Tacos & Tequila Fest Announces HUGE 2023 Lineup; Headlined by Incubus and Third Eye Blind

Coming back to Lubbock for the second year, Tacos & Tequila Festival is returning to Lonestar Amphitheater on August 26, 2023 with a bigger lineup and another promise of a great time.

This year’s festival bolsters Incubus and Third Eye Blind at the top which is a fantastic way for this lineup to get kicked off. When I talked to Thomas Boucher, one of the men who books and runs this festival, he told me that he wanted to get this festival close to the amphitheater’s capacity of 8,000 people and with those two names up top, I don’t see that being an issue. I’ve been trying to see both bands for a while, missing Third Eye Blind’s set at ACL in 2019 and just never being within a reasonable distance of seeing Incubus. I’m incredibly excited that both bands will be playing, essentially, in my backyard. Also, according to a press release, this is going to be the first time that both Incubus and Third Eye Blind have played in Lubbock. The release also stated that both bands will be bringing their full tour production and will be playing full sets. That, in and of itself, is also really good.

Rounding out the undercard is Badflower and Paris Jackson. Badflower, I’ll be honest, I’m not completely familiar with but I do love their song Ghost as well as the song Move Me. I imagine they’ll be a cool time but the booking I find the coolest is Paris Jackson who’s hitting the festival circuit pretty hard this year. Her music is kind of grungy, kind of heavy, but also has a bunch of soft elements and little details that give her songs great textures. Also, she’s the daughter of Micheal Jackson. How cool is that?

In my humble opinion, I think this lineup is a big step up from last year. Not to say that last year’s lineup was bad, but I think this lineup is best explained like this. Last year’s lineup was pretty good, this one is great. I’m really excited for August to roll around because I truly believe they blew this thing out of the water this year.

I got to attend the November edition of the festival last year and while it had its flaws, what first-year fest doesn’t? Long lines for food and drinks were common but I don’t think they were anywhere near as bad as some people made the issues out to be. The press release addressed that, too, with a spokesperson for the festival saying, “Like last year, there will also be plenty of tacos and tequila, but from completely re-imagined and re-designed beverage, food and VIP operations. We realized in the first year there were some things we could have done better, and we’ve made certain to do them exceptionally well for 2023.”

Regardless, I still had a great time. Even if early-day sets from Jackson Taylor and Texas Hippie Coalition weren’t exactly my cup of tea, the crowd enjoyed them and they got a decent amount of people to the amphitheater early. They didn’t exactly have mosh pits breaking out but Texas Hippie Coalition brought a ton of energy, a ton of heavy riffs, and a ton of headbanging for their hour-long set.

However, there was a certain shift during the set change where the amphitheater really started to fill up and Bowling for Soup took the stage and put on the most fun set of the entire evening. It’s crazy to think about it but they’ve been around for almost 30 years at this point and frontman Jaret Reddick took time to talk about how they’ve done shows in Lubbock for just about that long. He even mentioned that they had played the amphitheater twice before and the first time wasn’t amazing because it still smelled like dead cows. “Now you may ask yourself, ‘Jaret, why did it smell like dead cows?’ Well, you see guys, there used to be a meat processing plant right next to this amphitheater.” He circled back to it to say that the second time they played the amphitheater, it only half smelled like dead cows and this time around, he was thrilled the smell was gone. I hope I get another chance to see Bowling for Soup live because I had a blast seeing them. They still sound great live, they played their Phineas & Ferb theme song, and they seemed like they were having just as much fun as everyone in the crowd was.

While Bowling for Soup might have been the most fun, I think The Toadies were far and away the best performance of the evening. From the start, frontman Vaden Todd Lewis let the crowd know what they were in for, saying, “We’re gonna play 15 minutes of songs, then we’re gonna do Rubberneck from front to back, then if we have time left we’ll play a couple more.” As soon as he finished saying that, the band kicked into Little Sin and it was off to the races. Talk about a band that still sounds great live, the Toadies have not lost a step at all. They still sound as fresh and as hungry as they were when Rubberneck first set the world on fire. Songs like I Come from the Water and Backslider still go just as hard as they did the first time I heard them and of course, Possum Kingdom, what a song. Hearing it live was such a treat and that bridge and outro were so much fun to scream along to. The band’s set closed with a killer rendition of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ I Put a Spell on You which was surprisingly awesome and a great close to their set.

Last but certainly not least, Collective Soul was last year’s headliner, and man did they bring a show. For starters, Ed Roland is an insane frontman. He does insane microphone stand twirls, hits insane dance moves, jumps around, runs around, I don’t know where all of his energy comes from truly and honestly. He also does this thing often that I’m so happy I captured where he’ll walk to the edge of the stage, hold a peace sign up in the air, and won’t go back to doing whatever he was doing before until he sees enough people giving him a peace sign back. Also, as a whole, the band sounded fantastic. Songs like Where The River Flows and Heavy absolutely ripped live and even when they slowed it down for a song like December or The World I Know, it was still super awesome. This was my second time getting to see the band and while I didn’t think I’d say this when I left the amphitheater that night, I truly hope it isn’t my last.

Tickets for this year’s festival go on sale this Friday, April 7, at 10 AM through the festival’s website and SeeTickets. There will also be a limited number of tickets available to purchase at Ralph’s Records. VIP options will be available and the press release stressed the importance of making sure you don’t get screwed out of going to this awesome event because you didn’t buy tickets directly through the festival’s website or through SeeTickets. The full lineup poster is attached below. We hope to see all of y’all out there!