Austin City Limits - Day 2 - Saturday, October 12, 2013

Dana and I arrived at the festival just after the gates had opened. We went to Parquet Courts for about two songs, including the famous song, "Stoned and Starving".  They were really bad live. So young, and so stoned. Two band members tried to talk to the audience between songs and couldn't manage one sentence between them both. So we bailed and went to the free stuff - photo booths, popsicles, henna tattoos, hair braiding, etc.

Killed about an hour, then went to Walk the Moon, which I don't love, but Dana does. We sat in the shade near the port-a-potties because it was getting REALLY hot. The high was near 100 that day. Oddly, the view was pretty good from there, and it wasn't smelly at all. Walk the Moon were very dynamic on stage. The lead singer even crowd-surfed.

I left to try to meet up with a high school classmate I hadn't seen for years, only to discover that he had texted when I wasn't paying attention and needed to postpone. While I was gone, Dana noticed an opportunity, grabbed a recycle bag, and earned herself a free ACL T-shirt for 15 minutes of picking up bottles and cans in the field. Her experience inspired me to do it too, later in the day, after Grimes. Totally worth it, and the festival is AMAZINGLY clean because of that program.  At some point, I grabbed some food and saw a few minutes of a gospel choir that had dancers in white-face masks - honestly, one of the most creative and energetic stage shows I saw at the festival - and the only stage with a tent, so completely out of the sun. For a while, I just hung out under a tree reading near a small stage just to have some time out of the sun. It was REALLY hot and humid.

I managed to find Dana without texting (miracle!) and hung out for a short time until she went to Silversun Pickups while I went to Little Green Cars. This period of time was one of the hardest for me. Three bands I really love overlapping. First, Little Green Cars, who sounded incredible live. They are so powerful, and they all sing. The guitarist  (or was it bassist?) isn't hard on the eyes, either. I left early to catch a couple songs at Joy Formidible. Also really excellent live.  Great audience interaction.  Then left THAT early too to catch half of Grimes, who was absolutely mesmerizing on stage and sounded fabulous. The crowd was huge. It was hard to get close enough to see.

Little Green Cars, ACL, 10-12-2013



Grimes, ACL, 10-12-2013

I found my high school classmate next and hung out talking during Passion Pit for half their set (meh), then saw the first song of Kendrick Lamar's set. So not my thing, but I could see the appeal. He immediately got the crowd moving. It was then that I noticed how incredibly crowded the place had become.  It was hard to move through the crowds.

Met up with Dana and Katie at the Shouting Matches, which is a Bon Hiver country music side project. Again, meh. Dana and Katie had been at Wilco, and Dana had scored a VIP pass for her and a guest for the main stages, so she and Katie had front row seats for Wilco and later the Cure. Robert Smith sounded great, but he stood in exactly one place and just sang, never speaking to the audience.  I stayed for about 45 minutes of the Cure's 2 hour set, checked out 2 songs at Kings of Leon (the singer just stood there, relying on the strobe lights behind him for excitement- boring!), then I left early, exhausted. (I passed on my turn front row and let Katie stay.) Minutes after I wanted into Katie's house, it started raining, so Dana and Katie came home soaked through.  Cure photo below - Dana took that one.