Austin City Limits Festival Recap

It’s been a few weeks since Weekend Two of the Austin City Limits Music Festival came to a close, and it was once again another amazing year. It was still a bit warm in Austin and we missed the torrential rain that caused flooding by one day so the festival was luckily dry and sunny for all three days. This year was probably the first in recent memory that had the most set changes or drop outs vs. previous years. Childish Gambino was the biggest one after reportedly breaking his foot in Dallas in September. BORNS did not return for the second weekend and Highly Suspect dropped out last minute. There were also many stage/time changes where the ACL app came in handy and is definitely recommended to download for each weekend.

If you’ve never been to the Austin City Limits Festival, we highly recommend going. Austin is a really cool town that has earned the distinction as the music capital of the world with one of the best festivals on the planet. As proof, today we share a myriad of photos and some of our favorite performances caught during ACL weekend two (Mostly from the earlier acts, of course Paul McCartney, Metallica and Arctic Monkeys were awesome). Many of the bands are the ones that were on our list to see, but we also had a few that we happened upon that surprised us. Of course, there are photos of super well-known bands and a few lesser known ones as well.

All professional photos courtesy of our Austin photographer Gabe Guevara unless otherwise noted.

CHVRCHES
The set by CHVRCHES was a grand one with Lauren Mayberry performing their best songs from the very beginning, and their newest album release Love Is Dead. The trio is definitely one to catch live.

DAVID BYRNE
Of course David Byrne is legendary but the performance put on by his entire band was a sight to see. We are sure his artistic edge would have been translated even better in a smaller venue but they made it work on the ACL stage. He still has a few international dates left of his tour.

FATHER JOHN MISTY
If you have never seen FJM live, you are missing a show where he puts 110% of himself on that stage. His live presence was commanding and quite amazing. Definitely not an artist to miss live.

JAPANESE BREAKFAST
Michele Zauner (aka JAPANESE BREAKFAST) put on an intense set at ACL even with her overall lo-fi pop sound, her energy level was off the charts. The band still has a few east coast dates left on her tour.

Photo Credit: ROGER HO

JUNGLE
Jungle has a completely awesome and upbeat live set with their funk inspired grooves. The London based sextet did not disappoint with their onstage presence. You can still catch them on tour overseas supporting their album For Ever released this year.

MON LAFERTE
MON LAFERTE is Norma Monserrat Bustamante Laferte who is a Chilean singer-songwriter and Latin Grammy winner. Her set was in 100% Spanish yet it was filled with fire and energy and was a really surprising find. Seeing MON LAFERTE reinforced the fact that music is universal, no matter what the language – it can uplift anyone’s mood. She also paid tribute to Texas born Selena by covering “Si Una Vez”.

Photo Credit: Roger Ho

THE NATIONAL
The National have perfected melancholic rock but their live performance is anything but depressing or sad. Mr. Berninger definitely has a commanding presence on stage and they delivered a solid live performanceplaying many of their newer tracks from Sleep Well Beast.

RHYE
RHYE definitely could have been on a bigger stage as the crowd extended well beyond the tent. Just as expected, the vocals live from Mike Melosh are just as breathtaking as in each recording. The live band also included 8 members with strings and horns to bring their dreamy sound to life on stage.

Photo Credit: Charles Reagan Hackman

ST. VINCENT
If you have never witnessed ST. VINCENT (Annie Clark) live, you are missing out on seeing one of the best guitar players out there today. Her stage presence is also mesmerizing and her talent demands mad respect. Definitely one to catch live any time you can.

SYLVAN ESSO
SYLVAN ESSO continue to release eclectic and unique electropop and their live set is definitely one to keep you energized. Singer Amelia Meath provides epic dance moves as well as bringing forth a proper mood with lighting and smoke effects.

THE REVOLUTION
The Revolution have been touring and bringing forth Prince’s essence in a live setting for the past year. The original band that Prince assembled definitely paid proper homage to the late legend and the crowd enjoyed singing along to some of the band’s top hits. Their execution was flawless and energy was impressive. You can’t help but think Mr. Nelson would be proud of The Revolution for carrying on.

Photo Credit: KVUE News

THE WOMBATS
The UK band came and impressed with their live set. Playing tracks from their newest album Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life as well as older hits “Let’s Dance To Joy Division”provided for a lively and energetic offering from the trio.

Photo Credit: Sydney Gawlik

TRAMPLED BY TURTLES
The name is clever and their live set is filled with the most bouyant bluegrass out there today. The six piece barely fit on stage but delivered a super energetic set playing songs from their almost 15 year career.

VERITÉ
VERITÉ is the moniker of Kelsey Byrne who has been a truly independent artist her entire career and has amassed hundreds of millions of online spins to date. Having recently collaborated with Matt Maeson, she continues to produce intoxicating synthpop and her solo live set was nothing short of impressive.

Photo Credit: Stephen Spillman

X AMBASSADORS

X AMBASSADORS brought the enthusiasm for sure during their live set. They performed their top hits as well as a new song “Recover” which is still as of yet unreleased. It’s hard not to like energetic and humble artists who are super grateful for where they are today. That’s the vibe you get from Sam Harris and his brother Casey on keyboards. They also didn’t hold back with Sam providing strong vocals and even his Saxophone skills during “Jungle”.