“…As Fresh as the Bright Blue Sky.”

October 7, 2019

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Barton Hills Choir

The Amazons

 

“…As Fresh as the Bright Blue Sky.”

The Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival is one of my all-time favorite music festivals of all that we attend and I try to make a point to get to Austin each fall to attend. The combination of incredible organization, value, tremendous diversity in the line-up and of course the amazing location all contribute to my feeling that this is one of the very best music festivals, certainly of its size and scale that is held each year. 

 

It is not small by any stretch as I am guessing some 100,000 music fans each day descend on Zilker Park during each of the two weekends that the festival is held. This year, Kathy opted out of going, but I cannot help myself and the opportunity to see some of the nearly 100 music acts perform on one of eight stages where musical groups from genres including rock, indie, country, folk, electronic and hip hop perform for fans. The concerts continue from 10 AM to 10 PM on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during the festival with various stages spread out in the park. In addition to the music performances, there are food and drinks, an art market, a kids area for families, and other activities for attendees.

 

Once again I got VIP passes, as I think they are really the only way to go with a festival of this size. For the extra fee you get private bathrooms, air-conditioned lounges, free food and drinks over the course of the weekend, private viewing areas on the main stages and all sorts of specialty vendors set up in the VIP grove where you can get specialty drinks and food from some of Austin’s finest restaurants in addition to the regular bars and meal service.

 

Guns n' Roses

Before the event even started, I was up early and at Antone’s, a famous blues club in downtown Austin to attend the early morning live broadcast by ACL radio featuring a few of the acts that would be performing on the big stages throughout the weekend. I went to this event last year when it was held at now closed Armadillo World Headquarters and it was terrific. 

Rob Baird 

Erin Rae

This year I caught performances from two talented singer-songwriters, Erin Rae and Rob Baird and they were both fantastic. The small early morning crowd at such a small and intimate venue makes for a great way to start a very long day of music as I was basically watching live music for the better part of 14 hours. In fact, I had to duck out a little early to get over to Zilker Park to check out what has become one of my favorite annual traditions, watching the Barton Hills Choir open the festival.

The Barton Hills Choir is a fantastic choir made up of elementary school students from nearby Barton Hills Elementary School that has opened the festivities at ACL for a number of years, often performing musical selections from the acts that headline the festival and sometimes joined on stage by prominent musicians. They are just a joy to watch and it has for the past few years been among my favorite parts of this festival. This year they performed songs from both the Cure and Guns n’ Roses.

 

Alesia Lani

That was only the beginning of a long day of music that had me catching full or partial sets from the likes of the Amazons, Asleep at the Wheel, Alesia Lani, Fidlar, King Princess, The Raconteurs and the main headliners, Guns n’ Roses. Of those acts I enjoyed the Amazons the best. I was totally unfamiliar with them and to me they were the discovery of the day as they played an awesome early in the day set. I look forward to seeing them again in the future.

The Amazons

The Raconteurs 

In addition to the music, there was a new feature this year as a small side stage featured interviews with local and national figures and I managed to catch a great interview with Austin BBQ legend Aaron Franklin of the famous and delicious Franklin BBQ which is for my money the best BBQ I have ever been to and I go to a lot of them across the country. Franklin was informative, funny and very down to earth and I had a chance to hang out and talk with him afterwards, which was pretty cool. Ironically I did not visit Franklin BBQ on this trip to Austin, opting to try a few other famous BBQ joints instead.

With Aaron Frankilin

I also got a chance to meet in person my friend Michelle and her husband Erik. I have known her from probably 20 years, but only as an on-line persona as we know each other from the Counting Crows message boards. They were at the festival from their home in Oregon on what was the five year anniversary of their first date (also at ACL). 

With Erik and Michelle

Guns n' Roses

The main event was the headlining set by the reunited Guns n’ Roses, who I had not seen perform live since 1991. The band reformed a couple of years ago after a long hiatus and this show was a part of their “Not in This Lifetime” world tour. They were pretty fantastic as lead singer Axel Rose was much fitter than when I saw him playing with AC/DC a few years ago and the band sounded as good as ever. It was a raucous crowd, many of whom had pulled out their faded GNR t-shirts from some bygone era. It was a terrific capper to an amazing first day of music.