Keep Austin Wierd... ACL Festival Collateral Damage!

Awesome! I got to the airport this morning at 6am and was amazed... As you may or may not know, The Austin City Limits Festival was this past weekend and ended yesterday. I didn't play the festival this year but I got home yesterday from the road just in time to play private show at The Salt Lick BBQ and then turn around and head out this morning. The festival was a bit off of my radar until I got to the airport! I didn't think that I would see any festival leavers this early... I was wrong! I guess I did not take into account that a lot of the festival attendees would need to get home early on Monday to get back to work (while still a fair price, it is fairly expensive to travel and buy tickets and everything else that goes into it). I am on Southwest Airlines today and my first flight was to Phoenix. I think they might be the airline of choice for the festival!! For every everyday business, straight job traveler this morning there was a flip flop wearing, mail delivery bag toting, 3 days of no sleep hangover having, still high on the foo fighters festival leaver! It was a nice combination of folks to see hanging out in the gate area!!!!

I got on the very full flight with my carry on but had to check my guitar at the gate because there was no room in the overhead bins stuffed with back packs smelling of stale beer and what was left of whatever was there before it was smoked at the festival. I sat in the window seat of the exit row... that's why I love group A! I knew that someone would need to sit in the middle seat because the flight was completely full so I spent my time playing the game in my head called "please sit next to me/please don't sit next to me". It's a fun game. I practice it a lot but don't ever seem to get better. The reason for me to choose "please sit next to me" is really just practical... the smaller the person is- the more I want them to be in the middle seat... it just makes sense, right? Opposite sex and small body comp beats same sex and large body comp... you get it right?

Well I lost the game in that a dude sat down next to me. He had sunglasses on which is a sign for either being very tired and needing some sleep, blind or a jerk! This guy was definitely the first one. I noticed very early on that this guy was in serious need of a lot more than sleep... namely about 30 beers less than what he consumed in the past 12 hours!!!! His legs were twitching, his arms were around his head, his face was so white he looked like a ghost. He was desperately trying to pass out but he couldn't. He kept making sounds like a dying puppy would make. At one point he tried to take a sip of water... that was the end. He jumped out of his seat and scurried off to the lavatory like a ... well, like a hungover dude about to puke runs to a toilet! I felt bad for the guy but had to laugh. He repeated this process no less than 4 times during the flight. He even defied the flight attendant and got up to go puke as the plane was landing! Seriously, I felt bad for the guy but had to laugh! It reminded me of a time I was flying back to Dallas from Oklahoma City on a Sunday morning and... but that's another story.

It was quite a flight! Made me proud to be from Austin where Bob Weird is still the King!

I hear that ACL fest was one of the best yet! It sure as hell looked that way traveling out of the city.

Jack