Austin City Limits: The Last Three Days of Summer

After an excruciatingly long day of traveling and a much-needed day of rest it’s finally time to reflect on the wonderful, but exhausting weekend, that was Austin City Limits.

Blessed with perfect 85 degree and cloudless weather, Austin, TX in mid-October was a welcome oasis from the rain, gloom, and strange hail in New York City. Add in a jam-packed weekend of great bands and musicians, along with a media wristband that provides delicious free food, booze, and a precious amount of shade, and you have yourself a rather perfect Columbus Day Weekend.

Going into a festival with eight stages and over 130 artists can be a nightmare to attend especially when 67,999 other people are also in attendance. In other words I never got around to seeing all the bands I wanted to see because of scheduling conflicts and fatigue.

I had no idea the sheer willpower it takes to make it through three days of a music festival. Your legs feel like spaghetti. Your back feels worse than after a long plane ride. You sweat. You most likely smell. And that doesn’t even include the unquenchable hunger caused by whatever mysterious smoke continuously filled the air and suspiciously drains your wallet.

Luckily all of Austin’s famed eating establishments came out to supply affordable and delicious snack options from steak frites sandwiches to gourmet burgers.

Out of all the performances I had the pleasure of attending five stood out amongst the rest. This does not necessarily mean they were the five best shows, because 68,000 people in a park can hinder your movement no matter how big it is.

Miike Snow

One of the best sets over the weekend happened to be the first one I saw. Miike Snow has come onto the scene strong in the past year and has been on a tear since SXSW with their eclectic and electric hits Animal, Black and Blue and Silvia. Their infectious sound had their large 3pm crowd bouncing for the entire set. But the best moment came when Vampire Weekend lead singer Ezra Koenig joined the group to preform their remix of “Kid’s Don’t Stand a Chance,” which has been a viral sensation. Koenig looked a little awkward trying to “dance” to the beat, but his voice didn’t fail him one bit.

LCD Soundsystem

Easily my favorite performance of the festival, LCD Soundsystem’s music never fails to hit my nostalgic sweet spot. This was the first time I ever had the pleasure of seeing the band live, and I’ll say this as a frequent concert “head-bobber” and nothing more, I was dancing my goofy white ass off. Their set was heavy on their recent album This Is Happening playing “Dance Yself Clean,” “Drunk Girls,” and closing out with “Home.” The highlight of the set was listening to “All My Friends” live as the sun set on Zilker Park; that and the guy in front of me was definitely tripping on ecstasy or something and was quite hilarious.

The National

The National is one of the few true rock bands still alive in today’s music scene. Led by the somber, daper, and powerful Mat Basinger, the Brooklyn based band closed the festival for those skipping out on The Eagles closing set, and did so with some gusto. Ever since their performance of “Terrible Love” on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” I’ve been itching to see The National again and with their recent album “High Violet” their setlist is impressively tighter and more moving.

The Strokes

Ok, I had a few of issues with The Strokes set. First off, they came on stage 15 minutes late in a festival where everyone else was prompt. They were supposed to play for an hour and a half, it ended up being about 50 minutes. But I can’t lie, I really truly enjoyed those 50 minutes. When they finally trotted on stage to play “Is This It” all was forgiven, and when the opening guitar cords of “Hard to Explain” were struck we were reminded how much we missed them or at least i was.

Gaslight Anthem*

It’s been well documented about how much The Gaslight Anthem sounds like a certain rock God from the Jersey Shore. I’ve been to four Springsteen concerts in my life, and I’ve never seen someone with so much energy rock for three hours. Maybe I really enjoyed Gaslight Anthem because Brian Fallon’s voice has a hint of Springsteen, or maybe their actually pretty good. Time will tell. But as for their Saturday afternoon set, they had people risking heat stroke to watch them play, and that says something.

*This is the only video not from Austin City Limits, only because I couldn’t find a good enough version. So I found one with the Boss himself.

Overall the festival was a complete success, unlike my rain-filled music festival adventures of the past. And after Monday’s three hour drive back to Houston, two and a half hour flight to Fort Lauderdale, FL, and another two and a half hour flight back to Newark, I was finally home.

However it was definitely nice to extend summer for another couple days.