ACL 2011-Day One

Mary, Trevor, and I got to the festival around 2:30 yesterday.  The first act we saw was Brandi Carlile.  I wasn't a fan until she played some 80's covers, then I came around a little.  After that, we went to get something to eat.  We met up with Peter and Alta and went to see Ray LaMontagne which I wasn't really feeling either.  After that, however, we went to see Big Boi which was awesome!  He played a bunch of great Outkast songs, which I was very happy about (Ms. Jackson and Bombs of Bagdad!).  We saw a little bit of Foster the People, but since they weren't playing Pumped Up Kicks, I had no idea what they were about.  So, we saw the end of Cold War Kids and then prepared ourselves for Bright Eyes.  Just in case you don't know, Bright Eyes is one of my top ten people to see play live and they are always amazing.  Conor seemed happier than he was when Josh and I saw him at a free show during SXSW this past summer.  He was walking around the stage a lot, spinning (which I'm not sure means your happy, but definitely means your full of life), and he jumped down to where the audience is and shook peoples hands and hugged the security guards.  It was really nice.  He also played my favorite old school Bright Eyes song, "Lover I Don't Have to Love."

After Bright Eyes, Santigold played.  I had no idea who they were until I heard that song that goes, "I hope it will be worth what I give up, whoo whoo."  She's kind of like MIA, I think.  After that, Coldplay started and they were super awesome!  Their light show was especially great.  It was neat to see them play again because they were the headliners the first year I went to ACL in 2005.

Lastly, we saw Kanye West who played some really good songs and a lot of not good, singing, not rapping songs.

On the way out, I wanted to look at the merch booth to see if they had some awesome Bright Eyes shirts.  As we walked up, someone yelled "Allie!" and it turns out it was Emily who I had worked with at Ben and Jerry's over five years ago!  I haven't seen her since I worked there.  She is married now and seems really happy.  She said she still keeps in contact with Liz (who also worked with us).  So, hopefully we can have a giant Ben and Jerry's reunion really soon.

Overall, great day one!  Can't wait until today (day two)!

Josh says, "Hi."