Posted by: wifiguy14k on 12/12/2004 19:21:29

It was no accident that Austin, Texas was the final stop on the Wi-Fi Guy cross-country trip. As I stated in an earlier blog, Austin is well known as the most Wi-Fied city in the country. So what better place to finish up? And, timing is everything! I planned the trip to finish in Austin and coincide with The Austin City Limits Music Festival, or ACL. The three-day festival is probably as ambitious of a live show as ever conceived, with hundreds of musicians and just about every genre on a handful of stages, intertwined among some 75,000 sweaty bodies and cowboy hats and hippie bandanas.
In the event you may not be familiar with Public Broadcasting System’s “Austin City Limits,” here’s the scoop from their Web site:
“Having showcased artists ranging from Willie Nelson to Sheryl Crow since its premiere in 1976, Austin City Limits champions performers who display exceptional musical and songwriting talents, rather than hemming itself in with music labels. The results are unpretentious and engaging performances by musicians who appreciate the intimate concert setting and straightforward style of production. Austin City Limits presents the best of America’s music from country, blues and folk to rock ‘n’ roll, bluegrass and zydeco.” See: http://www.austincitylimits.com/festival/default.asp

Throughout The Wi-Fi Guy trip — 18,000 miles, 4 months and 43 cities — I have lamented that I had taken in almost NO live music. (Much to my chagrin … The exception was Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic, just before I started the East Coast tour.) Well, with my press pass at ACL, I would rectify that situation.

By the way … At one point, early in my travels, it seemed destiny that I would see reggae legends Toots and The Maytals — crossing paths with them several times — but it never happened. Well small world! Toots — with his Maytals in tow — was at ACL. There was also one band playing at the first of my East Coast tour and at the end of the East half — Texas’ own Los Lonely Boys. What a great mix of harmonies and searing guitar work.

Also, on a musical note, there was a time in the planning phase when The Wi-Fi Guy research team was investigating the possibility of tracking Phish (can you do that?) across the country during their farewell tour. But, alas the Phish tour schedule wasn’t finalized in time. Then, later, there was a remote chance of catching Phish on their absolute last stop. Rats! I left Vermont a week before Phish’s final hurrah. It was painful to read about it afterward. But ACL offered solace. Trey Anastasio, arguably the driving force of the thinking-man’s jam band, played on day two at ACL.

“I’d like to cut your head off
So I could weigh it,
What do ya say?
Five pounds, six, pounds, seven pounds …”
— Phish

Funny, it seems that if you are on the road for four months, you have some story or anecdote about just about everything … LOL.

I can’t think of a way to better organize a huge festival like ACL … but the main drawback is multiple stages. It is the only fair solution, but it also can be such a frustrating thing. If you want to get to the front of a stage for a band, you need to start working toward the stage about an hour early. Then when it is over, good luck getting out and up front to see a band across the way. That is what happened for me with Anastasio and The Pixies. I had to choose, to get strategically placed for one of them. Talk about being torn. Same thing with Cake and Wilco, but Americana won out. I worked my way within two or three rows of what would be Wilco’s stage during Jack Johnson (who was joined by G. Love Special Sauce). Johnson seemed to be an Austin favorite … and now that I am out of the crowd of 75,000 adoring fans … I must say he is at least a bit overrated. I mean, he’s okay … but … I digress …

Even so, it was worth it fighting the heat and listening to Johnson, to have a great spot for Wilco. I was really close …Then, YES!, the TV crew for PBS, saw my press pass and let me into their fenced-off area. So, the boom operator and I had the best seats in the house. Prior to that, the ACL crew wouldn’t allow me to go into the photography pits in front of the stage … So, most of my photos were too distant. Oh well, maybe next year. I wished I had the song list. Early on my sweaty notepad had dissolved like a tissue in a carwash. So, I resorted to sending e-mails to myself, with my T-Mobile Blackberry to help remember the order of songs … Now, if I could only locate those e-mails … It was a clever ploy, that almost worked …

“Statue of liberty play
Only works once
Don’t give it away.”
— Wilco

I think SBC intercepted the e-mails and sent them to the recycle bin. Just kidding. That was just a set up to praise SBC … YES! There was Wi-Fi and lots of laptops set up in their booth at ACL … and most importantly, it was in the only air-conditioned structure around … quite a popular, shrewd sales strategy as temperatures soared in the 90s — shade, A/C, Wi-Fi, bottled water and lots of giveaways. Heck, I was so appreciative to get out of the heat, I succumbed to an impulse buy … Signed up for SBC DSL on the spot and got a free MP3 player. Anything to stay in that cold air. … Good thing I wore cargo shorts with lots of pockets to haul the new equipment. SBC at ACL — supporting music, fighting heat stroke and doing the Wi-Fi Thing … A perfect 7 body piercings out of a possible 7 on the long-running scorecared of The Wi-Fi Guy …

The second problem with any festival of this magnitude, is the transportation. …. Parking obviously was going to be a nightmare. But, if I learned anything on the road … besides how to find Wi-Fi … it was that bicycles are the trick! A few hours before the festival started, I scouted out a smaller park about 2 miles north. I parked the bright orange Wild Tang SUV for free and easily cruised into the festival on my shuttle craft … past thousands of autos. (It worked great, but trust me, it was a trip each night in the dark, riding through trees, fences and creek beds to get back to the main road.) Well worth it … the only way to go … As a exclamation point, look at the ACL photo gallery on this site and look at the army of bicycles.)

Quickly, more thoughts on the show:

I fought the crowd and clashed with security people trying to get backstage for Modest Mouse. I like the band okay, by more importantly, one of my sons thinks they are WAY cool … So, I gave it my best shot for him … to no avail. By contrast, the security guards didn’t blink an eye when I walked backstage and sat five feet from the wah-wah peddle during Gomez’s gig. Good stuff.

The first day was great, but probably less stellar than days two and three. Some might disagree, especially the Sheryl Crow fans. Very interesting … her mini-skirt was so short, it made her tiny legs look long. My friend Carrie pointed out that Austin is of course home to Crow’s new beau, pedaler Lance Armstrong … Wonder if the leggy look was a tour de force to send a message to Armstrong’s former family (?). Hmmm …. Oh, I was unaware that Crow plays the bass … which was kind of an interesting visual … this tiny waif behind such a big instrument … kind of reminiscent of Suzi Quattro.

I was disappointed I missed bad boy Rob Schneider on the ACL stage … but more on him later …

And I missed Elvis Costello … because of another scheduling conflict … but hey, I saw The Pogues a long time ago, and that is almost as good — like family. Cake — same thing … couldn’t be in two places at once.

But like I said, I saw/heard every note of Wilco and Trey Anastasio … so everything else was icing … (I had a chance to see Phish in a small venue years ago, and missed it … Still kicking myself) …. but I have to think that Anastasio and his big band had to be very similar. He played Phish faves, complete with little “game show” sounding, audience participation things … Then of course, there were those famous endless jams. Anastasio was very much like a conductor, making hand gestures to signal which musician would go into the next endless solo. So-ooo totally cool — well worth the 18,000 miles I travelled to see it!

And overall, it would be hard to top ACL … How could it have been better? … I can’t think of who I might have added to the bill, since The Clash or The Mescaleros aren’t available. ACL — the live, guerilla version of the long-running PBS favorite gets a perfect score — 7 body piercings out of the possible 7 notes on The Wi-Fi Guy scale.

Stay tuned!