Road to ACL: The Playlist

I have been in festival withdrawal here in Austin, TX. My calendar is filled with countdowns to weekends of ACL, Utopia Fest and Fun Fun Fun Fest that promise to overwhelm me with music, thrills and adventures in the way only a great music festival can. In the month leading up to ACL, I will feature some of the artists I am most looking forward to (there are SO many!). I have also created a playlist to get you as excited as I am. I decided not to include every artist on this playlist because, to be honest, I'm not entirely in love with some of the bands (I'm looking at you, EDM). For real, some of it sounds like cats dying. I also didn't necessarily choose the top hits for each artist because that's what the radio is for (but sometimes I did pick those songs because they're just so damn good!). Enjoy!

ACL Photo

Day 2 Of ACL Was Everything I Love About Music Festivals

For all that day 1 wasn't, day 2 of ACL was everything!

Young the Giant: Awesome

City and Colour: Loved it

Abigail Washburn: Almost proposed to the fiddle player

Fitz and the Tantrums: Everything great in life

CeeLo: Was there volume? nope

Chromeo: Epic dance party, Ceelo who?

Court Yard Hounds: Wild card best show of the day. Might have actually proposed to their fiddle player

My Morning Jacket: Rock show spectacular.

My hangover this morning? Surprisingly not as bad.

Also, I blame Kanye for blowing the speakers and shitting all over the Stevie show. Typical Kanye.

ACL Day 1: How Sara Bareilles Saved the Day

So I'm going to level with you, I was not blown away by the first day of ACL. I'm still waiting for my apology from The Smith Westerns for their performance in the afternoon. Was it maybe the worst thing I've ever heard? Probably.

And what was with all of the mellow bands that have no business at an outdoor festival? James Blake? Really?? Not that I don't love Blake and his adorable accent, but he mostly just made for good background noise for the nap I took on that amazing Zilker Park grass. Not exactly what my ACL wristband and I had in mind for the day.

I was hoping that Mark Foster could remedy the less than stellar music experience I was having. If it weren't for the 1 million people that all had the same thought, he probably could have. It doesn't even matter that their shows are a shuffled version of Torches. I love everything about them down to Mark Fosters youthful new haircut.  Still, there were 1 million people and they didn't even play Warrant!

But Sara Bareilles was who I was secretly most excited to see. I knew that She would fix everything. My brother commented this morning, "If I had the day off I'm pretty sure I would spend it learning every Sara Bareilles song on the keyboard."  Girl has a set of lungs and she kills it in concert! We danced as the sun set and the stars came out. We sang loudly to all the men we aren't going to write love songs for and she was every reason I love concerts!

I still don't understand Kanye...