Well ACL is over and done with and it was tiring as all hell but was still a blast. This year they did a much better job of containing the dust bowl effect of last year. This is a good thing. This prevented the whole black stuff coming out of my nose and ears. Yuck. Apparently they installed a sprinkler system and planted more grass this year which helped keep the dirrrrty dirt where it belongs.
The one thing they really need to improve for next year is the damn food court. There was never a time when the line for food wasn't 50 people deep. On top of that they were constantly running out of food (or they didn't have what you wanted- hey I wanted a slice of pizza not a microwaved pizza roll!). If they had more than one food court, that would probably help the situation, but what do I know about controlling 60,000 people?
Anyway, enough whining, a little recap:
Gnarls Barkley: Unfortunately they didn't live up to my high expectations. I wanted to be blown away but I wasn't. It may have been the heat (they played at 4:30PM on Friday) or it may have been the crowd (obviously most of them were there to hear them play "that Crazy song"), but whatever it was, it wasn't as high energy as I wanted it to be. They were very good live and even played some obscure cover songs (one 80's song and one Doors track). I liked Storm Coming the best.
Thievery Corporation: Easy one of the best performances of the festival. I think they increased their fan base by an order of magnitude based on their performance. Being on a bigger stage this year surely helped but they sounded better this year for some reason. I think the crowd really dug their international fusion vibe that mixed reggae, hip-hop, South-Asian, and vocals. Tres cool.
Massive Attack: Another one of my personal highlights. They really didn't fit into the "ACL theme" this year since they were one of the only electronic acts on the playbill. Still I was really psyched to see and hear them and they lived up to my massive expectations (pun intended… is that even a pun?). I really liked "Tear Drop" and "Angel" but almost all their songs were amazing. The lighting backdrop was also really cool and fit the ambience of the show perfectly. Opposite to Gnarls, I think Massive was on at exactly the right time of the day (or night as was the case). Great weather and a cool crowd helped as well.
Flaming Lips: Admittedly I knew barely anything about this band. I knew they sang that "Jelly" song but other than that I was clueless. They rocked the house! Starting with a Christmas theme they had a bunch of people (fans obviously) dressed as santas and elves jumping around on the stage. They also fired "snow" on to the crowd. Their energy level was astounding and they were just really positive. An orgy of happiness is how I would describe their show. From the lead singer walking over the crowd in a big plastic bubble (think man in a beach ball) to the way they got the audience involved in singing they were astounding.
Tom Petty: The headliner to the whole festival actually exceeded my expectations. I never thought that Tom Petty would be so sing-along-able but the songs really do lend themselves to just that. "Learning to Fly" was probably my favorite along with "Mary Jane's Last Dance". They didn't play "You Wreck Me", but that's ok since the rest of the show was great. Halfway through it started raining like crazy…. lightening and all! The band, for fear of electrocution (wusses!) took a 45 minute break while the storm blew over. I had wanted it to rain all weekend long since I'd never been to a concert in the rain and figured it would make a good story sometime later in life. It did feel really good after the heat of the weekend and it did change the whole vibe of the crowd (mush of whom left as soon as it started to rain). After the rain stopped they finished their set with American Girl, Refugee and a few other songs. Good stuff!
Now I have Shakira w/ Wyclef this Friday in San Antonio and Rolling Stones next month. Phew! Going to be an active live music fall in Texas!
