I say y'all now. But enough about me. Let me tell you both about a little music festival called ACL in a little place called Austin, Texas. I was lucky enough to be there for three memorable days filled with my favorite things. These are a few of my favorite things: friends, family, live music, eighty degree weather (but definitely not seventy-six degrees), "throbbing tribal beats," more live music, frozen corn, Jameson, newspapers, concerts, cover songs by The Eagles, Ford Flex's, animals (or just one by the name of Boone) Four Loko (but pretty much none of the flavors), and hours and hours and hours of live music. I would have to say that the only thing that could have possibly made this weekend any better would be meeting a real cowboy. Oh, and maybe the absence of fat, drunk men tripping and falling on nice girls and spraining their ankles. Other than that though, fuckin' rockin' time, man. I had an awesome time. In fact, I think the whole town knows I had an awesome time.I've decided I'm breaking this three day, massive concert down for y'all in superlative form. Remember superlatives in high school? Ya know, least changed, class clown, mostest awesomest and so on and so forth. I got most Hale_arious in high school. How could I not though, really? Anyway, I digress. Superlatives. The process of picking which band got which superlative went a little something like this: there was only one person who got to vote and it was me. Ready. Go.
BIGGEST WASTE OF TIME
> M.I.A.
Sucked. Sucked bad. I was semi-excited to see her perform just because she is pretty out there and I most likely would never purchase an actual ticket to see her individually. I thought she would be entertaining at the least. She didn't even achieve that much. It was like she put a boom box up there and a kareoke screen and a weird video for everyone to watch. She barely sang at all. Frankly, I have no idea what she did up there during her prime Saturday night, 8:00p.m. slot. 100% of the other bands that were there would have done a better job and deserved that spot more.
MOST I CAN'T BELIEVE I MISSED THEM
> Girls
I don't want to talk about it. It's hard to be the only girl with 5 dudes and get them motivated to go do something. Even if it is to see Girls. Seriously mad at myself.
MOST PERSONALLY UNDERESTIMATED
> Matt & Kim
They were highlighted on our list of bands to see but I didn't color it in. I was indifferent to seeing them. I knew one song by them and found the lead singer's voice, Matt Johnson, to be extremely annoying. I was in no way excited to see them but my cowboy loving friend, Dan, really wanted to. So there we were at 7:30 on the dot at the Honda Stage. Matt & Kim greeted the crowd with so much freaking energy that I wanted to rip my face off (in a good way). I don't know if it was because they came out to "Where Brooklyn At?" or because they were running all over stage or because I chugged a Four Loko but I was excited. They were the most energetic band I have ever seen in concert. And I've been to a lot of concerts. Their songs are already high energy but seeing them play live, with Kim always wearing a huge smile on her face while giving all of her energy to the drums and Matt playing the piano whilst doing yoga poses on his bench, literally makes you want to burst open with energy. They were electrifying to say the least and though I don't necessarily love their songs, I would highly recommend seeing them live. They know their audience well.
MOST FUCKING COOLEST BESTEST SOLIDEST MUSIC
> Monsters of Folk
Monsters of Folk outta nowhere, grabbed me by my pervertible nut-sack and had sex with my ears. Sorry for the vulgarity (not really though) but that's how I feel. For those of you who aren't familair, MOF are somewhat of a young supergroup if you will, consisting of Jim James (My Morning Jacket), M. Ward (She & Him), Mike Mogis and Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes). Also for those of you who aren't familiar, a few words of advice from me to you: get familiar. I own their album and liked it but seeing it live was a horse of a different color. I don't even think I can articulate justice into it but all of their individual sounds come together and each of their styles can be felt not to mention heard. I could feel how much fun they had together making these songs. I must say though, my favorite part was when Jim James played, "Golden," and Conor Oberst backed him up. My heart pretty much melted and it wasn't because it was eighty degrees outside. Overall, great set by these dudes that made me love America.
MOST IMPROVED
> The National
It's hard for me to believe that there was a time when I did not like them. How embarrassed am I now that they are on my top five favorite bands in the history of my top five favorite bands? I'm turning red just thinking about it. This was my third time seeing this band, the first being in a small bar in Boston in 2007 with about 200 other people max. To see them in this setting with thousands of people cheering, outside with the sun setting, I couldn't help but turn to my brother (also a major National fan) and say how proud I was of them. They killed every single song they played and with so much power and force behind each of them. They are going to be around for a long time. Y'all better hope so.
BEST COVER SONGS
> The Eagles
One of the first people I saw when I arrived on Sunday morning, alright, alright, Sunday afternoon, was a girl wearing a shirt that read, "I fuckin' hate The Eagles, Man." I laughed and kind of wanted my picture taken with her for I admired her badassness. The Eagles of course, were the headliners of ACL. Along with everyone else that attended ACL, I thought that was pretty random and kind of a waste. My friends and I had a lot of questions regarding the fuckin' Eagles as a headliner. Why couldn't it have been Arcade Fire or Radiohead? And more importantly, what do The Eagles even sing? Umm..."Desperado", "Hotel California", annddd uuhhhh, yeah, maybe "Boys of Summer?" The National finished playing and we just were not ready to leave Zilker Park so we spread out our blanket about four hundred yards from where The Eagles were getting wheeled out on stage and drank beers. Let's see what this band even sings. Turns out, every song that came on, without fail, one of us would say, "Wait a minute, I know this song!" "Wait, this is The Ealges?" "Are they covering this song or is this just their song?!" There was a whole lot of that going on. Turns out, my friends and I were Eagles fans the whole time and just didn't know it.
Until next year ACL...
P.S. Smells like dead rabbit in here.
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1 comments:
Good stuff hales
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