event I have been a part of. Here the lowdown…….


Parking/Transportation:

No parking was allowed at or around Zilker Park. Your choices were too ride a bike, take a free shuttle or take a Taxi.

On day 1, we rode the shuttle. Shuttle parking was in Downtown Austin, around the Capitol Building. We had no problem finding a spot park and It was just a short walk to the shuttle pick up area. There, awaiting our arrival, were 15 to 20 City Buses. They were loading people as fast as they arrived. No waiting!

We arrived at Zilker Park within 15 minutes and were givin a free bottle of water and a few promotional items. There were minimal lines at the front Gate, at most 3 to 4 people deep. When leaving the show the first night, we took the shuttle back to Downtown and arrived within 30 minutes. The shuttle line looked long, but moved extremely fast......... not bad with a crowd of 70,000.

Day 2, we decided to take a cab. $15 and 15 minutes later we were at Zilker Park. At the end of the night we took the shuttle to Downtown, hung out on 6th street and took Taxi back to the Hotel from there.

Day 3, we took a Taxi to and from Zilker Park. The closing act finished at 10pm and we were back at the Hotel by 10:40. It was simply amazing. No lines, no traffic and no headaches. This city defiantly has thier shit together. Traffic control was first rate. The Shuttle and Taxi drop off points were about a quarter of a mile apart and because they were not allowing people to park at or around the festival site, there was no traffic, just busses and cabs.

Food/Beverage/Restrooms:

They were allowing concert goers to bring in only 2 factory sealed bottles of water and no food. I was completely expecting to spend enormous amounts of cash on such items, but again, I was pleasantly surprised by how everything was handled. There were numerous water stations located throughout the park, water was priced $2 a bottle....... Beer was $4. The Beer and Water stands were so numerous that you rarely had to wait, and when you did, again the lines were only 2 to 3 people deep.

The Food Stands were just incredible. We were given about 30 to choose from, all of which served different types of food from local restaurants, such as Stubb’s BBQ, Cafe Serranos, ect. No big name chains here! The food was reasonably priced, $4 to $5 for a BBQ sandwitch or Fajita Wrap, and the food quality was simply outstanding. When it was time to release all of the food and drink, you were sure to find an empty Porta Potty near by and never once had to wait. They were well placed and like everything else, plentiful!

The Staff:

Never encountered an unfriendly person. Even the Security Staff was friendly and quite talkative. They answered questions, gave advise and during one of the shows and even passed out water to those of us sweating away in the front row.


The Bands:

Day 1: We started off with a great performance by The Killers. To me they sounded like a Heavier Depeche Mode. Next we made our way to the front of the stage and waited on the Blind Boys of Alabama. They were the surprise of the day. An outstanding, energetic performance that just blew us away. They had more energy on stage then two thirds of the bands playing this festival. The highlight was when one of the 70 year old blind boys demanded to be carried off stage so he sing with the people, the crowd. His wish was granted and the crowd went nuts!

After the Blind Boys, we meet up with Jeanna and Tammera to watch The John Butler Trio. We only stuck around for about 20 minutes. It was good but I really wanted to see Patty Griffin, so we headed that way. Patty’s set, in my opinion, was the most disappointing of the festival. The sound was just horrible, which was surpriseing, considering everyone else that played that stage sounded great, I guess it just wasn’t her day.

We left Patty's set early and headed over to the SBC stage, in order to get up close for Ryan Adams. We ended up catching the last half of Solomon Burke. He was OK, but I think he’s more suited to play the Euless Arbor Daze Festival. I just didn’t think he was a good fit for ACL.

Lisa and I then pushed our way to the front of the stage to wait for Ryan's set.... and what a set it was! He played a wide selection of songs off of his Solo albums and was very personable. While Ryan was playing, Lisa noticed Sheryl Crow and Lance Armstrong on the side of the stage just hanging out. I managed to take a picture before they exited.

After Ryans set we rushed over to the other side of the park for Franz Ferdinand. We couldnt get close enough for a good view, but they sounded great! I would love to see them in a smaller venue! After Franz., we made or way over to get a glimpse of Los Lonely Boys. We stayed for a portion of thier set, but it was just not interesting enough to keep us from calling it a day. Beside's, Satan's Pizza was waiting for us!

Day 2: We decided to slow the pace a little and not run from stage to stage like a couple of kids. We got a little bit of a late start and headed directly for the SBC stage to see Big Head Todd. We got right up front and waited about half an hour for them to hit the stage. When they did, it was freakin great as usual. The Highlight was a stunning rendition of "Forever Man".

Once Todd finished up we made our way to a different stage to see Modest Mouse, luckily, as we passed the large schedule posted by the park entrance, I noticed that they had changed the time for The Wailers. We were planning on seeing them after Modest Mouse, but now had to choose between the two. This really sucked! we wanted to see both but in the end chose The Wailers. It turned out to be a great show. They started there set with a couple reggae instrumentals and then it was nothing but Marley classics.

Next we wandered over to see Dashboard Confessional. After a few songs, we determined that they were just too generic, so we pointed our ears in the oppisite direction and followed the sweet sounds of Trey Anastasio. We parked ourselves close to the beer stand, and enjoyed a few while we just laid in the grass and relaxed to the soothing sounds of Trey. It was an enjoyable finish to a very long day.

Day 3: We had a new plan for today. We were going to park ourselves at the front of one stage and stay there all day! This would guarantee us front row for Ben Harper. The day would start off with a little Hip Hop from The Roots, which turned out to be fantastic. It was Rap without samples and turntables, just some great musicians and an energetic front man. When The Roots finished up I decided to stock up on water for the next show, while wandering around I managed to catch a little of the North Mississippi Allstars set and then had to fight my way back through the crowd that had built up for Jack Johnson. I made it back to Lisa in one piece and told here was no way in hell I was going to fight through that mess again. So we stayed in the same spot (Front Row) for the next three bands. Jack was introduced by Perry Ferrell (Janes Addiction) which was kind of weird. It was cool to see Perry, just weird that he was there in the first place and then him introducing Jack Johnson? Jack was accompanied by G. Love and Donavan Frankenreiter on a couple tunes in the middle of his set, they just jammed like no ones business. it was pretty F'in cool.

Next up was Wilco, I really hadn’t hear much, if any of Wilco’s stuff before the show, but was impressed with there unique and powerful sound. Man, they just tore it up!

It was now time for the last act of the festival, Ben Harper! This was by far the best performance of the weekend. It started out with him being introduced by Lance Armstrong, who told the crowd funny little story about He and Ben jumping off of a cliff into a lake on Lance’s Austin Ranch the Day before. Ben came on shortly after and just blew us all away. He played a good selection of tunes off of his early albums, he played a few new ones off of he upcoming gospel album with The Blind Boys of Alabama and then played “With My Own Two Hands” with a killer version of “War” (Bob Marley) mixed in the middle, which he dedicated to Lance Armstrong. It was one of the most entertaining shows I’ve seen in a long time.

Also, inbetween songs, Ben was switching guitars and was amused to see Lance playing “roadie”. It was pretty funny, Ben just shook his head and gave a chuckle.

All total, we managed to see or hear a total 18 of the 130 acts that played this years event. It was an experience I will not soon forget and will definatly do it again next year. a BIG THANKS to Lisa for putting up with my moody nicotine free ass!…… and for losing my sunglasses.... :)

....and if you’ve read this entire post, you have already spent way too much time on this blog, might as well leave a comment below.....

-blanca