Austin City Limits 2008: It begins! Mates of State, Dan Dyer and more

First of all, a note to anyone who saw us nearly passed out on the VIP couches at our ACL kickoff party at Emo's last night: We were not drunk. We were not even drinking, minus the one beer each we imbibed around 9:30. Rather, we both were besot by sinus-crud related exhaustion. See, unlike here in Austin, fall arrived on schedule in Atlanta last week, and bestowed upon us one of the great gifts of this fair season: The nasty head cold. Unfortunately, this meant we spent the better part of last night's festivities sprawled out in various ladylike poses, chugging water and entertaining thoughts of propping our eyelids up with toothpicks, while bands played downstairs and people drank (for real) and enjoyed the party all around us, occasionally shooting us judgmental stares and having way, way more fun than us.

We managed to retain consciousness until Mates of States' 1 AM set on the patio, which can be described in two words: 1) Awesome, 2) Adorable. A much-stressed-over glockenspiel really made the night!

Kate says, "Okay, Rachael, that's enough for the intro," so let's move on to today.

We're now set up in the media area in our shared tent with the folks from Toms shoes, who are doling out their wares to festival artists and spreading the word about the great causes they're working for. So far, we hear, they've replaced one of the Gnarls Barkley guys' slipper shoes with a pair of their own-- a pretty good start to the day! Our multimedia producer Kevin just chatted with Dan Dyer, one of the acts we unfortunately missed last night due to aforementioned snot complications. He played earlier today, kicking off what looks like will be three days of overwhelmingly super live music. On tap for us today: Patty Griffin, Jamie Lidell, Mates of State (again, guess we love them), the Swell Season, and more. Check back all weekend for more!