Austin City Limits Festival

I have seen a lot of live music in the past four days, and now I am catching up on the blogging.

The ACL Festival was even better than last years. At first it was thought that the hurricane might ruin it, but the weekend was dry and sunny, up to 104 degrees F on Sunday. The concerts are outdoors, in a park with very little shade, and can be very rough on you. Water is very precious, and so are the few spots with shade. At several times, under the abrasive sun I asked myself "why the hell am I here?". But, there were these jewels that made it all worth it. I got to see a lot of concerts, but will just comment on the highlights (and lowdarks(?)).
On Friday I started with the Morgan Heritage concert, that was just really fun reggae. Like my friend observed, you cannot beat a rasta on stage. Reggae concerts are all about interaction with the crowd. Then, we got to see Thievery Corporation (again), they were really good, but not as good as the night before. Many people thought that it was the best concert at the festival.
On Saturday, we started early with Aqualung: good fun rock music. Built to Spill is one of those classic indie bands that have been around forever, and they can show their experience on stage with some really cool jamming. I have heard before that Death Cab for Cutie had a good live show, and it was true. Their music is just too catchy. Bloc Party was a well engineered act, that had everyone jumping and singing along. Oasis sucked. Let me say that again. Oasis sucked. The arrogance of the band was too much too take, and we ended up leaving early. Oasis, if your music isn't good, it isn't your audience's fault. Assholes.
Sunday was the longest and hottest day of the whole weekend. It started with Ambulance LTD. I have never heard those guys before, and wow, I need to get their music ASAP! M83 was a good show, they sounded just like in their albums, which is very challenging considering the electronic nature of their music. Rilo Kiley was as good as last time I saw her: a fun, very melodic show. The Bravery had horrible technical problems, and they sounded just awful. It was one of those concerts that you end up liking their music less after it. But, it was promptly forgotten with the best concert of the Festival: The Arcade Fire. 11 people, with tons of instruments from xylophones to violas to french horns. They looked like they were all nerds, rejects and outcasts in highschool. And that due to their lack of social skill, they went crazy. Their music can be anything from soothing to harsh, from order to chaos, and from rock to I don't know what it was. Their energy lifted my mood (the sun can have a strong effect on it) and made me dance and jump with them. They went crazy throwing stuff around and beating the shit out of several instruments. They were just un-fucking-believable. The only bad thing was that I wanted to see more of them. I can't wait to see if they will come to Austin again. After the concert, I went and bought their CD. Franz Ferdinand had a good show, just like the previous year, and I hear that Coldplay had a Johnny Cash cover. I say I heard, because I am not a big fan of Coldplay, and since by then I had lost contact with my friends, I decided to beat the crowd and leave after a few songs.

Which turned out to be a really good decision.