It Rained On Our ACL Parade

Every year in Austin, TX a Music Festival known as ACL (Austin City Limits) is held at Zilker Park  (a public park that is most beloved by Austinites). It is the brain child of C3 Presents who is said to be the third largest concert promoter in the United States (just behind Live Nation and AEG Live). The promoters have gone back and forth (between the months of September and October) as to which month is better suited to hold the festival. They have set dates in September for the past 6 years, but just recently switched to the month of October. This year they decided to try something different by adding a second weekend 1.) hoping for cooler weather for the guests and bands alike  2.) for crowd control and 3.) to make a shit load of more money. As it turns out, this two weekend thing worked and therefore, looks like they will be continuing the tradition of a two weekend ACL with the exact same bands playing both. This year the Mavens decided to go the second weekend October 11th-13th, so they could help their friend Michelle celebrate her birthday. And wouldn't you know it, Richelle ended up having to work the first two days (Friday and Saturday) leaving Jenn to attend solo. Usually hubby escorts Jenn, but he had booked gigs for the same two days and wasn't able to attend either. Since they both had to work for most of it, they were really looking forward to going the whole day on Sunday. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. For the first time in history they had to cancel the last day due to a major rain storm. We had planned on going that morning even with the rain because, heck, we have weathered the mud and rain before; but this time it was more severe than in the past and rained so much that it flooded several areas of downtown Austin. Boooooo!!! As much as it sucked that it was cancelled it was of course understandable and necessary for the safety of everyone involved. C3 Presents did issue a statement on how safety was their main objective and that they would refund one third of the price of the ticket for everyone. So hubby and Richelle were bummed that they did not get to go and, therefore, this blog is from Jenn's point of view since she was the only one who got to attend.

Day one: I rode with some very dear friends, Lorry and Patrick (it was their first time and the only day they could attend) and was happy to show them the ropes. We all dressed accordingly and were prepared for rain at any time with hats, rain boots, umbrellas and ponchos. It ended up being a pretty hot day so our umbrellas came in handy to shade us from the sun. We met up with Michelle and her hubby, Jeff, and then hit the ground running to hear some great music. The first being the Courtyard Hounds (ex-members of the Dixie Chicks).

Then we moved on to the music of Fun and we definitely had "fun" watching them. They threw huge beach balls into the audience for the crowd to pass around. It was a mellow and enjoyable time. As we stood amongst the crowd the girl in front of me turned around and asked if I would share my coconut water with her. I thought it was an odd request from a perfect stranger, but she had her own cup and after looking at her sun burnt face I decided she probably needed it more than I did, so I happily filled it up.

Up next was Vampire Weekend and then afterwards we watched this great band called Electric Six. Although the guitar player looked ultra cool in his white suit and red sunglasses, we knew he was up there sweatin' his cojoñes off.  Next we headed to the Zilker tent for a real treat: The Blind Boys of Alabama. They are a must see (no pun intended). We then continued with Jimmy Eat World, Local Natives, Arctic Monkeys and Queens Of the Stone Age. All that walking around and listening to great music, in the heat, made us very hungry. Thank goodness there were many food booths to choose from with lots of delicious local Austin fare. I ended up eating at P. Terry's Burgers ... TWICE! Yep I ate there two times throughout the day. I don't know, I guess it was a burger kind of day - besides the fact I think their cheeseburgers are really yummy. See the smiles on Patrick and Lorry's faces? That was after eating P. Terry's - well, and it didn't hurt that they were watching the Queens Of The Stone Age and having a grand ole time to boot.

At the end of the night, it was Muse and Depeche Mode going head to head. I love Muse they are incredible, but I've seen them before so it was a no brainer for me - Depeche Mode all the way baby. They ROCKED it! They were so good and the lead singer David Gahan's voice was amazing. They didn't miss a beat and sounded as good as their records. Yes, I said records (I know, it's totally old school). So we ended the first night on a really high note (this pun was intended:)

Day Two: It's Michelle's birthday so we decide to meet for lunch at one of our favorite Mexican haunts (so I wouldn't be tempted to eat two cheeseburgers at the festival again). Our hubby's joined us too and thank goodness because Michelle's hubby volunteered to be the designated driver so we could drink all the margaritas we wanted. Hooray for the Hubby's!!! 

My hubby had a gig and wasn't able to attend the ACL festivities again today. He had to leave lunch early in order to make it on time, so we finished up our drinks and then piled into the car on our way to get lost in the crowds and music.

We ended up parking farther away than expected and had to walk a pretty long distance to get to the festival. But it's a good thing we did because we ran into Lionel Richie along the way so we had to stop and take a photo with him. We were like, Hello, it is us you're looking for? 'Cause we're Three Times A Lady  but Easy like Sunday morning... and it so happens that we are Truly... Stuck On You... and we'll be Dancing On the Ceiling of this Brick House... All Night Long!! Damn!! Ha Ha Ha Ha!

Once on the festival grounds, we saw many more great bands such as: Whiskey Shivers, Little Green Cars, Passion Pit, True Believers, Delta Rae, The Joy Formidable, Walk the Moon, Silversun Pickups, Wilco and Kings of Leon. As we listened to the music and traveled from stage to stage, we ran into several great friends along the way: Yolanda, Sharon, Valerie, Leslee and Gabriel.

We stopped to take a break in between acts and have a drink or two. As we were hanging around we met a shy, quiet guy from Ireland that we managed to corrupt - hee hee. As we talked, laughed and shared favorite moments of the day, I accidentally gleeked while talking. A gleek, as explained by the Urban Dictionary, is a "building up of saliva in the salivary glands using some stimulus, like food or yawning, and then pressing the tongue upon the glands, causing the saliva to shoot out, usually at an impressive distance." I was so embarrassed but my friends thought it was funny.. So they managed to talk the shy guy and I into have a gleeking contest but using our drinks instead of saliva. He won by a mile as his stream was perfectly long and steady as mine was, well... all over the place and spraying sometimes two or three streams at a time. I was acting like some kind of drunken Hillbilly by spewing my drink - classy, huh? Turns out, the guy from Ireland that I was gleeking with was none other than, Stevie, the guitar player for the Little Green Cars. How cool is that? He was a good sport as my gleek splattered all over him. Sorry, Stevie.

But I have to say, the Piéce De Resistance of day two was the Cure. Lead singer, Robert Smith sounded amazing. Even though people thought he looked like crap, I personally thought he looked the part and didn't disappoint or stray from his crazy hair, black eyeliner and red lip stick. Michelle and I did our best impersonation of him ... did we succeed?

Did you know that Robert Smith is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist who plays the guitar, flute, bass, violin and trumpet as well as being a singer/song writer? While being hypnotised by the Cure's music I got lost by myself in the crowd and made some new friends as we belted out the words to all their hits: Why Can't I Be You?, The Lovecats, Friday I'm in Love, The Caterpillar, Pictures of You and Love Song among many others. I loved every minute of it and was floating on a cloud as I listened and sang along. For me, the last two days was a once in a lifetime experience and I am very grateful for the opportunity to have witnessed all this great music. Towards the end of the night, Michelle found me in the crowd just as the first rain drop started to fall. We figured it best to head out before it started to really come down and we were lucky we did because as we were walking to the car it began to pour. We of course we had to stop and take a few photos of us in the rain because our wellies (British term for rain boots) finally came in handy. Wheeeee!!! It was a great ending to a perfect day.

As we awoke Sunday morning we received a text message that read the festival had been cancelled due to flooding, and of course we were bummed because it was the only day that hubby and Richelle could go and were really looking forward to it; but unfortunately, it just wasn't meant to be. So even though Mother Nature "rained on our ACL parade," it wasn't the end of the world because she brought us the rain we so desperately needed. So we chose to look on the bright side of things and considered the rain a beautiful gift to celebrate. Since we couldn't attend the festival, we just hung out in our pajamas, put on some Lionel Richie tunes, made a nice brunch and drank mimosas instead - taking full advantage of the blessed rainy day we had been handed. We'll see you next year ACL.