We slept in a bit today, had lunch at a Mexican restaurant (TexMex, actually) before we went to the park.

We parked at the same parking garage each day - at Colorado and 5th street.

The first artist we saw was Ben Kweller. 2:30 p.m. I didn't really care whether we saw him or not. Rita and Ricky really did. Ricky left us half-way through the set to make his way up to see Bloc Party at 4:30. (I'd seen them last year.) He wanted a good spot. My plan was to stay with Amor the whole day - I missed him, now.

When Ben Kweller came on, he said, "Hello ACL! It's been a whole year - and look! No blood this time!" He'd gotten a nose bleed last year and had to end his set early. He'd tried everything to stop the bleeding, even put tampons up his nose. Rita and Ricky saw him last year. Anyway, Ben was really sweet and I can see why he's so popular with the young ladies.

We left a tad early - we heard his last song as we headed WAY across the park to see....

DeVotchKa 3:30 - 4:30

Really, super cool act. 3 guys and 1 woman, who played a stand-up bass and a tuba. One member played the accordian, violin, and other instruments, the drummer looked like Stuart Copeland, according to Amor. He also sang and played the trumpet sometimes. They all sang, the lead singer had a great voice, they got the whole crowd moving. Rita told me that one of their songs was on the soundtrack of Little Miss Sunshine. The woman's tuba had a flower design over the opening - it was really pretty pinks. I got a picture.

Rita left early to make her way up to be with Ricky for Bloc Party at another stage. Amor and I stayed and watched the rest of DeVotchKa, then saw a little bit of Bloc Party from far away. Amor noticed they weren't as tight this year. The lead singer said he wasn't used to all the sun shine, that he's from a dark, wet island.

Amor and I were really far back, we could hear them OK, but could only see them on the screens.

Next, we went to go pee, then get some food. The food was actually really good. Every year it's been good. Expensive, but tasty. Amor wanted to have French fries & beer - so I got in the French fry line, and he went to the beer line and we met up at a picnic table. Rita and Ricky met up with us at this point to have some food, too.

We got done eating in time to see the last 2 songs of Regina Spektor - singer/songwriter, piano. She was really cute & was really enraptured by the crowd. Rita said she was foreign, but I didn't hear any accent. (I didn't get a picture.) I wish we had been able to see more of her set. The crowd seemed to be really into her.

Then, Rita & Ricky started making their way up to see Ghostland Observatory - going on in 1 hour.

Amor and I saw a little of Wilco - I just can't seem to get into this band! I've seen them twice, now, listened to their CD, but nothing. I dunno. They are kinda boring on stage, but you can tell they're good musicians.

7:00 p.m.

We tried to see Ziggy Marley, but it was WAY too crowded. We stayed at the edge of the crowd and heard him sing a few songs. (We've seen him already, a couple years ago. Awesome.) He was 15 minutes late for his set - it was annoying. Then after he came on, EVERYONE around up lit up the reefer...literally. I mean, everyone. If we'd stayed there, we would have totally gotten high. Not that that would have been a bad thing... Maybe just a little high.

We left after the 3rd song to see Ghostland Observatory - this band is a definite WOW. It's 2 guys and the front man is very flamboyant. It's a lot of electronica and heavy beats. The crowd was going nuts. Everyone loved them. I got a video of them. The keyboardist was wearing a silver cape. Fucking A!

We met up with Rita & Ricky after the show to go see Bob Dylan, the last act.

On our way over, we bought a bottle of red wine (they pour it into a plastic bottle for you) and sat on the grass and listened to Bob - man is he awful. His voice is just terrible. I don't mean to talk shit about Bob Dylan, but geez.

It was fun, anyway.

We got back to the hotel in record time. We convinced ourselves to take a shower and go back out. We went to this club called Plush and danced our asses off.

Ricky and Amor drank too much, Rita and I were pretty cool. The bartender told us about this ACL after-party, but it turned out to be a deserted, old hippy commune off Oltorf & Lamar with absolutely nothing going on. They tricked us! We were drunk and stupid. So we all took a piss in the parking lot, and went back to the hotel.

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