Video - Austin City Limits 2011 - Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire performing "Wake Up."

Arcade Fire is pretty good, but I didn't really understand why they were the closing act of the entire festival. Last year it was the Eagles, which makes sense, so you'd think they would have another dinosaur band closing, like the Rolling Stones or Fleetwood Mac, or Paul McCartney, Neil Young or U2. Or even newer bands like Pearl Jam or Soundgarden. Unless I'm totally underestimating this band, I thought they are still primarily a college, underground band. Anyway, let's hope that next year they get a reunited Pink Floyd. :)

Video - Austin City Limits 2011 - Randy Newman

Randy Newman singing "Short People."

I only know about a half-dozen Randy Newman songs, and I'm not much of a fan, but for some reason I had the "Short People" 45" single. Don't ask me why.

Austin City Limits 2011, Day 3

The Austin City Limits Music Festival is finally over. Sunday didn't have quite the star power of the previous two days, but since there wasn't anyone I was overly excited to see, it allowed me to sample several bands on different stages throughout Zilker Park. I caught little bits here and there of: The Lee Boys, Death From Above 1979, Manu Chao La Ventura, Fleet Foxes, Bomba Estereo, Jack Ingram and Randy Newman (I saw half of his show). Most of the acts I couldn't really get into. One was country music (Jack Ingram) which I don't care for at all, nor do I like Latin music (Manu Chao). I watched most of Arcade Fire's closing set, but left about 15 minutes early to avoid the mad rush to the shuttles. If you left early, you could get to a shuttle pretty quick, otherwise it was easily a 90 minute wait.

It was a pretty fun experience overall, but it's not likely I would do the 3 day pass again. By the end of the day, it's pretty exhausting. It was nice to see a lot of old people in the crowd among the teenage masses, though.

Video - Austin City Limits 2011 - Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder singing "I Just Called to Say I Love You" at ACL, 2011.

Austin City Limits 2011, Day 2

Here's some pictures from day 2 of the Austin City Limits Music Festival. The kids came with us this time, so we spent some of the time watching kids bands like "Recess Monkey." We also caught Cee Lo, who wasn't that good. The highlight was the closing act, Stevie Wonder.

Video - Austin City Limits 2011 - Coldplay

Coldplay performing "Yellow" at ACL 2011.

Austin City Limits 2011, Day 1

Here's a few pictures from the first day of the Austin City Limits Music Festival. We didn't arrive there until close to 6pm, so we only caught two bands, Bright Eyes and Coldplay. I had never heard of Bright Eyes, and wasn't particularly impressed, but Coldplay put on an excellent show.