There has been

a lot of talk about ACL tickets the last few days. I would like to go VERY much, whether with a press pass or not I haven't decided, but I will be there regardless. Unfortunately, I will be missing out on the bulk of summer fests due to my France trip (boohoo, right?), but here is my weigh in on the line-ups for the festivals I will be missing.

Bonnaroo
Bonnaroo, I would very much like to attend you, but I swear if I see another festival where Dave Matthew Band and Kings of Leon are the headlines I will throw up. Better question: why are those two bands listed before Stevie Wonder?! Oh well, I guess he can't see unless someone tells him...
Anyway, there are some gems and some major womps in the line-up, which I guess is like most festivals. Weezer was one of the more surprising picks. They were struggling to tour with Make Believe (more in their physical state rather than ticket sales), so I can't imagine what state ol'man Rivers Cuomo will be in for such a large crowd. Overall, pretty solid, but there are so many buzz bands it's kind of irritating.

Five acts I absolutely, positively would not miss:

• The Flaming Lips performing Dark Side of the Moon <---ZZZZOOOMG listening to it now
• THE MIDDLE EAST - My mind is still blown from SXSW.
• The Avett Brothers - More importantly, I'd jump on the stage and kidnap them.
• Jeff Beck - Tickets to see him in Austin were in the hundreds of dollars toward the end, and now he's a blip way down on the line-up list? Further proof that Austinites know their music.
  
• Local Natives - SO. DAMN. GOOD.

Five acts I suggest you avoid like the plague:

• Weezer - Sorry, guys. It's even past novelty at this point.
• Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers - Seriously?
• OK Go - That new music video is SWEET, though. I just imagine it would be really boring.
• Dawes - I believe my assessment for their SXSW performance was "this sounds like John Mellencamp...except really boring. And not good. At all." <-maybz a bit more eloquent
• Neon Indian - Okay, avoiding like the plague may be harsh. You should check it out if you like it, but it takes a pretty dynamic electronic guy to make that show interesting. I wasn't impressed, but the crowd was also very lucid.

Sasquatch!

I think Sasquatch! is cool for several reasons. A) It has punctuation in its name. B) The Gorge is a PERFECT place to have a concert. You could probably see from ANYWHERE, where as that flat ground of Zilker are very limiting. C) They consistently have killer line-ups without the cheesy buzz bands or burned-out old rockers.
I even like the way they present the bands on their website - each with their own little blurb and There are a few overlaps between the big music festivals for the really good acts, but Sasquatch! takes the cream of the crop from the others and adds PAVEMENT to their repertoire. Yes. Pavement. Jaws, get ready to drop.

People I would sell internal organs to see:

• PAVEMENT - I can't believe they are doing a major festival that close to their reunion!
• Ween - They are still way too cool for me to handle.
• Public Enemy - WIN for the oldschoolhipsterfriendly rap pick.
• Tallest Man on Earth - Sweden's Bob Dylan? Yes, please. Note: He is playing in Austin on May 2nd. I'm already going and YOU SHOULD TOO. Tickets are only $10.
• The Mountain Goats - I feel like I haven't seen them out and about much, of late. The Mountain Goats, so I've heard, put on a crazy good live show.
  

When it's time to wait in Port-O-Potty lines:

• Passion Pit - I love Passion Pit, okay? Really, I do. But their live show makes me want to weep. It's BAD.
• MGMT - Kind of in the same boat with Passion Pit. Good album, bad live show. Also, their newest release has really thrown everyone for a loop, and I'm not sure how to feel about it yet.
• Nada Surf - Live, they're mediocre at best. I actually went to one of their shows for their opening act and left a few minutes into their set. Granted, I'm not really a fan of their recorded stuff.

Honestly, I can't think of two more than aren't overlaps of the last bad ones. Also, the list of people not to miss was VERY hard to keep to five. Seriously, check out the line-up.


To be continued...