Day 3: The Short Day.Short because we got our latest start yet, and we knew we weren't going to stay for the final act, the Foo Fighters, because we'd already seen them. If we saw them, we'd break our streak of seeing bands we'd never seen before.
Did I mention this festivals commitment to mass transit and eco-friendly solutions? Hence the bike racks.
We had a half a mind to see something when we got there, but stumbled over to the Massacoustics, on the basis of a very Paul Mcartney-esque song we heard. We got a real kick out of this duo, note the drummer sings, drums, and plays bass all at the same time. If they come around, I'd suggest you see them.
Close encounter of the famous kind, Part One: Dawn and I headed over the the merchandise tent to get some T-shirts and music. Who do I see wandering around the back of the tent, John Popper of Blues Traveler. It's just before their autograph session, and a few more until their music set. So he even, got closer, but I didn't get a good picture. He gave the guy in line next to me a promotional copy of the upcoming release. So, I was close, but not that close.
Neco Case was a folksy act we decided to see. She has songs about sea animals taking eating each other. Like Patty Griffin on day one, her quieter set had to deal with music bleed from other stages, once again, the Austin Ventures stage in particular. The audience had another factor detracting us from the show, and that was The Racounters. Well, not the band members, as it was their fans. They had the stage after Case, and a break. But they started filtering in, trying to get up to the front of the stage during the Case set. This by itself, was annoying, but it's a festival, so you deal with some boorish behavior. Even worse though, is they'd wedge themselves in in packs of six or what not, then get on their cell phones, and call their freinds to try and triangulate and meet up, in the center of a crowd of people trying to watch the music on stage. Racounters fans? You are assholes. It got to the point where other people were telling them to shut up.
If you think there was any less enthusiasm because it was Sunday, you would be wrong. Blues Traveler is playing in the right of this photograph. The crowd stretches out to the left. There was maybe 20000 in front of that stage. Our next show goal was the main stage seen at the center of the photograph.
Gnarls Barkley pushed though a energetic music, pushing them selves at the end of their current tour. Straining voices, sun in their eyes, and heat causing them to strip off articles of clothing, the put on a great, profanity laden show. At one point, Cee-low gets the crowd to swear with him, and then sing-songs into the mike how he likes to swear.
So ends our festival experience. Dust covered at dusk, we make our way to the exit before most of the crowd, to head into Austin for some dinner, satisfied with our ACL festival. So many acts, so much fun what else could we want for?
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