ACL 2007: Pictures We Took From Around the Festival

Self-explanatory


Art installation - giant guitars (like the cow parade, Austin style)


Young fan checking the schedule


Pretty boots (but hot toes, right?)


Parasol (pretty blue)


Kilted Texan


Balloon hat


Dyed lady


Scary guy (seen around the festival and, apparently, downtown)

Austin City Limits Music Festival 2007 (Day 3)

Heading into the final day, we decided to try to get there some time before Ben Kweller, who we had missed at the festival last year. Probably because it was Sunday, the shuttle over to Zilker Park was much faster than on Friday. We got there early, so we were lucky to see a good chunk of The National's set. Maybe a little too predictable by 2007 with the late 70s-early80s new wave thing. I get a lot of Echo & the Bunnymen. I had heard a few songs before the festival, and was surprised at how good they sounded live. Crowd was into it. Things were off to a positive start.

Ben Kweller rocked. He sounded into it, and his backing band was bouncy. He threw in a joke about there still being dry blood on his keyboard (he apparently got a nosebleed during his set last year). I wish I had stayed through his set, but we decided to leave a little early to see Marley #2, Ziggy Marley play at the festival's special kids' stage, dubbed Austin Kiddie Limits. The scene was cute -- it is pretty amazing how many people bring their kids. Over at "AKL" there are lots of appropriate activities, like learning how to play electric guitar or to deejay, or just get your hair dyed bright green. Ziggy had a fun time playing before the young crowd, and the adults there were all doing whatever they could to make sure the kids ruled the good spots in the crowd.


Ziggy and Beezie play for the young hipsters (top). Kids breakin' at AKL (bottom).

After a quick bite, we joined the massive crowd watching Common. He led the crowd through a range of his past and present hits, and threw in a few lines from hip hop favorites from the late 80s forward. Despite a small stream of early departures who headed to other stages for good spots to see Bloc Party or Lucinda Williams, the size and enthusiasm of the crowd should tell the festival planners something about the viability of true hip hop at ACL. Maybe we'll get a bit more diversity next year?

We caught Bloc Party next. I liked their set, and Kele (lead singer) is fun with the crowd, but I think their appearance at 2005's festival was more impressive. They did have more going for them at the time -- new sound, shorter set, playing after dark, smaller stage. They were good, but last time they were better.

We tried to go see some of Preservation Hall Jazz Band, who played in the tent. It was a madhouse there, and you couldn't really even move around, let alone get a good spot to listen or see. So we went on toward where Wilco was going to play and heard some of Regina Spektor's set, which we both thought was boring.

We'd seen Wilco half a dozen times before, but they always sound different. This time was a suprising mix of well-played material from their latest album and some of their straight-up rockers from the oldest parts of their catalog. They threw in "Casino Queen" from their first album, A.M., and "I Got You" from follow-up Being There, which we had not heard from them since the first show we went to three or four years ago. It was a good thing they rocked, because that turned out to be about all we had left in us. We stayed for a tiny bit of Ghostland Observatory's odd set, then decided to forego the old, croaky version of Bob Dylan and instead clean up and enjoy a cold beer and decent meal in friendly company at Moonshine Grill.


Wilco on the big screen

So that was it for ACL 2007, our third trip. Was there a highlight? Maybe not. But the music was uniformly good or better, and there were lots of little surprises that you only get when you're in that type of setting. Final verdict? Let's just say we already bought our earlybird three day passes for ACL 2008. Shamefully addicted.

Austin City Limits Music Festival 2007 (Day 2)

Day two was also a pleasant day for Austin at that time of year. Sure, hot in the sun in the low 90s, but fairly dry. The two matching Red Sox umbrellas we got free at a game a few years ago, while arguably dorky-looking, came in very handy, since there isn't a lot of shady ground at the festival.

Before the festival, we went to lunch with Rachel's father and stepmother at Habañero. Habañero is a delicious, small, no frills Mexican restaurant south of the river. We got there early but still had to wait a few minutes for a table. Never good in a place that smells so tempting. Three of us ended up eating chicken enchiladas verdes. Mine was muy delicioso.


Photo by Ha Lam for AA-S
Habañero Mexican Cafe

We got to the festival a bit later than usual. Saturday was a light day on the schedule, especially after the cancellation of the White Stripes due to Meg's reported bout of anxiety that many in the press attributed to having to play opposite the Arcade Fire. The first band we saw was Cold War Kids. I hadn't heard much by them, but I thought the California band was good live. The singer could sing, even if he did cop Jeff Buckley perhaps a bit too much.




Cold War Kids (top). Flag during set (bottom).

Next we saw Stephen Marley. I think we applied the "every reggae show is fun by default" rule. He was pertty good (sense a theme here?). The crowd showed little creativity by cheering pretty much only during his versions of his dad's songs. Still, a change from the standard alt-rock that ACL really leans toward nowadays was certainly worth it.



Stephen Marley's flag waver (the same guy waved the flag at Damian Marley's ACL set last year).

It was getting hot, so we were happy to go sit in the shade on the far side of the one stage with a big tent. BeauSoleil played to a noticeably grayer crowd. Again, a nice change of pace. Next we shot over to see Arctic Monkeys. They drew a huge, rowdy crowd, but we could still get up close on the left side of the stage. The sound was pretty bad over there though. The price you pay if you don't stay in the middle of the crowd at the big stage shows (and then everyone around you is talking to eachother).



That's a shot of the crowd at Arctic Monkeys.

After that, despite Arcade Fire taking the stage (opposite Muse), we headed for the showers and a meal.

Austin City Limits Music Festival 2007 (Day 1 Wrap-Up)

Now that we've given you a little background, it's a good time to go a little backwards. Here's my wrap-up of our trip to Austin and the ACL Music Festival this year.

The music was generally good, although the sound was inconsistent. The weather was about as good as you can expect in Austin in mid-September -- high temperatures in the low 90s, with a good amount of little clowds and an occasional breeze. We even had a few monster raindrops late on day 1 that felt great. The crowd, staff and atmosphere were mostly positive -- they all get B+/B grades. Looks like we'll be back for 2008, unless something funny happens with the line-up.

Day 1 (Friday 9/14)

Flew in on Thursday, and didn't have time to do much more than enjoy a little fried chicken at Tony's Southern Comfort. Nice, lite batter and a big piece of moist chicken. Catfish was tasty as well, but it doesn't take much to get "fried out." Drink lots of lemonade!

Friday was the first day of the festival. One of our goals this year was to catch some acts that are new or relatively new to us. Most of the past two years we spent catching artists we knew well -- and got to see many bands we had never seen live before, like Spoon, Arcade Fire, the Walkmen, Wolf Parade, Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, Willie Nelson, Bob Mould, Lucinda Williams, Coldplay -- you name it/him/her. But this year there were some good gaps in the schedule, so we figured we'd get a good opportunity for some sonic experimentation.

We started by catching a little bit of Blonde Redhead's set. The crowd was pretty light. It was fairly early Friday on a second-tier stage, so the festival throng had yet to build. We sat for a few songs, which sounded a little like a mellow Sonic Youth or Velvet Underground. I thought they were pretty good, but we left to catch a bit of Peter Bjorn and John, who were playing at the same time across the park. Its always a little more fun to see a band that's buzzing a bit -- and PB&J has been. Even the notoriously picky Pitchfork gave their CD, Writer's Block, an 8.5/10. We had already missed them open with one of my favorites, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" (<-- download from inSound.com). We still got to see Peter whistle (or fake-whistle?) as the band launched into one of their bigger hits, "Young Folks." Rachel and I both thought they were good, not great, and probably not among the strongest acts at taking their recorded music to the stage. Below are some pictures I took.

Blonde Readhead (above). Peter of Peter Bjorn and John (below).

We moved on to one of the big stages next to see some of the Crowded House set. Neil Finn sounded great, and the band was very professional and tight. As might be expected, "Don't Dream Its Over" was a big highlight for both the crowd and us. It was pretty surprising how many people in their teens and twenties knew words to the songs. We stayed to the end, then headed to see M.I.A. The house was crowded at Crowded House, but maybe even more so for M.I.A. Her style was flamboyand, like her loud outfit (see below). She and her back-up singer moved and jumped with the beat throughout. The music, unfortunately, sounded too much like a mixed-tape version of her two discs. Overall, good but not great. Spoon played next at the main stage, right behind us. I thought the sound was most inconsistent here, perhaps because of the need to pump the amps up pretty high to accommodate the large crowds. We'd seen them play a few times before, always in much more intimate settings. This time around was not all that exciting, albeit a solid set and performance.

The sun started to go down, which is a consistent highlight. The weather cools off, the atmosphere grows, and the audience often hits its peak and lets loose a little. Kaiser Chiefs played a short, punchy set that energized the crowd. After that, Rachel and I were pretty spent, but managed to stick around for the beginning of Björk's show, which headlined on the main stage. The crowd was reasonable on account of the Killers' concurrent set across the vast festival grounds. She and her large backing ensemble looked wacky, had a groovy lazer show, and sounded great. They started with some great cuts -- “Hunter,” “Pagan Poetry,” “Hidden Place” -- but kept it all at one, low tempo. After a long day standing up in the sun and hot air, it was enough to put sleeping on our brains. We had already seen tons of great stuff, so we called a night.

A few more shots from day one: M.I.A. (top). Kaiser Chiefs (bottom).

How Do You Cut a Brisket? Not Easy! Rudy's BBQ Can Help Though

A lesson you might not need to apply too much in Connecticut. This is required learning and apparently there are questions on it on the driver's license test.

The Route (From Hartford to Austin)

The drive. At some point, Lester says we have to drive. It seems L doesn't fly.

This is the most direct route. Going through Alexandria, VA, we'd end up driving the lengths of Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas, going through Nashville, Memphis and Little Rock among other places.

Mapquest says?

Total Est. Time: 29 hours, 1 minute Total Est. Distance: 1864.92 miles

Of course, there are a few options.

Time to Cowboy Up

So we're off -- but not for a while. What started out in Boston (Medford-Somerville technically, but let's not be too technical) is cruisin off to Austin. ETD is set for December 1.

Check in here for news, stories, pictures, comments and whatever else one puts in a blog. We're in a sharing mood. So join us on our adventure to the heart of Texas.

That's a picture I took of downtown Austin and the Capitol, standing in the street, looking North from South Congress Ave.