Austin City Limits Festival 2010

for me personally, a roots/americana specific festival would be pretty interesting too. just saying its a pretty good lineup for a "little bit of something for everyone" festival

James wrote:
My point was the the television show for many years, and in turn the festival, was essentially a roots/Americana showcase. Now it is much more diverse. It's much more of a "little bit of something for everyone" show/festival and much less a niche show/festival. You're lauding that fact, I'm lamenting it.

While the *show* is like 30 years old and originally focused on Texas (homegrown) music, the *festival* is only 8 years old.  REM and Spoon played the second year of the festival, and it seems like while association with the show set a tone for the first year or so, concert promoters will make money with whatever band will draw the crowds…there's no long, well-established tradition at the ACL *Festival*

godsshoeshine wrote:
i dont know why anyone would want to see phish in that kind of setting anyway. wouldnt it be better to see them in a field where trey can just smoke a bunch of crack and play for a month straight? it would be like a 10 "song" set list

trey could indeed smoke crack and play for a month straight . . . he'd still sell more tickets than the rest of the line up combined.  actually, playing for a month straight while smoking crack, is pretty indie.  i guess he does deserve to be there.

The full lineup looks like it has plenty to be excited about for all sorts of different fans and tastes. 

It's a great time regardless - and a headliner that doesn't interest me just means I'll be getting in the shuttle bus line early enough to beat the crowds downtown for dinner, and get ready for the aftershow that night.

I've been a couple of times, and have gotten there early and left early most days.  The headliners are normally secondary to us…

Look at the first few years compared to today, and tell me that you don't see an obvious shift in style. For every REM, Spoon, and Shins that were on the early bills, there were 10 roots acts. Today, it's the mainstream acts that predominate, and the roots acts are nearly an afterthough.

Besides, Spoon *IS* a Texas homegrown band, and REM were a southern band with jangly guitars. Both were closer in spirit to the tv show than LCD Soundsystem and Muse, to choose a couple of examples.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_City_Limits_Music_Festival

MonkeyPants wrote:

James wrote:
My point was the the television show for many years, and in turn the festival, was essentially a roots/Americana showcase. Now it is much more diverse. It's much more of a "little bit of something for everyone" show/festival and much less a niche show/festival. You're lauding that fact, I'm lamenting it.

While the *show* is like 30 years old and originally focused on Texas (homegrown) music, the *festival* is only 8 years old.  REM and Spoon played the second year of the festival, and it seems like while association with the show set a tone for the first year or so, concert promoters will make money with whatever band will draw the crowds…there's no long, well-established tradition at the ACL *Festival*

^Agreed….especially with the 2003 lineup.


My suggestion for James Ford is to leave the island and go to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in SF if he misses the origins of ACL festival…