Austin City Limits: The Good And The Bad

For the most part, Austin City Limits is a very smoothly run festival. It's relatively easy to get to, if you don't drive and don't mind a bit of a hike, and the Zilker Park field yields a rather nice skyline view of Austin's downtown. There aren't too many trees, so you have to fight for shade, but you wouldn't get that view if it was a tree-filled space.

First the good: ACL has a program set up, all around the festival, that encourages patrons/concertgoers to help with greening initiatives. "Fill a bag, get some schwag" was the slogan they came up with, and it was a simple concept.  Take a big clear recycling bag, walk around with it open, and let other concertgoers fill the bag with their empty cans and plastic. All ages were getting in on the action -- and the freebies didn't just consist of a cheap hat and key chain. Nice shirts and reusable grocery bags were the rewards for maybe 30 minutes of "work." If other festivals haven't started doing this, they probably should.

The not so good: last year, the organizers started throwing "official aftershows," where bands from the weekend would play at various venues downtown.  Good idea, and last year we saw one of the best shows of the weekend at Emo's, in Blonde Redhead and the National. But certain venues have certain (early) curfews -- like on Sundays, things need to be wrapped up at Stubbs a bit past 10. We ducked out of Foo Fighters a bit early and raced towards Stubbs, getting there at 10 p.m., hoping to see the Black Keys' set last night. Our tickets were ripped, and after cracking that first beer, we heard the band say, "Thanks, this will be our last song." 

Mind you, the Web site did say when the doors would be opening (7 p.m. -- which is very much during ACL), as well as the header "after the gates close in Zilker Park, hit the streets for aftershows." But this was very much a during-the-show event, and while organizers probably are trying to maximize fun options, they should consider next year only booking acts at places that don't have to contend with a noise curfew.  So, we got to see four songs of the Black Keys set. They sounded great as usual, but ended before our first beer did. -- Michael D. Ayers