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Scene report: Thoughts on fest
A few quick thoughts on the fest in general:
- Favorite acts: David Byrne, Hot Chip, Erykah Badu, Sharon Jones, Spiritualized, Band of Horses
- Favorite set from an Austin band: White Denim
- Sorry I missed: N.E.R.D., Jamie Lidell and The Mars Volta
- Not worth the time: Stars
- Favorite peripheral ACL event: The dance party the Daily Juice on Barton Springs pulled off Saturday night (and apparently Sunday, as well) with people dancing on the roof and in the streets en masse to the music of DJ Richard Gear before police very politely pulled the plug at 11 p.m.
- Most annoying time: High school kids shoving their way out of Band of Horses set to get a spot for Foo Fighters
- Best food court yet
- Unfortunate: No Mexican beer for the crowd. Heineken, Bud Light and whatever else they had didn’t seem to be strong enough options.
- Best weather of any fest. That alone makes it probably my favorite fest yet.
- Great idea by organizers to let people fill recycling bags in exchange for swag. The park was super clean, all things considered.
- No major calamities, see: fire, last-minute pull-outs
- Yes, there was some dust, but it was nothing like the year of the dust storm. Look, it’s a park: There is dirt and some withered grass. There will be some dust.
- With the exception of one or two sets, the sound bleeding was kept to a minimum. I didn’t really have any set ruined by bleeding.
- Maybe it was just me: The bass at the Dell stage was way overdone, and muddled the sound a bit from certain vantage points.
- Obvious alert: Appreciation for the sound and the sets is largely dependent on where you stand. Further back in front of a speaker is better than a little closer and to the side.
- Cool that there were stations to refill your water bottle. Even if it’s just 92 degrees, you gotta stay hydrated.
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Permalink | Comments (13) | Categories: ACL 2008: Sunday, ACL Festival
Comments
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By Dusty Dirtbag
September 28, 2008 7:50 PM | Link to this
3 reasons I vow NEVER to return to ACL Festival:
By Not That Bad
September 28, 2008 11:19 PM | Link to this
A ton of people walking in a giant park equals dust.
Be prepared next time.
Dust was not that bad.
By Gordon OHara
September 29, 2008 5:58 AM | Link to this
The Dell stage bass made Blues Traveler unlistenable after the sound tent and reduced Band of Horses to a thud far away. The sound mixer there needs to go back to Sound 101.
By charlie
September 29, 2008 10:01 AM | Link to this
Sound Mixing was pretty bad on all counts. Beck was way too loud. Robert Plant even commented on it during his and Kraus’ show. Blues Traveler was muddled — too much bass at times and almost no backing vocals could be heard Sparrow Quartet — cello and violin were almost nonexistent at times; bela’s banjo was overpowering at times Mars Volta — guitars were overpowering Vampire Weekend — twangy guitars are meant to be in the background not to be overpowering. I realize it’s a festival but the sound crews on all stages, next time, need to take a little more care in mixing the sound for these bands that brave the texas heat and for the audience who pays good money to see these bands.
Galactic was, for me, the only disappointment. Granted, the time to set up was minimal, but they didn’t start till 20 minutes into their actual timeslot.
Xavier Rudd — incredible. I only wish I’d had a better view. I absolutely enjoyed the heck out of Foo Fighters but the most incredible show had to be Plant/Krauss.
By Savanna
September 29, 2008 10:43 AM | Link to this
Agreed. I noticed the bad sound job at the Dell stage myself. It ruined some of the shows I was looking forward to unfortunately. I thought it might have been just me - a little disappointing consider all the sound guru’s we have in this environment…feel like I could have done a better job and that’s not saying much, hah.
By k888
September 29, 2008 11:53 AM | Link to this
Agree completely on the sound/bass problem at Dell. WTF? It ruined several sets for me and my companions.
By manisubra
September 29, 2008 1:52 PM | Link to this
and if you’re going to have super big beers then get someone out there selling super big koozies! warm beer is a no no.
By keith sharp
September 29, 2008 4:38 PM | Link to this
charlie jones (c3 promoter) needs to come out of the air conditioned trailer and breathe the air more often. Friday was horrible, dustwise. He got no complaints because most were too tired and hacking too much to know where to go to complain. He is living in an ivory tower if he thinks there was no dust problems Friday. Sunday was even worse. WATER THE GROUNDS. You makes millions off this fest. Think of your patrons’ health. Music should not be bad to your health!!! hello….wake up Mr. Jones.
By norm
September 29, 2008 4:50 PM | Link to this
Yes, there was a loud thumping bass from some other stage that we could hear throughout most of Fogerty’s set. Also, wanted to hear Iron & Wine and Blues Traveler at Dell but the sound was not good in the back of the crowd. Seems like they have oversold this event by about 10,000. The crowded conditions make it very difficult to enjoy. Either allow less people in or expand the space for this event. And seems like I remember reading the Rolling Stones concert was supposed to have contributed to an irrigation system for the park. What happened?
By K
September 30, 2008 12:28 AM | Link to this
Matthew Odam - Your comments about Stars disappoints me.
I can think of half a dozen bands worth LESS “time” than you claim - The Mars Volta being just one of them.
I thought I knew you better.
To the folks making comments about the Dell stage - what did you expect? Dude, you’re getting a Dell.
By Kenndog
September 30, 2008 5:43 PM | Link to this
Some suggestions for future fest. 1. Sanitation please. How about seperate men and womens stalls. We do this in Portland at our BluesFest, and clean them for god’s sake at least once during the day. 2. Roped off walkways through the center and sides of the main two stages so you can easily enter or exit from the large crowds without having to climb over thousands of chairs. 2. Dust Control Please. I know I heard everyone say it wasn’t as bad as past years, but it was horrible, water the damn park. 3. Audio mixing on most stages were horrible, overmodulated and distorted, almost every stage sounded muddy. 4. Move the fest back a few weeks for more temperate weather, tough on us out of towners not used to your heat. That being said the act lineup was superb, but I would probably not come back until some of these issues are fixed. Rock on Texas
By michelle
October 7, 2008 4:20 PM | Link to this
Yeah, the Dell stage sound was too heavy and muddy. Blues Traveler annoyingly bled straight sideways through the Wamu tent during parts of Shooter’s set. However, I’m not sure if improving the DEll sound would be enough to fix this, as that placement of those 2 stages and scheduling of the acts at exactly the same time was a big part of the problem.
I was warned about the heat, but really can’t see what y’all complain about. You want hot, come to Georgia, where we mix our heat wth 100% humidity!
The line up was excellent torture, tempting me in 5 different direction all day every day.
You did an absolutely AWESOME job on the recycling. Only at the jam packed late night sets did I see trash on the ground. I hope other festivals pick-up on your strategy. It was simple and effective, and very convenient for the audiences.
I think it was Dave Grohl who commented that he was impressed with the size of the festival and reminded Austin that not all cities have such excellent events. That’s so true! Atlanta screwed up and dropped a nice mid-sized festival several years ago. Such a shame!
Good job Austin. I will be back :)
By allen
October 23, 2008 9:55 AM | Link to this
What amazes me is that one of the hottest bands that graced the WA-MU stage was a gospel group of family who in my opinion played the hardest and was the delight of the Friday show and yet as a die-hard fan (now)I read nothing about them. Is the accolades only for the rock bands are do you respect talent where it exists? They are a tough act to follow.