ACL Ticket Update

Still wondering why I had not yet received an email mentioning the ticket sales for ACL 2009, I went on to the site before 10am for my advanced purchase. The prices were higher than last year, even for the early birds....and the first tier had already sold out. What was left? $160 weekend pass....that's more than twice what I paid for a weekend at Pitchfork. I was still in contemplation mode until 10:48am, an entire 48 minutes after the tickets went on sale, I received an email from ACL saying, "TICKETS ON SALE NOW!" Seriously?? C'mon ACL, at least give your loyal festivallers a heads up!!

At 10:49am, I decided that I will not be in attendance at Zilker Park this year. My hard earned cash will go to Jazz, P4K, and Voodoo Fests!!

ACL Fest Tickets On Sale Tomorrow!

For all of you loyal ACL festivallers who have been wondering, "When the HECK is ACL going to put the passes on sale???" Well fine folks, your question has finally been answered. With extremely little notice, the tickets will go on sale TOMORROW! This is for the early bird pricing...although I'm not exactly what that even entails. I suppose they wanted the early birds to also be the www.aclfestival.com site stalkers since no emails were sent out to those of us on the dist list.

Amos Lee says, "Listen Up Houston!"

And I completely agree with him!

Last night's show at Meridian was...well...there aren't words for it. Amos Lee is truly an amazing musician. Last year I saw him at ACL and it was one of my best experiences of the weekend. Me and my fest crew were exhausted from the heat, so we found a shady spot under the trees, layed down on the grass and watched Amos from afar. We sang along and tapped our feet...and although it was perfect for a Sunday in the park, it was NOTHING compared to what I experienced last night.

Before I go into detail about the show, here's my rant. It never fails that every concert that I seem to go to in Houston (at a small venue), I'm next to the obnoxiously drunk idiots who want to talk loud while the artist is performing. If you want to do this, stick to the shows in the Woodlands, Toyota Center and Reliant. The musicians that pick the smaller venues are passionate about their music, and so are their TRUE fans...it's very disrespectful. During one of Amos' songs, he started jamming and freestyling a bit...then he said something along the lines of: I know you probably have something important to say but so do I...and how we had been cooped up inside without power so he understood the rowdiness but to listen! Awesome! Way to go Amos!!!! Seriously though, I wanted to have these people escorted...

Enough negative energy...I'm speechless about the show. He played all of his stuff...new, old, covers...and it seemed every time we would say, "What's left?", he would hit us with another one of his musical masterpieces. I think he was reading Mandy's mind because right after she said, "I really want to hear 'Arms of a Woman' and 'Shout Out Loud'!!", he played them consecutively. He mentioned that he wrote the former ballad when he was 19 years old! That just makes it even sexier!

Speaking of sexy...the man played some serious baby-makin tunes last night. Nothing like what I had heard at ACL. Apparently he likes to "get down" for the late night shows...one song damn near made me blush!! The guy who opened, Mutlu, was surprisingly entertaining. He looks like a hippy, but sounds like Stevie Wonder or Michael McDonald! The last song of his opening set was "My Cherie Amore"...and it was a quality cover. For Amos' finale, he brought Mutlu on stage to sing some funky cover about caramel and gettin' it on...yep, speechless.

After the show, I got to meet him and he was so humble and truly grateful for the support. I had him sign his very first album...what a great night!

ACL 2008 Lineup!!

It's official and the countdown till 3 days of pure musical bliss is ON! Upon first glance, I was a little worried....but after looking at the complete list....I'm beyond excited!! Let's just hope that there are no stints in rehab, anxiety issues or illnesses during the last weekend of September.

Here's the lineup: http://www.aclfestival.com/lineup.aspx

And here are my "must sees":

• Stars (My favorite band at the moment...love them LOOOOVE THEM!)
• Foo Fighters
• Beck
• The Raconteurs
• Gnarls Barkley
• Conor Oberst
• N.E.R.D.
• Tegan & SAra
• Iron & Wine (!!!!!)
• Band Of Horses (Soooo excited about finally seeing them!)
• The Swell Season (For those of you who have seen and love the movie "Once"...yeah...it's THEM!)
• Okkervil River
• HOT CHIP (I'm gonna dance my butt off just like LCD Soundsystem last year!)
• Duffy (She sounds like Amy Winehouse, minus the crack addiction)
• Jose Gonzales
• Jamie Lidell
• MGMT
• M. Ward
• Yeasayer
• Louis XIV
• CITY & COLOUR (Their live tracks rock...can't wait to see them in person!)

Okay...so I know that I probably won't be able to see every single act, but I'm going to give it a shot. Last year I thought I would be the only crazy one with a highlighted & printed out schedule...nope....there were lots of other crazy people there doing the same thing. Now I just need to book our awesome hotel that supplied us with candy to take to the fest....and fresh baked cookies for us every night when we got back! Best hotel ever....

Who are you looking forward to seeing....and who's comin' to party with the Brandie, Richie and Jesse crew??

"Ain't no party like the ACL party, cuz the ACL party don't stop!" - The Gospel Singers at the 2007 Fest

ACL Lineup Preview

Every year the folks at the Austin City Limits festival find a creative and exciting way to give a sneak peak at the lineup. I love it, but it drives me a little crazy every time... This year is a mashup of tunes from 29 of the 130 artists that will perform: http://www.aclfestival.com/mashup/

So far I've noticed the following acts:
Hot Chip
Duffy (yeah!)
Siversun Pickups
Gnarls Barkley
NERD
Neko Case
CSS
The Raconteurs
Jamie Lidell
MGMT
Del The Funky Homosapien
Okkerville River
Octopus Project
Heartless Bastards
Robert Earl Keen
Kate Nash
Man Man

Take a listen and let me know if you hear anyone else!! I was really hoping to hear Radiohead....twice in one year...amazing! Coldplay's new album comes out in June and it would be pretty terrific if they joined the lineup.

I'm pretty psyched about MGMT, Del, Gnarls, Hot Chip, DUFFY, and NERD!!