I Am Not @ ACL Fest

I guess the days of me attending ACL Fest are now in the rear-view mirror.

I don't attend many concerts these days, and while I get the basic concept of the festival, as interests wax and wane, I'm just not much of one for doing that sort of thing for three days anymore.  I certainly used to be up for doing one day of festival-ness.  Heck, I attended the first few Lollapalooza's, back when it was a traveling musical festival.  But... I was also 16 - 20ish.

This isn't to badmouth ACL Fest.  They do a fairly good job, I guess, of bringing acts the kids want to see and stuff for an older and more general audience.  This year has headliners like Phish and The Eagles, if you're into that sort of thing (I am into neither).

I sort of miss being that into music, but these days it seems I just really don't care too much about the rock'n'roll.  When expressed, this attitude is treated as a malady, as if its something that's passing and from which I'll recover if I just try harder, which is sort of a weird way to think of it.  One could compare it to the disappointment and well-reasoned arguments one could put out there when you hear someone just isn't interested in using Facebook.  I do agree that music is an important art and cultural touchstone, but I don't see keeping up with the latest featured subjects of Spin as part of appreciating what your civilization produces.  Plus, I got other stuff going on.

I'm always up for giving something new a listen, by the way, and I do trust the recommendations of my colleagues (I've picked up Freelance Whales, Mumford and Sons and other stuff based on your recommendations in the past year).  And I do pick up new albums by people I tended to already like (I got the new LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire.  I paid good money to see The Pixies last month.).  But in comparison to when the rock'n'roll was something I actively pursued...  


Hopefully Jason and Amy are having a good time of it.  Last night when I was en route to see a pretty darn good production of "Midsummer Night's Dream"*, my Blackberry rang with Jason's tell-tale ring (Chewbacca!), and when I answered, I could hear LCD Soundsystem cranked up and blaring.  And, yeah, man, I kind of regretted my decision not to go for a minute there.  And, yeah, I kind of resent that ACL Fest has meant that bands now check Austin off their tour schedule because they showed up for this festival.  But, whatever.  Its also meant bands that might not book a show here have come to town.  You win some, you lose some.


*Austinites have one more weekend to catch Midsummer Night's Dream performed by The Baron's Men at the Curtain Theater on Lake Austin.  It was pretty great.  Next up, Twelfth Night, which I've never read or seen.