This is fine.
Had I known it was going to be the last day of ACL, I would have gone all out, but I didn’t foresee the future, so I only went mildly out. Regardless, I was up bright and early, as one of my favorites, and perhaps one of the best acts, had an early slot.
Shotgunned beer? Check.
Now on to my highlights and Brian’s photos.
Official Statement released…
AUSTIN – October 13, 2013 – Due to current weather conditions with flash flood warnings, the Austin City Limits Music Festival organizers have canceled the festival today.
“Our first priority is always the safety of our fans, staff and artists,” said Shelby Meade, communications director for C3 Presents, the promoter behind Austin City Limits Music Festival. “We regret having to cancel the show today, but safety always comes first.”
Refunds will be issued automatically by check from Front Gate Tickets within three weeks. One-third of ticket price will be refunded to all ticket buyers based on original ticket price paid, and will be mailed to the billing address on the original order. For questions, please visit support.frontgatetickets.com.
Wow, right? We needed the rain, but we want the party.
Pics of the grounds from last night making their way around the intarwebs.
Riding high on the waves of their stunning sophomore release, Hummingbird, Local Natives, from Los Angeles, took the familiar stage of the Moody Theater to a fairly enthusiastic crowd. Sandwiched between the two ACL festival weekends there was chitchat amongst those who had seen the group on the big stage last Friday, who would be seeing them the second weekend, or those who were just lucky enough to catch them at such an intimate venue. Having taken advantage of this bands’ delight in playing in Austin, I knew we were in for a real treat, as these gentlemen pack a great deal of passion and energy into their live shows, and Thursday night was no disappointment.
The folks that run Austin City Limits, the real Austin City Limits, ya know, the TV show approaching forty years of bringing bands into your living room, always take advantage of artists just sitting around before, between or after a festival weekend. Neko Case is one such artist and I was delighted to see and more importantly hear her taping because of conflicts on the Sunday nights at Zilker.
This isn’t her first taping, so that means mostly material from the last two albums. I’m really liking Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You and we gave Middle Cyclone four stars back in the day.
Read on for thoughts on her set and a few pics of the event…
I am not going to lie: Saturday was my least favorite day of ACL. Aside from Parquet courts and The Cure (interestingly the first and last bands I saw on Saturday), no one really blew me away and the line-up was meh. But Sunday. Oh it was perfect.
Click through to see my highlights from the first Sunday of ACL.
We’ve now got one weekend of live music under our belts so it’s time to do a little reflection from what just went down. I see no better way to do that than with a few interviews we lined up with festival performing bands. Next up on our list of interviewees is previously ACL spotlighted band, Widowspeak. Read more for full interview.
Fridays tend to ease you in, Saturdays tend to beat you down. Or at least the odds of self-inflicted wounds go up exponentially. You have a little hangover, perhaps you start the day with a bloody mary, but by the end you are shirtless, missing a flip-flop and wondering why your hand is blue. For me, it was a pretty non-stop run at awesome; I won at Festival.
Click-through for a few notes on the first Saturday. *spoiler alert* The Cure wins in the end.
In case you couldn’t guess, we are off doing things. There will be coverage.
Fist pumping soon. Parquet Courts will start my morning…
When taking the first look at the ACL Schedule for each weekend, I tend to first see the conflicts in headliners. Luckily, we are fairly conflict free this year, we’ll get into that more soon enough. How about we take a look at a few of the artists put in the early spots? The cool morning grass, the wide expanses to roam and the vendors still relaxed before the dude-bro crush all add up to a child-like wonderment with the scale of the empty festival giving you the this all-for-me feeling. This year’s ATH Approved Early Bird Artists will create the soundtrack for your barefoot dance party.
It’s time once again ladies and gentlemen to get all geared up for another ACL festival in a few short weeks. As always, we’ll strive to offer you guys all kinds of coverage to get you prepped for the now two day affair. We shall begin with some previews covering the artists performing and I’ve chosen to to turn my focus towards Welsh rock band Joy Formidable. Follow the jump for more.
