Sunday was a picture-perfect day at ACL Fest. Temperatures barely reached 80 degrees due to the cold front that came through central Texas on Saturday. Except for a few muddy spots, the Zilker Park grass held up well after the overnight rains.
Here’s my analysis of the weekend:
- My favorite seen-them-before bands were Franz Ferdinand, The National, and fun.
- My favorite never-seen bands were Greensky Bluegrass and Portugal.The Man.
- My favorite screamer remains Matt Berninger of The National.
- The festival grounds are still too crowded. It would be nice if attendance was reduced slightly now that ACL Fest is expanded to two weekends. But that’s not going to happen.
- The shuttle buses from downtown are very convenient—if you don’t stay late to see the headliners. Otherwise you are going to be waiting a long time for a return bus.
- The food options improve every year and generally the lines weren’t too bad. My favorite meal was the Avocado Veggie Bahn Mi from Second Bar+Kitchen. And you can’t go wrong with Amy’s milkshakes for refreshing mid-afternoon snacks.
- Improvements have been made to the sound systems, so that folks sitting in the back can easily hear the performances. In fact, we could hear the closing headliners from our downtown apartment each evening…and that’s about three miles away.
Bill and I saw the following groups on Sunday:
We also heard a few songs by Neko Case and Atoms for Peace.
Food Pick of the Day: Sweet Chile Hummus Sandwich from Noble Sandwiches