Austin City Limits 2011 : Recap

After sprinkles of rain, dripping sweat, and several bike rides later, Austin City Limits 2011 is over and C3 has already set a date for 2012. Sidenote: it will be in October - and thank goodness for that. Even though we got lucky with the weather for the most part this year, having it in October will put everyone's minds and body temperatures at rest.

Overall, I thought that it went by pretty smoothly, this year I went by bike and it was significantly faster than going on foot or getting dropped off. I would suggest it to anyone with a bike and some courage. What did I learn from biking? It's fun, fast, and really scary sometimes.

Here's a recap of some of the shows I went to:

Friday: Here is the flag I made. If you guys have watched Pixar's film, Up, you should recognize it. It is a replica of Russell's Wilderness Explorer pennant flag. I made one for the group like I did last year and that's generally how we met up, it's a great tool. It wasn't as big as the others but it did the job.

Here I am at Big Boi's act. Nostalgia rushed through when he played "Ms. Jackson" and everyone in the crowd sang along. It was pretty good set for my Friday afternoon.

I missed Delta Spirit's act because one of our bike tires blew out on the way to Zilker Park but no fear, we met them at the Waterloo Signing Tent. They were super nice, very friendly, did I mention good looking? I heard that they had a great set too, watch some videos hosted by ACL's YouTube.

Yes, I chose Coldplay and I totally think it was worth it. A bias opinion because I don't listen to Kayne as much. But specifically talking about Coldplay, they did play a lot of their new songs like "Charlie Brown", "Paradise", "Myloto Xyloto", but they encored with "Clocks", a rendition of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" that played into "Fix You". Their light show was absolutely spectacular. The lasers. It's all about those lasers. Watch some of the videos here.

Saturday:

Saturday started off with some sprinkles which cooled down the atmosphere. I was so thankful...until Dallas Green made us flick off the cloud and jinxed us. The 2-hr light shower was nice while it lasted. On the musical sense though, Dallas Green of City & Colour was great. "Body In A Box" sounded as heart-wrenching live as it does in his album. 

And then there's Skrillex. I find it absolutely amazing how cooperative humans can be as a crowd when there is a person on stage telling us to do things. We raise our hands, shout "new shit", and jump up and down. It's fascinating and I'm guilty of joining in on all of those things.

TV On The Radio was by far my favorite show of the whole festival. We were pretty close to the stage, the sound was big and loud, the crowd made it a gigantic festival, and I loved every second of it. One little treasure was that we stood next to this man who had a "mister". He would use this pump to get the water (I really don't know how it worked) and then mist himself...and then everyone within distance of him. It was very refreshing. Did I mention that I saw Mr. Batman aka Christian Bale? Well, there's my mention. I don't know why he was at ACL but he has some good taste standing side-stage at TV On The Radio.

Zilker Park// ATX Skyline

Sunday: 

My friend and I really wanted to see The Head And The Heart and I'm so glad we did. Although the sun was shining brightly, we were in good company and a great performance. Charity Rose, the violinist and vocalist in the group really took me by surprise. She belted it out during songs like "Winter Song" and especially "Rivers and Roads". It left me going woah and imagine, she used to be a manger at Anthropologie.

Sidenote: I unfortunately missed Fleet Foxes for the most part but I say "most" because as I was riding into the festival on my bike, "Helplessness Blues" was playing in the background. It was like a victory song coming into the park and I thought that was perfect timing. 

Closing with Arcade Fire, Austin City Limits 2011, I'd say was a success. I've still got an ACL hang over and I can't wait to see what C3 has in store for us next year. (Please bring Florence Welch...)