ACL Day 1 (or Glowsticks Are Amazing)

The following posts will be composed as a timeline of events from Austin City Limits last weekend. For the record, this was one of the most fun weekends of the year, every year, and this year was no exception!



Friday, October 8

1:00 Jenna and I park, potentially illegally, in Tarrytown and chug a few beers for good measure before we embark on our walk to the festival. We decide that the risk is worth taking and we will probably be okay with just drinking at Deep Eddy later that night if the car is indeed towed.

1:30 Donovan Frankenreiter. Solid show, good way to ease into things. We spy a man in jeans, a white tee, and what looks like his grandmother's formal gold sequin jacket. Hands down my favorite outfit of the weekend. How he didn't pass out is beyond me, as we all know that sequins don't breathe well.

2:00 First vodka drink is poured, as Blues Traveler plays the background music for that glorious moment.

3:00 Miike Snow dazzles us with their attire (all black outfits with full silver masks), but we aren't moved to stay there the whole time. We head over to Angus & Julia Snow and enjoy a few Aussie colloquialisms before wandering back to the previous stage for the Black Keys.

4:00 Vodka supply is gone, and I vow to make amends the next day by sneaking in more (and sharing less). We are now on to beer, which I am sorry to say was exclusively sponsored by Budweiser this year. I begrudgingly drink Bud Light, and pray that I don't exhibit typical Bud Light behavior. I reminded myself once again that I must ration more vodka for Saturday.

4:30ish The Black Keys rocked, as they did in 2008 when I saw them at ACL. Michelle arrives on the scene.

Michelle and me at the Black Keys



Terrible threesome



Beautiful day, big crowd



6:00 - 8:00 Spoon is great as always. Vampire Weekend is even better, such a high energy fun show. Brie has joined us at this point with Maaaaachael, his friends and the party monster, which became our official mascot of the weekend.

Great view of Spoon



Party Monster!!!



8:00 We're all a little toasty by now, and The Strokes are on. Another great performance. The excitement is increased ten-fold when some random people in front of us start tossing out glow sticks. On top of that, I discover some new settings on my camera and hilarity ensues. At least it was pretty hilarious at the time.

This is so cool...



...especially when we've been drinking...



The Strokes



10:00 We make the long walk home, discover the car is still there, drive through Taco Cabana and call it a night. Successful first day on all accounts.

Can't. Stop. Partying.