Austin City Limits - Day 1 - 9/23/05

I thought I coud summarize this event in one post... man, was I wrong! Day 2 and 3 to come soon...

Well, it's been almost two weeks now since my music festival experience in Austin, Texas. It's still difficult how to summarize the whole event... Two words, "Great", "Hot"! It's really amazing, as I'm writing this it's like 30 degrees F outside; 2 weeks ago in Austin it never got below 85 degrees. Hurricane fucking "Rita" made the whole thing a lot more difficult as well, as some bands had to cancel...

Talking about the weather is so lame though! Anybody can do that (that's why we have small-talk, right?). Here is what I did, what I listened to, what I thought, the drugs I did, and who I shagged (yeah right!?):

I went to Austin City Limits with my friends Mike, his girlfriend Michelle, and Mike's sister Dawn. When we arrived in Austin Thursday night, the heat was the first thing that was very noticable. It must have been around 90 degrees. The cool thing though... everybody (and I mean everybody) at the airport was going to the festival.

Highlights for me: Kasabian, Oasis, The Frames, Coldplay. See below (and other posts) for details...

Our hotel was absolute shite! Pretty dirty I have to say. Then again I'm used to my bachelor pad so I wasn't that shocked. Actually, I didn't mind, as we were going to spend very little time there, except for sleeping. Here's Mike changing the sheets on his bed:


















A brief note: Next year - MikeT, Ryan, Vieng, Marty, Venite; You guys are going! No ifs, or buts about it...

Just reading through my parapraphs above almost makes me sick; I'm a horrible writer. Let's get straight to the pictures and my thoughts on the bands I watched:

First day! A cool day... it was only about 95 degrees when we got there about Noon! Friday was kind of a warm-up day, as main bands on the bill were Kasabian and Spoon (for me anyways).

As mentioned above we got there about Noon and the gates weren't even open yet. It was fun waiting in line with the rest-of-the-folk though! Once we got in, we had a bite to eat and headed over to the Kasabian stage... as mentioned above there were quite a few bands that cancelled. Some better than others...

The Double - 11:45 - 12:30pm
Originally this was supposed to be The Ditty Bops band. However I couln't believe it... when we walked over to find a decent spot for Kasabian, these guys were playing. Especially crazy since I just saw them open up for Sons and Daughters the week before. The Double is actually quite good, think "Interpol, part deux", just more jamming live. I really enjoyed their set (I only saw about 3 songs). Picture below:


















Kasabian - 1:30 - 2:30pm
Wow, I cannot even begin to tell you how great their set was. Maybe it's because they cancelled their Minnapolis show about a year go. I don't think so, however. These guys were amazing, the crowd was totally into it. They opened the set with "Reason is Treason" and closed with "LSF" and "Club Foot". The new stuff they played rocked as well. No wonder they're Liam's favorite band... As I had a really good view, here's a few pics:





















After Kasabian I chilled for a little while. Then checked out Nic Armstrong and the Thieves and Mates of State. Neither impressed me very much...

Spoon - 5:30 - 6:30pm
One of the bands I was really looking forward to! I can't even explain how much I like their last two albums... Mike and I had a great spot to watch the show. We ran into a "Red Sox" fan who had a "real problem" with the beach balls flying around (they were really annoying). I was a bit disappointed (after Kasabian) how little crowd support Spoon got, but then again, they're from Austin... Here's some pics (including crazy "Boston" guy):






















After Spoon we wandered around a bit and watched "Slightly Stoopid". They were actually not too bad... After that, it was off to see my friends' favorite "Blue October"; Texas' very own... Picture of "Sligthly Stoopid":



















Blue October - 7:45 - 8:45pm
These guys had a pretty big crowd! I don't really dig their music, but their "showmanship" was good.




















And one cannot ever go without mentioning the "greatest rock n roll" band of all time... I actually left Blue October to watch a bit of Keane. The crowd was crazy... I still can't believe of how may people wanted to watch the "shittier Coldplay". They're actually not that bad... I'm just kidding... Here's the only good picture I managed to get (at least the sun-set is beautiful):



















That's it for day 1! The "worst" day out of the three (just wait for the "Oasis" post). Trust me, day 2 and 3 are way better! Can't believe I thought I could bundle everything into one post... I'm off to go watch U2 on Conan!

Cheers!

EDIT 10/7/05: I was doing way too many things at the same time when I wrote this... it really shows! Horrible. Sorry for the "subparness". I'll try to improve things for reviews of Day 2 and 3...

P.S. 'Coz the spammers love me a bit too much... I had to turn on "word verification" for comments. Fucking spammers have to ruin it for everybody! Don't be affraid to leave comments however...