It’s two days post ACL week one. Im absolutely fried. In a good way though, like a piece of chicken soaked in a batter comprising of good ass times. Fortunately, I was blessed with an “artist pass’ wristband and I completely juiced its privileges. I was allowed backstage to every act excluding the main headliners, I had access to the very colorful “artist” lounge, I was allowed in all the “off limits” sections behind the scenes, it truly was a very unique and rare experience.

I honestly didn’t see many acts this year, mostly because I wanted to delve into the other facets I was granted, and (unpopular opinion) I didn’t dig many of the acts this year, but that in no way tainted my experience. Musically, I didn’t really like many of the people playing, but the lineup this year definitely had one of the more interesting general personalities than in the past. Many of the acts playing were considered more “out there”. Artists such as The Cure, Idles, Oliver Tree, Thom Yorke- all fall under the “out there” category in my opinion. And that just makes for a more interesting and fun festival experience- the festival could’ve easily decided to house generic and popular artists that everyone knows, but they decided to shed some light on the lesser known, which is fantastic; nothing better than introducing people to new things. So, over the weekend, I did go backstage to The Raconteurs, Idles, and Black Pistol Fire. The Raconteurs show was insane, the band walked right past me and my pals, I also got to see lots of Guns N Roses gear because they were set to play right after The Raconteurs, I got a visual on Slash a few times, which is insane as well. After the Idles show, I got up and hugged their frontman, which I was pretty proud of- If you don’t know, Idles is a pretty grizzly punk band and their all pretty scrappy, intimidating individuals. While in the so very posh artist lounge, i saw a looot of famous people that was really cool. I saw Brittany Howard, the singer for the Alabama Shakes, I tapped Billy Eillish on the Shoulder, I saw her brother Finneas a ton, I saw Still Woozy and his Peanut butter looking stage hype man shared a word with me. Very fun. The one thing I can take away from the granted artist entrance, it’s that all those famous people- they’re just like you and I. They’re regular people, just happen to be lucky with music.

Anyways, Im heading to week 2 this week, ill be giving another post festival this time with better documentation of the musical acts. See Ya.