ACL continued

First, sorry to Zalm. The day was just too damn long. And the crush of people too much.

But it was a good day anyway. Started with Centro-Matic early in the afternoon and they did not disappoint. Great voice--perhaps one of the best in the biz, and good songs. They played one (I believe "Covered up in Mines") dedicated to the "Great Ann Richards." Great song, and it was a nice touch. Saw a guy with an Ann Richards t-shirt later. Had the thought that if Chimpy speaks at Ann's funeral, it should be a three word speech: "I am sorry."

Back to the festival. Next we ran around the arts and crafts part, and listened to a band called "Ghostland Observatory." They were intriguing for about 10 minutes, but played for 60. Oh well. Back to the AT&T stage for Ben Kweller. This was an event, I tell you.

Bleeding stops Kweller | ACL Festival - General: "Poor Ben Kweller. Just before he came onstage, he got a double nosebleed, delaying his Saturday AT&T Stage set for 10 minutes. And it didn't stop once he started performing. Grabbing a towel, the
Texas-raised 25-year-old declared, "I feel like Nolan Ryan" (after the baseball player's famous ball smack to the face), and promised, "I'll do this until it gets too disgusting."

"If you don't care, I don't care," he added. "I'm not gonna bleed to death in front of you."

Except that isn't what he said. He said, "I will fucking bleed to death in front of you." As you see from the pic, he used a, ah... alternative method for stopping the bleeding until it expanded too much. After blood on the guitar and piano, he called it quits. Damn shame because he sounded great.

From there it was just too crowded to even move. Off to Nada Surf (who was completely unimpressive. And the crowd was really, ah...crowdy.

From there, we fought our way back to hear the Shins (and they sounded great) but again, the crowds. We were very far back and the bass was a bit distorted back there. Streak started looking more than a little rough and tired. He decided to try some beer which helped (a little). Never fear, that is perfectly legal, which should be noted, because during our viewing of Centro-matic, we observed people smoking something that was not tobacco.




We ended the day with Calexico who was very impressive. Almost enough to blunt the fact that Oregon beat OU on multiple bad calls.

Good day, though. Good day. Oh... Pizza is here. Later