It’s Monday morning and I’ve “slept in” until 8:00 since the kids are gone (sad isn’t it?) after 3 days of listening to lots of great bands.   I enjoyed the other ACL Festivals that I’ve been to, but this won took the cake.   The lineup was balked about quite a bit, saying that the Foo Fighters weren’t enough of a big draw, but after hanging out for 3 days surrounded by music, I’d say I learned a few things about what makes a good festival and this one was by far the most enjoyable.

But before we get to that, I have to mention the 2 negatives: The Dust and the “Rules.”  This year was dustier than the last two years, and many more people had bandanas and surgeon’s masks over their nose and mouth than I’d seen in the past.   The dust created a haze that lasted most of the time you were there and left you with interesting mucus colors–that’s all I’m going to say about that.   The “Rules” were there for a reason, but not being able to bring in snacky type food was a big downer, this meant that any time you needed to go get food you had to truck it all the way over to the food court, pay an exorbitant  amount of money, and get something that should have cost half as much.  The other big downer with the rules is since you couldn’t bring in a “big” umbrella, it made it difficult to create a reasonable amount of shade.  There were several stages that had good shade, but at least 2 main stages that didn’t, so it put the shady spots at a premium.

That said, the things I learned from this festival are these :

1. Shade is possibly the most important thing you can “have” while watching the bands.
2. Trust word of mouth rather than bands you’ve heard of.   Leave if you’re bored.
3. If you can’t find a band during a given time slot that you’ve heard of or been recommended, WANDER AROUND.

This brings me to why this was one of the best ACL weekends I’ve experienced.   We saw “Vampire Weekend” — which I’ve never heard a single song by, but a bunch of people seemed enamored with.   They were a great “opener” and got the crowd ready for a festival.  After that we didn’t know who to go see, so we went to get some food, and over heard the “Freddy Jones” band — a band that’s toured with the likes of Phish and Dave Matthews’ Band.  They were excellent.  We stuck around for some of M. Ward and Jenny Lewis and then made way to see David Byrne.   Now, I’m sure David Byrne is a genius and all, but I’d heard one song I knew and liked–this is where rule 2 comes from.  I think I would have enjoyed some random other band instead.  After that, we saw The Swell Season — basically the band from “Once” — and they were truly excellent.  We walked out after watching the Mars Volta make noise for 30 minutes.   All in all, a decent Friday.

Saturday was better.  Old ’97s, Jose Gonzalez, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, and Man Man were all interesting in their own ways.  Since we didn’t know what to do for the next hour, we headed to get some food and were suprised again by Les Freres Guisse, a group from Senegal.  They had percussion, acoustic guitar and bass.   They sang in an unknown tongue, but the last song was an incredibly catchy song about Nelson Mandela.   We caught some shade for John Fogherty and hung around for Robert Plant and Allison Krauss.  Those two were definitely the highlights of Saturday.  Their low-key, bluegrass versions of Led Zeppelin songs with gorgeous harmonies were worth the price of admission alone.  The other stuff wasn’t hard on the ears either.  All in all, a great way to close out the night.

By this time, we were all exhausted, it took nearly 2 hours to get home on Saturday night.  Andrea elected to stay home, but I went all day Sunday after we were done with Church.  I’m so glad I did.  It was probably the best overall DAY of ACL fun I’ve had in 3 years going to the festival.  I caught the last half of Flyleaf, who surprised me in their outspoken faith.  They even included a little bit of “From the Inside Out” — a popular worship tune — as a tag at the end of one of their songs.  Against Me is another reason for rule 2.  They basically had one song that they changed the order they strummed the chords to and the lyrics of, which lasted 3 minutes and that they repeated 15 times.   If you’re ever at ACL and you find yourself bored after 3 songs, LEAVE–there is better music to be found elsewhere!

Which is exactly what I did for Silversun Pickups.  I watched the first 3 songs and were so unimpressed with their lack of charisma that I left to go get food.   Luckily I heard a man, Xavier Rudd, at the stage next to the food (are you catching the pattern here?) who had TONS of charisma.  He played a gaggle of instruments, often at the same time and had a drummer there to help him bring the rock.   I heard most of his version of “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World” which really kicked it.   The crowd went nuts.  I was impressed.

This brings us to the last few acts of the weekend–and they really didn’t disappoint.   I saw Blues Traveller do what they do best from about 30 feet away.   They weaved one song into another and changed tempos, rhythms and keys without even batting an eye, in perfect unison.  John Popper showed how awesome his chops were and played a nice mix of new stuff and crowd-pleasing favorites.

Next came the Raconteurs.   This may have been the show of the weekend.  Jack White, (famously of the White Stripes) had a slipped disc in his neck and his voice was going out.   He played the first three songs and then explained this fact to the crowd.  ”I hope your not disappointed,” he said.  Well, I for one wasn’t.  The rest of the band proved that they were, in fact, Jack’s equals and not some second class members of “Jack’s other band.” They all covered his parts as appropriate and he even threw out some vocals as he could. They rocked so hard and put on an amazing show.

Band of Horses was good “transition music” between the Raconteurs and the Foo Fighters.   I’ll have to check them out when I’m not in a “Foo” mood.  The Foos rocked it HARD and played a much better set than they did when I saw them in Austin a few years ago.  They were spontaneous and fun and not without a good amount of deviation from the standard album versions of their songs.  My favorite moments of the concert were the “Triangle” solo, the beautiful version of “Big Me” and an awesome version of “Aurora.”

Totally the best year of ACL yet.  I am looking forward to next  year already, especially since I’ve established the “rules.”  Woo hoo.   ACL, you have given so much, and are gone too soon.

Now it’s time to crash.

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