3 Days Texas & Music
The schedule was released a couple of months out from the Austin City Music Festival. Muse, Cold War Kids, Amy Winehouse , Paolo Nuttini, Arctic Monkeys, Arcade Fire, Augustina, Damion Rice, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Regina Spektor, The Decemberists, Yo La Tengo, My Morning Jacket, Bjork, The White Stripes, The Killers, Joss Stone, Kaiser Chiefs, Peter Bjorn and John, Queens of the Stone Age, Spoon, Wilco, Steve Earle, Bob Dylan and a bizillion other bands that I had heard little or nothing about were playing the festival. Emails started flying around between me and my friends…Who is in? Which days? Drive or fly? Does anyone know someone we can stay with?
We decided to go for the entire 3 days and had no Texas connections, so we had to book a hotel. Little did we know that everyone books a nearby hotel months in advance. We ended up staying on the North side of town in a spa type hotel that seemed like a regular hotel to me except they had herbs planted around the place.
We got in on Thursday night and cruised around downtown. We heard that everyone meets at the Congress St. bridge at sunset and waits for bats to fly out from under the bridge. The bats must have been as stoned as the crowd because we didn’t see anything happen, but we did hook up with some cute girls from N.C. that were there for the festival. We club hopped with them until the end of the night when they all the sudden told us had boyfriends back home.
The next day we got up at the crack of noon and drove down to the festival. There is no lot to park in, so we parked at a bike shop about a mile away and took a pedi-cab to the concert. These guys work their butts off! It’s like a rickshaw attached to a bike and these guys pedal everyone around in like 100 degree heat.
No one told me how hot it is in Texas in September! Seriously, it was abut 100 degrees and there was absolutely no shade. We wondered around for a while, but there was no one on stage that we had heard about until later in the day and then everyone we wanted to hear played at the same time. Amy Winehouse and the White Stripes canceled at the last minute, but we saw Peter, Bjorn and John, Joss Stone, Queens of the Stoneage and The Killers the first night.
The second day we decided to go later because we were a little hung over and didn’t want to deal with the midday heat again. All the girls were going crazy over Paola Nuttini, but I didn’t se the big deal about him. Cold Ward Kids, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Arctic Monkeys were good, but Muse really blew me away. They had the audience in a high energy trance and were the best performers of the entire festival.
The last day we got there even later. We found a place called Barton Springs that was within walking distance and the water was freaking cold, but felt great. I wish we would have know about this place on the first day. We saw Regina Spektor, The Decemberist and Wilco and had lost out mojo and decided to leave early before seeing Bob Dylan.
This year I know to book a hotel early and to go to the springs during downtime. I also know to ask girls upfront if they have boyfriends before paying for a whole night of drinks.