ACL, Day 3

The Line Up
Baby Cuddling  AWOL Nation  Broken Social Scene
Elbow      Fleet Foxes     Empire of the Sun     Arcade Fire

No, baby cuddling is not some weird indie band-- we stopped by Grace's before the festival to see the beautiful new mama and sweet, sleepy little JD. He is a good seven pounds now, and wearing tiny pants and everything!

I particularly love these pictures of Carmen and Tanya holding him because they look soooo interested and he looks soooo ... well, not.

We learned our lesson for the final day of the festival: meet your friends outside the gates before the masses descend and the cell reception goes missing. An unsent text is no one's friend!

The AWOL Nation crowd was a persnickety bunch, and I include myself in that number. The unspoken rules of navigating the crowd during a show are thus: 1. Choose the path of least resistance 2. Watch out for the people in chairs, they are pre- mad about all the people who are going to trip over their chair, and they only get madder when you actually do it. 3. Choose the path of least resistance.
Even though I was standing next to a guy in a chair, and there was an obvious path to my left, about fifty people decided that the best way to go was making me move out of the way so they could slip by chair guy. I got annoyed, but chair guy took it to the next level-- he sat in his chair, texting mind you, with his legs straight out in front of him so that people would have climb over to get past us. I kind of wanted to be him.

I thought at first that I didn't know who AWOL Nation was... and then they started playing that Sail song. That's about all I have to say about them.

Next was Broken Social Scene, who I know I think were really good-- it was just so beepin hot, we looked like this for most of the show:

Next was Elbow. Yep, you heard that correctly. Elbow. Tanya had been raving about them for weeks, but I was a bit skeptical-- surely this band cannot possibly be named after a body part, right? According to Wikipedia, their name was once "Mr Soft", so I guess Elbow is an improvement? Hard call to make.

Elbow (ok, now that I have typed that word three times in a row, it has lost all possible meaning and does in fact sound like a great band name) turned out to be one of my favorite acts of the festival-- and they brought a glorious light rain shower to cool everything down!

If we are talking possible renames, I would say that either 'Supplication' or 'Handout' would fit; the singer always looked like he was asking us to give him something:

See?
We flitted from Elbow to Fleet Foxes, who sounded just like they always sound (amazing) and dressed just like they always dress (in flannel). I would like to say that I am fantastic at taking group pictures with my left hand, but trying to fit four people in was kind of stretching it...

... so some kind lady offered to help me out. There are a few things I love about this picture: 1. That guy in the red hat's face behind me. 2. That guy in the grey shirt's face sitting next to him 3. The fact that I didn't think now the was time to assume a more ladylike position.

After Fleet Foxes, we watched Empire of the Sun as the sun set over the final day of the festival, grabbed a quick bite from the fancy food stands (P.Terry's) and then took our places in the field for Arcade Fire.

I know that indie music as a genre is not broadly appealing or well known (for further clarification, see the meaning of the term 'indie') and that the ACL headliners are generally both of these things. But, whatever. I loved it. And you know what, this is Austin Music Festival! Austin! Home to Leslie and those cows and the Longhorn Network. We do what we want and sometimes it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

So: ACL 2011, in Conclusion:

1. Ray LaMontagne is amazing in any setting, may he be shoeless, mic-less or in a crushed red velvet suit.
2. Christian Bale will eventually show up if you look for him everywhere, every day for your whole life.

3. Make plans like you don't have a cell phone more often. As in, use concrete details and include contingencies for if something falls through or someone gets lost. Kind of like 'dance like no one's watching', except with more practical applications.

4. Don't judge a band by their name. Judge a band by their crappy songs that play on the radio all the time.

5. Try naming more things (children, bands, activities) after abstract things (fruit, body parts, activities). If celebrities can do it, I can too. I wanted to name my daughter Chevrolet until I was ten years old... maybe it is time to resurrect that dream.

6. I need to listen to more music-- there is so much good stuff out there to be heard!
Until next year...