Some friends of Fu�s and mine drove to Austin this weekend for the Austin City Limits concert. Needless to say I was very jealous, well until Jen came back to work today and told me the following story of their experience.

The concert was great. The first day kind of sucked at times because there were ridiculously long lines for EVERYTHING! For example, we waited in line for about 20-30 minutes to get on the shuttle to get to the park, for an hour and a half to pick up tickets at the will-call window (turns out, there was no will-call window. There was one, huge, line about a mile long that was set up for everyone, regardless of whether they'd ordered tickets in advance or not.) It was the worst hour and a half of my life. Seriously. I thought I was going to pass out. It was about 95 degrees with about 95% humidity, no shade, no way to get water at all!

We didn't get there in time to hear Gillian Welch because of the ticket fiasco. Then, once we got inside, it was another 30 minutes or so in line to get water, about 15-20 minutes in line to use the restroom, and another hour and a half marathoner to get dinner. All told, we spent over 4 hours of a 7-hour day standing in line. And, did I mention the heat? Very little shade anywhere.

I think the experience is best characterized as "long periods of standing in line, punctuated by brief bursts of some damn good music." And the music was AWESOME. And Sunday was much better. We didn't have to wait in line to get in for one thing, and we made sure we ate a huge breakfast at IHOP so that we wouldn't have to wait in line to eat if we didn't want to. Plus, the concert organizers corrected a few mistakes from Saturday. I'd definitely go again . . . but I'd make sure I was better prepared.

Oh, yeah. We saw Ryan Adams. He was the last person we saw before we headed back here. Got in about 2:30 this morning. We saw Wilco, The Jayhawks, Abra Moore, G-Love & Special Sauce, Shawn Colvin, Ryan Adams, a little of Pat Green . . . everyone we wanted to see.

So, there you have it � they had a really good time music wise, but as with almost all music festivals held in the summer in the South, it was just too damn hot! Believe me, I have been to my share of those, and I think I am past my prime in that arena. I have reached that point in my life where I would rather sit in the shade or even better, go only to outdoor concerts held in the spring or fall, but NEVER in the summer. For example, I went to see Bob Dylan at an amphitheater in OKC last spring and it was amazing. Now, had you pushed that a few months later I probably would not have gone. It is that bad down here during the summer. Seriously, one day last summer I would have sworn that I saw Beelzebub himself standing in the shade fanning his face with his tail.

Jealousy! Jealousy I say!
Squeeky

P.S. In case you want to be jealous like me, here is the lineup for the concert.