ACL was this past weekend, and I had a bunch of friends from Chicago in town for the festivities. Greg and I acquired 3-day passes on Friday morning and met with my buddies at Zilker park for a weekend of beer & music.

The only act I even halfway cared about on Friday was Them Crooked Vultures -- a new supergroup with Dave Grohl on drums, John Paul Jones (from Zeppelin) on bass, and the guy from Kyuss & Queens of the Stone Age on guitar + vocals. Overall they sounded a lot like QOTSA, and I was pretty much unimpressed with Grohl's return to drums, but I was utterly FLOORED at John Paul Jones' performance.

I'm a very critical listener and am usually keen to picking up on cool supporting parts (like drums, bass, and rhythm guitar), but Led Zeppelin's bass lines never struck me as anything particularly special. The bass lines for most of TCV's songs were quite beautifully written and performed; also, he played two unique bass-like instruments -- one I'd never seen before. The first looked like a 6- (or maybe even 8-?!) string bass which he jammed with for a few songs. And towards the end of their set, he swapped for a seemingly 6-stringed necked instrument that he wore like a guitar but played with his left hand above the neck. He used his left fingers palm-down to hold notes while plucking with his right hand. It was kind of like a lap steel guitar but worn around his neck guitar-style; whatever it was, the guy's a badass and I've got tons of respect for him. Time to gonna go back and re-listen to those Zeppelin bass lines!

I planned on going earlier on Saturday to hang out with the guys and see some bands I wasn't too familiar with, but the weather was absolute garbage -- it rained all day -- so I stayed home until DMB took the stage. All I have to say about Dave live is that they put on the absolute best show I've ever seen anywhere; if you're a fan of good musicians who love to improvise and are all around geniuses at what they do, you can't beat Dave live. I think that even my sisters and parents, all of whom have strong musical roots, would have loved the show, even though none of them listen to (or particularly care for) most of DMB's music. I'd happily trek through the mud and rain to see these guys jam all day. Oh yeah, and Carter Beauford is my hero.



Sunday brought Pearl Jam, which most of my friends were most excited about. I'm obviously a fan of theirs, but I seem to be in the minority of fans who don't really think that Pearl Jam are at the "epic greatness" level. So many of my friends insisted that they were all phenomenal musicians and had a wide range of talents, and while this might still be true, they didn't do anything notably awesome during their 2hr set on Sunday night. I thought they were good but not great, and their level of musicianship was above average -- but no higher. Still though, you gotta respect them for how long they've been together and the amount of worldwide success they've achieved in that time. But given the choice, I'd choose to hear 30min of music from a band like DMB, Radiohead, Tool, or Porcupine Tree over 2hrs of Pearl Jam.

I've been away from poker for almost a week and am really missing it. Plans are to grind tons between now and my trip to Denver next weekend. That's it for now!