ACLFest Weekend Two, Day Two Recap

Robert Smith of The Cure totally owning us, all of ACL--shit, the world

I woke up slightly more bedraggled than yesterday to find that the entire ACL operation has f'real been canceled due to flooding and more flood warnings. The depression of the whole experience getting cut short is now starting to sink in, but I can't deny that my body could probably use the break. My feet ache, my reddened skin throbs, my clothes still hang wet from last night's torrential downpour. Day Two was serious business. 

I got to the park earlier in the afternoon than on Friday, about 2:00 to catch indie dance band Electric Guest. It was really no time to be dancing in the beating sun though; the Texas heat had plans of its own and would be having us know it. Maybe it was for that reason that I found Electric Guest a tad underwhelming, or maybe it was the gigantic sound coming from HAIM at the nearby main stage.

I thought I would get to catch the last 15 minutes of sister rockers HAIM's set, but they for some reason cut their performance short. I caught them just as they finished, with the three of them doing a crazyass ensemble drum-off and then one of the sisters leaping into the crowd for an unsuccessful crowd surf. But she clearly didn't give a shit and went back for a second turn. Win.

Temperatures didn't let up all afternoon, and it was a whimsical game trying to find space under one of the few trees for some shady respite. Strangely enough I found that light, continuous dancing cooled me off more efficiently than standing still. I can't stand still to music anyway, but I felt I had more power to summon breezes if I moved with it.

Life went on like that for the next couple hours, me just sort of wandering through the meadow, smiling drunkenly at everything (except sober; it was so hot I couldn't even fathom a drink until sunset). It was also around this time that the crowd seemed to swell exponentially; I'm gonna say Saturday's attendance was at least double Friday's. Suddenly people were everywhere. 

Grimes (née Claire Boucher) was one of my priorities, the adorable electronic producer from Canada who we've now learned feels strongly about burritos, Pokémon, and earplugs. She began her set with some wicked "weirdo experimental stuff" and then finally got people moving with her more recognizable tracks like "Genesis" and "Be a Body." Most notably, this was in fact the first time I had seen more than two people dancing at a time.

Okay okay okay, now I'm gonna gush about The Cure. In the downtime leading up to their performance, the sun had just set, and after such an oppressively hot day, the cooling atmosphere served to wake everybody up a little. The band came on almost ten minutes early (when does that happen??), and it was immediately obvious that they were going to own the stage, the crowd, and I'm going to go so far as to say the entire festival.

I was unsure how they would be received after seeing so many great bands get super under-appreciated by stiff crowds over the last two days, but The Cure had us all by the balls. This was the most animated I had felt any crowd for any show at ACL; that's some serious kind of magic (is Robert Smith's hair somehow connected to this power he holds? What other reason could he have for keeping it like that?). They plowed over two hours and 27 songs--a mix of ferociously familiar hits and some lesser known tracks from lesser known albums--and no doubt they could and would have kept going if the plug hadn't been pulled on them right at 10:00 (okay, they did it the classy way by fading them out, but still). 

It was at the beginning of "Wrong Number" that the rain came. And holy shit, did it come. This was the start of what would become a foot of rain during the night, the reason for today's cancellation. As disappointed as I am to miss today's lineup (Atoms for Peace, mostly), I can't imagine a more fitting closedown than The Cure.

Now I've got a whole day to get a taste of Austin. I'm going to find some beer, football, and then hopefully Thom Yorke. Wish me luck.