AUSTIN CITY LIMITS MUSIC FESTIVAL at Zilker Park Day 3 10-4-09

This day was more about the aftermath from all the rain. Beautiful green Zilker was now muddy, smelly Zilker.
The artists on this day were our least favorite, to be sure. Had the field been in ok shape, we probably would've stayed but with the adverse conditions and really nobody we had to see, the day got cut short.
We missed Jesse Woods along with Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears. We got there in time for Rodriguez. Interesting story on this guy. He made 2 great folk rock records back in the early 70's and then disappeared off the face of the earth basically. He was recently found working construction in Detroit. He's around 70, I believe. His show was entertaining in many ways. His lyrics are those of American life realities after the 60's. The music is good. He is kind of hit & miss. Sometimes he played way faster than the band, sort of out of it, seemingly. Some songs turned into train wrecks but it didn't matter. You could feel the heart and soul of this guy. It was also good enough that I want to buy those 2 old records. In his prime I'll bet he was something.
After Rodriguez, our day went downhill in a hurry. We opted for a bluegrass band from Georgia called Jypsi. They bored us to tears and one of the singers had a voice that all 3 of us agreed was as irritating as any we'd ever heard. We lasted not quite 3 songs.
We strolled over to Brett Dennen. Again, lasted about 2 songs, bored to death. Decided to start moving onto one of the big stages to wait for Ben Harper. Arctic Monkeys were playing. It was very hot by now and that muddy field stunk so badly we said to heck with it.
We left, went home and got cleaned up. Went to Matt's El Rancho, sat on their nice patio with margaritas in hand and had a great dinner. Then it was off to the Continental CLub for an aftershow with Raul Malo.
Our one regret for Sunday was skipping the B-52's. We could hear their set from where we were at waiting on Jypsi. It sounded great and very high energy. We felt since they hadn't done anything new in so long it was just going to be retread material which we've all seen and heard before. That was a bad decision. Everybody who saw the show raved.