As of two weeks ago, I thought that I was going to be out of town the weekend of ACL. However, I decided to stay in town, and things worked out beautifully for me. Friday night two people called to invite me to ACL events; I had not been planning on attending at all for financial reasons.
On Saturday, Ashley, my best friend since the 2nd grade, loaned me her 3 day wrist band, because she was feeling sick. I spent the whole afternoon and evening with my two good friends Hope and Jayme, who were in town for ACL from Levelland, Texas. The weather was practically perfect, because the sun stayed hidden and the breeze kept blowing most of the day. We had some great conversation and an incredibly chill day listening to great music including: Nada Surf, Calexico, the Shins (!), the String Cheese Incident, and Willie Nelson (!). We met some very generous people at the Willie Nelson concert who shared their blanket, among other things, with us. We ended the night with Mexican Martinis and fried avocado at Trudy's. A wonderful day!
Sunday I went with pals Chris, Leanne, and Mark to stand in line to hopefully get in to the ACL taping of Sufjan Stevens and The Raconteurs. Thanks to some careful planning, we got in! (We were actually numbers 16-20 in line, so we were pretty much guaranteed to get in, but it was still exciting. Also exciting was that we hung out together from 3 PM to 11 PM nonstop, and we didn't want to kill each other!) Once inside, we were about 8 feet away from the stage, and they treated us to free beer.
Sufjan was incredible. I loved his music on CD, but live was even better! He told these adorable anecdotes about most of the songs, and the music just resonated in my soul. (I also have a huge crush on him now, but nevermind that part.) The Raconteurs were a lot of fun. Chris fulfilled a life-long dream of seeing Brendan Benson in person. They had several stops and starts, but the songs got better each time. I think I will buy their CD just for the song "Together."
All in all an incredible weekend, which I think I cheated my way into. I'll consider it a gift.
1 comment:
you and chris both want to include 16 in our group, and i respect you for it. he and his friend (let's call her 15) were really nice.
but yes, it was a great day. and i am terribly in love with the ACL taping experience overall.
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