Ever since they announced the 130+ bands and artists lined up for the 2003 Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival, I've been anxiously this weekend. Here's how I saw it:

Friday

Since I get off work at 11:00 on Fridays, I was able to get to the ACL Festival before the big after-work crowds.

I wanted to get out there early enough to catch Shawn Colvin at 1:00, but I had a hard time finding a good place to park. I had my bike in the back of my Jeep, and ended up parking at about ¾ of a mile away, and rode my bike up to the front gate. This turned out to be the best way to go. Each day I did the same thing, and it only took about 5 minutes total to park, get out my bike, and ride to the front gate. I heard and saw horror stories about waiting for cabs or the shuttle buses.

I got to the front gate at 2:30, walked straight up to the ticket-taker, had my collapsible chair bag searched (very brief search…they merely patted down the outside of the bag checking for obvious bulges…they weren't thorough enough to catch the 3 cold beers packed neatly in the center of the bag).

With over 130 bands performing on 8 stages over 3 days, I had already mapped out my itinerary on the Band Schedule. So I immediately headed over to the first stage to watch one of the top must-see's on my list, Liz Phair. It was a typically perfect Austin-day…upper 80's, perfectly sunny sky, and just a slight breeze. I set up my chair about 100 from the front of the stage. There weren't too many people, and most people were spread out spaciously on the large grassy area in front of the stage.

Austin is renowned for it's beautiful women. And on a hot, sunny festival day…the skimpy shorts, bikinis, and bared midriff shirts on all the Austin co-eds made for some interesting people watching.

As soon as Liz finished up, I packed up my chair, and walked about 200 yards over to a small stage set up under two large Live Oak trees to watch Robert Earl Keen's all-acoustic set. Still being early in the day, I was able to walk up to about 15 feet of the small stage. Even without his band, REK is amazing. His "Christmas" song had the entire crowed singing along.

Sly showed up just after REK finished playing, so I met him at the front gate, and then we headed over to one of the main stages to watch Galactic, one of the premier New Orleans-based jazz-funk bands in the spirit of the Meters and the Neville Brothers. Nearly everyone in the crowd was swaying or dancing in the afternoon sun.

We decided to find a spot in some shade near the same stage and wait for the next band, Steve Winwood, which wouldn't start for another hour. Steve Winwood started playing just before the sun started setting. The crowd had grown considerably, but it was still mellow, and was spread pretty evenly between the two main stages (Robert Earl Keen playing with his full band). It was an amazing sunset, and the temperature was cooling down into the mid-70's. It was one of the most relaxing and enjoyable evenings I've had in my life. And when Steve Winwood cranked up "High Life", it was almost surreal.

Greg and I headed for the main gate just before the end of the Steve Winwood show. I grabbed my bike, and rode around towards the back of the main stage, where I stayed and listed to a the first two songs from Al Green. It was like being in church. Amazing voice.

Riding back towards my Jeep, I stopped near the other main stage and listened to Dwight Yoakum sing for a few minutes.

Saturday

My plan was to get out to the festival when the gates opened at 11:00 so I could watch Jane Bond, Teri Hendrix, and then Tift Merritt…all before 3:00. However, Shannon wasn't feeling good, so I waited to see if she would feel better later. Eventually she decided that she didn't feel up to going, so I headed out a little later than planned.

I got to the main stage about 45 minutes before Patty Griffin (one of my other must-sees). I put my chair down about 75 feet from the front of the stage next to group of about 8 women who were spread out on a large blanket with 2-3 chairs around it. Only one of them lived in Austin. The others were from San Antonio, Arizona, and Colorado. In fact, over the weekend, I would meet more people who were NOT from Austin than who did live here.

Patty Griffin came on at 5:00, and despite a light drizzle (which lasted all day and night), the crowd was considerably bigger than it had been on Friday. Patty's voice was amazing, and she seemed to give so much of herself during her performance. Her final song, Let Him Fly was probably the highlight of the entire weekend for me.

Since Shannon wasn't feeling well, I told her I wouldn't stay long. If I had stayed the entire night, I would have kept my chair parked where it was, and watched Nickel Creek and then Pat Green on the same stage. But since their performances where an hour apart, I walked over and listened to the last 15 minutes of the Bruce Robison acoustic set (on the same small stage under the Live Oak tree that Robert Earl Keen played on the day before). After Bruce was finished, I went by one last stage, and listened to the last half hour of Ruthie Foster.

Between Ruthie and Al Green the night before, I should have enough 'Church' to last me until next year's festival.

Sunday

When I was planning my itinerary for Sunday, my plan was to get there when the gates opened, and get the best spot I could in front of the Cingular main stage. The four bands that would play on this stage were Bob Schneider, Lucinda Williams, Jack Johnson, and Ben Harper. After that we could walk to the other end of the park to watch the show's headliner, REM.

But, it was still a little rainy on Sunday, and I decided to stay home and watch the Houston Texans get their asses whipped by the Chiefs. Shannon and I left about 3:30, and managed to find a small patch of grass between the already tremendously large crowd gathered to see Jack Johnson.

<rant> We were all situated about half an hour before the show started, but we were getting frustrated by the number of people who got there much later, but insisted upon shoving their way closer to the stage, despite the fact that there wasn't any room closer up. Damn kids…they all appeared to be any where from 14-23, high, dressed like idiots (if I see another person who's not at least 65 years old wearing a foam-front logo cap, I'm going to rip it off their head and stick it up their ass), and rude and inconsiderate as all hell. I'll stick by my claim that I have nothing but disdain and contempt for anybody between the ages of 13-21. Sorry if you fall within that range; you'll eventually grow out of it, and you'll understand what I mean. </rant>

Jack Johnson has become one of Shannon and mine's favorite artist, despite his second album only having a couple of good songs. But his first album, Brushfire Fairytales, is amazing. Jack Johnson was the artist that we most wanted to see. His set was good, but I was a little disappointed. He's just not that energetic of a performer; the laid-back surfer boy was just that. I think that one of the biggest problems was that a large percentage of the crowd didn't know much about him or his music, and they just never got into it.

The closest he got to really moving the crowd was when G Love of G. Love and Special Sauce joined him on stage to sing one of G Love's songs (Stepping Stones). G. Love also stole the spotlight from Jack with his Harmonica accompaniment on Jack's final song, Mud Football.

When Jack finished playing, a lot of the packed in crowed dissipated (once again nearly trappling those who were staying…fucking stupid kids)…but most of the crowd remained to try to get keep a good spot for the next show (Ben Harper), which was an hour away.

During the break, Shannon spent about 30 minutes in line to go to the bathroom and then buy us a few more $4 beers. I wandered over to the acoustic stage to watch Mindy Smith. Mindy had recently landed the honor of singing Jolene on the new Dolly Parton tribute album, Just Because I'm a Woman. Mindy had an amazing voice, and seemed to be having a lot of fun with the crowd (the smallest crowd I had seen all weekend at any stage…there were probably not more than 50-60 people). Unfortunately, the Polyphonic Spree was playing at a stage about 300 yards away, and they were nearly louder than Mindy was from only 50 feet away. You could tell that she was a little frustrated by having to play over another band…but she handled it very well and just kept playing (Mindy was on the stage with just her acoustic guitar and one other musician on a mandolin…they were no match for the Spree [Consisting of a ten-member choir, a pair of keyboardists, a percussionist, bassist, guitarist, flautist, trumpeter, trombonist, violist, French horn player, theremin player, and an electronic effects wizard, and fronted by Tim DeLaughter, former singer of Tripping Daisy, the group performs in flowing white robes and turns an ordinary rock concert into a sort of peace and love revival meeting]).

I picked my way through the immense crowed…an estimated 65K (compared to 40K on Friday, and 50K on Saturday), and finally found our chairs just in time for the start of Ben Harper.

Shannon and I only have one Ben Harper CD, Diamonds On the Inside, but have nearly worn it out in a very short time. The crowd for Ben Harper was as excited as the Jack Johnson crowd had been subdued. Ben Harper is an incredible musician, and his dueling Weissenborn lap acoustic slide guitar duet with Robert Randolph was amazing.

After Ben Harper finished up, we decided to head home instead of battle the other 65K people who were all heading to the final show of the night (REM).

Next year, I'll probably skip most of the evening shows and avoid the crowds. There are so many great and relatively obscure artists that play the earlier gigs…next year I'll focus on seeing bands that I probably wouldn't see or hear otherwise.