@ZackTeibloom I don’t crash festivals anymore. Wow, that was weird to admit out loud. Sure, I’ll occasionally do what I have to do to get into a Jack White or Tenacious D SXSW badge-only show, but I haven’t full-on crashed a festival in over a year. Those days are more or less behind me. I didn’t even consider crashing or even look to see if it was doable this year. That doesn’t mean that a) I’ll stop going to festivals or b) I won’t always be looking for a deal. ACL at $200 is a good deal, but the three-day passes sold out before the line-up even came out. Granted, ACL hasn’t had a line-up worth skipping in the five years I’ve been in Austin, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to pay $200 several months in advance for a TBD line-up. Especially when you can always buy a ticket at the festival grounds for face, or even slightly less than face. On Friday I had my heart set on seeing Los Campesinos! at 12:30, so I obnoxiously pestered a sick with a cold Caitlin to hurry up so we could get to Zilker in time for me to find a pass and get to the stage at half past noon.

We got lucky with a free parking spot, a few blocks from the fest and started walking in as scalpers offered up $150 single-day passes and $275 full weekend passes. Dream on, dick heads trying to make cash off of goobers who don’t know any better. I half-kiddingly said “$175?” to one such dick head after he offered a pass for $275 and didn’t even slow down to bargain with him. It was far too sunny and far too early in the day to get any kind of a deal off a scalper. As I continued to walk toward the festival grounds, a guy overheard my half-hearted attempt at buying a ticket and said he had an extra he’d sell at face ($200.) I told him I may come back to him in a bit. We walked the last few minutes to the gates and came to the point where Caitlin had to break off to get her media pass and I had to figure out who had my miracle. I told her I’d meet her at the media entrance in ten minutes. She started to walk away and I turned to the guy who offered me the pass for face and said “Are you going in now?” “Yeah.” “I’ll give you $180.” “That works.” I made the exchange and saw Caitlin was only about 15 yards away from me, quickly caught up with her and headed in with enough time to find our friend before Los Campesinos! Not much to it. Now I’ll break down exactly how much value I think I got for that $180. I’m going to list a dollar amount for each show. This number represents the number I would say is perfectly fair for the show. Like, if I looked at my bank statement and it said $40 for M83, I’d say, yeah, that wasn’t a bargain, but I got my $40 worth. That was fair. I’m going to go chronologically.  Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom Jack White was simply spectacular. Compared to everyone who played this weekend, he was in a class of his own. No one else was close. But compared to other Jack White performances, he left me wanting just a bit more. Don’t get me wrong. That’s part of his appeal. I waited over four hours (mostly in the rain) for him on the festival grounds on Saturday and sat in the will-call line on the sidewalk for three and a half hours for the taping on Sunday and I don’t regret a single second of it.

It should be mentioned early on that Jack White did not play an encore either night, despite having both ample time and show staples left on the table. Arguably his biggest new single, “Sixteen Saltines,” was not heard this weekend. His one song that typically closes every show and has become an international anthem, “Seven Nation Army” was not played at the taping. There was nary a track off popular White Stripes albums De Stijl or Get Behind Me Satan and only “I’m Slowly turning Into You” off of Icky Thump, but none of the big singles. Ditto the big Raconteurs and Dead Weather stuff. He played mostly medium to deep cuts and rarely the biggest song off any album. He’s playing a bit of everything, covering his entire catalogue, but by no means is this a best-of show. This is not Paul McCartney. What we’re seeing with Jack White is an artist who is doing exactly what he wants and luckily it’s pretty much exactly what we as his fans want to hear.  Read the rest of this entry »