The perfect welcome to Austin . . .
After a quick tire replacement, we hit the trail.
Last year we realized that it's much much much easier to just bike to the festival.
. . . as long as you have two working tires.
Since it was the 10th Anniversary, they had big thingys (my thesaurus failed me) that showed the lineup from each year.
2009 was my first ACL and by far my fav lineup: Pearl Jam, DMB, The Dead Weather, Phoenix, Bon Iver, Avett Brothers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ghostland Observatory, Citizen Cope, Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors, and Passion Pit.
Yikes.
Our first show to see on Saturday was Alexander (the solo project of Alex Ebert from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros)
He played mostly chill, relaxed tunes (unlike the high energy Edward Sharpe stuff), but it just wasn't the same without Jade.
We did get to hear him sing a few lines from the Edward Sharpe song "Carries On"
Just as Iron & Wine came on, the skies opened up with the perfect remedy for the hot Texas sun.
I couldn't have survived without one of my favorite purchases of all time- my jacket in a packet!
($15 from Old Navy)
This poor kid was sad he didn't have a jacket in a packet.
It was our first time to see TV on the Radio and Mr. Stevie Wonder
. . . from a very very very far distance.
We also got to see My Morning Jacket.
Pretty cool . . . kinda looks like a fat Eddie Vedder, huh?
Thankfully, we won $40 on a lottery ticket which paid for the cab downtown and the bar tab at The Head and The Heart aftershow, which was phenomenal by the way.
The Moondoggies opened for them, which was awesome to us because they are both seattle bands, and we are huuuuge fans of Seattle and the musically talented products of Seattle.
I first heard about The Head and The Heart from a list in spin magazine of "The top 35 must-hear acts of SXSW".
Usually (95% of the time) Josh is the one who gets the credit for introducing me to new awesome up and coming bands, but I get to take alllll the credit for this one.
We got to see them perform live at
Sasquatch Music Festival this past year, and immediately fell in love.
Song to download: Rivers & Roads . . . and then the rest of the album
I almost peed my pants when i overheard this conversation between two people at the show:
Girl: So who is this band? What do they sound like?
Boy: They pretty much sound like Mumford on their period.
We couldn't decide if we should laugh or be offended.
I saw this poster outside of the venue and was very entertained/shocked/fascinated.
. . . and then bright and early Sunday morning, we got to see The Head and The Heart perform allll over again.
Which was delightful.
Next up: Broken Social Scene
Josh saw them perform in Dallas this summer and was hooked. I never really gave them a fair listen until today. I can honestly say this band was the biggest surprise of the weekend. They put on an amazing live show.
They even covered Modest Mouse's "World at Large".
Songs to download: Shampoo Suicide, 7/4, and Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl
Fleet foxes never cease to amaze us.
I overheard Josh joking "How can a band full of men all have the voice of angels?"
Song to download: Sim Sala Bim
Empire of the sun melted our faces and brains with their trippy light show and costumes.
Song to download: Walking on a Dream
Arcade fire was the night 3 headliner and they were a great way to end the festival.
I get chills everyyyyytime during the chorus of wake up, never fails.
Top shows of the weekend:
1) Fleet Foxes
2) Broken Social Scene
3) The Head and The Heart Aftershow @ Antones
