Summer Concert Series - ACL 2008 Friday

I am not sure if we are still in Summer or not but last weekend was a three day event known as the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Diana and I attended it and after three days of music, sunshine and dust we made it home yesterday at 4 A.M.

I am going to cover this in three blogs to make sure that the festival isn't under appreciated. First and foremost, you can see all of the pictures on our Photo Site. I got up and drove to Austin on Friday by myself to attend the first day of ACL. Diana was stuck in Dallas for Friday due to work so I arrived in Austin at 10:30 and rode the shuttle to Zilker Park for the event. I met up with my cousin Micheal and his girlfriend while there and stood in line with them while they got someone from 'Vampire Weekend's autograph.

We set our chairs up to watch 'Asleep at the Wheel' and followed it up with a band I had never heard of called 'What Made Milwaukee Famous'. If you have the time, check out their music. It was fairly entertaining and made for some good listening.

One of the things I really appreciated about this type of festival is the varying degree of talent that shows up. Along with the fact that the styles are so eclectic, you get to find things you aren't familiar with. After 'Milwaukee' I broke from my cousin and went and took in Jakob Dylan. I knew the name but wasn't familiar with his stuff and was pleasantly surprised. Ironically, his father closed out the festival last year and was not very good from what I hear so to see him playing was a treat.

I wasn't the only Dallas resident to be attending the show. Erin drove down as well and after Jakob Dylan, I met up with her to watch a singer by the name of Patty Griffin sing. She was very Melissa Ethridge and at one point I looked over and saw a pair of legs in the crowd that were hairier than mine but were somehow attached to a woman of considerable girth. Crazy Lesbos.

For those who don't know, I am a closet Country fan and the 'Eli Young Band' played at the Austin Ventures stage. I went alone again but didn't care because they put on a hell of a show. I even ended up buying one of their albums on Saturday.

The final show of the night, and my second favorite performance of the entire festival was 'The Swell Season'. I met back up with Erin for this one and got much closer to the stage than any of the other concerts. It was getting darker so the temp was going down and was a nice end to the night. This is the duo that won 'Best Original Song' at the Oscars for the song "Falling Slowly" from the film 'Once'. Glen Hansard is one hell of a guitarist and can sing too. He played an acoustic Van Morrison cover where he strummed the hell out of his guitar. His duets with the other half of the band, Marketa Irlova were great and they really play well off of each other.

Sadly, this ended my first day at ACL due to the need to go pick up Diana. I had some time to kill and went to grab some dinner when I stumbled across an original A-Frame Whataburger that was decorated with a retro theme. I was so hungry from the day but I was patient after ordering my food and was paid off with an awesome meal that rivals some of the other Whataburgers I have had. There was a nostalgia to the whole thing.

The high or Friday was about 92 degrees. It was hot but not unbearable though I really appreciated every $8 24oz. Heineken I drank and the tea at the end of the night could not be refilled fast enough.

That is all,

Newt