Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) is a three-day-long music extravaganza and general hippie-fest, located in Austin, Texas. It's a huge event, taking place in the 46-acre Zilker Park and playing host to hundreds of thousands of people (no, really, last year there were 218,000 people that attended). I'm going to all three days of this year's event, and bringing super-special coverage directly to you!

Here's how the first day went down:

11:15 AM - Nelo, BMI Stage

Nelo (pronounced like "jello") wasn't originally on my schedule of bands I wanted to see today. I'm mostly focused on the big names - there are a lot of great bands here that I've never had the chance to see live, and I don't want to waste that opportunity. That being said, I arrived at the festival a little earlier than I'd intended, and these guys sound pretty good. They're a fairly standard rock/jam band, not unlike the Dave Matthews Band, cranking out some very chill, relaxing music for the folks that have gathered in front of the stage. There's a definite country influence in their music - more Wilco than southern rock, and it comes off quite nicely.

Another thing - everyone in front of me is standing, but that's not what ACL is about. ACL is about sitting in the grass and pretending to be a hippie while listening to good music. That's what I think, anyway.

12:00 PM - The Bright Light Social Hour, Dell Stage

These guys were the winners of Dell's "Sound and the Jury" competition, earning the opening position at the Dell stage this morning. Technically they went on at 11:45, but I'm just now getting over here after grabbing lunch - a pulled pork sandwich from Stubb's, one of the many local restaurants to host a food stand over in the Eats section.

The Bright Light Social Hour has a heavy groove/funk rock sound, over which they like to combine falsetto backups with bombastic lead vocals. Playful instrumental combinations like a bouncy piano backbeat paired with a wailing guitar performance make their sound unique. There's probably some personality coming into play as well; at one point, the lead singer yelled, "Y'all got up early, make some noise!"

On a side note, my friend and I picked out a strategic spot almost directly situated between the Dell stage, where the Bright Light Social Hour is playing, and the Livestrong stage, where the School of Seven Bells is about to go on in a few minutes. When Bright Light finishes, we're rotating 180 degrees to watch SoSB. Couldn't be simpler.

Article Author: Brian Murff

Brian Murff is a college student studying professional writing at the University of Oklahoma. He spends an absurd amount of his time reading, listening to music, and playing video games. He also likes playing the occasional game of bocce.

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