ACL Weekend 1 Recap

Cloudless skies graced audience members at Zilker Park Oct. 2-4 during weekend one of the Austin City Limits music festival.

Up-and-coming artists performed alongside veteran musicians in a weekend that featured music as lively and diverse as the city of Austin itself.

The festival opened Oct. 2 with bands such as Run the Jewels, Royal Blood and Gary Clark Jr. performing throughout the day and headliners Disclosure and Foo Fighters each eliciting electrifying reactions from the audience that night.

Run the Jewels ran onto the Miller Lite stage with Queen’s “We Are the Champions” echoing in the background. The duo proceeded to laugh with the audience about a run-in with law enforcement that almost kept them from performing.

“We were sitting in a border patrol office about 27 hours ago with two ounces of marijuana and no excuses,” Killer Mike said. “But we made it.”

Dave Grohl, lead singer of the Foo Fighters, was limited to his throne during the band’s performance due to a leg injury, but that didn’t stop him from creating an energy in the audience that had not been matched all day.

“I usually thank the road crew because they’re big and hairy, but tonight I’m thanking you, Austin,” Grohl said to the thousands of fans in the audience. “I am going to thank you guys for letting us to come to your city and spend a week here recording a song from our record.”

Mandi Madrid, Austin resident, said this was her third time seeing the band perform.

Madrid said she enjoys seeing the band live because of the attention they give to their fans.

“The Foo Fighters’ performance is going to be a hard one to top this weekend for me,” Madrid said. “The energy (Dave Grohl) sends into the audience really can’t be matched by anyone else I have seen.”

Meanwhile, Disclosure took the stage on the other side of the park with a 90-minute performance that seemed to hypnotize audience members.

While the millennials in the crowd definitely proved there is room for electronic music at the festival, Friday’s lineup, which was heavy with guitar solos, drum kits and live vocals, made it clear that rock and roll bands are here to stay.

Festivalgoers showed up in droves to take advantage of Saturday’s lineup, which featured performances by Drake, deadmau5, Bassnectar, Alabama Shakes, Sturgill Simpson and many more.

During a day that seemed to be dominated by rap and electronic dance music, Sturgill Simpson’s deep vocals served as a gentle reminder that country music is very much alive at these festivals.

Simpson’s show didn’t feature many interactions with the thousands of people in the crowd, but that didn’t stop several couples from two-stepping along to each song.

A$AP Rocky performed on the Samsung stage Saturday evening to a slightly confused crowd.

The rapper was 20 minutes late, which cut his set almost in half.

When he did finally walk onto the stage, he failed to address his lateness and instead hammered out a handful of songs before his time was up.

While there were a few high points in the show, many people in the crowd seemed to feel like they should have gone to Alabama Shakes.

Drake closed out Saturday night of the festival with a guest performance from Future.

The two rappers performed several songs from collaborations on “Dirty Sprite 2” and “What a Time to Be Alive.”

“I think we both got two No. 1s this year,” Drake said to the massive audience. “So y’all make some noise for Future one time, for real.”

The Canadian-born rapper made sure the audience knew he considered Texas to be his second home before he left the stage.

He finished off the night by saying his time was up 10 minutes before the set was supposed to be over and exiting the stage, only to reappear seconds later to perform “Legend.”

Fireworks ignited the sky from behind the stage as Drake sang his final notes, signaling the end to the second day of music.

Sunday’s big performances included Vance Joy, Of Monsters and Men, alt-J, Hozier, The Weeknd and The Strokes.

Halsey took to the HomeAway stage Sunday afternoon for a shadowy electro-pop performance baring a striking resemblance to that of Lana Del Rey and Lorde.

Indie pop performer Vance Joy showed up to the same stage an hour later with his ukulele in tow to perform hits such as “Riptide” from his album Dream Your Life Away and EP God Loves You When You’re Dancing.

The Weeknd and The Strokes closed out the night with enough musical variety to appeal to almost every member of the audience.

Although each of the bands that played over the course of the weekend featured a very different sound, Madrid said they seemed to represent the festival’s unique ability to please multiple age demographics.

“The reason why I keep coming back each year is because I know there will always be something that appeals to my music taste,” Madrid said. “The festival does a great job of representing multiple genres.”