Plan Weekend Two by reliving some of our favorites from Weekend One
Our team was all over the Austin City Limits Music Festival during Weekend One and will be again Friday-Sunday. Here we offer a list of some of the best acts we saw to help you create your must-see schedule.
Run The Jewels: It came onstage blaring Queen’s “We Are the Champions” — and then threw all irony out the window, by actually proving it. Run The Jewels are untouchable. Is there anyone in hip-hop with a live show this good? Actually, how about anyone in any genre? The manic energy, the must-bounce-toit beats, the laser sharp wordplay and social commentary. Killer Mike and El-P are in a class of their own. (5 p.m. Friday, Miller Lite stage)
— LUKE QUINTON
Gary Clark Jr.: This was a big moment for the blues-rock boundary-pusher, and he didn’t disappoint. Focusing on songs from his new top10 album “The Story of Sonny Boy Slim,” Clark and his lean three-piece backing band drew a huge crowd to a stage that might not have been quite big enough for his audience. But with the sun setting behind him just as he launched into his 7 p.m. set, Clark struck a magical moment of sound and vision. (7 p.m. Friday, HomeAway stage) — PETER BLACKSTOCK
Father John Misty: For most rising stars at the Austin City Limits Festival, the looming question is whether they have the goods to connect with a festival audience on a larger stage. But in Father John Misty’s case, the only real issue is whether festival stages are big enough for his stadium-ambitious performance.
If it’s all just an act — and it is, as he laid plain by following an overthe-top, crowd-surfing, phone-video-shooting midset moment by intimately imparting to the crowd, “Rama lama ding dong” — it’s a highly entertaining and effective one.
Misty (aka Josh Tillman) writes spectacular melodies and has a vocal presence that would be mesmerizing even if he were just delivering his lines straight.
That he chooses a more theatrical approach is his blessing or his curse: He’s increasingly becoming a love-it-or-hate-it artist, but he seems well aware and welcoming of that distinction. (2:20 p.m. Saturday, Honda stage) — P.B.
Shakey Graves: Alejandro Rose-Garcia, one of the Live Music Capital’s most prolific bill inhabitants these days, still plays on the suitcase drum he and a buddy made. He’s slouchy in a rumpled suit and tie, with a baseball cap and a cigarette tying the whole disheveled, smiling package together. Shakey was heartfelt and humble from that stage, which might have seemed too big to be believed for a local boy made good. As he pulled out his thorny, tortured wail (who knows where on the mean streets of Austin he found that thing), he pondered “What’s the use of looking out if there’s nothing to see?”
The use of looking out on the audience for Shakey was obvious. Seeming grateful and appreciative, he drew a crowd to rival any major label act. The throngs were easy with a handclap or a singalong. The singer and his band, when in the middle of a jam, sometimes looked at each other like cats fresh off a canary dinner, as if to say, “You believe this?” (3:20 p.m. Saturday, Miller Lite stage)
— ERIC WEBB
Walk the Moon: Not a single set in Zilker Park on Saturday came close to the supercharged, indefatigable, neon-drenched dance lunacy that the Ohio band cooked up for ACL Fest. Over the course of their set, the “Shut Up and Dance” artists proved that positivity and really sweet moves can get a festival crowd going better than anything else. Follow their lead and you’ll be entertaining the masses in no time. (5:20 p.m. Saturday, Miller Lite stage)
— E.W.
Jidenna: When an artist’s debut track hits as hard as Jidenna’s “Classic Man” did this summer, you have to wonder if he’s a one-trick pony. But in his early-afternoon ACL Fest set, the first artist signed to Janelle Monae’s Wondaland Records proved he’s got a dapper top hat full of magic ready to marvel the world. In less than 40 minutes, he channeled his Nigerian father, confessed to attending an “Eat Pray Love” signing, railed against police brutality and hosted the most body-positive twerk contest in the history of hiphop.
“We met at a masquerade ball that I was hosting with my social club,” Jidenna said before his set about meeting mentor Monae. “We used to host these balls in the Bay Area in California and I invited her out and she took the stage by storm, I was intimidated by how amazing and electrifying she was. So that was when the Electric Lady met the Classic Man.” (12:45 p.m. Sunday, Samsung)
—DEBORAH SENGUPTA STITH
Børns: The poppy, bright and danceable project of Garrett Borns is from Michigan, not Scandinavia.
They don’t even have a full album out yet (it drops later this month); instead they’re relying on a couple of beauty tracks on EPs, and, it turns out, a tight live set, with big, emotional hooks.
It’s hard to not feel good hearing those big melodies.
Borns himself is a gifted singer; a clear tone with a huge range. Bit of a Jeff Buckley thing on the go. But his band is pretty hot too. They make pop but with plenty of guitars, and they rock, but with a synth and drum machine. A lot of big heart-pounding bass beats and some spacey guitars keep the kids on their toes. (That is, you can dance to it.) (2:30 p.m. Sunday, Honda)
— L.Q.
Sylvan Esso: Textured electronic music is a risk in a festival setting, where sound bleed and awkward acoustics can swallow details, but Sylvan Esso’s melodic trip-hop played beautifully to the Zilker crowd that packed in for an afternoon set. See the band this weekend, before they take a break from live shows to work on new songs. (3:30 p.m. Sunday, Miller Lite stage)
— D.S.S.
The Decemberists: That the Decemberists became one of the most popular bands in America remains mystifying, in a supremely satisfying way. They’re nerdy, as they fully acknowledged with their 10-minute ACL Fest finale about a mariner’s revenge, complete with giant cardboard-cutout whale. They don’t feel the need to floor it all the time: Midset, leader Colin Meloy announced he was “going to try to play a quiet song ... you know, the old festival killer.” And fifteen years in, they’re hardly the newest and shiniest indie it-thing anymore.
But nobody on the current indie landscape writes better songs than Meloy, and on a big stage with an expanded lineup at a major festival, they stood out precisely for that strength. This year’s “What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World” affirmed the Portland band still has a lot left to give, nearly a decade after their major-label breakthrough “The Crane Wife” and in the wake of 2011’s chart-topping album “The King is Dead.” (4:40 p.m. Sunday, Honda)
— P.B.
Chance the Rapper:
He appeared with his band the Social Experiment, and though a quest for body-rattling bass sometimes muddied the intricacy, they cranked out buoyant grooves that formed the sound beds for his upbeat raps. With a focus on positivity and jazzy backdrops, Chance’s music is an update of ’90s era New Jack Swing. His core message of “believe in yourself ” clearly resonated with the young crowd. When he played “Wonderful Everyday,” with its uplifting refrain “everyday, it could be wonderful,” he coaxed the crowd to sing along. “You might be able to transform someone else,” he said, and more and more voices were raised in solidarity. (5:30 p.m. Sunday, Miller Lite stage)
— D.S.S.
Odd and ends
Fireworks: After Drake and the Weeknd closed their headlining sets with pyrotechnics, it’s going feel like a letdown when every ACL headliner doesn’t do the same.
Also don’t miss: Son Little, Con Brio, Halsey, Billy Idol, Leon Bridges, Misterwives, Hozier,
Of Monsters and Men, Dwight Yoakam.
Weekend-Two-only picks: Florence + the Machine, Modest Mouse, Future, Avers, Riders Against the Storm, and other Austin acts.
Catch them next
time: For they played only Weekend One: Alabama Shakes; Brandon Flowers; Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas; the Suffers; Kehlani; Ume; Last Bandoleros.