| After a quick bike ride over to Zilker
Park just about noon to feel the building buzz and kick around any
ideas I had of finding a cheap ticket I still probably couldn't
afford, I did find some cheap deals early, as the conscientious
concert goers just wanted to get their three days started. I
turned around and headed home without a ticket, resigned to toil in
my studio the rest of the day.
Restlessness is rather persuasive for me, and I soon hatched a
plan to just hang out at the park and catch the show from outside.
Housemate Myra jumped on a bike and we rode through Town Lake to get
back to the park. With bits and pieces of Franz Ferdinand's
album dancing in our heads, the eagerness for the two of us was
palpable.
We fought the crowd, and I noticed a completely different vibe
from the ticket scalpers - prices were up, quantities were down, and
hysteria was set in. The festival was on, and Toots and the
Maytals were playing a loud, boorish set that the crowd seemed to
eat up next to the stage that Franz Ferdinand would be playing at.
With our viewing space between two rows of port-o-potties picked
out, we settled in, making casual jokes, wondering just what was
happening next. As showtime grew closer to, Myra lamented I
didn't have any connections to get us in. It was shortly after
I completely spaced as one of the Franz Ferdinand band members
walked past us and shuffled past the security with great ease.
So with my one chance at making an attempt to get in, I waited out
the final few minutes as M poked around by the artist parking lot.
The show started with 40', and the sound was, OK, muffled by the
rows of toilets, and the breaking point was when a ACL fest
volunteer stood in our view to catch the show herself. We then
moved to the area Myra found, it was directly behind the stage, and
the sound was way more intense, with a full view of the band, and no
other folks around at all. It was amazing, we probably were
closer to the stage than most folks at the show, being able to watch
the lights glance over the crowd, and most importantly, lapping up
all the acoustic goodness.
The band sounded incredible, knocked out almost their whole album
with a live panache that was fresh, vibrant and made your feet move.
I was just stunned at how amazing the set was, I've been stunned by
this album for a month now, but seeing them live was way more
impressive than I thought. Their version of 'Come On Home' was
a bit fast and changed up the emphasis, but he kept the final line,
"But don't forget to leave', delivered with a sly nod to the
thousands of festival goers stretched out in front of the stage.
|
Franz Ferdinand
Austin City Limits Festival
2004
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the pictures bigger
|
