While in town for ACL, everyone's favorite avant pop icon took some time to take a dip in Barton Springs. "The water is chilly, but you get used to it. Other towns should do this if they can — if they cleaned up their rivers, they could create secure walled-in areas of river water or even ocean water, as they do in Australian cities." It's no surprise when out of town visitors fall in love with our natural spring pool, but it seems like Byrne enjoyed more than the water.

"The abbreviated show tonight at the ACL festival was fun; we played as the sun was setting, so we could actually see the massive audience, which gave them a human face. Massive festival audiences can sometimes lose their identity as individual human beings. We cut a lot of the ballads from the set to both keep the energy up and to adhere to the 60 minute time limit — it worked."

In his online journal, Byrne also noted that he was glad to have had a chance to see Hot Chip, despite the time crunch it put him in. "Great grooves, nerdy guys, funny but moving lyrics and catchy tunes." It had never occurred to us before reading his entry, but the natural love connection between Byrne's smart pop and Hot Chip's geeky dance tunes is a natural fit.

Where was Chuck Woolery when we needed him?