Zilker Park served as host again for the 22nd edition of the Austin City Limits Festival – two weekends of up-and-comers such as local hip hop artist Grace Sorensen along with festival favorites like Portugal. The Man, and stadium rockers the Foo Fighters. Unlike the pandemic years, this year’s fest appeared to be on solid footing with a strong lineup, bountiful ticket sales, and the bonus of great weather expected for each weekend. A wicked hail storm a week earlier produced golf ball-sized hail causing citywide damage, but fortunately the rain barely affected the impeccably cared-for lawn aside from a smattering of mulch in the regular low parts of the park. Since the fest’s establishment in the early aughts scores of new downtown skyscrapers have risen adding a dynamic backdrop for weekend revelers donned in bucket hats, Hawaiian shirts, and cowboy boots.
After a great day of music followed by an anticlimactic evening at Zilker Park on Friday of Weekend One of the Austin City Limits Festival, Saturday was dry and cool allowing for multi-layered festival attire showcasing the latest fashion trends. Just about every type of cowgirl imaginable strutted across the grounds on what to some was known to some as ‘Shania Twain Day’. There were more than half a dozen distinguishable cow culture outfits: the disco cowgirl, the denim cowgirl, the fringe cowgirl, the silky cowgirl, the cheeky cowgirl, the space cowgirl, the Barbie cowgirl, and a few more.
Festivalgoers eased in on Saturday with much less backups at the Barton Springs entrance, but those who came early they were treated by emerging Austin honky-tonk singer/guitarist Gus Clark, who kicked off the music at the newly named IHG Stage that sits under a refreshing canopy of old pecan trees across the street from the main festival grounds. The overalls wearing bespectacled and mustachioed musician shared his latest single “Cheap Shots” as the breezes blew through the grove.
Ben Kweller from Greenville, Texas provided another guitar picking set during the early afternoon at the Miller Lite Stage. He returned after his first appearances in 2003 and 2004 which were followed by a rather notorious nose bleed incident in 2006 which covered his guitar in blood. This year, Kweller progressed through fourteen songs beginning with “Commerce, TX”, “Penny on a Train Track” and finished with a cover of “How I Am” by Z’Ev [editor’s note: in bass in his band was none other than McLovin himself, Christopher Mintz-Plasse].
Saturday’s vibes were definitely on the chiller side, and was well represented by the dreamy soundscapes of Poolside who followed Kweller on the Miller Lite Stage. The Los Angeles-based chill wave group and perennial festival performers are led by Jeffrey Paradise, who strummed a seafoam green guitar while he serenaded the crowd with his mid length straight hair dangling in front of his eyes. Playing what some call laid back daytime disco, beachballs bounced around the early afternoon crowd while they played a laid back version of the Grateful Dead’s “Shakedown Street”, followed by the synthy yacht rock sounding “Can’t Stop Your Love” from their 2020 album Low Season, before closing out the uplifting and melodic Rhye collaboration “Feel Your Weight”.
At the dinner hour, Thirty Seconds To Mars got the crowd jumping after a pink emblazoned Jared Leto, known more for his cinematic performances than his stunt work, literally bungee jumped from the rafters of the Honda Stage. Meanwhile on the other side of the park at the American Express Stage, ‘90s super star Alanis Morissette got the crowd singing along nostalgically to many of her hits from her 1995 smash hit Jagged Little Pill – with a voice that hasn’t aged a bit, she belted out hits “Hand In My Pocket”, “You Learn”, “Ironic” and closing out with “You Oughta Know”. Seeing all the youngsters singing along, it was clear her music is canonical and transcends generations.
By 7pm darkness began to fall on Zilker while Bob Moses, no stranger to the festival circuit, lit up a swollen crowd with blasts of red spotlights at the Miller Lite Stage. The British Columbian electronic duo made up of Tom Howie and Jimmy Vallance laid down some punchy beats while smooth lyrics sent the crowd to a dreamy trance. Their twelve-song set began with :Time and Time Again” from last year’s The Silence in Between, punctuated by a spot-on cover of “Need You Tonight” by INXS, and closing out with the Zhu collaboration “Desire” from 2020, which had fans singing the refrain, “I don’t want your desire / I just wanna be free” as they shuffled over to the Honda Stage for Shania Twain.
Dressed in a stunning long red wig, Barbarella-esque silver top and booty shorts, the Canadian born country star Shania Twain looked great for nearing 60 years of age. In this year’s Queen of Me, Twain takes on a new character, sounding more edgy and rocky than her ‘90s cowgirl stage persona. Twain started her set with “Waking Up Dreaming” from her latest album and progressed through 18 songs that included an acoustic rendition of “You’re Still the One”, “Forever and Always”, and then the iconic bachelorette party track, “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” to close out her set.
To cap Saturday at ACL, arena rockers the Foo Fighters returned to Zilker Park for their third visit, having performed in 2008 and in 2015, the year frontman Dave Grohl donned his heavy metal boot cast. The difference this year is that were performing without Taylor Hawkins who was found dead of a drug overdose in Columbia. After a disappointingly shortened Friday night, the Foo Fighters delivered 18 songs that covered over ten albums. Song highlights included “All My Life”, a mid-set wild guitar solo featuring “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys, “Blitzkrieg Bop” by The Ramones, “Whip It” by Devo, and Nine Inch Nails drum-smashing “March of the Pigs”. The highlight of the evening had to be when Twain joined Grohl on stage for “Best of You”. The duo’s unsuspected chemistry will certainly leave a long lasting impression on their fanbases that are nearly polar opposites on the FM dial.
-words: Alex Freeman
-photos: Sam Wilkinson
