ACL Fest 2023: Who we can't wait to see again and who we wanted more from on Weekend One
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Our team was at Zilker Park from beginning to end for Weekend One of the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Here’s a look at how we reacted to the acts we caught, by category:
GLAD TO SEE THEM BACK
The Mars Volta
This El Paso based rock band is back together after a reunion last year, and it’s hard to tell they separated for a decade. Jarring electric guitar notes of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez paired greatly with Cedric Bixler-Zavala's powerful voice. The band used an array of unique instruments to rock out, including the electric piano, maracas, contrabass and barilles, a type of drum used in Puerto Rico.
— Jesus Vidales
The Breeders
Kim Deal and her twin Kelley remain indie rock royalty. The band’s quirky, sisterly interplay shined as Kim delayed her “No Aloha” vocals to playfully bark at Kelley, scrambling to find her gear.
“I like different people. I like sticky everywhere,” Kim sang on “Saints.” It’s a song about slowly being won over by an uncool place like a state fair for normies — and it can stand in for her journey as a made, self-aware idol among a sea of pretenders, learning to love stardom.
— Ramon Ramirez
Shania Twain
Pushing 60 and reveling in her sexiness, the pop country sensation's set featured a giant Vegas-style staircase, and as she sang the chorus to her 2022 hit “Waking Up Dreaming” standing atop it, it felt like she was staking a claim, owning her power.
When we stood shoulder to shoulder singing, “Man, I Feel Like a Woman” at the top of our lungs while rolling spotlights spun over the crowd, the country queen of Zilker Park reminded us all to claim our crowns. We left the park dusty and tired, but walking tall like winners. Read our full review.
— Deborah Sengupta Stith
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OUTSTANDING CHARISMA
Breland
The 28-year-old musician, who released his album “Cross Country” last year, had tennis great Venus Williams swaying to the beat Friday afternoon at the Miller Lite stage — so perhaps songs like “Hot Sauce” have some legs.
Breland’s music feels both distinctly of the moment and savvy about the past, for better or worse. Some of his own lyrics felt cornier than a bag of Fritos (after reading that, perhaps I can’t talk). But songs with phrases like “barbecue baddie” and metaphors comparing plus-size women to grits were a challenge to keeping a straight face.
Still, Breland had stage presence to spare and a voice built for hooks. Venus knows what’s up.
— Eric Webb
MOST CINEMATIC
Maggie Rogers
The 29-year-old alt-pop star took fest-goers on a journey through her many cinematic songs, each one bringing a climax of emotion as the breeze blew in. Rogers’ music isn’t easy to peg to a genre, but the Maryland native gave a rock star performance. Read our full review.
— Eric Webb
BEST ROCK STAR MOMENTS
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O performs with such visceral force that when she sang “Spitting Off the Edge of the World,” the motion of the metaphor landed like a physical hit, a skyward swoop of the heart.
Surrounded by guttural guitars and crashing drums, she let her voice build to a scream, head back, mic in mouth on “Cheated Hearts,” then dropped to almost a whisper, arms undulating to conjure the water she invokes on “Burning.”
Moments later, the band loosed giant inflatable eyeballs on the field on “Zero.” The crowd went wild.
— Deborah Sengupta Stith
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Alanis Morissette
She’s still pop music’s prophet of angst, her power is formidable, and woe to the joker who underestimates the Canadian hitmaker’s ability to form an army upon command. Her resume speaks for itself.
The artist didn’t spend much time connecting with the crowd, instead getting down to business. Her voice still sounds like the version we all hear on the radio 30 years on. Read our full review.
— Eric Webb
See photos: Alanis Morissette brings the nostalgia at ACL Fest 2023
Thirty Seconds to Mars
We didn’t hear him yell “I am a golden god” before Jared Leto jumped from the top of the stage to open the set (with a bungee, of course, he can’t fly. Yet.).
He invited all the press photographers onstage during “The Kill” when he was ready for a closeup. And, on “Stuck,” he brought up “Dallas Buyers Club” co-star Matthew McConaughey to beat his chest to the drums, “Wolf Of Wall Street”-style. Read our full review.
— Ramon Ramirez
See photos: Thirty Seconds to Mars jumpstarts the crowd at ACL Fest on Saturday
Foo Fighters
Famous for onstage surprises, Dave Grohl and Co. welcomed fellow fest headliner and country legend Shania Twain up to sing “Best of You” just after her concurrent set across Zilker Park wrapped Saturday night.
Beforehand, through 18 songs, and more playful riffing via half-baked covers of “Sabotage,” the longtime act relished its role as an inter-generational genre bridge and as preachers of the sonic gospel. Read our full review.
— Ramon Ramirez
See photos: We wish this Foo Fighter's ACL Fest set would really last forever
Lil Yachty
The 26-year-old Atlanta rapper sang with a choir of earthbound angels, screamed like his soul had been ripped asunder, wooed a random blond woman in the crowd, conducted a few mosh pits and spit some of the most trifling lyrics we heard at Zilker Park. (You did what like Picasso on “From the D to the A”?)
What was the strongest part of the set probably depends who you ask. A solid front section of the crowd pogo jumped as one to tracks like “Poland” and “Strike,” while the masses sang along to (ahem, carried) “Minnesota” and “Broccoli.”
— Deborah Sengupta Stith
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FUTURE HEADLINERS
We expect to see these acts play after sunset next time they’re booked.
Little Simz
Let’s go ahead and call it, Little Simz is one of this year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival breakouts. The British rap breakout came with “an agenda to take you higher,” and her tight hour-long set delivered on that promise. Read our full review.
— Deborah Sengupta Stith
See photos: Little Simz's breakout performance at ACL Fest 2023
Noah Kahan
Listening at home to songs like the viral hit “Stick Season,” you’ll hear finger-strummy, wistful sounds that are warmly relatable, and anything but boundary breaking. Kahan yearns hard, his voice alternating between folky sing-patter and emotive yelps a la Ben Howard. Yet music fans have discovered that there is indeed something singular about the Vermont-born singer. Read our full review.
— Eric Webb
See photos: Noah Kahan performs Saturday at ACL Fest 2023
Rina Sawayama
Fans have known since Day 1 that she's the way and the truth, but now, the indie-pop star has inducted ACL Fest into her sexy, raucous church of self-acceptance and sick guitars. One of Sawayama's strengths — she's nothing but strengths — is her ability to bend genre and references to her will. You could see it in the Shania Twain-worthy ecstasy of "Catch Me In the Air" and in the nu-metal-injected "STFU." And Sawayama's lyrics pulse with her DNA: Her experiences as a queer person and as an immigrant inform every hook and bridge. Did we mention she sounded studio ready the entire set? Sawayama is strength personified. Give her as big of a stage as she wants.
— Eric Webb
See photos: We wish this Foo Fighter's ACL Fest set would really last forever
BEST CROWD HYPE
BigXThaPlug
Dallas rapper Big X brought a big presence to the stage with his deep booming voice and rapid beats. The crowd opened up multiple mosh pits throughout the show to jump along to his upbeat flow. His contagious energetic personality riled up the crowd so much that security needed to urge people to calm down.
Big X ended the show with his hit “Texas,” which made young festival goers run to the stage from across the park to dance to the familiar song. His impact on the Texas rap scene was more than obvious despite just releasing his first song four years ago.
— Jesus Vidales
Gus Dapperton
Indie pop singer Gus Dapperton had fans dancing and singing to his addicting synth fused songs. His vocals changed from smooth high tones to a passionate raspy voice throughout the set.
On stage Gus and his band enthusiastically moved to the beat, with Gus performing his unique signature moves, at one point even on top of a chair. In the audience those who did not know the lyrics were certainly bopping along to the newly found music.
— Jesus Vidales
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ACTS TO CATCH AS SOON AS YOU CAN
We expect these rising stars to just get bigger and brighter.
Mimi Webb
The English pop star sings about love with purpose, over beats that came to life thanks to an excellent, loud backing band. Riding a slow-burn of success from TikTok, where her pandemic-propelled song “Good Without” went on to enjoy more than 202 million Spotify streams, she’s on tour behind this year’s “Amelia” album. It’s popular enough that a couple-hundred fans clapped and danced along during her early set time. “Anyone been young, dumb, and in love?” She asked before “Dumb Love.” Yeah girl, literally everyone. I’m buying stock.
— Ramon Ramirez
Ivan Cornejo
The 19-year-old artist played corridos, a type of regional Mexican music, to the devoted fans who screamed his lyrics filled with love and heartbreak. Cornejo's rich voice was joined by three guitarists who kept the crowd dancing and who were great enough to encourage even the most inexperienced corrido enjoyers to at least try a couple moves.
His performance evoked many reactions as couples swayed together during the love ballads and the heartbroken kept screaming throughout the cold break up songs. “I hope you guys enjoyed the therapy session.” he joked nearing the end of his set.
— Jesus Vidales
Nessa Barrett
Gothic Pop artist Barrett kicked off her U.S. tour at ACL Fest before an eager crowd of loving fans who screamed as soon as she said “hello” during a mic test. The crowd chanted her name in unison and soon after she appeared to sing with her smooth, melancholic voice. Passionate electrical guitar riffs and thunderous drums accompanied her. Fans sang along to her lyrics filled with themes of longing, grief and regret.
— Jesus Vidales
Eddie Zuko
If the bright blue skies and glaring sun didn’t do it, Eddie Zuko’s energetic stage presence definitely warmed up the crowd, who started swaying and rump shaking to the bilingual lyrics of “Made,” a recollection of Zuko’s teenage years.
Zuko peppered in interactions with fans: "We're here all the way from California, but Texas is a vibe. The BBQ is lit, Austin is lit." He broke out his newest single, “Menciones,” a concoction of reggaeton trilling, rap and mariachi elements, which kept the momentum going, until his finale “Yallegó” rounded out a mellow yet vibrant 45-minute set.
— Bianca Moreno-Paz
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MADE US FEEL THINGS
These acts gave us all the feels, even when we didn’t want them (hello Marcus)
Cigarettes After Sex
The alternative indie band had their mostly younger crowd crying along with their beautifully mournful sounds, which feel like saying goodbye to an old passionate love for the last time. Lead singer Greg Gonzalez was joined by drummer Jacob Tomsky and bassist Randy Miller on a dark, smoke engulfed stage.
There was still plenty of happiness in the crowd from seeing the band perform their slow paced songs, and it was clear the tears were therapeutic. They have a go-to signature beat that can make all of their music sound similar, but it is a formula that works and clearly produces reactions
— Jesus Vidales
Mumford & Sons
“We’re Mumford & Sons and we can’t help ourselves, we keep on coming back,” Marcus Mumford told the crowd Sunday during their third time headlining ACL Fest, just before “Little Lion Man,” a song that you have to think is disproportionately more well-known by osmosis around the greater Austin area relative to the rest of the U.S.
“Guiding Light” is still a set touchstone, accented by a romanticism so earnest it makes you uncomfortable to be seen anywhere near a performance of it. That’s the Mumford effect — a gooey center devoid of pretension that can easily attach itself to any rote memories and create meaning in the mind. And then you get melancholy. All it takes is this tender man repeating the phrase “I don’t even know if I believe.” Read our full review.
— Ramon Ramirez
Hozier
Since his breakout with 2013’s “Take Me to Church,” Hozier’s pen has dug deeper into poetic adventures, and his alt-soul sound has similarly added facets that set him apart from the ho-hey folkies with whom he’s often lumped. The stories in his songs — and they all tell stories — are carnal, without a platitude in earshot. And not to get too parasocial with it, but he just seems like a real kind guy, and it came across from a festival stage at golden hour. Read our full review.
— Eric Webb
See photos: Hozier takes the stage, wows crowd on Sunday during ACL Fest 2023 weekend one
Thee Sacred Souls
This San-Diego based band — lead singer Josh Lane, drummer Alex Garcia and bassist Sal Samano — opened with “Overflowing,” a crooning declaration of love. The band draws inspiration from 1960s soul and 1970s R&B, with music layered with soft, romantic undertones, reminiscent of a time in musical history long gone.
Lane’s vocal range easily moved from upbeat tunes like “Will I See You Again?” to silky songs like “Love Is the Way,” for which he brought out trombones and saxophones. During Lane’s performance of “Running,” the vocalist took his lyrics literally, sprinting through the crowd, to both the amusement of fans and the confusion of cameras.
— Bianca Moreno-Paz
Suki Waterhouse
The singer and “Daisy Jones and the Six” actor turned to music in 2016 when she said she felt like her life was over. “Brutally,” a minor hit when it came out back then, still holds as one of her strongest songs. Most of Waterhouse’s music speaks of messy, young love, charting her relationships with several famous men, much like another pretty, young blonde singer we all know well.
The universality of her lyrics very clearly spoke to her overwhelmingly Gen Z crowd, who shrieked and sang along to her viral hits. And yet despite some of her darker lyrics, Waterhouse was enchanting and genuine, engaging with her fans, and giggling as if she too was one of those teenage girls in the crowd.
— Bianca Moreno-Paz
Labrinth
The mysterious British crooner makes music that leads you down dark pathways where danger lurks, promise beckons and the light at the end of the tunnel may or may not lead you home. Cloaked in heavy smoke, he ripped his heart out onstage, with a drummer behind him and barely visible backup vocalists who occasionally emerged, singing with the fervor of a gospel choir and the gravity of a Greek chorus. This experience was a dream, he said, and he shouted out the dreamers in the crowd. “I back you every single step of the way,” he said, before diving deep into “The Feels.”
The big singalong came when the band played a couple notes of “Mount Everest” — a song featured on the HBO's “Euphoria” — then paused while the entire crowd sang the first two verses a capella. Surrounded by beams of light that formed a cone around him, the crowd shouted along as he took us to “the top of the world” then continued shouting (futilely) for one more song for as the lights on the stage went down.— Deborah Sengupta Stith
COURSE CORRECTION
Niall Horan
Did we … did we make the wrong One Direction guy a superstar? Niall Horan took his turn at a solo Austin gig, and it was a delight. Through a charming, sun-soaked set, Horan proved that 1 million teenage girls were right about him.
Clear-voiced when he wasn’t yelping with wild charisma, the affable Irish pop singer worked through tunes from his third solo album, “The Show,” which came out this summer. Onstage, to literally no one’s surprise, Horan was confident and cheeky, sticking his tongue out here and there and pumping his fist after a couple numbers. Read our full review.
— Eric Webb
See photos: Niall Horan drives highways and byways to be here with us at ACL Fest on Sunday
BEST DANCE PARTIES
Jessie Ware
That. Felt. Good. Jessie Ware shook up early Saturday afternoon with an ebullient dance bash. In a tight hour-long set, the British disco diva swooped and shimmied across the stage backed by a well-ascoted drummer, guitar and keys and a back-up vocal duo with smooth moves and extravagant pearls. A pair of dancers accompanied her, striking poses to frame her face, hoisting her on their shoulders like a graceful, silver lame goddess and, at one point, performing a homoerotic tango with each other.
— Deborah Sengupta Stith
Tove Lo
The crowd thoroughly appreciated Tove Lo’s lyrically aggressive dance-pop, whose flair was evocative of her more famous Swedish counterparts, ABBA. Songs with names like “Attention Whore,” “2 Die 4,” and “disco tits” incited gyrating swaying. Hits like “Talking Body,” instantly recognized by the crowd and greeted by piercing teenage cheers, set the scene for a mischievous performance, especially as the sun dramatically set, creating a pastel sky, fitting for the multi-colored, eclectic artist herself.
— Bianca Moreno-Paz
See photos: Tove Lo dances the night away at ACL Fest 2023
Yves Tumor
A stage name for Sean Lee Bowie, Yves Tumor has a style that ranges dramatically from grunge to trance to R&B to rock and soul. The psychedelic elements are quintessential to his sound, and as one fan told me: “This is great music to listen to high.” The Tito’s tent could barely contain the outpouring of fans and Tumor himself, who bounced between various microphones, each with a different sound effect. The frenetic energy among the crowd did not limit itself either, it showed up in a range of ages among fans, from the self-proclaimed cool middle-aged parents in the VIP section, to the kids who would rather be caught dead than hanging out with said parents.
— Bianca Moreno-Paz
WE WANTED MORE
Mt. Joy
For all their enthusiasm and blaring speakers, Mt. Joy’s first few songs did not prompt passion from the crowd, whose snippet cover of Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” got more engagement from the crowd than their previous four songs. Matt Quinn’s impressive vocals and genuine, polite rapport with the crowd did little to impress upon them, even as one of their biggest hits "Astrovan" started playing, instead serving mainly as a backdrop to conversations.
— Bianca Moreno-Paz
Morgan Wade
Morgan Wade is in the news lately for getting close with “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” stalwart Kyle Richards. Songs like “Psychopath” delivered Nashville-style stories of devotion and destruction, held together by hard-driving, roadhouse-ready instrumentation. Wade’s definitely a pro well-suited to her sound, but there was a listless, leveled-off energy to Sunday’s set. Her pinched, gravelly vocals recalled fellow ACL-er Tanya Tucker, but there was a sameness that begged for more vocal dimension. That would have made Wade’s set really sing.
— Eric Webb
Portugal. The Man
Hailing from Alaska, the band’s performance of “Purple Yellow Red and Blue,” among the band’s most mainstream songs, from their 2013 album “Evil Friends,” sparked dancing and swaying from the crowd. The band smoothly transitioned from one song to the next, with little interaction, generating some disconnection between the performers and crowd.
— Bianca Moreno-Paz
Kendrick Lamar
We can blame the short set on mechanical issues, and we don’t fault what he was able to do in just 30 minutes. It won’t help the folks who had tickets just for the first weekend, but his second try at a full headlining set for 2023 this Friday should deliver the performance we all want from the Pulitzer-Prize winning rapper.
— Deborah Sengupta Stith
See photos: Kendrick Lamar's 30-min ACL Fest set after 'plane issues' delay
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: ACL Fest 2023 best moments you may have missed from weekend one
