The road to Austin, Tx was fraught with lightning storms and suicidal deer…
Right from the beginning we were short on time.
We left El Paso late in the evening and arrived in Austin at three in the morning.
We drove into down town and parked for a while at Ladybird Lake. We drank beers and discussed ancient aliens and strange personalities. It was babble fueled by too many energy drinks and pent up energy thanks to a viciously long car ride.
Since the lake was in the area of some posh apartments, there was a high danger of getting a parking ticket. So we decided to leave the area, in search of a ‘safe neighborhood’ where we can sleep in the car. We ended up south of the freeway and parked in one of the more bohemian-esque parts of the city.
It was a humid, drippy wet kind of night but we drank some final beers and fell asleep. Sleep came in spurts, at one point a screaming match over somebody’s man erupted in one of the backyards close to us. When that was over, roosters became the other sleep disturbance; as they crowed at the soon to be rising sun.
Morning came and I was drenched in a mixture of sweat and condensation, sensations you only get in a humid environment like Austin. We drudgingly forced ourselves into a more alert state and drove into downtown looking for sunglasses and beer.
We stopped at specs and picked up a case of shiner, a bottle of vodka and two boxes of wine with some lone stars and assorted beers full of hops. But, we didn’t fulfill our quest for sunglasses.
It took us a while to get to the heart of the festival, Barton Springs road, which leads into the festival grounds, good ‘ol Zilker Park.
The Austin City Limits Music Festival, which was celebrating its 10th year, is like a musical pilgrimage.
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Traffic becomes diverted and congested while sidewalks become crammed with thousands of music fans as they walk or ride a pedi-cab to the park. Along the way vendors of all sorts hawk sunglasses, water, glass pipes, t-shirts and even free hugs.
We parked in a parking garage and made our way to the festival. I picked up our press credentials and we strolled into a green field full of music and happy sweaty festival goers… The people in attendance are the festival, in the end local music freaks and outta-towners make the ACL fest come alive. The amount of people ACL attracts is vast and it’s a wonder that you’ve got to see to believe.
The day had become cloudy and rain began to fall sporadically throughout the day. At one point, the rain was so steady that everyone was drenched as they soaked up the amplified sounds of their favorite artists. That’s the cool thing about a music festival, attendees will rock out come rain or shine and in Austin, the sun shine and the rain fall can be harsh.
The first group we saw was Young the Giant. They were pretty good, their pop rock was a little too upbeat for my tastes but it was catchy and in the popular music world that’s all that matters. Afterwards, at the BMI stage, I was glad to have caught an energetic set by Chancellor Warhol, hip-hop’s newest brainy mc. Over at the Google stage, weirdo troubadour, Alexander, played a laid back modern psychedelic set and later the crowd went nuts for electronic musician Skrillex, the dub step beats he was dishing out had the crowd moving like a runaway Tsunami wave. At the Bud Light stage, Cee-Lo Green got funky with his all girl band, and somewhere along the way I vaguely remember hearing a swirling set by TV On the Radio.
The highlight of the night was witnessing Stevie Wonder perform. The music legend slowly grooved his way to center stage as he fingered a keytar with agile grace. You could tell that Stevie was very happy to be playing in front of such a wild audience. The prodigious musician, is very active on stage, you’d think he would just be sitting behind his piano, but the guy can move folks. At one point, Stevie dropped to his knees and played his keytar while lying on his back as he thrusted his hips into the air.
The energy he and his band had induced goose bumps because your brain knew it was witnessing something significant and monumental. All day long, many people mentioned how Stevie Wonder was THE performance to catch, it had ‘once in a lifetime show’ written all over it.
As Stevie led the group through the final songs of the set, Joey and I began leaving the festival. On our way out, we witnessed the last thunderous chords of My Morning Jacket’s set.
The day had taken its toll on us and we were in need of food and sleep. Some friends were generous enough to let us crash on their couch.
Unfortunately, we were only able to squeeze in one day of the festival, time did not permit for us to enjoy even an hour of day three of the festival.
We had to get on the road to El Paso, but we had our fun as we tried to swallow a music festival in one gulp, we almost choked, but we drove out of the weird music city alive and in one piece. In our short journey, We raged, Drove endlessly and enjoyed ourselves Vigorously.
by M. De Santiago
photographs by Joey Lozano
