I’m pretty sure everyone loves Austin. Well, at least lovers of live music. And… probably foodies as well. There are a lot of things that make Austin so special but, at it’s core, it’s the people that make it so great. It’s the residents who support all the live music and the great coffee shops and restaurants around town. As an example, Austin City Limits festival sold out almost 2 months ahead of time. That’s pretty much unheard of these days.
One thing you can always count on at ACL is a solid and diverse lineup. The headliners are pretty similar to other festivals, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews, Kings of Leon, but there’s always a ton of local music on the bill and they also pull in a lot of Southern/New Orleans talent to keep everyone happy.
This was our last major festival of the year and we were wrapping up our Road Trippin’ with Ice Cream Man video series so we got a little sentimental and booked way more performances than we could possibly air (if there’s any bands reading this… sorry, it only happened once). The downside of having so many artists play in or around the truck is that there wasn’t much time left to get out and see the bands that were playing. The upside was that we had a great parking space which was only a hundred yards or so from the Dell stage which had tons of great bands on it (Bon Iver, Felice Brothers, Andrew Bird, Dr. Dog, Grizzly Bear, Blitzen Trapper, Dirty Projectors and more) and we could listen to their sets while slinging.
Friday was the nicest weather I’ve ever seen for ACL. They moved the festival back a couple weeks which helped some and it’s much nicer in October than risking a super-hot day in September. Blitzen Trapper was the main band we had locked down on Friday and our whole crew was pretty jazzed about it. There are just some bands you know will sound good with the gear and environments we work in and they’re a slam dunk. Not too long before they were to stop by I got word from Daniel Johnston’s manager that he had about 10 free minutes and was willing to play a song for us. I rallied the troops and since we had so little time we just went behind some trailers to shoot. Daniel and his crew were talking about what to play and eventually settled on “True Love Will Find You In The End.” I was so excited I was shaking. It was a bit hard to pull it together for Blitzen Trapper but it worked out perfect with those guys because we found a great spot below a bridge where they setup to play a couple tracks.
Of course, if Friday was perfect, we had to pay the price on Saturday. A storm moved in and it ended up raining most of the day. The wet slowed down the cream slinging which made me sad but what was even worse was that the Parks Department of Austin and ACL’s promoters spent a ton of money on putting in new sprinklers and grass at Zilker Park and I was worried it was going to be completely torn up by the end of the festival. While it was raining we ran into our friend Brittany who brought Brett Dennen by for a quick in-truck performance. I kept leaning my head further in the window so I could hear better.
The weather got a bit better on Sunday but the mud only got worse. When I walked out to see Rodriguez I had to tiptoe through the mud just to avoid sinking or slipping. We made it work though and had a surprisingly busy day. Wayne, one of our directors, had seen Suckers and Here We Go Magic play in NYC recently and got them to stop by to play. Since it was the last time anyone was going to be playing the little white keyboard we’ve been using all summer I donated it to Here We Go Magic. Crossing fingers they’ll find a way to use it on their new album. Later in the day our extended family friends, The Henry Clay People stopped by and we headed back under the bridge to get and got some good stuff while it was drizzling around us. The highlight of the day was Rodriguez performing “Forget It.” What’s with these old dudes rocking the best tracks lately?
We saved just enough ice cream so that we could give some out during Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s set. They have a song called “Ice Cream” and asked us if we’d be interested in helping them with some out with some frozen treats. It was so nice to lock up the truck and to dance along to some music before hopping on stage and helping the band give away a couple hundred pieces. If you ever get a chance to give away ice cream from a stage, I highly recommend it.
We stuck around for 4 hours waiting for things to slow down so we could drive Newt out only to be shot down by some a-hole security guard who said there was too much going on … even after waiting four hours to find the best time. I snapped a pic of the truck and the exit and NO ONE in between the two but…. can’t argue with security guards, they’re always right.
Luck have it I got to stick around Austin for almost a week and hang out with friends, eat at Hoover’s, drink Cuvee coffee, check out the new High Ball Bowling Alley, and hang out in Dripping Springs, where we threw our wrap/end of summer party after ACL. That’s a whole nother story there that the video will have to show for itself. Thanks Nakia for stopping by to play. And to Pee Wee Herman for offering to be a target for our post morning fun.
What a summer.
