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Monday, September 20, 2004
To Blog Or Not to Blog Hello dear readers. Once again too much time has passed since last blogging. Lots of events happening here in Texas, some far too complicated to be adequately described here. Including, but not limited to, "The Near Ass-Whooping of Adam and The Events Surrounding". So far, I have told the story to a select few. Based on their reactions I have decided that it would be better to hold this sordid tale in reserve for future face-to-face or phone-to-face conversations, like say, in October. Hoo Ha. Looking forward to it. Lets Move on. Austin City Limits Music Festival As previously posted here I purchased a ticket my ticket to this bluntastic event some time ago. Can't say I've seen anything like it. 90,000 people gathered together for 3 days of sweet, sweet music. While I didn't stick to my original list as much as I would have liked, the "must see" bands were all covered: The Killers Sheryl Crow Modest Mouse Monte Montgomery The Pixies The North Mississippi All-Stars Elvis Costello Spoon Wilco Cake All in all a great line up. The only true disappointment being Modest Mouse. They sounded like shit YO! I don't know if it was my position in relation to the stage or if they were having sound difficulties or what but......just.....shit. The surprise of the festival goes to Monte Montgomery, a local Austin artist who I had never heard of until Friday when we had him in studio on our radio show. He sounded good enough then to pique my interest but his album is far too mellow for me. Luckily, I still went to see him and he blew my mind in concert. He can play a guitar for all its worth and then some. If you have the means, I suggest getting the song When Will I off itunes and go from there. The other bands that I really enjoyed are The Killers (also sounded amazing live) The Pixies, and Wilco (duh). But the band that rose above all others was none other than: CAKE! Here's what put them above all the rest 1. Song Selection - They played a couple songs from all of their albums and hit all their marks. They played a bunch of Fashion Nugget but they didn't bow to audience expectations (i.e. they didn't play The Distance) which I liked. I would rather hear Daria anyway. 2. Random Dancing Guy - Some dude dressed in a 3 piece polyester suit had been backstage for most of the set but when Cake started Italian Leather Sofa he came out on stage and danced for the entire song. His "go to" move seemed to be The Twirl which made for some truly hilarious moments. 3. Audience Participation - You gotta love a band that can engage the audience. They opened with Sheep Go to Heaven which has a recorded bit where the backup voices sing anyway, so it makes for a logical choice to get the crowd into it. The patented crowd clap was present during Comfort Eagle as well. But most importantly, it's great to find yourself in a social situation where it is acceptable to yell "Shut the fuck!" a bunch of times (during Nugget). Very liberating. 4. Bam! Second Encore! - Encores at the festival were very rare. As in they never happened. Usually the band played the time allotted and got the hell out. But the crowd (myself included) needed more dammit. So, Cake came back once and played Never There (which was probably the highlight of the set). Then they left only to return again with I Will Survive. Good times. I saw these guys in '99 and they have grown by leaps and bounds as a live band since then. It was so surprising that I was babbling about it long afterwards. And I still am, only in blog form. So that about sums it up. Here's hoping there are more ACL Festivals in my future and that next time it won't be ninety-fucking-five degrees every damn day. I will leave you with a list of things I'm looking forward to over the next week: The new Green Day album Star Wars on DVD Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on DVD Shuffleboard and lots of it. • • • • •
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Booze-Induced Frustration      |