September 23, 2003 7:33 am
Long boring description of a fun weekend
All of that being true, of course. I feel a lot better this morning after a pretty good night's sleep (I don't know why I'm up so early this morning, but I am).
Saturday and Sunday were fun at ACLFest, but the drizzle and cool weather put a bit of a "damp"-er on things. I got out there early Saturday while it was still just cloudy and saw Asleep at the Wheel. I think I swung by some other stages, too, but I'd have to look at the schedule again to know. Isn't that ridiculous? Cram it in, cram it in! Stop, look, listen! Speaking of cram it in, I got me a Stubb's Barbeque sandwich on Saturday, which was pretty good. Not nearly as spicy as Rudy's, which I am addicted to and have been suffering withdrawal from since the remotes have slowed.
I was on the air most of the afternoon, which made me miss some good acts on Saturday, as it had done on Friday. The rains came, but I was under cover and couldn't really tell how hard it was raining.
I got to interview Terry Likona of Austin City Limits and that was really a thrill to meet someone so important to Austin music. He was very nice and a great interview.
I introduced the Derailers Saturday afternoon and enjoyed that on the anniversary of our meeting last year. I didn't get to stay for their whole set, but it was good what I heard. I'll see them tomorrow night at the cafe.
After my broadcast I got to hear a little of Bruce Robison's set and Kelly Willis sang with him with their little boy Dodie on her hip. He was a cute little red-headed boy. He was crying during their song "Angry All The Time" and Bruce commented, "I don't know why he's crying, that song is going to send him through college. LeeAnn Womack was backstage at Bruce's. I wasn't. Media passes didn't have quite the access they had last year. Dang it.
I shared the stage on the big introduction for Pat Green. It was a good intro and a lot of fun to be in front of that big crowd again. Nice praises from the boss on that intro, too. He's very good about the praise and everpresent when we're working, it seems.
I stayed with Joey for the whole Pat show and enjoyed it more than I expected to, having seen him a bunch this year. He worked hard to entertain. It was drizzling rain through the whole show, but that didn't seem to make anyone leave.
Left the show bedraggled, wet, and starving. Made a hamburger stop at the Whataburger and then, am I nuts?, I went to Midnight Rodeo. Aaron Watson was playing and I had said a month ago that I would be there for him (not knowing it would be ACL weekend). I'm glad I went. He put on a great show, I introduced him (even in my wet bedraggled state) and I met some nice people. The management is very nice to me out there, too, and I appreciate that. I would have liked to have run on off and left, but I stayed the whole two hours he was on stage. Was that enough live music for one day? Absolutely. For one weekend, I guess not...
Sunday morning we woke up and it was already 10:40. I had SO much to do and it was already so late. I jumped up, ran to the station, croaked out production and a show for my S.A. station, and then ran back home to get Mark. We swung by and got SCP and wife and got to Zilker at 1. Drizzling rain again...all day.
I did the intro on Jack Ingram. He was on one of the big stages and had a big big crowd even at the early hour. I was standing by, ready to intro. The sound man knew I was there and had me prepped, but the stage manager apparently didn't know I was there. He says to the sound guy, "Screw the dj, let's get this started." Sound guy says, Uh, she's here. S.Mgr. embarassed. I did another really nice intro and again was praised by favorite boss.
After that intro I was free, free, FREE, to enjoy myself with Mark through the rest of the day. Of course, without the structure of work, I find myself at loose ends. We went to the gospel tent, as everyone called it, ala JazzFest, and heard a whole set from Doyle Bramhall. It was very cool. Mike Keller was playing guitar and said hi to Mark by name. I was impressed by that.
When we left the tent the rain had stopped and it didn't rain again all day, it was just cool and cloudy. We found Beth and wandered around looking at the SoCo market stuff and ate and ate and saw some of Reckless Kelly's set and Billy Joe Shaver. I double-checked backstage to see if Billy Joe needed an intro, but it was well-handled by Harry Dean Stanton and Luke Wilson. Large numbers of the crowd had no clue who they were, I think. But I was impressed at Billy Joe and his connections.
The music from Ben Harper was so incredibly loud on his stage that you couldn't hear Billy Joe on the smaller stage, which was a real drag. We just couldn't take the cacophony so we left. Passed by the smallest BMI stage and I don't know how poor Miranda Lambert could be heard at all with the Harper music blasting. We continued to hear Ben Harper out into the parking lot and across the street to Barton Springs.
Came home from the festival and just crashed. Slept and slept. Got up and got some laundry done and some of the weekend catch-up things that you usually have lots of time to do and then crashed again. Needed a full two days to rest up and catch up, but the weekend ended and work is full force again.