Basic Brunches does ACL

Two weekends ago was Austin City Limits weekend 2. It was also the weekend leading into my birthday which is clearly a much bigger deal. So my birthday present to myself was a trip to ACL with Caitlin. This was my first music festival outside of 35 Denton, which really isn't much of a music festival. I hate people, I hate crowds, I hate drunk people and I don't particularly like live music because you run such a high chance of the band being awful live. But this ACL had about 12 bands that I wanted to see, so this was going to be a weekend of me working on some personal issues for the experience. $250 dollars to see Foo Fighters, Florence and the Machine, Drake, Halsey, Hozier and then some seemed worth it.

Total Weekend 2 Line-Up. Look at all the bands!

Friday Day 1:

Originally, we planned to leave Thursday night, but things changed and we decided to leave bright and early Friday morning. I mean on the road, bagels in hand, starting at 7 AM. I will admit, it was the best drive I've ever experienced. We were early enough to beat the Dallas traffic and just late enough to miss the Austin traffic. Three hours flat to get there. 

We arrived at her friend's house, who were graciously letting us stay in their guest room for free, a little after 10 AM. We changed, packed the backpack, figured out where the shuttles were picking up and hit the road. The shuttles pick up at Guadeloupe and 4th and we parked at Guadeloupe and 15th. About a mile away. We decided that the best thing to do was to eat as much as possible before we got to ACL to limit the amount of money we spent in the gates. So we walked a mile in the opposite direction to Torchy's Tacos. Delicious Torchy's Tacos. 

Trailer Park and Green Chili Pork - Missionary Style

I got the Trailer Park, classic, and the Green Chili Pork - Missionary Style. What is missionary style? If you look on the depths of the internet you could probably find Torchy's secret menu. Missionary style is a flour tortilla, cheese, fried corn tortilla, green chili pork, pickled onions, guac, and cilantro. It's massive, it's enough to eat on it's own, and it's the best.

After porking out we walked back to the starting point and then to the buses. So basically, before ACL even started we walked a 5K. These shuttles are the best, you don't have to worry about parking or traffic near the event and they run constantly. If you go, unless you are within walking distance of the park, take the buses!

ACL here I come.

Day one bands of interest were Nate Ruess from FUN, Billy Idol, Brand New, Gary Clark Jr., and Foo Fighters. Nate Ruess did a lot of covers, but he was good. Billy Idol was amazing, best show of Friday. Only down side is Billy is getting old. Brand New was a band of Caitlin's angst-ridden teenage years and she was very disappointed in them. Gary Clark Jr. was superb, he's a brassy blues/jazz player, not really music I listen to on the reg but I would listen to him. He might work his way onto a playlist or two. Foo Fighters were OK. I'm sure other people thought they were amazing, I personally was disappointed. They were more metal-screaming than their regular radio sound. Also, Dave Grohl wouldn't stop talking. I came here to hear you sing not listen to you talk. About 30 minutes into their set we left. We were also exhausted considering the fact we had been going for 14 hours at this point. So we headed back to the house and crashed.

Billy Idol - White Wedding!

Our best Billy Idol faces

The only thing we ate at ACL were these queso waffle fries from one of the stands. I should have been paying more attention from where I got them, but I was looking at price, what food I was getting and the line. Those were the decisions that played into anything I ate within those fences.

In the morning, I'm making waffle fries!

These were $9, enough to share, and the shortest line so they won. They were adequate. Very salty. The queso was pure cheese-liquid gold as it should be and the fries were slightly crisp with the fluffy inside expected of waffle fries. The "pico" on top was chopped up unripened tomatoes and onion. It was almost too tart and sweet and I ended up pushing most of that off to the side. Basically we ate them, didn't hate oursevles nor the food, and weren't hungry again. They did what I needed them to do.

Saturday Day 2:

We learned some lessons from the day before. 1. Get a blanket, we were sitting on my jacket all day. 2. Give less fucks about appearance. 3. Find a spot between two stages and never leave it. We hit Target and got ourselves a kickass How To Train Your Dragon blanket and some protein bars we snuck in because no outside food or drinks. Although you can bring in empty water bottles, there are free water filling stations throughout the grounds. Down side is the water is warm. So if you want cold water, either bring in a frozen, unopened water bottle (allowed) or get ready to spend $2 on a cold can of water. Or skip the water altogether and spend $8 on beer. 

To be fair it was basically 100 degrees outside.

Saturday was packed. So many people. Literally a sea of people at all times. Thankfully, most of the bands we wanted to see switched between two stages right next to each other, so we didn't have to move much. We started with Father John Misty, who actually interrupted his set to yell at a guy that was leaving his show. Look Father John, you don't know that guy's life. How 'bout you leave him alone. Sturgill Simpson, good at what he does, I don't like country music so it wasn't my thing. Twenty Ont Pilots. Although I know I heard them, I remember nothing of their show. Either heat stroke set in for that hour, or they weren't that great.Walk the Moon which were surprisingly wonderful. They put on an entertaining show, especially since they started their set with the opening song from the Lion King. Modest Mouse. This was annoying. Nothing to do with Modest Mouse, but I was more focused on the throngs of people that felt it was 100% OK to literally step over my body like I wasn't sitting on this blanket for the last 4 hours.

Seriously people. You suck. 

TV on the Radio. Again, don't remember. Bassnectar. Funny story, when we were getting on the shuttles to go home the night before we thought for a brief moment that the guy in front of us projectile vomited everywhere but it ended up just being some overly shaken-up carbonated water. We ended up coincidentally following the guy on our way to the car. Eventually, we were joking that we were following him and he told us that he got extra tickets to VIP Bassnectar and to find him and he'd give them to us. Yeah, sure, I'll be able to find you, random guy, in a crowd of God only knows how many. So no, we didn't get VIP tickets to Bassnectar but it would have probably been cool.

All of the lights all of the lights!

Last, and least, Drake. He. Was. Awful. Awful! Such a disappointment. Most of what we stayed for was just his tracks playing and him not doing much of anything. He occasionally rapped, but mainly he just walked around the stage yelling "AUSTIN!" and posing. That was it. Also, whomever was in-charge of his sound system needs to get fired because you couldn't really hear him as well as the other bands that were playing.

I should be able to hear him from this far back. I did for Foo Fighters.

Sunday Day 3:

This was our last day. It was expected to be the hottest day. It also had the most bands that I was interested in seeing. So this was the day. We started off at Kerby Lane, because it's not a trip to Austin without a trip to Kerby Lane. I ordered the Crispy Chicken Benedict which is a biscuit, crispy chicken, poached egg, hollandaise sauce, green chili sauce and citrus-marinated onions. I didn't care for the onions but I did care for everything else. 

Not pictured: potatoes, bacon, fruit. I ate it all. 

We got to ACL, final day, and they were brutal at checking bags for some reason. I mean, "dump all the contents of your bag on this table and if I find anything you can't have I'm going to throw it in this box" brutal. And that's where the remainder of our protein bars lived. In the trash box. What a waste. We found our spot, this time in front of a bunch of chairs and tents to limit the amount of foot traffic that would come our way and got ready to listen to bands all day.

Amason, Lord Huron, Halsey, Ben Howard, Of Monsters and Men, Hozier, and last but not least Florence and the Machine. Most of the bands on Sunday were amazing. Halsey was one I was excited for but she cut her set list 20 minutes short and that pissed me off. I know you had songs to fill that 20 minutes because you only sang 2 songs that I know. That was bullshit Halsey. Ben Howard's band was great but he was not. He needed to move away from the mic and annunciation more. Hozier was the surprising underdog. I actually ended up really enjoying his music, it's a little eclectic, and he put on a phenomenal show. I was pleasantly surprised. Florence and the Machine was AMAZING! Of course she would be. It was a sad sad moment when we had to leave. We needed to drive back that night so we wanted to be on the road by 10:30 PM which meant we needed to leave at 9:30 PM to get in line for the shuttle and walk back to the car.

Kill me.

All-in-all it was a fantastic time. It was long, hot, and exhausting but fun. From Friday to Sunday the amount of fucks I gave went to zero about how cute I looked. I went from wearing full makeup and cute outfit to trucker hat, sports bra, shorts undone and rolled down and walking around like "Yep Austin. This is me. Enjoy it!" Would I go through another ACL again? Probably not, unless it was just an amazing lineup like this one. But I agree that everyone should experience a music festival at least once.

Taco Libre!

What is the best food on the planet? I'll give you 5 seconds to think about that just kidding it's tacos. Tacos, the most perfect vesicle to transport delicious meat and toppings into your mouth for consumption. Why are tacos great?

1. Various types of filling. You have beef, chicken, fish, barbacoa, carne asada, pork. Really anything you want as a filling is doable. Hell, there are even choco-tacos that are ice cream sundaes in a taco shell.

2. You can also top them with anything. Classic cheese and salsa, mango salsa, slaw. The combinations of fillings to toppings is essentially endless.

3. If you eat your taco over other taco shells you automatically get a new taco. I like to use my chips as a nacho, scoop the fallings onto the chip and use the salsa or the queso as a binder. Taco nachos. 
(You're welcome)

So when Taco Libre was announced for last weekend I was all over that. Endless tacos amidst beer and music for an entire afternoon into the evening? Why would I say no to that? Alex and I bought our tickets ahead of time. It was the smartest decision ever because 1. We had our tickets and 2. If you bought them online and got the early bird tickets they were $10 cheaper long as you were inside the doors by 5 PM. I do love saving money.

Alex and I got there around 4 PM because traffic was awful and find out so was the line for Taco Libre. It was wrapping around the park. To be fair, it was a small park, but still.

That was just the people in front of us, there were people behind us and it wrapped around at the corner.

During our almost hour wait in line we found out the event sold out. Like I said, we already had our tickets so it was great news for us. We assumed the line would move along quicker after that announcement but no, everyone else in line also had tickets. Seriously, we were almost in line for an hour.

Naturally, if it's sold out that means the event itself was packed, and it was. They had various taco shops along one side of the park and the lines were about 15 mins waits a piece. Booze was closer to a 20 min wait. 

Hurry up to wait

We got out first tacos at Revolver Taco Lounge.  I was starving at this point so I ordered 2 crispy tacos and 2 barbacoa tacos. For those of you that don't know, barbacoa is goat. It's actually really good. If done well it's like beef. From what I could understand the cripsy tacos were filled with meat, of some kind, deep fried, then given to us in bags with a slaw and marinade mix that we were supposed to shake. The barbacoa tacos were like typical street taco style, add your cilantro and onions and whatever sauce.

TACOS!

After that we walked around a little bit to try to find alcohol. Well, not find it, it was around, but find a line that wouldn't take forever. Heat stroke was not on my to-do list for the day. After we were refreshed with beer I wanted to try at least one more taco joint while there so we got some more tacos at Urban Taco. 

I got an al pastor taco and some type of chicken taco. Of the two, the chicken taco was better. The chicken was seasoned well and was moist. The al pastor taco was a little chewier than I would have preferred. We enjoyed our tacos and beer while hanging out in front of the stage while listening to Pinata Protest. They are a band from San Antonio and they actually had fans in the audience that knew the songs so I take it they are somewhat popular. 

At the end of the day the biggest complaint I had, and various other people, was it ended up being bigger than expected. That's obviously not a bad thing. You want events to be popular, that's the whole point. But for the location is was small with long waits. The other "complaint" would be that every station was street tacos. I love street tacos, I understand they are easy, but when you're just getting 14 restaurants with their variations of street tacos you're not going to find much actual variety. Also, it was hot, but that's Texas. 

We ended up leaving after an hour or so. The plan was to head over to the Reunion Tower Lawn Party but that changed last minute, which was fine. I didn't need to spend more money. If they end up doing Taco Libre again, which they should it's a great idea, it needs to be in a bigger location. Variety in food options should be suggested to the restaurants. Also, more weird guys dressed like this...

35 Denton

This weekend your Basic Brunch main Bitch explored 35 Denton

(Instagram link if you want to check out some pictures).

35 Denton (actual website) is a "3-day walk-able music festival programmed in the burgeoning arts corridor of downtown Denton, TX."

For those of you that do not live in Dallas, Denton is if Austin and Dallas had a baby and that baby was too poor to live in either Dallas or Austin. It's a little bit of Austin funk mixed with the closeness of a less hippie filled big city. I actually lived in Denton while attending school at UNT so believe me it's hard to explain but I did the best I could.

35 Denton is the attempted rival of SXSW. Like I said, I lived in Denton for 3 years and honestly I never heard of this festival so it either was created after I left or was never that big of a deal until recently. For a little more in-depth background the Dallas Observer wrote this article really explaining the program and the turmoil it has endured over the year.

Now that all the background has been explained let's talk about the festival. It takes place all along the downtown Denton square which is a variety of bars, music venues and bouquet like shops. From the epicenter of the festival the farthest you were likely going to walk was 10 minutes down the road. Everything truly was in walking distance. The main stage and what I'm going to call "mini main stage" were the only outdoor venues and to enter and really get up-close and personal with the vendors and bands you needed to buy a ticket (more on that later).

Friday: I didn't not attend because I was still in Dallas. So the best I can say is Hey! Friday probably happened. I'm sure there were various bands playing music.

Saturday: This day I actually attended but wasn't able to make it out to the festival grounds till about 1:30 PM. I caught the tail end of The Dreamers, which were pretty good and the first song and a half of DEERPEOPLE which is actually an Oklahoma-based band. I like that they had a flutist and violinist. Really any band that can incorporate "different" instruments automatically wins a point or two in my book. The only reason I left their show was to get booze that wasn't Miller Lite. I then headed over to Harvest House, which is the newest kid on the block.

Little known facts about Harvest House. It had a soft open the day before the festival started. Additional fun fact, I walked by a few weeks ago to witness that bar being constructed. I would say they came along nicely. Harvest House is also, currently, a beer place. They have 50 beers on tap. I know, from speaking with the bartenders, that eventually (and hopefully quickly) they will expand the rest of the bar and be a fully stocked bar with also juices and teas. Think holistic beer garden. Yep, best description. The inside just bleeds into the outside space which it actually perfect. The only thing that was awful was the bench I sat on. Too high and too angled. My back was killing me. 

I believe I listened to some Jason Weems as I sipped  my pineapple cider and I found that whole moment extremely enjoyable. Breanna Manzare followed and I was less of a fan so I bounced to the next venue which was J&Js. I was trying to catch Moth Face but I believe I missed them so I watched French 75 instead and they were pretty kick ass. The venue at J&Js is a little like a serial killers basement but they have delicious pizza so I forgive you.

At this point I took a mini break and went home to chill out before coming back for a 7:30 PM show of Ssleeperhold at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio. That place has a piece of human ear on the wall. True story, displayed in a medial container. There is a story behind that which is mounted on the wall. The band after Ssleeperhold weren't able to show because their van broke down so moved venues again.

From there I went to Andy's where I honestly don't know which band I saw. It was either Vinyl or The Spectacle. Whomever they were they were a little generic. The people I was with were not fans, I thought they were fine. Meh. Different strokes, After that I went to the downstairs bar and hung out there for the remainder of the evening. The people I was with did go up to watch Urizen and loved the shit out of them. They are metal. Mosh pit metal. Something I just don't do. But I heard they were amazing and my person was the only person moshing until he bumped into a girl and felt awful for it. He also lost his voice. At this point we left the festival.

Sunday: The start of Sunday was a lazy start, meaning I didn't leave the apartment until 4:00 PM. We wanted to see Sol Kitchen but that didn't happen. When we got back to the festival we immediately found our way back to Harvest House and watched Sky Window (loved) and Dave Willingham Project (also loved). Sky Window is (or at least was) a strictly instrumental band including a variety of horns. Seriously, loved them so much. Dave Willingham Project was a Reggae band with a mock Lenny Kravitz on guitar and you know what... all over it. I was never a fan of that kind of music but you dreaded white guys won me over.

The only downside to Sunday, besides the extremely late start, was that the weather lied to me! I was dressed for 66 and partially sunny and it quickly changed to 60 and cloudy. I also had to leave to drive back to Dallas so had to cut the evening short but this festival was running to 2:00 AM.

Overview: Tickets ranged from (I believe) $60 for a 3-day pass to $35 for single day passes. I was able to get discounted tickets so I got two 3-day passes for less than one 3-day pass. Neither of those prices include the $2.75 taxes. Also you had to order you tickets online and pickup your wristbands at the main festival gate.

Was it worth the cost? Meh. For the discounted ticket, yeah, sure, I would say we got our money's worth. But for regular cost I would say don't bother. This is why I would say don't bother. If the following years are set up like this one, there is no need to buy the wristbands. You could literally set yourself up in the parking lot the main stage shares and listen to the music. The only benefit of the wristband is to physically get within the gates to get close to the performers and you get to check out the vendors, which there weren't many of. You don't need a wristband to get into the other 13 venues since they are all bars. There may have been cover for the other bars that you wouldn't be required to pay if you had the wristband but I can't say if that's true or not. The places I went were cover free.

Considering there are a total of 15 venues that are constantly changing acts almost every hour over the span of 3-days, if you really love music go enjoy the scene and the people watching and the variety of music. There are bands for every taste.