ACL 2018 - THE END

Anybody know what time the National will be on stage at Stubb's Thursday? I know the doors are 7 and the show begins at 8... but I have no clue if that means there's an opener, or whatever. St. Vincent started at like 10:45, and with all due respect to Stubb's and whoever might open that show, I don't want to hang around three extra hours for little reason. Ideas?

Anyone gonna be driving up from San Antonio? Looking to potentially book a last minute trip to Austin (via SA airport) from DC and stay with my cousin who lives walking distance to Zilker. We did Weekend 2 last year and the W1 stream has me itching to get back! Also trying to secure a pair of Friday passes....

Just got back to DC after Weekend 1. I did Coachella, Lolla and ACL this year, and I think this was the best of the bunch. Just stacked from start to finish, with some really unique bookings compared to the rest of the US festival scene. Friday alone may be the best singular day I've ever seen at a festival.

Random asides:

As others have said, it was hot as all hell on Friday -- and only let up a little the following two days. That humidity really hit when you were in the center of the crowd, but we managed.

Someone asked how long Justice played, I think they went about 15 minutes over (so 9:45ish) -- as we heard the two final Metallica songs while walking out of the park.

Janelle Monae has always been a great performer, but this set really took it to another level. I expect an even bigger crowd as word spreads for Wk2.

There were so many great acts throughout the day this year, that I could absolutely understand going both weekends. You could easily map out a completely different but fully worthwhile set line-up.

I redubbed the American Express stage the "Deftones Memorial" stage after Saturday, because the first 30 minutes of their set was a slow death. I felt so bad for them and the fans who were clearly amped when they came on. Worst sound problems I have ever experienced at a live show (just echoing, hissing distorted feedback during any vocals and some riffs). They eventually took a break to fix it, but it was too late to really save things -- much of the crowd had left, and even quite a few Metallica campers bounced because it was physically painful to listen to. Really too bad they won't have a chance to make-up for it this weekend.

Most people probably won't see Father John Misty because of his slot between Paul and the National, but that may have been my favorite set I've seen him do. Had a full string section with him (no sure if that's standard this tour) and really pulled from the best of his 4 albums. He also seemed to be in "Misty mode", and enjoying himself, which isn't always the case.

Blood Orange just didn't work for me in a sunny field. Loved him at dusk at The Meadows last year, but I feel like he would have benefited from a tent or night time slot.

Brandi Carlile was new to me, but her voice and her message was exactly what I needed with all the political developments over the weekend. Her cover of Joni Mitchell's "Case of You" was incredible.

Aftershow logistics for ACL suck compared to Lolla, at least in terms of start times. Since so many venues are outdoors, they have pretty aggressive curfews -- and so when we got to Scoot Inn at just before 11 PM for Sofi Tukker, the set was already half over (and there were apparently two openers). I guess that's common place, but it was a disappointing surprise to me.

What an ACL!!!!!!!!!!!! Probably my favorite year, and Ive gone to 6 ACL's.

Best sets (in no particular order) :

Friday - Jungle > BROCKHAMPTON (WOW WOW WOW....if going Wk.2, do not miss these 2 shows)

Saturday - Blood Orange > St. Vincent ( I am now a new fan of BO, and Anne just completely KILLED it)

Sunday - Parquet Courts > Khruagebin > THE REVOLUTION!!!!! ( Khuragebin was the biggest surprise of my fest, and .........being brought to tears with all of us singing along to Purple Rain in the Tito's Tent is something Ill never forget)

It’s currently snowing here in Denver, so I am more than ready for a nice warm weekend in Austin!

the weekend 1 Metallica poster was better. The Grim Reaper looking over the city skyline and Zilker with the audience as grave stones facing the front of the AMEX stage. Weekend 2's is supposed to be the "aftermath" of that, with Cthulu looking over a dilapidated skyline with the Zilker audience as zombies.

The National are doing a private party right now off of 5th and Waller. Easy to watch it from the outside.

I had decided that since Friday was a slim options day due to camping out for Paul (no regrets.) and being later than I would have like, Saturday was going to be my maneuvering marathon day. I had considered camping out for Metallica, along with Paul, on and off ever since the lineup was announced. But there's so many good and interesting acts out there, I needed to branch out at some point..

We begin the day in the tent for the cute jazz homage band known as Ikebe Shakedown. These whitebread folk sure can jam. From there, we went to check out the vivacious Mon Laferte. She could belt out a note or two.



We stopped back at the tent for Curtis Harding, who had a pretty good sized crowd, on the way to The Breeders. Unfortunately, their sound was really weak. It was low the entire time - which I feel is a problem with most sets, but this was particularly bad - could barely hear the vocals, and the band consistently voiced their issues with their instruments. Kelley Deal is the cutest 1st grade teacher-lookin'mom in a band ever who can only play bass while sitting down. Kim and Josephine had some verbal/visible tension during the whole set that I'm not certain if it's real. It was fun though.





We went towards the main stage for the start of Highly Suspect, mainly to see how the crowd was shaping up and it was surprisingly loose. We made it in just past the corral/pen pit. I expected a thicker, tougher Metallica crowd. Because it was so easy to get fairly close, I reconsidered camping for a moment. Highly Suspect did a "which side can say 'Fuck' the louder" bit, which made the teenagers near me excited, but made me automatically check out.




We decided to "see all we could see," as my wife put it, while my friend stayed for Deftones. Headed back towards the tent to check out Sofi Tukker, but that crowd was dense and overflowing out - so much for that. Then went to wait for Blood Orange. As someone else pointed out, this Miller Lite stage is a tough one. The sun will beat down hard upon it, and the only shade to be your savior there is running for the beer gardens and cramping in with the sports fans. So it's especially difficult when you have some smooth R&B/soft rock stuff like Blood Orange (or Amen Dunes on Sunday) and to stand out there taking a sun-ray onslaught while trying to groove to it? Well we lasted a good 20 minutes, then took the long trek over to check out Sharon van Etten at Barton Springs -- now THERE is an oasis of shade at this time of day.



We went to see how the main stage was doing, with Deftones halfway through. And yeah, walking towards the stage, we could tell something was wrong. I couldn't hear shit until we got down the hill, and noticed the hissing. I only found out later it had been like that THE ENTIRE TIME. We were near the soundbooth when they finally exited the stage. So basically, we showed up just in time! I spotted my buddy a few people-rows ahead of us. When Chino went nuts into the crowd and everyone had their phones up, that's when we sneaked forward and got back to him. After Deftones, we then debated whether to camp for all of Metallica, or go for Justice.

Let's just say my wife and my buddy are not the biggest metal fans. And let's just say one began to have some anxiety because of the tight crowd and the other got annoyed with a person in front of them holding up not one, but TWO cellphones to record. double-fisted cellphoning at a Metallica concert!!!!



After "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" (perfect timing for the anxious person) we decided to work our way out of the massive crowd and headed across the park for Justice. And man, it was a unanimous decision that this was a great choice. Justice was a fun party. I had been wanting to see them for the longest time (didn't get a chance to at D4N because we had to leave early). So glad we did, and I look forward to seeing them in the next decade that they decide to tour. I had been wanting to see Metallica for the looooongest time - bummed I couldn't stay for all of it. But after that stellar Justice set, we went back to the main stage for the Metallica encore, Lars Ulrich exclaimed that Metallica is just getting started. So I feel like I'll have other chances to catch them in years to come.

It ended up being Metallica ...And Justice for All.



I forever blame and credit ACL for the difficult decisions of amazing acts to choose from. To me, they have had extremely strong lineups for this entire decade. And this might have been the best festival lineup I have ever attended in my 9 years of festing. They really set the bar high for next year, we aren't even certain we're going. Bring on David Gilmour and Daft Punk, I might find a way.

Oh yeah, I still have to share my Sunday sets.

God, I fucking miss Austin.

Alvvays vs Big Thief vs Noname now with the schedule change

poor w2. aww we dont have borns boo whoo

ELECTRIC LOOOOOOOOVE!

Lots of pedo love in Austin it seems.

Yeah. You need to plan better to minimize the costs. Splitting a hotel room or Air B&B with friends mitigates that. Also, being less than 2.5 hours away, you’d think driving might be a better option than flying after the costs of transportation once in austin are factored in. I’ve been to 3, and I go based on lineup and whether I can afford it. But it’s a quality time.