Tuesday, April 28, 2009 9:39AM - By davidhall
Fact: Austin, TX is known as the Live Music Capital of the World. Those of you who are keen to SXSW know this to be true, but for anyone who still needs proof, check out the lineup for this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival (Oct. 2-4).
The 3-day festival’s lineup features some of the summer’s most hyped-up headliners: Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band and the Beastie Boys. Anyone solely interested in these three groups might prefer to hit up Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in San Francisco this August (the headliners are identical), but ACL has a few world-class twists that justify the trek to the Lone Star State.
Check out the full lineup below:
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009 6:00PM - By davidhall
By the early Friday evening at the 2009 SXSW music conference, the line for the “secret” Metallica show at Stubb’s BBQ had extended halfway around the block.
Even when the doors opened, the queue didn’t budge.
After nearly an hour of glowering at a steady stream of mostly middle-aged hipsters flashing their badges (which cost nearly $700 for the highest level of access) to waltz right in past the endless line, my patience was spent. With the urge to scream, ‘Screw all you yuppies!’, I tromped off to try my luck at a smaller show. After waiting in yet another line, I finally found solace at the Cedar Street Courtyard, where Dinosaur Jr. dominated the stage later that night.
This type of frustrating situation seemed to typify the experience of many SXSW participants at this year’s festival. If one searched hard enough (and exhausted all patience), SXSW still has its marvelous moments, but it appears that (for the most part), the festival now caters primarily to the wealthy or the “in” crowd.
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