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Just after I took my shoes off after coming home tonight I stepped on a stickerburr. Somewhere along the line this stuckerburr latched on to me from the weekend at Zilker Park. Compared to last year the park seemed to be a stickerburr paradise, and after a moment of putting down our ground cover it was covered with grass, dust, dirt and stickerburrs.
I think we noticed from the first moment we hit the park that everything was much, much dryer. It hadn't rained in Austin, and much of the rest of the state for several weeks. Instead of the light green the grass was last year, this year it was a crispy light brown. On friday it still wasn't set in stone where Hurricane Rita would land, so there was a few clouds floating around, and there was a building breeze throughout the day that kept it from being so oppressively hot.
I had just come in from Houston a few hours previously, and woke up earlier than I thought I would, probably because the air mattress Chris (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
f__k) and I were on was deflating, and CJ (prowlerbear) and Charlie were cooking breakfast nearby. I even jumped in the pool before getting ready for the show. Still, by the time we got in the car with Owen (murphy) and Dave (meatybear) and ran for the busses, I was wiped. I nodded off on the bus. I also felt tired lugging the chairs around the park to the first band.
Chris and I pretty much stood still for the bands we saw on Friday, they were mostly at the same stage. Kasabian was finishing up their set, and we stayed to see Mates of State, Spoon and then as the sun finally started to fall, Keane. Our companions came and went, at times people like Schnitz (schnitz_mi) and Will (sunflower1969) or Matty (mattycub), Jeff (jeffbear63) and "That Guy" ([Bad username or site: someonewhocantbementionedinapost @ livejournal.com]) would go off to see Lucinda Williams and others like Alex (darke) and Scott (xkot) and Kevin (sonoranbear) would go off somewhere else. Later we found Ben and Matt (traderbear) and Nyland (I think that was his name) who stayed with us for a while. We were hoping this year that we'd be able to attract some other bears who weren't in our group to just to get to know some more folks, and we did manage to do it, which was great.
Now I have to say something about Keane. They were the band I was most looking forward to on Friday, but I had heard that they we're a little mediocre in performance. Really, they produced the songs they sung with the same feeling as you hear on the album. The thing about them is they have all of the body-language subtlety of William Shatner. I guess they, all three of them, have to let you know that they are really feeling these songs.
We caught a little of Lyle Lovett's show, but we were so far back, and he seemed rather unenergetic, so we headed back to home camp where CJ and Charlie had put out a large spread of picnic foods. They were so good to us. We also found that Will (pressedkhakis), Nathan (bigbearok), Jay (jaybear) and Paul (bearpawly) had joined us. We swam the night away, but eventually I had to crash, and ended up on the floor because I was so tired.
Saturday found where we didn't have a band we wanted to see for hours, and it was very hot, as Rita's wrath wasn't going to be felt in Austin. Instead with Alex, Jay and Scott wanted to go to the new Cabela's to shop for outdoor goods and hot men. chris and I joined them to get a new air mattress, and we totally scored with a deluxe model (mattress, not the men, unfortunately, but they were hot). Chris wasn't feeling so good and I was tired, so the two of us never made it to the venue and we had to miss Death Cab for Cutie and Block Party. Still, we missed the incredible dust storm that took over the field in the afternoon. Everyone coming back to the home was covered in it.
We started kind of late on Sunday, again because of the intense heat. We skipped a few of the early acts and caught the meat of the lineup, the fantastic Arcade Fire, the fun Decemberists and a smidge of Wilco before moving over to Franz Ferdinand. While we were crossing the field, Chris and I needed to pick up some more shaved ice, so I got in line after we spotted some really hot guys, one shirtless with the best set of hairy pecs I had seen all weekend. After I got the ice, I couldn't find where Chris went. Chris had gone off to stand near the guys, and pull out the flag from his backpack. We had brought the Bear Flag to alert our group to where we were, but also for moments like this, to try to attract others. After getting the trio's attention while doing a totally fake "I need to fold this" moment, he waived me over and we talked to these hunks for a while. a nice distraction, but we were unable to attract them over for the Coldplay show.
Still, the rest of our group had managed to find several others, including Owen's roommate's twin brother and the former OvenMittCub who did join us, so we have several people to get to know as we waited for Coldplay to come on. Unfortunately the dust storm had come back, and I was coughing like crazy. There was a brown haze over the entire park. in a way, it made the lights from the stage a little more interesting, but it also made you want to cover your mouth and close your eyes. Someone likened it to the dust storms at Burning Man.
Coldplay played a nice set, a little longer than most acts. We were far, far away, but the sound was OK. It wasn't super exciting, but pleasing. The funny thing is that Chris Martin couldn't stop going on about the Arcade Fire. He ended up not only singing their praises, but also singing their name into several songs.
We got out easily onto the busses (Andy - OvenMittcub caring one of my chairs) and back to the car. If there is one amazing thing about the festival is that they are so great with their logistics. Things generally move very, very smoothly, except for the dust. I have two suggestions, have it a few weeks later in the year, and water the field in the morning.
When we got back to the house, some folks had already left, and it was sad that I couldn't say goodbye. Still, with 17 of us in the house, there were always going to be differing agendas. What was incredible was how great CJ and Charlie were about having their house descended upon by 17 of us, and they kept giving. They also have a great dog, Wallace. They also have one of the neatest hot tubs around - it's crazy with features and gadgets.
Well, our bear group doubled from last year's ACL trip, and I guess we might all just do it again next year, since it keeps being such a quality event. I'm not sure CJ and Charlie will want to host again, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Still, if you can stand the heat, you will be rewarded.
I think we noticed from the first moment we hit the park that everything was much, much dryer. It hadn't rained in Austin, and much of the rest of the state for several weeks. Instead of the light green the grass was last year, this year it was a crispy light brown. On friday it still wasn't set in stone where Hurricane Rita would land, so there was a few clouds floating around, and there was a building breeze throughout the day that kept it from being so oppressively hot.
I had just come in from Houston a few hours previously, and woke up earlier than I thought I would, probably because the air mattress Chris (
f__k) and I were on was deflating, and CJ (prowlerbear) and Charlie were cooking breakfast nearby. I even jumped in the pool before getting ready for the show. Still, by the time we got in the car with Owen (murphy) and Dave (meatybear) and ran for the busses, I was wiped. I nodded off on the bus. I also felt tired lugging the chairs around the park to the first band.Chris and I pretty much stood still for the bands we saw on Friday, they were mostly at the same stage. Kasabian was finishing up their set, and we stayed to see Mates of State, Spoon and then as the sun finally started to fall, Keane. Our companions came and went, at times people like Schnitz (
schnitz_mi) and Will (sunflower1969) or Matty (mattycub), Jeff (jeffbear63) and "That Guy" ([Bad username or site: someonewhocantbementionedinapost @ livejournal.com]) would go off to see Lucinda Williams and others like Alex (darke) and Scott (xkot) and Kevin (sonoranbear) would go off somewhere else. Later we found Ben and Matt (traderbear) and Nyland (I think that was his name) who stayed with us for a while. We were hoping this year that we'd be able to attract some other bears who weren't in our group to just to get to know some more folks, and we did manage to do it, which was great.Now I have to say something about Keane. They were the band I was most looking forward to on Friday, but I had heard that they we're a little mediocre in performance. Really, they produced the songs they sung with the same feeling as you hear on the album. The thing about them is they have all of the body-language subtlety of William Shatner. I guess they, all three of them, have to let you know that they are really feeling these songs.
We caught a little of Lyle Lovett's show, but we were so far back, and he seemed rather unenergetic, so we headed back to home camp where CJ and Charlie had put out a large spread of picnic foods. They were so good to us. We also found that Will (
pressedkhakis), Nathan (bigbearok), Jay (jaybear) and Paul (bearpawly) had joined us. We swam the night away, but eventually I had to crash, and ended up on the floor because I was so tired.Saturday found where we didn't have a band we wanted to see for hours, and it was very hot, as Rita's wrath wasn't going to be felt in Austin. Instead with Alex, Jay and Scott wanted to go to the new Cabela's to shop for outdoor goods and hot men. chris and I joined them to get a new air mattress, and we totally scored with a deluxe model (mattress, not the men, unfortunately, but they were hot). Chris wasn't feeling so good and I was tired, so the two of us never made it to the venue and we had to miss Death Cab for Cutie and Block Party. Still, we missed the incredible dust storm that took over the field in the afternoon. Everyone coming back to the home was covered in it.
We started kind of late on Sunday, again because of the intense heat. We skipped a few of the early acts and caught the meat of the lineup, the fantastic Arcade Fire, the fun Decemberists and a smidge of Wilco before moving over to Franz Ferdinand. While we were crossing the field, Chris and I needed to pick up some more shaved ice, so I got in line after we spotted some really hot guys, one shirtless with the best set of hairy pecs I had seen all weekend. After I got the ice, I couldn't find where Chris went. Chris had gone off to stand near the guys, and pull out the flag from his backpack. We had brought the Bear Flag to alert our group to where we were, but also for moments like this, to try to attract others. After getting the trio's attention while doing a totally fake "I need to fold this" moment, he waived me over and we talked to these hunks for a while. a nice distraction, but we were unable to attract them over for the Coldplay show.
Still, the rest of our group had managed to find several others, including Owen's roommate's twin brother and the former OvenMittCub who did join us, so we have several people to get to know as we waited for Coldplay to come on. Unfortunately the dust storm had come back, and I was coughing like crazy. There was a brown haze over the entire park. in a way, it made the lights from the stage a little more interesting, but it also made you want to cover your mouth and close your eyes. Someone likened it to the dust storms at Burning Man.
Coldplay played a nice set, a little longer than most acts. We were far, far away, but the sound was OK. It wasn't super exciting, but pleasing. The funny thing is that Chris Martin couldn't stop going on about the Arcade Fire. He ended up not only singing their praises, but also singing their name into several songs.
We got out easily onto the busses (Andy - OvenMittcub caring one of my chairs) and back to the car. If there is one amazing thing about the festival is that they are so great with their logistics. Things generally move very, very smoothly, except for the dust. I have two suggestions, have it a few weeks later in the year, and water the field in the morning.
When we got back to the house, some folks had already left, and it was sad that I couldn't say goodbye. Still, with 17 of us in the house, there were always going to be differing agendas. What was incredible was how great CJ and Charlie were about having their house descended upon by 17 of us, and they kept giving. They also have a great dog, Wallace. They also have one of the neatest hot tubs around - it's crazy with features and gadgets.
Well, our bear group doubled from last year's ACL trip, and I guess we might all just do it again next year, since it keeps being such a quality event. I'm not sure CJ and Charlie will want to host again, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Still, if you can stand the heat, you will be rewarded.
