I get paid tonight

First off, I’d like to take this chance to complain abut my stupidity and my poor feet. This weekend I chose fashion over comfort and paid a huge price. I was working the Austin City Limits festival, which required standing 12 hours a day, for 3 days in a row. The first day, I chose to wear my little red flats which look very, very nice but lack all support. The next two days I was in unbelievable pain. If it weren’t for the music I don’t know if I would’ve made it through the weekend.

Working the festivus does have its advantages though, I got to listen to a few great acts at the stages closest to our bar. Most notably Heartless Bastards, Kevin Devine, Arcade Fire and Cold War Kids. Of the four bands, Heartless Bastards was the only one that I wasn’t familiar with. The lead singer’s Karen O-esque voice and the bands ability to give a different feel to each song really grabbed my attention. They were a pleasant surprise if you will. I was a little disappointed in two acts that I had been anticipating all weekend. Andrew Bird’s performance felt too contrived and the sound seemed a little off. His whistling is usually a treat but it became sort of painful through the speakers on Saturday. The first time I saw him perform he was up on the stage all by himself with a few instruments and a complicated system of pedals constructing the songs all by himself and having a band back him just lost a lot of the sincerity that I loved before. Another artist, Regina Spektor played all by herself this time but the lack of song differentiation and bad sound again made her performace lackluster to me. I went to her show in October of ‘06 and she played all of the same songs except that she added “Real Love” by Lennon. Maybe I’m just picky or bitter from standing, I don’t know.

The musical highlight of the fest had to be Kevin Devine’s soundcheck. The bartenders had to be there a hour before the festival doors open and so we were setting things up when Devine jumped on stage and started playing some of his stuff. He played a cover of “The Biggest Lie” by Elliott Smith which he didn’t end up playing in his show so it seemed extra special and well, it was really well done. He instead ended up playing Neutral Milk Hotel’s “Holland, 1945″ during his show and that was just a lot of fun. I was pretty jaded with the whole singer/songwriter business and I think he won a fan back.

Heartless Bastards - Runnin

Kevin Devine – Holland, 1945

Radio Show Update: Application Submitted, possible training on Thursday.