austin city limits festival: we're hot, but we're happy

the austin city limits festival has come and gone. i am home -- safe, sound, sunburnt. i have a new cowboy hat. and a lovely acl tee-shirt. and a new cd. and my sanity. kinda.

the bands i saw: nic armstrong and the thieves, spoon, keane, aqualung, built to spill, death cab for cutie, the doves, and kaiser chiefs.

the bands i wanted to see, but missed: bloc party and arcade fire.

the venue: zilker park in sunny austin, texas. zilker park is gigantic, ringed with trees, and housed about 6 stages and tents.

the travelogue:

we arrived at our hotel around 6:30 or so on thursday evening. i would guess it was about 98 degrees with about 98% humidity when we landed. *bleh*

there were 4 of us staying in one hotel room, 2 1/2 more of us upstairs in the same hotel, then others of us who either live there, were staying in the four seasons, or miscellaneous. we were staying at the radisson, right on the river. we went down for dinner and saw the bats fly out from under the bridge there, which was damned cool. then we all kind of headed off in different directions... tom, ana, and brandon went to see thievery corporation at stubb's, lisa, kerry, and sebastian stayed in the hotel and kicked it old school, and i went to meet up with some friends down at a club called the parish on 6th street (austin's equivelent of bourbon street).

the parish is the first live music venue i have ever been to that's not only non-smoking, but also air conditioned. it rocked, needless to say.

we went to see 3 bands... real heroes, nic armstrong and the thieves and uh... uh... can't remember the 3rd.

so i met up with my friend jennifer and her friend, just in from london. jennifer bought me some beer, which was very kind of her, and then one of her friends named sean came wandering over to us and talked with us for a long time. he is the bass player in nic armstrong and the thieves, and couldn't be sweeter if he was made completely outta sugar. he spoke a lot about how difficult it is to be an up and coming band, especially in the town they're from (nottingham, in england), where he claims there's no music scene. oasis heard their record and fell in love with them, so they got to support them on a couple of dates, as well as the black crowes. this gave me some new respect for oasis, as they obviously love music and want to nurture new artists. sean and i spoke about the difficulties of actually being a working musician when none of your revenue comes from cds, but from touring ("people think i'm rich because i know oasis. they haven't seen my credit card bills!" says sean).

real heroes started the night, with their kind of glam rocky thing, and were really quite good. lots of good, loud noise and a great stage presence. the lead singer reminded me of britt daniels from spoon crossed with old school bowie and iggy pop from the stooges days. they did a great job, but toward the end of the set, it felt a bit schticky.

then nic armstrong and the thieves came on, and literally blew the lid off the place. the sound was kind of 60s brit pop with an undercurrent of bass-heavy bluesy happiness. everyone in the band takes their turn singing lead vocals (in a kind of gomez-esque way), and all of them have awesome voices. the next day when tom saw them, he likened the drummer to animal from the muppet show. too true. they're all over the place, and when the drummer has a break, he runs out from behind the drums and gets the audience on their feet (as if they weren't already). one of the best live acts i've ever seen, hands down. SO much energy and good humour, sprinkled with just enough bad-boy antics to keep it really interesting. i ended up buying their disk from the guitar player, so i can't wait to hear if they can translate that sound and energy to a recording.

the next band, whose name escapes me, loves the dandy warhols and brian jonestown massacre just a little too much for my taste, so i left and met up with tom, ana, and brandon. we all went to another bar on our way home, talked about great music, and climbed into bed around 3am or so. really great night.

in the morning, brandon's friend ken took us all across the river to this cool little place for breakfast and now of course i can't remember the name of it. and actually, it wasn't breakfast, it was lunch. we slept in a bit. ;o) but it was really really good tex-mex, in an awesome atmosphere.

it was already about 100 degrees by the time we all walked down for the festival, after the awesome lunch, and dusty and muggy as all hell. we got in and immediately wandered over to see nic armstrong. the park was HUGE, dry and shadeless, but there was enough wind kicked up from hurricane rita surging a few hundred miles south to make it tolerable.

as we were waiting for the band to set up, we could hear the truly horrific mates of state finishing their set at the stage next door. some guys wandered over and were bitching about how awful mates of state were, and how they hoped 'this band' would be better. so i told them a little about their sound, and how great they were live, and they got excited. then the band walked onstage... long pants, long-sleeved shirts, smoking cigarettes, spikey hair... the guys next to me went nuts, 'OH MY GOD THEY LOOK SO COOL!! PERFECT!! I CAN'T WAIT TO HEAR THEM!!' hee hee.

despite a few sound problems and the heat constantly bending and breaking (if ooonly iiiii don't beeeeend and break...) their strings, they did an excellent job. again, so much energy and passion. anyone who loves what they do that much... well, it's just contagious. the guys next to me were excstatic, telling me, 'YOU WERE RIGHT ON WITH THE SOUND!! THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THEY SOUND LIKE!! THEY ARE SO AWESOME!! WHERE CAN WE GET THEIR DISK?!?' hee hee!! nothing like turning people on to new bands.

nic armstrong finished with a bang, and we all dispersed. we wandered around for a while, found a tent and some water, then i wandered over to where spoon was setting up while tom, ana, and brandon went to see thievery corporation on another stage in some shade. spoon were technically perfect, but i have to say, they disappointed me a bit. i know britt daniels is hysterically funny, but he didn't chat much with the audience, and they really didn't move around all that much. but they sounded amazing. his voice sounded much better live, which is tough since it sounds so incredibly good on disk. the show was packed, as spoon are local austin heroes, so that was fun. i realized that i had eaten nothing but that lunch about 4 or 5 hours before, and even though i'd been drinking barrel fulls of water, the sun was beating down directly on the side of my face and well, i was feeling a little woozy. so i sat down, until i saw an evil, alien black cricket working his way along the burnt out grass, so that got me on my feet again. how i was going to make it through keane, standing the whole time, i didn't know. but i soldiered on.

after the excellent but lackluster spoon performance, i moved forward for keane. i got a spot right on the barricade in front of the speakers and thought, 'wow this is a great spot! i can see perfectly, no one's in front of me! i am the smartest girl on the planet!' then scott, keane's hottie drum tech, came out to do his thing. he started pounding the kick drum (heh heh. that sounds dirty), and as the ribs in my chest began to rattle, i thought, 'oh wait. nic armstrong and the thieves almost did permanent hearing damage to me last night. as soon as tom chaplin opens his mouth, i will go deaf in my left ear. shi'ite.' so i stood there for a second, exploring my options, until i saw the friends i met up with the other night at the parish, standing 2nd row (about) center. i waved at them, they waved at me, and waved me over. the three of us had some of the best spots there.

keane came on to much cheering and worship, and brought the place to its knees. another stellar (if not somewhat predicatable, to a seasoned keane show goer like me) performance from the east sussex kiddos. at one point, mr. chaplin said, 'um, they don't make weather like this in england. we're not built for this kind of thing.' his little face was absolutely purple by the end. :o( poor little guy. but they were really great. lots of energy -- more than i've seen from them.

at one point, when tom knelt down and was singing to our area, there was a camera person shooting over his shoulder. i looked over at the jumbotron and hey, there i was (not hard to miss with the bright red bandana on my head)! so instead of just smiling it and taking it like a man, i dove for the ground. ;o) ana, lisa, and kerry all saw me on the screen, smiling and singing along, then the next shot, i was gone. ana was convinced i'd passed out. ;o) but no, just really didn't want to be on the jumbotron.

it turned out that while i was tired and hot and hungry, i forgot all of that while keane were performing. a good band can have that effect on people. :o)

after the show, ana, kerry, lisa, sebastian (lisa and brandon's 9 1/2 month old little cutie), and i all headed out, had some dinner, took showers, and collapsed into bed.

the next morning, tom, brandon, brandon's friend dave, and i headed back out to the festival while kerry, lisa, sebastian, and ana all took it easy back in town. before we left the hotel lobby, dave's wife kim was there with their baby jack. dave, kim, and jack were staying at the four seasons, and guess who kim ran into the night before? yes, that's right, gwyneth, apple, and the coldplay posse. ;o) when kim saw little apple running around, she pointed the stroller in her direction and said, 'jack honey! look at the other baby!' apple came running over and grabbed at jack's feet, and hence, over walked gwyneth paltrow herself. apparently she's an incredibly nice woman. kim didn't stargaze or anything, they just talked about their kids. apple's nickname, apparently, is beauty. there's some celebrity trivia for ya. ;o)

dave, tom, brandon, and i all went off in a taxi to the festival. we quickly got some food, then split up. tom and i moved up front for aqualung, and they of course, kicked everyone's ass.

now, mind you, aqualung are not a band designed for mid-day, 100 degree weather, big festival kind of shows. they're best seen the way kerry and i got to see them many months ago, in a small club where you can sit and relax and take in the kind of jazzy stuff matt hales is doing. so i dind't know how they were going to pull this thing off.

luckily, mixed in with all the quiet songs were some stuff they had pumped up specifically for the festival, including 'left behind,' where matt got out from behind the piano, picked up a guitar, and started rocking out. my jaw hit the ground. it was so cool. he was as hilarious as ever, telling everyone a story about 'tongue tied' that, as he put it, had nothing to do with the song, but you really never get that kind of background from a band, so he thought he'd throw it out there. heh. they closed with a rousing rendition of a queen song that kicked everyone's asses, then they were out of there. their show apparently made such an impact that they were the #1 best selling cd from the festival at the waterloo records tent. i'm so proud. :o)

next up was built to spill. like spoon, technically perfect. i was very happy to hear that, because they can be kind of spotty live. we saw them at sasquatch last year and his voice sounded positively awful. this year though, they sounded just really really great. however, they stand stock still and don't speak to the audience which, quite frankly, i hate. don't perform AT me, guys. so yea, they sounded good, but why go see them when i can hear that same technical perfection from the disk? ya know? come on.

death cab for cutie came on and well, just as i expected, they were boring. sorry, but it's true. yea, they spoke to the audience but their stage presence just sucks. they turn their backs to the audience and jam with the drummer every chance they get. i felt like i was interrupting a jam session. so yea. no.

bloc party was about 3 hours away, and the bands in between were not exciting enough for me to stick around for. so i took off, thinking i could come back later if i felt like it. by the time i got back the hotel, i realized i was kind of done for the day. i soothed myself with tom's line of reasoning, which was bloc party, like kasabian (who i also deliberately missed for this very reason), are not a festival band. they're a small, late-night club band, and their set would just not translate. i already discovered this with kasabian at endfest, so decided to wait for bloc party to come to town. i actually am pretty gutted to have missed them, but it's not like they'll never tour. and when they do, i'll be front and center.

so lisa, sebastian, kerry, ana, and i all went out to dinner at this place called trulux downtown, and had an excellent dinner and some fun chatting.

sunday was the big day. so many bands we wanted to see, and kerry, who was sick all weekend, was resting to rally for this one. we checked the weather report, as we'd heard it was supposed to cool down. 108 degrees for sunday. not a cloud in the sky. no wind. no shade at the park. wow. this should be interesting...

we all grabbed some breakfast and headed down to the festival. i have never felt heat like that. not even in rome when it tops out at 110 have i felt heat like this. i don't know if it was the humidity, the stillness... who knows. but it was motherfucking HOT.

we luckily found a little splotch of shade and were able to watch the doves set in relative comfort. they were SO great. sounded amazing, and were just these funny, humble, adorable guys (if not woefully overdressed for the occasion). every song they played was a favorite of mine, and it was one of the most solid performances of the weekend. i just absolutely loved it. i can't wait to see them in a club setting. very catherine wheel/elbow-ish. so great.

after the doves, we were considering just sitting in the shade for an hour, since arcade fire would be on the same stage, but then thought better of it and trekked about 500,000 miles across the dusty desert wasteland to the next stage to see kaiser chiefs. the way the stage was set up, the audience had to face directly into the sun to watch the band, and unlike the stage the doves were on, there was no possibility of shade anywhere. i was wearing my cowboy hat and we all continually had our towels (or bandanas, in my case) soaked in ice water to try to cool down. it was hotter than hell, literally. satan himself can't get his house that hot.

but, despite all that, the kaiser chiefs did their damndest to get the crowd to forget it all. ricky was about to expire -- at one point telling the crowd he was about to faint and needed someone to take over for him for a minute -- but they exploded with so much energy and humour that it got the audience seriously moving and singing along and excited. great showmen, to be sure. the music aint half bad either. ;o) one of the best live acts working today, hands down.

coming up next were arcade fire, franz ferdinand, and coldplay. with little to no desire to see coldplay, having seen franz before, but REALLY wanting to see arcade fire, i was thinking we'd just leave after arcade fire, it was so fucking hot. but toward the end of kaiser chiefs, i was getting seriously light-headed and a little disoriented. so kerry and i took off. :o(

missing arcade fire is my biggest disappointment this weekend, as they were one of the bands i wanted to see the most. but i had to listen to my body, and my body was telling me that i am from seattle and born of irish stock, hence not accostomed to standing under the 108 degree sun for an hour with no shade. luckily, it turns out their set was understated and a bit of a disappointment, so i didn't feel so bad. again, they'll come back here. i just really hated to miss them.

so kerry and i took showers and decided what we really needed to do was to stalk some rock stars (especially seeing as how richard from keane hadn't stalked me ONCE that weekend! he's really falling down on the job ;o). brandon, who had been kickin' it with 9 1/2 month old sebastian all day, decided to join us as we wandered a block away to the four seasons, where we sat in the hotel bar, had some drinks and appies, and waited for coldplay and gwyneth to leave for the show. we never saw them (turns out at least chris had been at the festival all day -- enough to tell the mostly frat boy crowd about arcade fire. SHHHHH, chris!! they're OURS!!), but we had a great time as the worst, most passive stalkers in history. ;o)

we all left and went up the street for some dinner, and that was that.

the next morning we all met for breakfast again, then went our separate ways. ana's staying on in austin for a few more days, lisa, brandon, and my new boyfriend sebastian all headed home to l.a., and tom, kerry, and i came home to beautiful, 65 degree seattle. i have never been so happy for this weather in my LIFE.

the only downside of this weekend was the weather. even push the festival back a week, and austin would be into the 80s instead of the 100s. or erect (heh heh, i said erect) some manmade shade in stratigic locations... something. that is just too damned hot for everyone.

all in all, this was the best festival i have been to yet. even tom, veteran festival-goer of some of the best festivals in the world, was impressed by this one. achingly well organized -- to the point that each band stepped onstage, to the second, on time. the park was completely free of garbage (the only time i saw garbage was when the crowd cleared from spoon... even then about 5 people immediately stepped in to pick up the water bottles and trash so it was completely clean by the time keane walked onstage). there were never any lines for water, bathrooms, or food. the prices were reasonable to cheap -- very little food items for over $4. coming from seattle, where you pay $8 at a festival for a can of beer and $5 for a small bottle of water, paying $2 for water was incredibly cool. nice, friendly, helpful staff all over the place, and apparently they were able to clear 60,000 people after headliners coldplay finished without anyone having to wait in line to leave. that's just unreal. they should give seminars on how to organize festivals.