Another day in Stressville

OK, I really need to chill. In case you haven't read any of my earlier posts, Rache & I went to the Austin City Limits Music Festival in August. Here's a pretty funny story from the trip.

Thursday afternoon, a buddy of mine from Phoenix who was also at the festival calls me up and says he's at lunch and some guy is selling tickets to Kings of Leon at a bar downtown and do I want them. Heck yeah!! Kings of Leon was going to be at the festival Friday, but they were in the same slot as Iron & Wine, so I figured I'd be able to see both bands this way. Tragically Hip were playing from 7:45 to 8:30 at the festival, and the Kings of Leon tickets said 10:00, doors open at 8:00. So I'm stressed out because I really want to see the Hip, too. So I called the bar where the Kings were playing and specifically asked what time did Kings of Leon go on stage. I don't care about the opening band(s) - I want to know what time Kings start. Oh yeah, they definitely start at 10:00 the guy tells me, in a very aloof tone, which made me kind of nervous. But I asked again, and this time he was just sick of me, so he says yeah and hangs up.

So we watched about 15 minutes of the Hip, then headed for the bus back to town. You have to picture 75,000 people crowded into a park with eight stages - too say it's crazy is the understatement of the century. We were in line just to get to the bus for a good 30 minutes. Then when we got to the front of the line, we waited another 5 for the bus to arrive. So it's now after 8:30 and we're not even downtown yet. It's about a 20-minute ride, then another 20-minute walk to the bar. So now it's after 9:00 when we finally get to the bar. The problem is there are three doors going into the place, and each door has a line of people waiting. So we wait at the first door - when they finally start letting people in, we find out it's the wrong door! There is absolutely no direction in this place - people are scrambling around trying to figure out where to go. We finally get to the right door around 9:30 and as I'm walking through with my bag, the bouncer notices my digital camera in my murse / man-bag (okay, I carry one - big deal!!). "Sorry pal, you're going to have to leave that in your car - no cameras here tonight." Are you kidding me!? I don't have a car here and the motel is at least a half-mile away!! No cab to be found, so Rache and I walk to the motel at Olympic sprint-walking speed (not sure if that's an event or not, but I could have kicked some major butt that night if it was). We get to our room in I don't know how many minutes, but it was quick! We cut through the swimming pool area to get out quicker and as I'm getting to the sidewalk I tell Rache I'm getting ready to kick it into high gear and can she keep up? "NO!!!!" Poor thing, I think she was done at that point. So I slowed down a little, clearly annoyed at having to walk slower than a cheetah hunting gazelle. We got to the bar a couple minutes before 10, just in time to grab a drink and push our way to a good spot.

Oh yeah, here they come! Look Babe, there they are. They're getting ready to play.... wait a minute... hey, I don't recognize that guy... and, since when did Kings of Leon have a keyboard player? Wait, IT'S NOT THEM!!! IT'S THE OPENING BAND!!! We are hot, sweaty and smelly for no reason at all!! We have at least another hour before Kings start playing!!!

Welcome to Rachael's world.

I love Texas

One of Rachael's gifts to me for my 40th was tickets to the Austin City Limits Music Festival. When I say "one" of my gifts, it's because she gave me 40!!! That's right, 40. She said she wanted my 40th to be over the top, and she succeeded without a glitch. She told me to go into the other room for a few minutes, and when I returned, there were 40 wrapped gifts on the floor, stretching from one side of our condo to the other. She got me a 60 GB video iPod, which is probably the coolest gift ever, but right at the top with that one was our trip to Austin. 130 bands on 8 stages for 3 days straight!! Tom Petty, The Raconteurs, Kathleen Edwards, The Flaming Lips, The Shins, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Kings of Leon, Tragically Hip, Iron & Wine, Ray LaMontagne, Gomez, etc..... and the list goes on. It was amazing! Another gift from Rachael was T-shirt money, so, of course I went ape wild over T-shirts. I got one for Tom Petty, The Raconteurs, Kings of Leon, Tragically Hip, and ACL. If you ever get a chance to attend a music festival like that, do it - you will not be sorry.

I have some stories to tell, but I need to call it quits for tonight. I'll write more later.