I Have Acute Anxiety
That turned into the line of the day at Austin City Limits Fest as the White Stripes cancelled their appearance here and much of their upcoming tour, due to Meg White’s inability to travel---the official statement--”due to acute anxiety”. This guy pictured here wasted no time seeking his 5 minutes of fame with his handmade shirt. He was very excited when i told him i was going to “blog about him”.
Speaking of anxiety, my post traumatic stress disorder kicked in too a bit earlier in the day when we saw clouds of thick black smoke coming from the general direction of the festival grounds. At the time we were still downtown. We eventually got the word that a RV propane tank caught fire in the vendor area. Needless to say, that delayed my arrival at the fest. Once i got there tho it was all OK. 2 workers tho were seriously hurt I heard.
Once i got on site tho, and calmed myself with a Lone Star I managed to see Joss Stone, Crowded House, Peter Bjorn and John, MIA, Queens of the Stone Age, Spoon, Gotan Project, The Killers and Bjork. Plus found my friends Janeen, Amy and Larry. They’re siblings. Cute. Janeen is part of Team FUV down here. The musical highlight for me was Andy Palacio. Amazing world music set! He’s from Belize. Crazy to think I could love a singer songwriter who is not singing in English. His language is Garifuna. His music, an interesting, danceable, meld of Caribbean, Afro-Cuban, Latin and JuJu rhythms. His face, one of the most beautiful I’ve seen in a long time. There was something very gentle and sweet about his music too. Beauty and power without all that empty bravado and posturing. I pushed my way right up front. Dozens of non-Belize peeps like me were feeling it too. But then, this small, beautiful woman came dancing her way into the crowd. It was clear she actually knew these rhythms and how to move to them. Damn i wish my body moved like that. Anyway, Andy spotted her and several of us lifted her on stage and were treated to this authentic, beautiful, dance and performance. Later that night, on the big stage, in front of 65,000, Bjork would offer up similar African-style dance moves. See, we all connected.
I also loved the Gotan Project’s set. Tres-French. All dressed in off white suits, in front of a red backdrop. This is not your usual festival set. Very sophisticated and chill. Full band--fiddle, accordian etc plus DJ with the beats. It was a very Whole Wide World moment and i was happy to see so many people groovin to it.
Last year i raved about these crunchy avocado cones at the ACL food area. So happy they have them again. Yummy. Then we enjoyed Bjork from afar. Her show was big enough to fill a huge field in the second largest state in the union! So cool, colorful and hip. We hitched a ride on a golf cart to the exit and the chickie driving us had no idea who Bjork was. Sometimes we’re all just not connected. I was stumped when she asked me to describe her music. But she got us to the long long long shuttle bus line back to town.
After about an hour we fought the fatigue and hit the Paste Party for Joseph Arthur. So glad i did. With a full 5 piece band he rocked, glam-style for 5 solid songs. Great moment. Even dedicated the last one to me -- “September Baby,” as we share a birthday, September 28. Many other invites to parties and shows but good sense kicks in and after a nasty slice of pizza I call it a night!
