Another ACL come and gone, my friends. After going the past three years and being a veteran of ACL 2005 (read: The Other American Dust Bowl), I vowed to never go again. Something about the heat (really, can they not push it back a couple of weeks?), dust, large, sweaty crowds, stale beer, etc. kind of turned me off from the whole festival thing. I think having lived in Austin for the past three years has made me greedy musically: if a band doesn't play in a small(ish) club, then I don't want to see them. The intimacy, humanity, and soul of a club show is lost at ACL, where booming speakers drown each other out, the music fades into nothingness, and only JumboTron glimpses of the acts are possible, unless of course you are absolutely hardcore and camp in front of the stage of the big headliner the whole freakin' day. As in Counter-Strike, though, nobody likes a camper. With all of this said, I still went this year, but more on that later.

This year's fest had many of my faves in tow: Bob Dylan, My Morning Jacket, Wilco, The Decemberists, Spoon, The White Stripes, Arcade Fire, Steve Earle, et al. Furthermore, up-and-comers Dr. Dog would play an after-party with The White Stripes at Stubb's--egads, that's good stuff. Still, a combination of procrastination and amnesia robbed me of my White Stripes ticket at Stubb's, and seeing as Wilco wasn't going to play an after-show like they did in '05, I decided to intercept them in Dallas. What topped the treat was an opening slot of Dr. Dog-ness: far too good to pass up even if it means a trip up I-35 to my hometown.

The weekend seemed great, but it got even better. Saw Spoon on Thursday night at La Zona Rosa in what has become the best show I've seen them do. The horn section was brilliant, adding another degree of tautness to a band that is as tight as hell in the first place. Blasts of trumpet, trombone, and sax on "Stay Don't Go" really has me begging for a live Spoon album. Eric Harvey (keyboards) was insanely genius in adding his atmospheric touches and random looped samples; random bouts of dub-drenched effects on Britt Daniel's voice layered the sound immensly. It was like listening to an experimental reggae-Motown group that had a penchant for The Kinks.

Wilco, Friday night. Packed into the (seemingly) cavernous Palladium Ballroom on the southeast side of downtown D-town, I saw a tenitive set from Dr. Dog that was plagued by a horrible mix. Their freewheelin', classic pop/rock sound is not very well suited to such a large venue, and the crowd wasn't into it, though the Dog was. They were jumping around like it was just another basement in their hometown of Philly. I highly recommend them to anybody who likes good pop songwriting with a dash of eccentricity and a solid rhythm section akin to The Band.

Wilco are my favorite modern band. I found them in high school after my punk-emo-Elvis Costello phase (though I haven't gotten the latter out of my system yet, thank God). They have such a knack for songwriting; every single song is a hit in my book. With that said, I was even impressed that they took the stage on time. Professionalism is high in my count; it shows a real passion and sense of duty to music. They roared through "Shake It Off" from the new Sky Blue Sky (which I think is insanely underrated by everyone) before exploding into "Shot In The Arm", complete with a beautifully back-lit light show. Nels Cline, being jazz trained, is out of this world. He can shred on one song, like the lovely/instant-classic "Impossible Germany", provide a wall of screeching squall on "Handshake Drugs", play second fiddle to Jeff Tweedy's own guitar solo on the same song, then switch on a dime and play convincing country lap steel on "Hesitating Beauty". He is the most versatile guitarist since...Jimi Hendrix? I dunno, but you have to see him live. Bassist John Stirratt even sang a song, A.M.'s "It's Just That Simple", channeling Gram Parsons in his tear-soaked performance. With a set comprised mainly of Sky Blue Sky staples and experimental noise, it was a delight to hear the pounding classic rock of "Too Far Apart" as well as many Being There cuts towards the end of the show. My favorite numbers were "Spiders (Kidsmoke)", a song I seem to skip on A Ghost Is Born, but its Kraut-rock persistance is contagious; "I Got You", ending the first encore on a soulful country note; and "Misunderstood", which always sounds good being back in my old neighborhood, where cigarettes taste so good, and I'm so misunderstood...by the way, Wilco fans will know they like to draw out the "nothings" screams on that song, and I counted 40 Friday night. Such discipline, precision, and downright fun from the best American band of the past two decades. And Jeff was even happy that night, as he seems to be these days.

By Sunday, I was ready to return home and enjoy a nice relaxing evening of reading judicial theories on the prototypical court, but I managed to get an un-used Sunday pass to ACL. I decided to put it to good use, and I'm glad I did. I showed up at about 6, when the heat was dissappating, and I just sat down and listened to more music, relieved of the edging-for-a-closer-spot mentality that I usually retain at ACL. It was nice reclining outside, eating some BBQ while taking in the triumphant rock of My Morning Jacket, a band that is well suited to the outdoors. I even caught the second half of Wilco and heard my favorite live song by them, "Via Chicago". They seemed to be turning alot of heads when Nels Cline took his turn on "Impossible Germany", and maybe that album will get more respect. Saw the entirety of The Decemberists' set; a little underwhelming compared to past efforts, probably due to the sound issues more than anything, but I continue to be amazed by their new prog-rock direction: they put a heart and soul into a genre that is often burdened by too much dexterity or complexity. And finally, the showpiece, Mr. Robert Zimmerman, the man that taught me that lyrics didn't always have to be about girls and parties, that they could be poetic and...sung like a recovering lung-cancer patient? Seriously, I do not understand what has happened to Dylan's voice over the years. It has changed roughly 5-6 times, yet this incarnation doesn't sound like him at all. He opened with "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" (the one where he calls for the "stoning" of the masses), but I didn't figure it out until midway through the song when I caught the word "stoned". What's worse, the cameras didn't even zoom in on him, so I, being all the way in the back, didn't even catch a glimpse of the Musical Savior. His band sounded tight and his guitar playing is superb, but after about 4 songs of hairball-in-the-throat singing, I decided to pack it in. Still, I got to see him, and that's what counts, right?