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September 28, 2008

Austin City Limits Festival- Day 1

Vampire Weekend

The ACL Festival is one of the best and most remarkable of the ever increasing calendar of massive annual music fests. Held each year in a huge field in Austin’s Zilker Park, the festival features 3 days of performances on eight stages with over 130 bands performing over 11 hours each day. That doesn’t even include the amazing selection of after parties in which bands that played on the main stages during the day, play at some of Austin’s many great clubs in late night shows around town.

Kathy, Trevor, Nadene, Melissa & Rhett

We are fortunate to receive coveted 3 day VIP passes which allow us access to the “VIP Grove” where we are treated to such amenities as free catered food from many of Austin’s finest restaurants, free drinks for the duration, private air-conditioned restrooms with no lines, a free internet lounge, free massages and a comfy couch filled lounge with big screen tvs. The VIP area made long days much more bearable and gave us a respite from the heat, dust and massive crowd of over 65,000 that jammed the main stage areas.

Rodney Crowell

Christopher Denny

Of course the music is the main draw and there is so much to choose from each day that we were often faced with difficult decisions, should I see David Byrne or N.E.R.D? Or should I split my time? The good news is that the layout and shrewd organization made it possible to see portions of both or to simply get a good spot and watch your favorites.

Vampire Weekend

Our day started out with a great performance from Rodney Crowell, followed by a quick set by What Made Milwaukee Famous and then a trip across the field to one of my personal most anticipated shows, Vampire Weekend. They proved to be exceedingly popular as throngs crowded toward the stage; that left the stage with Jacob Dylan and the Gold Mountain Rebels comparatively empty and allowed for us to walk right up to the front for the latter portion of their excellent set.

Vampire Weekend sign autographs.

Jakob Dylan

Among the other bands that I saw at least portions of their sets were, Del the Funky Homosapien, Jamie Lidell, Christopher Denny, Bobby Bare Jr., Gogol Bordello, Jenny Lewis, David Byrne, The Swell Season, Alejandro Escovedo, Donovan Frankenreiter, the Eli Young Band and The Mars Volta.

Jenny Lewis

Donovan Frankenreiter and G-Love at ACL

After a full day of shows, a quick stop at the hotel for a shower and we were out for a late-night post show gig. The aftershow we selected was the G-Love & Special Sauce and Eli “Paperboy” Reed show at La Zona Rosa. It was a ton of fun as Donovan Frankenreiter returned the favor and joined G-Love during the rollicking set, just as G-Love had joined Donovan earlier in the day. It was a late, late night, but it wasn’t over for Kathy & I as we headed over to nearby Momo’s to catch the end of a set by one of my favorite Indiana bands, Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band, who just happened to be in Austin. It was a great, great day of music…