Walking Backwards

I just got home from the first day of the Austin City Limits Festival. Which is tragic because this is my 500th blog entry and all I have to mark this milestone with some exhausted, nonsensical ramblings equivalent to "that band was awesome". So, fair warning.


I parked at the end of the Barton Hill greenbelt and walked to Zilker, which wasn't too bad. It took about half an hour from door to door. So, yay there. No problems parking, no lines to fight. I also rather enjoyed walking in the quite confines of the park as opposed to sitting in my car waiting 30 minutes for a parking space. The only drawback was that I slipped on a rock and fell, bruising my hip and my ankle, a fact that only matters when you've been on your feet 8 hours.

The first band I saw was Vampire Weekend and they were much better than I hoped, but everyone I had talked to told me that they were not good live, so I had low expectations. It was a fun show and I got a seat in the shade and was by myself just listening and having fun. Good times. There were also very few people there at this time of day. It was shocking. I know I'm not going to be so lucky tomorrow because it isn't a work day, so I count my blessings for this time.

After VW, I headed over to "Artists Alley" where I bought a parasol to block out the sun when it decided to show its face. Lots of cool, local shops that I wanted to buy from, but I am suffering under my current lack of funds enough, thank you, so lots of window shopping. Then I head to Gogol Bordello, which was just amazing and silly and fun. Go see them live if you can. Really, do it!

Gah, my memory is bad. I think I went to see Mates of State after this, but then left early to get the greatest festival food ever - the fried avocado taco from Hudson on the Bend. I considered licking my dusty, festival attendee fingers for a brief instant it was that good, but could not bring my germ phobic self to do it. The line was a zillion people long, but oh so worth it. Plus, you could pretty much be guaranteed the food would be decent, otherwise the longest line would be at Vespaio or P. Terrys, et al. You get the idea.

Following this I start to get a little festival delirious, so there are few specific details. I saw David Byrne. He had weird backup dancers that fit perfectly and he played "Once in a Lifetime". I saw The Swell Season and made a mental note to see "Once" again. The crowd was crazy quite for the show, it was cool. I then watched part of the presidential debates inside one of the vendor tents with a group of about 150 people reading the closed captioning. No one talked and everyone cheered when Obama said something especially astute. Nice.

The final show (I missing something in here) was Manu Chao which never disappoints. It knocked Gogol Bordello for best act of the day for me. I had to leave it early, though, because I got a ride with friends who were parked in VIP and could just drive out. This saved me a walk home through the greenbelt in the dark with a busted leg, so yes, I took it.

I'm there the whole weekend, so I am coming up with a new plan tomorrow. And I will bring my camera this time for pictures because it is quite cool :)