It’s around 8 P.M but it’s been dark for hours. It’s been pouring for hours. You have been drinking for hours. But you charge on. The rain doesn’t faze you, nor does the screaming crowd: there’s just too much love amidst the music, mud and happy hippies.
You hear loud, twisted noises and a high pitched voice screeching through a microphone. You decide to stop bouncing for a hot minute to look up and take your best mental note of Ghostland Observatory performing “Sad, Sad City.” It’s an experience that is so surreal, it is hard to verbalize.
The next thing you know, you are best friends with some dude wearing a Darth Vader mask. You dance with him amidst the insane sounds and light matches under his trash bag before grabbing other randos to break it down in the mud. Everyone is in love with everyone: holding hands, rubbing heads, and jumping up and down as the music seeps out of the speakers and floods the drenched masses.
Are you in hipster heaven? No, it’s called Austin City Limits.
Located in the open fields of Zilker Park, ACL thoroughly delivered in the music department. Headliner’s included, Kings of Leon, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dave Matthews Band, Ghostland Observatory, Ben Harper, Pearl Jam. And countless other bands made appearances, such as Thievery Corporation, Them Crooked Vultures, John Legend, Phoenix, Citizen Cope, Mos Def, STS9, Bon Iver, The Dead Weather, Arctic Monkeys, Girls Talk, Passion Pit, etc, etc. The list goes on.
The festival, in all its greatness, can only be defined by moments: most of the weekend is a wet blur to me. But those moments, which will be forever imprinted in my mind, were amazing. Like watching Phoenix’s lead singer, Thomas Mars, jump off the stage to swim through devoted, screaming fans, or seeing some crazy chicks break dance in the mud during STS9, or listening to Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon pour out his singing soul to the point where a couple of people were actually crying (and some silent hippies told us to “stop talking and actually feel the music, man”). And I will never forget how a belly dancer came out to shake her stuff during a kickass show by my new obsession, Thievery Corporation, or listening to Mos Def cover Radiohead’s “All I Need,” or sitting on the ground amongst thousands to wait for the much anticipated and much loved Kings of Leon show.
But what made ACL so great was not just the festival but also the city itself. It’s hard not to become thoroughly obsessed with Austin, especially when you are surrounded by people who love good music. At some point during the show, Kings of Leon lead singer, Caleb Followill expressed his love for Austin, saying that it “is one of the best cities in the world.” Mr. Followill, I second that.
