Saturday, September 17, 2011

Why I love and hate ACL Fest

Austin City Limits Festival is a big deal in the self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World, and this is the outdoor music festival's tenth year. We went one year and I hated it: paying $90 a day to be locked in Zilker Park in sweltering heat with 75,000 other people, paying $7 for a can of beer, standing in line for 20 minutes to buy overpriced food. Fuck that noise!

But I also love ACL Fest because it brings tons of awesome artists to our fine city. When they shut down the concert at 10 pm every night and the sun-baked families head home to bed, the musicians are just getting started!  They go downtown and play shows in bars and venues. Drinks are cheaper and the weather is cooler and the crowds are smaller and you can get a lot closer to the artist.

The video above is the perfect example of that. I took it last night at Emo's Austin where we got to see Theophilus London up close and personal. To have had that close a perspective at ACL, we would have had to fight through this huge crowd of people, and even then we would still be 10 feet from the stage. Did I mention his ACL set was at 12:30 in the freaking afternoon?

I look forward to ACL Fest every year. I just hope I never have to attend it again.

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