Wow, what a weekend. I am exhausted today. For those who don’t know, Alisha and I really like music. Austin is the self-professed live music capital of the world, so you can bet that some great acts come through. There are two internationally recognized festivals held in Austin each year. The first is in the spring called South By Southwest. The second is ACLfest, produced in part by those crazy kats who bring you Austin City Limits on your local public television station.
Alisha, Madison and I have been nearly every year. I’ve blogged about the 2005 and 2006. In 2002, the inaugural festival was held on the weekend Madison was born, so we of course missed it. We’ve made it every year since except for last year when we had the pleasure of attending my college roommate’s wedding. In 2006, Lisa, Chris and Tyler joined us. 2008 marks our fifth year in attendance and a childhood friend of Alisha’s, Emily Uebbing, joined us for the weekend. Anil also attended for the first time. This was Lizzy’s first year to experience it and Scott K came in from Boston to hang out (yet we’ve been with him before). We had a nice group. I have not only uploaded a few of my favorite pictures from this year, but also uploaded pictures from previous years for comparison.
Things I loved: the Bar Car lives on (although I didn’t get an image of us around it). Matt and Amos have moved to NYC, but their bar car tradition carried on from Seth Cockrum lives on. I set up my Trailblazer next to Chuy’s on Barton Springs as a base camp full of beers, sodas, water, and snacks for everyone in our party and those who stopped by. I also liked the Austin Kiddie Limits area much more this year. It was both bigger and more interactive.
Things that sucked: the dust, my allergies.
There was a pleathora of new bands I’ve never heard of. In italics are the ones who I’ve discovered and now love through this festival. The bold artists are the headliners:
FRIDAY: Vampire Weekend, Jamie Lidell, Patty Griffin, Gorgol Bordello, Mates of State, Slightly Stoopid, David Byre, Antibalas, The Swell Season, G. Love and Special Sauce, Manu Chao.
SATURDAY: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, (Kiddy Limits: Mr. Ray, The Jimmies), Band of Heathens, Les Freres, Erykah Badu, Spiritualized, John Fogerty, Mason Jennings, Yonder Mountain String Band, Iron & Wine, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Beck
SUNDAY: Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet featuring Bela Fleck, Octopus Project, Mr. Ray, The Kills, The Jimmies, Gillian Welch Nicole Atkins, Xavier Rudd, Neko Case, Blues Traveler, Gnarls Barkley Galactic, Band of Horses, Tegan and Sara, Kevin Fowler, Foo Fighters.
Yea, three days and that many bands…we are exhausted…but Lizzy faired well. She stayed with Sarah Caton on Saturday and with the Millers half of Sunday. She was chilling out for the music all of Friday and half of Sunday. We didn’t bring her Saturday to not overexpose her and also because we celebrated Madison’s birthday at ACLfest with tatoos, rocking like a star, and a dip in Barton Springs.
