The second day of ACL Fest saw even more exceptional performances and made up for a pretty light first day of the fest.
My day started early when I sauntered over to Spill Tab‘s set. I really liked their sound and I loved how hilarious the bass player was, pointing out people in the audience and asking how they were doing and going 110% on Lil Jon’s parts during a ukelele cover of Yeah by Usher. After that, I saw The Ventures, a legendary surf rock band, and this set was just so cool. It’s not a band I would ever go out of my way to see or listen to but getting to see them at the fest was a treat, they still sound incredible. Adrian Quesada was up next for me doing a one-off performance for his album Boleros Psicodelicos which he said was “The sound of taking a shot to drown your sorrows in a Mexican bar but someone put something trippy in your shot.” While Adrian didn’t get to shred as much as I wished he could’ve and as I’ve seen him do with Black Pumas, it was still a super fun set and got me grooving for sure.
Wallows took over the American Express main stage at 4:05 and drew a really respectable mid-afternoon crowd. Their set was an hour of pure fun and energy. I was not expecting their songs to translate as well live as they did but they were fantastic. Songs like Remember When and Pleaser went way harder live than I thought they would, especially the part in Remember When where the band comes back in and goes into the “I can still see you at the place out there when I close my eyes” line. So much fun. After them, I tried my best to see Aly & AJ but geez this set was a disaster. The band was put on a stage way too small for the crowd they drew and the crowd in general was the worst offender of yelling “PLAY (insert hit song here)!” The song being Potential Break Up Song. It really put a damper on the mood and I ended up leaving the set after about 10 minutes.
Lil Nas X took over the American Express stage at 6:05 and drew the biggest crowd I have ever seen in Zilker Park. I stood way in the back, partly so I could eat, but even from a mile back I was still super impressed by his performance. He and his team of dancers were incredibly on point, Nas was hilarious on stage, saying at the beginning of Old Town Road “you guys better know every f*cking word to this song” and before the song, bringing out a bedazzled golden horse that was revealed to be held up by two of his dancers and was stood still for a comically long time. And, okay, I guess I have to say it. I genuinely think he was lipsyncing but it’s the same scenario as Doja Cat’s set last year where even if they were, their stage show and their dancing picked up that slack.
As the sun began to set, The War on Drugs played the best set of the day by a long mile. I was already biased because this was one of my most anticipated sets of the weekend but this show still blew me away. Adam Granduciel is a fantastic guitar player and the tones he pulls off live are nuts but outside of just him, the whole band is so tight and so great at what they do. Their performance of the songs Pain and Red Eyes as the sun finished setting were absolutely magic and whoever scheduled them for that slot needs a huge raise. Especially with the way Red Eyes builds up and drops for a huge guitar solo, it was fantastic. But speaking of build-ups and drops, where do I even begin to describe how fantastic Under the Pressure was live. It might be the best performance of a song live that I’ve seen this year. Between the energy of the drop, Granduciel shredding in the outro, I don’t have another adjective to describe it.
Finally, to close out Saturday night, P!NK brought down the house with a 90-minute headlining set that pulled out all the stops. She had elaborate stage production, a catwalk into the middle of the crowd, a fantastic band, and backup dancers. However, all of this was topped by her finale, So What, which saw her doing aerials and flips all over the top of the crowd. It was insane to see and it made me beg for forgiveness for every bad thing I said about her when I saw her name on the lineup. Her whole set was a joy to catch, she had so many hits that she played and she also did a handful of really tasteful and fun covers including Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, River by Bishop Briggs, and Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You by Joan Baez. Openers Get The Part Started and Raise Your Glass kicked off the show with super high energy and that energy stayed high until she was disconnected from her harness. She was also hilarious on stage, making light of having a catwalk saying “I’m not used to having a stage this big!” and persistently making fun of a crew member Jack. At one point, he came to fix her in ears but then they started working again to which she said, “Jack don’t touch me…I mean you can touch me but touch my in-ear pack.” There’s no better feeling than going to a show, expecting it to not be great, and getting proven extremely wrong. P!NK did that for me, and I’m so happy that I got to see her performance last night.
I will be back in Zilker Park today for the last day of the festival and my final day of coverage!
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