Merry what day is it between Christmas and New Years, let’s keep these list things rolling. In 2022, I attended 4 big festivals, Innings Fest in Tempe, Arizona, KOKE Fest in Hutto, Texas, the first weekend of Austin City Limits in Austin, Texas, and JAB Fest right here in Lubbock. With that comes a lot of live music and whittling this list down to 15 artists was really tough. However, if I spend more time thinking about it, I’ll just keep making it longer and for my sake and your sake, I don’t want to do that!
Before I get into this next list, I want to talk about one band I saw in my fest run this year and that is the Foo Fighters. I was lucky enough to see them at Innings Fest in February in Arizona and it was just absolute magic. I had been dying to see them for so long and it blew every expectation I had for them out of the water. However, in the time that’s passed since, a lot has happened for the band. Most notably, the death of their legendary drummer Taylor Hawkins. It’s a loss that I still have trouble wrapping my mind around given how much larger than life he seemed. It feels unfair to rank their set with the rest of the sets I’m about to mention so, therefore, I’m gonna give them an honorary spot above everyone else. May Taylor’s legacy live on forever.
With that out of the way, here are the 15 best festival sets I saw in 2022:
15. Kaitlin Butts – JAB Fest
Cosmic cowgirl queen Kaitlin Butts took JABFest’s Red & Black Stage by storm on the Saturday night of the fest. This set was a solid balance between hell-raising, murder your ex country, and therapeutic “sad yeehaw vibes,” to quote Butts herself. Donning a baby blue skirt and long sleeve shirt full of tassels, Butts was a blast to watch on stage spinning around and giving an extremely infectious smile. The setlist relied mainly on her new album, what else can she do, which led to great performances of the songs jackson and it won’t always be this way but also included an extremely fun cover of Any Man of Mine by Shania Twain which nailed the sass of that song perfectly.
14. Robert Earl Keen – KOKE Fest
For the longest time, I told myself I would never see Robert Earl Keen until I could see him at John T. Floore’s Country Store, a legendary restaurant and venue in Helotes, Texas, just outside of San Antonio. Unfortunately, time had other plans with Keen announcing that he would be retiring from touring in September 2022. So, as a beggar who couldn’t choose, I was lucky enough to see the legend in Hutto, Texas at KOKE Fest. While this set has been subject to a lot of mixed reviews, I have always viewed this set through rose-tinted glasses and personally had a great time. I think what I enjoyed the most was that Keen didn’t really care that this was a fest set and didn’t just play the hits and go home, he just played the songs he wanted to play and didn’t really care what the audience thought. That seems to have been the m.o. for his entire farewell run, just doing shows for himself on his own terms. While that did mean I’ll never get to hear The Road Goes on Forever and Merry Christmas From the Family live, it balances out because I got to hear incredible renditions of Amarillo Highway and Gringo Honeymoon. Keen intends to stay busy with his extended time at home and I’m excited to see what he has next up his sleeve.
13. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit – Outlaw Fest
Similar to the American Aquarium show I talked about in my Best Concerts list, anyone who knows me personally knows how much I love Jason Isbell. I think he’s one of the best songwriters of our generation and also gets consistently underrated as a guitar player. His solos on the songs Overseas, Decoration Day, and a cover of Drivin n’ Cryin’s Honeysuckle Blue were incredible. However, what really struck me about this set wasn’t just Isbell and his songs. It was his banter on stage and how incredible his band, the 400 Unit, is. Isbell is a great guitar player in his own right but Sadler Vaden on lead guitar to his right is just as great. He played a solo during the extended outro of Last Of My Kind that garnered a standing ovation in the amphitheater. The only thing I think could’ve made this set better would’ve been Isbell’s wife, Amanda Shires, playing fiddle for the band but his set was still everything I hoped it would be regardless. While his set at this fest was limited to 75 minutes, I can’t wait until I have the opportunity to see him again at his own headline show.
12. Jade Bird – Innings Festival
Coming into this set, my only exposure to Jade Bird was catching a little bit of her set on the Lollapalooza live stream in 2019 and knowing that Uh Huh was an absolutely incredible song. However, this set really took me by surprise. Bird, a singer-songwriter from the UK, opened her show by walking on stage with her acoustic guitar, saying “Hello there! Thank you so much for coming!” then burning the stage down with the audience in the palm of her hand for the next hour with nothing but her voice and that guitar. Playing acoustically allowed for Bird’s personality and lyrics to really shine. Songs like Lottery, Headstart, and I Get No Joy were all huge standouts in her setlist. She also opened her set with Uh Huh which absolutely rocked. The chorus on the song is incredible and getting to hear her belt it live was beautiful. She also closed her set with a rendition of Johnny Cash’s I’ve Been Everywhere which was also super great and it’s impressive to hear anyone nail the speedy verses, even cooler when it’s someone who’s been killing it for an hour previous.
11. Willie Nelson & Family – Outlaw Fest
Is there anything more patriotic than seeing Willie Nelson on the 4th of July weekend? I don’t think there is. This is a show that I was extremely excited for but I also didn’t really know what to expect. As Nelson gets older, the more hit or miss his shows have become. I had one friend who saw him in May and said that Nelson was awful and that all he did was talk for an hour which sent people toward the exits in droves. After a day full of great performances, Nelson took the stage at 9 PM, waved to the audience, sat down with his guitar trigger, and started the show how he’s started every show for all of eternity. By strumming a G chord five times and launching straight into Whiskey River while a Texas flag comes unfolded behind him. If his shows are getting more hit or miss, this one was a smash hit. For his entire hour, I was confronted with the fact that a nearly 90-year-old Willie Nelson could smoke me in a guitar battle. Also, I hope I’m half as charismatic and happy as Willie is when I’m his age. All night, he was full of smiles, full of great energy, and he still sounded fantastic as well, which was honestly my biggest concern. Willie was one of the last few country legends left on my bucket list and I still can’t believe that I got to cross him off. I’m really happy I caught him on a good night too and I hope I can catch him on a good night again if I get the chance to see him again.
10. Paramore – Austin City Limits Music Festival
Paramore was my most anticipated ACL set from the second their name leaked and I’ll get my negatives out of the way first, the band ended their set 10 minutes early and cut Still Into You off the setlist. However, those two things can be ignored when looking back and remembering that they still crushed it in the 50 minutes they did play. For starters, I mean come on, Hayley Williams. That’s all I really need to tell you. You are gonna be hard-pressed to find a better lead vocalist in an active rock band than she is. I can probably count on one hand better active frontmen/women than her. Also, the core three members of the group, Hayley, Taylor York on guitar, and Zac Farro on drums all play with so much intensity and passion that it’s tough to not love watching them on stage. In Hayley and Taylor’s cases, it’s just fun to watch their heads bobbing and watch their hair flying in different directions. For Zac, however, a serious case could be made that he might be the most underrated drummer in modern rock music. He is an insane player and could go toe to toe with some of the scene’s heaviest hitters. The band as a whole just keeps sounding better and better and drew the largest crowd that I’ve personally ever seen in Zilker Park. The crowd was just as great as the band was. Getting to scream along to That’s What You Get and Misery Business was great and singing the chorus of Ain’t It Fun was the loudest anyone sang any song the entire weekend. Make no mistake folks, Paramore isn’t a passing trend in another wave of emo and pop-punk nostalgia, they are here to stay for a very long time.
9. P!NK – Austin City Limits Music Festival
On the other end of the spectrum, when P!NK’s name was leaked, I was scratching my head. Seriously, P!NK, when was the last time she was relevant? 2013? Is she still big enough to headline a fest of ACL’s size in the year 2022? This booking ended up being much better than I anticipated it would be. Her performances across both weekends ended up being only 2 of 4 shows she played in 2022 and next summer and fall she’ll be embarking on a global stadium tour. Also, she was an incredible performer. Opening her show with an insane run of Get The Party Started, Raise Your Glass, and Just Like a Pill, P!NK was not at ACL just to get a check and she ran through a laundry list of hits after that. She was surrounded by backup dancers, had choreography routines, and sounded incredibly good. She was also hilarious on stage, whether she was consistently joking that she wasn’t used to having such a big stage and catwalk, telling a stage hand who came out to fix her in ear monitors “Don’t touch me” and slapping his hands away from her in-ear monitor pack on her back, then as he walked away said, “Well you can touch me but don’t change my ears,” or my favorite of her stage banter, pointing out the illuminated balloon in the middle of the park and saying, “I was about to point out the moon to you guys but that’s not it is it?” The best part of her set was saved for last as she performed So What while flying over the top of the crowd, doing flips and aerial stunts, and still, somehow, not missing a single note. It’s one of the wildest things I’ve seen any artist pull off at any show and as I left the park that day, I told my Dad, my roomate, and a bunch of other buddies a sentence that I didn’t imagine I’d say a few months earlier. “For as much crap as I gave the P!NK booking, she was incredible.”
8. Goose – Austin City Limits Music Festival
I did not care about jam bands at all until 2022 and I managed to see two of the jam scene’s newest darlings. One I’ll talk about later, and the other is Goose, a jam band hailing from Connecticut. This set could not have been better set up for me. A band I love playing on my favorite stage at the fest as the sun sets, just golden. There was also a bit of a double-edged sword to this set as it was unfortunately pretty unattended but everyone that was there was super into it and was easily one of the best crowds I was in the entire weekend. When I finally got settled in after eating, I stood in a line next to 4 or 5 people that I never learned the names and we all were dancing like idiots. That’s easily my favorite thing about jam shows, your dance moves can be as horrible as you please and no one around you will care because chances are, their moves are horrible too. Enough about the crowd though, this set was the second of three pieces in the best run I think I’ve ever had in my entire time at the fest with each of the last three sets on Sunday blowing me away in some way, shape, or form. The first was Paramore, and the second was the freakishly talented men in this band. The lead duo of Rick Mitarotonda on guitar and vocals and Peter Anspach on keys have insane chemistry and are both incredible musicians. There was no better display of this than on the extended versions of Arcadia and Dripfield, the opening rendition of Hungersite was also extended to let Rick solo for a little bit. (As a somewhat formal journalist, I’m supposed to repeat his last name in future references but I’m not typing that whole thing out again). But the shining star of this set for me was their closing song, Hot Tea, which I don’t think they even finished, they just jammed until they ran out of time. I could spend a whole ‘nother paragraph talking about how awesome their lighting was too but I think I’ll wrap this up here and say that I’ve been converted and I won’t make fun of jam bands or their fans anymore after this set.
7. L’impératrice – Austin City Limits Music Festival
When L’impératrice played Coachella, I told myself “Only Coachella could pull off a booking like this.” Then, by some act of God, ACL landed them. I had no clue how their set would go over at this fest, I was afraid that they would be too niche and would draw a crowd full of talkers and annoying people. Luckily, the band drew a crowd that reached back to the merchandise tent and was without a doubt the grooviest crowd I was in the entire weekend. I still struggle to find the words to describe this set. It was part disco night, part rock and roll show, part EDM rager, but it was fully a great time. I remember Jack White saying one time in an interview that as he was planning his tour in 2018, he was straying away from having instruments like violins, steel guitars, and other random acoustic instruments and adding more synths because with the latter, there’s only so loud they can get while synths can get extremely loud with no loss of quality. That was on full display on this set. The synth chords and sub-bass were pumping and the energy never dipped low. The show also flowed extremely well with transitions that were incredibly smooth, songs that were extended, songs that were shortened, and songs that had build-ups and drops whether they were there before or not. The best example of that was Vanille Fraise which, while the studio version does slow down for a bit before the beat kicks back in but the live version really capitalized on that, and the beat kicking back in hit way, way harder. I also think a reason I enjoyed this set so much is that there was a certain level of cheesiness too it with some of the dance moves and band member interactions on stage but it wasn’t so bad that it was distracting. It was like that ZZ Top level of cheesy where it gives them a ton of charm. I’m so grateful that they ended up at ACL, I’m so happy I got to see them, and I really hope I get to see them again sometime.
6. Turnpike Troubadours – KOKE Fest
In November 2021, Turnpike Troubadours announced their reunion with two shows at Red Rocks Amphitheater. The shows sold out within minutes. Then, in January 2022, they announced a run of shows in Texas and Oklahoma. Once again, the shows sold out within minutes. I made peace with the fact that I probably wouldn’t be able to see them on their first go around the country and told myself, “When demand dies down in a year or two, I’ll get my chance.” Then, one morning in April, I woke up and checked Instagram to see that the band was headlining KOKE Fest in Hutto, just outside of Austin. I didn’t know anything about the fest and didn’t even look at the rest of the lineup but I knee-jerk reacted and sent in a press application. Luckily, my photo pass was accepted and I had a great weekend but this was the absolute icing on the cake. Myself and about 30,000 others stood and watched as the Oklahoma six-piece owned the stage in their return to the Hill Country. I’ve said this a few times but the band was just as happy to be on that stage as we were to be watching them. It also helps that the band is sounding better than they ever have, ripping through a 17-song, hour and 20 minute long set in the blazing Texas heat and making it look easy. I’m positive that most of the heat was coming off of Kyle Nix’s fiddle as he kept playing incredible melody and solo after incredible melody and solo. The crowd was also one of the loudest I was in all year. Once the guitar intro for 7 & 7 started, there was no denying that fact. Walking in between the barricades in front of the soundboard right as that song got to the bridge was absolute magic. If anything was going to top that though, it would’ve been their closer Long Hot Summer Day which, from the second the harmonica and fiddle intro started, sent the entire crowd into a frenzy. People clapped along to the beat, other people in GA section were stomping their boots along the barricade, and everyone sang the chorus louder than any song across the whole weekend. I can’t believe the band is back and I can’t believe I got to see them on this first go around.
5. Billy Strings – Austin City Limits Music Festival
The other new jam darling I saw on the fest scene in 2022 was Michigan bluegrass picker Billy Strings. I first discovered Billy in late 2021 when he was announced to play Innings Fest. I added a few of his songs to the playlist I made but didn’t go to his set and would typically skip his songs when they came up on playlists. However, sometime over the summer, I started getting really into him and going into ACL, his set was one of my most anticipated of the weekend. Even with my high expectations, he still properly melted my face off. I can’t believe a normal human being can play an acoustic guitar the way Billy does and trust me, I’ve tried. The intro for Dust in a Baggie genuinely seems impossible to play but Billy could probably do it left-handed, with his eyes closed, at double the already fast speed. What I also really loved about Billy and his playing is that he does something that I’ve always wanted to do, he plays an acoustic guitar through effects pedals and has an insane distortion tone that shined extremely bright in his performances of Away From The Mire and Hide and Seek. It just adds another really cool layer to his already fantastic playing. But perhaps what blew me away the most from his set was that there was absolutely 0 percussion during his set or in his band and it’s something that I didn’t even think about until the day after when I was finishing my recap of the first day of the fest and something that I still can’t really wrap my mind around at times. While usually drums or percussion add a steady sense of rhythm to any set, Billy and his band didn’t need it to work their magic. Three times during this set I turned around to my group and just started laughing because I couldn’t believe how great the set I was watching was. Last month, I started a subscription to nugs.net, a streaming platform geared towards jam bands and live performances. Billy is an artist who uploads all of his performances to the platform and I go back and relisten to this set at least once a week. Even as many times as I’ve listened through it and as great as the experience of actually being there was, it still never gets old to listen to.
4. The War on Drugs – Austin City Limits Music Festival
I have become a massive fan of The War on Drugs over the past year. Their live album, Live Drugs, as well as their albums A Deeper Understanding and Lost in the Dream, were the soundtracks to many late nights studying, evenings chasing down sunsets, and mornings walking to classes. I got to see them twice in 2022, once at Innings Fest with a set that I thought was pretty good but not great and another, supremely superior time at ACL. Playing a 75-minute set as the sun set, this was another like Goose where it couldn’t have been scheduled more perfectly. Mainly because I think this band makes music that is perfect for that moment. Red Eyes being performed as the sun finished going down was pure bliss and one of my favorite moments of the weekend. Frontman Adam Granduciel is an amazing guitar wizard to watch work, he’s probably spent an ungodly amount of money on gear and pedals and it pays off because he pulls off some insane tones. The distortion kicking in on Pain is always magic as is him kicking it on on my favorite song of their entire performance, Strangest Thing. The solo on that song is incredible on record and even more incredible live especially with Granduciel playing for even longer than on the record. He probably could’ve kept playing the solo until the end of their set and not gotten tired and I would’ve stood there soaking it all in encouraging him to keep going. Victim and Harmonia’s Dream from their latest album I Don’t Live Here Anymore were both songs that also were fantastic live. I love the buildup of Harmonia’s Dream and I love Victim‘s sudden switch into double time. But the shining star of their set both times I’ve seen them, but especially at this set, was their performance of Under the Pressure, the opening track of Lost in the Dream. I think this song has the best buildup and drop in the history of indie rock except for Dance Yrself Clean by LCD Soundsystem. This song goes off live and was probably the best live performance of any song I’ve seen this entire year. The energy of the band, lights strobing in every direction, the energy of the crowd too, it’s such a great live song. The band already got a longer set than most closing bands get on the stage they played on with 75 minutes but as their set came to an end, I was wishing they could get another 15, or another 30, or just keep playing until the city of Austin cut their power.
Once again, I’d like to include some honorable mentions before I reveal the top 3 picks. I finally got to see the mighty Tame Impala at Innings after having to refund tickets for them twice due to…y’know. While their shows are rehearsed down to the sips of Kevin’s cup at this point, they’re still super fun live and getting to hear them bust out some Lonerism album cuts at a fest was awesome as a Lonerism stan at heart. Black Pistol Fire’s Innings set was a super fun afternoon set with dirty, fuzzy blues rock duo with singer and guitar player Kevin McKeown playing riffs and tones that make his amp sound like it’s begging for mercy. An honorable mention for KOKE Fest has to be Aaron Watson. This was I think my sixth or seventh time seeing and he’s so much fun every time. He’s a great entertainer, he’s hilarious on stage, and he has Damian Green ripping up the fiddle in his band every night. For ACL, it was tough to not include Zach Bryan on this list. Getting to see him in a mid-afternoon slot when he’s on top of the world right now was a huge treat and he drew about double the crowd that Nathaniel Rateliff had after him. Finally, for JAB Fest, Waka Flocka Flame is one of the strangest bookings that fest has ever had but it was an absolute party from start to finish. Festival hosts the Josh Abbott Band were also amazing and played the best show I’ve seen them play in the 3 times I’ve seen them now. He’s such a great performer and such a nice guy. Let’s finish this list off now with…
3. St. Vincent – Innings Festival
Sometime in early 2019, I was scrolling through the Red Bull TV app and found a compilation of ACL Fest 2018. About 30 minutes in, a black-haired woman wearing a latex dress and donning a weird-looking guitar was featured. She played a distorted but groovy rock song with a super catchy hook and she also played a really sick solo. The song was called Marrow and the artist was St. Vincent. I saw her at ACL in 2021 and she was absolutely insane so getting the chance to see her at Innings, I went in nervous and wondering if I would enjoy her set as much if I knew everything that was gonna happen. That was a dumb fear because she once again blew my mind. For starters, Clark is an insane guitar player. She’s been playing guitar less as she keeps getting more deep into her catalog but when she does do it, she is so great to watch. Another thing I need to point out is that this Daddy’s Home era is a shift for her. She has an entirely new band and an entirely new aesthetic but this show is insane. Her band is full of incredible musicians including Mark Guilliani playing drums for her who I’ve been a huge fan of for a long time.
Also, a lot of the songs on the setlist have been re-imagined to fit the vibe of this new era, most notably Digital Witness which is slower and a lot funkier. New York and Los Ageless also sound like brand new songs with the added benefit of a live band behind Annie. However, there’s been two absolute stunners both times I’ve seen this show, Fast Slow Disco and Cheerleader. Fast Slow Disco is a reimagined version of the song Slow Disco from her album Masseduction that takes it from a piano ballad to a fantastic dance number that sounds even better with the live band behind her. The chorus and bridge are so addictive and hit so much differently live. Cheerleader‘s studio recording has always felt a little underwhelming and compressed to me but when it’s played live, it has the benefit of guitars wailing away instead of synths and there’s a different energy getting to see Jason Faulkner on lead guitar jumping up and down trying his best to break his strings every time Annie sings “I I I I Iiiiiiii.” With the Daddy’s Home era seemingly coming to a close following a run of shows opening for Roxy Music, I can’t wait to see what Annie has up her sleeve next. I just hope that it’s half as good as this era was.
2. Matt & Kim – Innings Festival
When I was first getting prepared for this set, I noticed something pretty unnerving. I was going through some of their songs on Spotify and every one I would listen to, I would say, “Oh I’ve heard this in a commercial! Oh I heard this in a TV show! Oh I heard this in H-E-B.” I actually even considered skipping this set as I figured I would get my cheesy, safe, pop fix from Fitz and the Tantrums right before this set. Then, I realized that the band hasn’t done a ton of shows since concerts came back in full force in 2021 and don’t have many more scheduled in the future. So, as I did many times that day, I walked from one end of Tempe’s Beach and Arts Park to the other to the Right Field stage and I was in for a giant treat once I got there.
At 6:10 PM, Be Faithful by Crooklyn Clan and Fatman Scoop started playing over the PA with the super fun “You gotta fifty dolla bill put your hands up! You gotta twenty dolla bill put your hands up!” lines. As that played, Matt & Kim ran out, danced at center stage for a bit, then assumed their positions behind a keyboard and drums, respectively. Once they sat down, they went straight into Hey Now from their album New Glow which was a blistering opener. Kim was beating her drums like they owed her money, Matt almost didn’t need a stool at his keyboard from how much he was standing. The same goes for Kim, she would stand on top of her kick drum every chance she got, waving and getting the crowd to make some noise. He was also waving his arm up and down and trying his best to make sure the crowd was engaged. Fortunately, they were extremely engaged and responsive. Whether it was Kim getting the crowd to open up a wall of death or Matt getting people to sing along to the piano riffs, the crowd was on point the entire hour they played. This show was also a DJ set at times with the duo at times playing super fun covers at random. Whether it was a random cover of Alice Deejay’s Better Off Alone, a cover of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck with Matt shredding on his keyboard in the middle of their song Make a Mess, or the duo leading a giant sing-along to Biz Markie’s Just a Friend. But the material that sounded the best live was always theirs. Get It and Let’s Go were so great live and while I couldn’t really stand the studio versions of the songs, the live renditions made me appreciate the songs so much more. And of course, Daylight, their biggest hit, closed the show and led a giant sing along and the crowd lost their minds when the piano lead started. I said this in my concerts list but I love going to a show and finding out that a band I thought would be just okay was actually fantastic live. Matt & Kim was that band for me in this year’s fest run.
1. Kacey Musgraves – Austin City Limits Music Festival
When ACL dropped their 2022 lineup split up day by day, I was faced with horrible decisions for headliners on Friday and Sunday. On Friday, I could’ve ended my night with either SZA or The Chicks, both artists that I’d never been super crazy over. (I ended up seeing The Chicks and absolutely regretting it, for the record.) On Sunday however, I was faced with the choice of ending my weekend with either the Red Hot Chili Peppers or Kacey Musgraves. This one was horrible for a complete opposite reason, I didn’t know which artist I loved more. I wrestled with this choice up until the second I left Goose’s set and ended up going to Kacey as the Honda stage she was headlining was much more geographically convenient. Looking back now, 2 months after the fest has wrapped up, I don’t know why I ever wrestled with it. Maybe it’s because of how great Kacey’s set was or maybe it’s because of the Chili Peppers ending their set 40 minutes early but regardless, I don’t regret the choice I made.
Kacey has been slowly climbing her way to this headlining slot. In 2016, she was billed 9th on her day and played the now American Express main stage at 2 PM. In 2019, she was billed 3rd on her day and played the pre-headliner slot on the same stage. Finally, this year, she got her call to headline and played the best festival set I saw in 2022. I genuinely think that this set was perfect even though, technically, it wasn’t. The biggest mishap occurred during there is a light when giant beach balls were supposed to be released all throughout the crowd but the team in charge of that didn’t get the memo on when they were supposed to let them go. Right before the flute solo, Kacey had to yell at the people saying, “Throw those balls out! God damn!” Then, as if it couldn’t get worse, the microphone on the flute didn’t work and the solo was barely heard. However, that just added charm to the show, just like before her performance of Merry Go Round where Kacey stopped to cut her nails saying, “You try to be a cute girl off stage and say ‘Oh I want to get my nails done!’ and then you try to play guitar and you sound like absolute sh*t.”
Her performance of Merry Go Round is something I don’t think I’ll ever forget. The crowd was so attentive that you could’ve heard a pin drop, Kacey stepped back from the mic to let the crowd sing the last chorus which was beautiful. Her show opened with a run of songs from her latest album, star-crossed, an album that I didn’t and still don’t really care for but all of the songs sounded so great live, especially cherry blossom and breadwinner. After breadwinner though, something happened that I wasn’t expecting. The was an instrumental interlude as Kacey came back on stage and the lights changed colors. Then, as the interlude ended, she started singing the title track to her breakout album, Golden Hour. The sudden change swept me off my feet and I can’t confirm or deny if I cried or not but my eyes did get a little wet. It was really hot though so I could’ve just been sweating. She continued her run of Golden Hour material with Butterflies, Lonely Weekend and incredible performances of Space Cowboy and High Horse, which had a surprisingly great guitar solo outro. Her performance of camera roll was also incredible with the screens showing a camera tracking in super close on her face which made it feel like I was watching one of her music videos rather than watching her perform right in front of me. To close her set, she covered Dreams by Fleetwood Mac, touched on star-crossed one more time playing justified and there is a light, then finished it with two Golden Hour cuts, Rainbow and Slow Burn, the songs that close and open the record respectively. No excuses or funny sayings this time. These songs back to back 100% made me cry. They’re just both such incredible songs that I’ve been wanting to hear live for so long and I had one of those moments during the bridge in Slow Burn where I looked around and told myself, “Live music is the best thing on the planet.”
When Kacey’s set ended, I had to sit down for a minute or two on the grass where I had been standing just to process the set I had just watched. Being a fan of hers for so long and finally getting to see her live was everything I hoped it would be and even more. When Kacey toured arenas in the spring, the price tag seemed stupid. I think I may have even told my mom, “Kacey is an idiot if she thinks people will pay $175 to see her in a lower bowl seat.” After the show I saw at ACL, that price tag almost feels like a bargain. Kacey is a superstar and there is no doubt in my mind that she performed the best festival set I saw in 2022.
Loading ...