It was a gray and damp Saturday morning so I mixed my breakfast routine up with my classic peanut butter, Nutella and banana combo, I didn't settle for toast though, took it to the next level with a blueberry bagel, it added extra character. Also filled up on fruit.
The ACL twitter account was flooded (pun not intended) with people asking if the festival is cancelled, c'mon guys, this is nothing, try five days knee deep in Glasto mud! They decided to start the festival an hour later so they could soak up the water.
Headed to Houndstooth again to upload snaps and have coffee, decided to go for the house coffee, the fella asked if I wanted 'any room', I declined, that was American for 'do you want milk', I'm not a fan of black coffee but this was still nice!
Managed to get the free shuttle to the festival this time, nice and easy. The festival was damp, that slippy where falling is likely, the locals couldn't handle it!
First stop was the press lounge for whiskey and cupcakes, the obvious combo before catching Interpol on the Honda stage, a band who are always better than expected, followed by Iggy Azalea on RetailMeNot stage attracting a huge crowd. It was like the whole of the festival had come to see the Australian rapper who probably should have been on the main stage, she has come on a lot since I last saw her eighteen months ago. Backed by dancers, singers and a DJ Iggy put on a lively and entertaining performance as she encouraged the masses to throw their middle finger in the air.
After our three songs were up we were marched through backstage to the press lounge where Stubbs were doing the catering and boy did they live up to the hype, the BBQ pork sandwich was so good I went back for seconds, a jalapeño wrap, greasy, greedy but SO good.
I caught Iggy end her set with Fancy before Lana on the Samsung stage, the most beautiful person I've seen IRL (in 2012) had banned photographers for her set, daft. If you've the looks, flaunt them! I bet she can be hard work. Second song in it was like she needed an ego boost as she stopped singing about her pussy tasting like Pepsi, departed the stage to sign autographs and have photos with the frow, did she forgot she was playing the main stage? Odd behaviour! Lana didn't really put on much of a performance, even the video screen focused on the guitarist as she lazily posed throughout. I like the New Yorker but this was just dull. She even forgot the words on Born To Die!
Back to the RetailMeNot stage for some fun with super producer Diplo and his 'group' Major Lazer. Dance music can be boring live, this was anything but boring. LCD screen. Check. Dancers wearing very little. Check. Airhorns. Check. Energy. Check.
And then it was Eminem. An icon of my generation and the ones that have followed. The first festival headliner I saw. Somebody I have been obsessed with since my early teens. Controvsial. Ground breaking. Crazy good. For ninety minutes Zilker Park belonged to Eminem.
He crowned his appearance with material covering his fifteen year career, bouncing from track to track, he must have squeezed about forty in, that's a lot of words! Witnessing the Detroit rapper do THAT verse on Rap God live was quite something, it baffles me how he manages to get all those syllables out!
Hip hop has come along was since I saw him headline Leeds Festival in 2001, a lot of it is down to him and as his set linked moments in his career, especially the relationship between last years Marshall Mathers LP 2 and LP 1 you realize how clever and special Em is. Joined on stage by a band, MC Mr Porter (fingers crossed it's the e-tailer) who helped layer rhymes and an amazing female backing vocalist filling in for Dido (Stan), Rihanna (Love The Way You Lay/Monster) and Hayley Williams (Aiplanes) allowing the rapper to finally feel comfortable on stage after years of trying to avoid it, and when he had to he relied on drugs to get through. Now clean, confident and a healthy back catalog Eminem came out all guns blazing giving everything you'd want from a headliner.
From his playful break-through single My Name Is to the politically charged White America and the iconic Lose Yourself, which concluded the show Marshall showed why he's so highly regarded. the set opened with a video based around Matthew Mitchell who first appeared in Stan on the first Marshall Mathers LP, returning on the LP 2's Bad Guy. Eminem/Slim Shady/Marshall Mathers has always been about characters and myths, that has allowed him to take risks, have fun and be interesting, highlighting the ridiculousness that the outrage caused by his antics in the early days. Outside of the festival there were a handful of Bible Belt preachers with megaphones and placards trying to push Jesus on to a disinterested crowd who just laughed in their faces.
So, 11pm, Saturday night in the main hub of Austin's vibrant nightlife I see one man, when the traffic lights turned red get out of his car and bust some moves on the road whilst a horse and cart toddle by in the next lane. Normal.
