Indie Concerts ROCK: November 2017

Yeah, we went to ACL again! Dana, Trish, Anita, and Jill (for the first time). We stayed with Saint Katie, who had just broken both wrists in a bicycle accident (but still put us up!) She was crazy kind, and we tried to repay her by doing all her housework and shopping.

My first act of the festival was Welles - dirty bass, male vocals, rockers. They had a good sound, but an unimpressive stage show. I then heard Asleep at the Wheel from a distance - fun, old time-y country. Carson Mchone was background music in the tent as I had lunch - she wasn't half bad, but didn't make an impression. Methyl Ethel was a bunch of dorky Australians that were nothing special live. The rest of the day is a long-ago haze, but heard Missio from the shade by the port-o-potties (which were AWESOME - flushing toilets at a festival!) Nothing special, nothing bad about them. They did seem a little stoned. I have a photo of Andrew McMahon, so I must have seen him for a moment, but I've seen him twice before, so he didn't make an impression. I also collected two full bags of trash - I ended up doing three throughout the festival, bringing home shirts for me and the kids. Spencer Ludwig's dance music impressed me with dancing ladies, a Prince-like vibe, and trumpets. The Lemon Twigs were bleh. Vulpeck was so fun! Funky - lots of people with high energy. So worth seeing! La Femme was entertaining French language indie music. I remember seeing the Revivalists and disliking the lead singer. He seemed contrived to me. I didn't stay for the headliners.

Saturday was a hot day and I was in pain from the 1000 squats I did picking up 2 bags of trash the day before. I spent a lot of time hiding in the shade, watching acts from a distance. We did some of the photo opps, then I say Capyac. They were a hoot. They made pancakes on stage and threw them in the audience, they had costumes, they made the crowd do stretches with them, there were dancers. Dull music, but a great show! I stopped by Grace Vanderwaal, who was preciously 12 years old and ever so twee. Not my thing. Allan Rayman came off as pretentious. Might have been on drugs, might have been having seizures. I couldn't tell, but I didn't stay long to find out. Parker Millsap looked like Elvis, but blond. I thought I detected some Christian lyrics and wasn't in the mood to be preached at, so I skedaddled after finishing my food. Benjamin Booker sounded great, but had low energy on stage. Dana accidentally won us all backstage passes (I know - crazy!) at the HomeAway stage, so we saw some of Dreamcar from the side of the stage. Great costumes, but I didn't stay long. Angel Olsen was BORING on stage. And Alison Wonderland was too crowded - I left the festival before she started feeling claustrophobic. I heard reports that Spoon did an elaborate skydiving gag to the song "Freefallin'" (Tom Petty had died the week before. Tributes abounded.)

Sunday was again hot, but I'd regained some energy. Tank and the Bangas were FAN-FRICKIN-TASTIC. Charismatic, energetic, so much fun. Tank did spoken word poetry bits, and the brass section was hopping all over stage. She also led everyone in simple choreography. It was uplifting and joyous. So worth seeing. That was so good, I don't even remember seeing Middle Kids, who I know are excellent. I also think I saw Milky Chance and a tiny little bit of First Aid Kit. I know I saw Portugal The Man and was very disappointed. Not much registered with me on Sunday after Tank - or maybe it's that I waited 2 months to write this and didn't take any notes that day. Maybe.

It was a busy work week for me, so I did quite a bit of teleworking when not at the festival, but it wasn't overwhelming. It was an insanely busy month for me, but worth it. I felt a lot less in shape than the last time I went - the walks felt longer, but there was also a lot of heat this time. Somehow, I ended up with a small poison ivy rash when I got home. Best food of the weekend was Bananarchy - frozen banana dipped in vegan dark chocolate on a stick. The chocolate was warm and cooling as I ate it. YUM. It was shocking to see how white the city and the crowd seemed. I've gotten very used to multi-ethnic in DC. It felt staged, like a TV show. Nowhere is that white, right? Well, maybe some places, but it feels SO WEIRD (and not in the keep Austin weird way.) The festival grounds were much larger this year - they co-oped the other side of the street for an additional stage. It addressed some of the crowd congestion to move the stage by the rocks to the perimeter.