Musical Inspirations

I guess ACL got me inspired, because I went to two music related events out of my routine. On Tuesday I went to an open-mic at B.D. Riley's. If I can get a side project rolling, I want to perform the results at an open-mic, and I thought figuring out where to go might provide me with some motivation to get the project started. Only Sundays and Tuesdays will work with my current schedule, so I decided to start checking out the ones that happen on Tuesday. Of the three or so going on in Austin, B. D. Riley's seemed the most visible so I checked that one out first. I was a bit surprised because most of the acts were really good, and most of them at the end of their songs plugged whatever place they'd be playing that weekend. So this is maybe not an open-mic for beginners. I'll check out another one soon, but not this Tuesday because we've rescheduled band practice for then.

On Friday I went to the Parish and caught whatever bands they had playing from out of town. It was a show recommended by the Chronicle and was pretty entertaining. I've only been to the Parish once or twice previously but I really like it as a music venue. I'll be keeping an eye on their calendar, and maybe I can convince myself to catch more shows.

ACL Recap - Saturday & Sunday

Saturday I got down there a little bit later, in time to see all of Aimee Mann's set. Her's was the first I got fairly close to the stage for, although far to one side so not a great angle. Her voice sounded great and it took until a couple songs from the end when she turned on a drum machine that I realized that she didn't have a drummer at all (and all previous songs had no drums at all). She mostly played acoustic guitar but sat down at the piano for a few songs. She said she wasn't a very good pianist, and she certainly didn't do anything amazing... just simple chords. This was made even more noticeable when her regular keyboardist sat down next to her and played a piano solo while she played chords. After that I caught some of the Raconteurs. I sat really far back and didn't pay a whole lot of attention, but they sounded really into their music and were having a good time. Last for the day was Willie Nelson, who I now wish I had gotten closer to the stage for because he was pretty hard to hear--which has proven to be a common problem for the AMD stage. I can now say that I've finally seen Willie in Austin, but I am going to have to see him again at a smaller venue because I just wasn't close enough to fully appreciate the show.

Sunday was the day I was waiting for, and probably the day I would've bought a single day pass for if I went that route. I didn't think I'd get there 'til late afternoon but somehow got motivated and arrived around 3. I saw parts of KT Tunstall (good) mostly from the air-conditioned AT&T Oasis, Jack Ingram (eh), Patrice Pike (okay) and a song or two of Matisyahu the jewish rapper guy (good groove but nothing special). Then came the two shows I was really waiting for--the New Pornographers and the Flaming Lips. These are the only two bands at ACL that I actually own CDs of. I set up early for the New Pornographers and thus was able to get quite close in front of the stage. They only played 3 songs from the album I own but I got into their unfamiliar material quite easily. It looks like I'm going to have to pick up some more of their albums. Neko Case was a bit frustrated due to monitor problems but sounded good nonetheless. There was enough fun banter, as Neko and their lead singer commented how they were honored to play right after Ween, how they should get Son Volt to turn down (not in a bitchy way, just making fun), and how they would get to ride to the Flaming Lips show in a luxury golf cart. They didn't want to miss a minute of that show either and so gave us all just enough time to make the trek over to the AT&T stage. I think the entire audience moved there from this show.


The New Pornographers

I have seen the Flaming Lips before, but only indoors. An outdoor show gives them much more flexibility, and it was crazy. Wayne Coyne started off the show crowd surfing inside a big inflatable ball, and the stage was full of guys dressed in santa suits and girls dressed in elf (or maybe alien) costumes. Also standing guard in the back were a big Santa, a big alien, and a big astronaut. And, they kept on releasing six foot diameter balloons into the crowd. You may think all of this distracted from the music but it's all part of the show and the fun. Actually, I think the Lips' music affected me the most as I found myself getting a little emotional during several songs.

Last was Tom Petty who I like, but not as much as the last two bands. So, I didn't plan on staying for the whole set. But, partly due to meeting up with a friend about halfway through the set, I ended up staying for the whole thing and really enjoyed it. There was a bit of rain about halfway through and they had to stop for twenty minutes or so, and I wasn't sure if they were going to be forced off at 10 or not. Luckily they were allowed to play late. I was a bit surprised when the very last encore song turned out to be the one our band plays (You Wreck Me). Not my favorite but I guess I have new respect for that one.

ACL Recap - Friday

I had a great time at ACL again this year. Just like last year, I thought I'd only spring for a one day pass but upon seeing the line-up decided to go all three days again. I think I went for a longer period of time than last year, and I think I had a better time too! I reread my previous entries on ACL before going. I had been thinking this was my third year going, but it's actually my fourth. My first year was before I started blogging so I don't have a writeup for that one. Last year's writeup was pretty short so I'm going to make this one a little longer.

This was my first year not living nearby, so I had to give transportation some thought, and I ended up doing different things. So here's a boring paragraph about how I got to ACL so I remember next year. Friday I planned on using the downtown shuttle but put my bicycle in the car just in case. I ended up parked a little too far away from the shuttle for my tastes, so I ended up biking in. Unfortunately, I didn't have my bike lights operational so getting back to the car after dark was a little scary. I didn't have to worry about getting run over by cars much though as I was mostly on bike paths. I did have to worry plenty about falling into the creek and running over bums, though. Day two I parked downtown near LJ's, had a few there to help my headache, decided to forget the bike and walked to the shuttle and rode it in. The shuttle is just fine for getting there since everyone shows up at different times, but leaving on the shuttle is out of the question. So, I walked from Zilker to LJ's after Willie. A pretty long walk, but given the choice of waiting for a bus for an hour or walking for an hour, I'll take walking. Day three I parked by Donn's Depot on 5th and walked in. I thought about using the bike again but the walk didn't seem far enough and the bike still had potential for being a pain in the ass (I hadn't exactly figured out how to secure my folding chair to the bike rack yet). So, if I go again next year I think I will go with the last option--I was still able to park relatively close, and not even in a residential area where homeowners could get potentially pissed off.

The first band I saw on Friday was Guster, a band I know my sister enjoys. Apparently I started out with a lot of ambition because I was taking notes on every song. That lasted through about five songs. Anyway, if you are curious about what the band (or any band) played, they were nice enough to put up setlists on the aclfestival.com website. I had heard some of Guster's music before, probably because I had downloaded mp3's at some point on my sister's recommendation. Their set was great. I enjoyed the music a lot and the lead guy had a lot of enjoyable banter. Banter is important, I'm telling you! He made the crowd do the wave, revealed how its important to say the name of the state you're in as much as possible when you're on stage, made fun of the ACL guy who had to cut off the band when their set was over, and let everyone know when he could smell someone smoking pot. He noticed prettly late.... I noticed during the third song and I thought that was a little late too. Actually I was a little surprised I smelled regular smoke before I smelled pot smoke. Another interesting note is they had two laptops set up... their keyboards were M-Audio which is also a soundcard maker, so I'm wondering if the keyboards were controlling software synthesizers on the laptops. I'm a bit out of touch when it comes to keyboard equipment so I'll have to look into this. It is probably more powerful and cheaper to do things this way now, and eventually I am going to have to get a newer keyboard setup. I didn't see another full set until Van Morrison, but I saw parts of Gnarls Barkley, Cat Power, Gomez, Thievery Corporation, Del Castillo, and Ray Lamontagne. Gnarls used real strings for Crazy, that was nice. I don't have anything to say about the others, not really excited about any of them. Van Morrison was fine, not great, but fine. He didn't appear too excited or move around much, but he sounded just fine so I have no complaints. His Hammond player was great and the sound of that thing was sweet. I need to get one of those. I think my Friday entry is already longer than last year's entry. I guess I'll be doing one of those multi-post deals...

Liver & Onions

I found myself at a small town family restaurant for lunch last Thursday. My coworker ordered the special, and being one not afraid to try new things to eat, I ordered a plate as well. I am not a fan. Tastes a little funny, and the texture is *really weird*. The onions helped me get most of it down. But now I know: I don't like liver & onions.

Week Two

Second week of class tonight. Last week was a power point presentation. This week--phasors, vectors, partial differential equations--cool!

I'm thinking about finally buying some real estate again... I was reminded of this tonight when, by surprise, as I walked from Crown & Anchor to Posse East, I walked by one of the properties that met my criteria that my realtor friend sent me a summary of last night. I was thinking this property might be a little too far from work, but hey that could sure be convenient for things other than work!

Not Sure

Wow, I'm really wishing now I went somewhere this weekend. This weekend turned out to be a rather normal weekend. I'm beginning to realize how much time I waste on the weekends though. I sleep in late, watch a lot of TV, have some fun going out but really don't accomplish much. During the week, I tend to think of the next weekend as a more productive time, and I never fail to disappoint. The thing is, I really don't know what I want to be productive at. That is why I end up doing a lot of nothing.

First post from Chon Som, BTW--if you haven't been here, try it. The food is great!