ACL 2023 Weekend 1 - Sunday Trip Report
The best things happen unexpectedly
Surprise! I went to ACL this past weekend. My cousin was super nice to get me a ticket for Sunday and I knew I had to take up that opportunity. Plus I was already going to see Death Grips anyway on Saturday, so it really became a packed weekend very quickly. Last year I went to Houston to see Rosalia live before ACL. This year I saw Death Grips and did one whole day of ACL before my weekend of the fest!
So yeah after waking up on Sunday morning after a brutal Death Grips show at Emo’s, I got ready and picked my cousin up and we headed to Zilker Park. And overall, it was a lot of fun. I wanted to see what the vibe was going to be like and at this point, going to ACL is like sort of also getting an update on like not just different generations of people and how they experience music, but also if any of these artists would work in a festival setting.
I’ve mentioned this in previous posts, but last year’s ACL was definitely much more lower key than this year. The energy was at an all time high and they did some very surprising bookings that turned out working extremely well. Let’s dig into it. Before we start, did you guy’s know Mumford & Sons are a British band? Crazy.
Suki Waterhouse
This was the first artist we were able to catch and not someone I generally knew about at all. It doesn’t really speak well for an artist when the only thing you know about them is who they are dating and that they possibly got big because of TikTok. You hear the music and its pretty obviously influenced by Lana Del Ray. So she basically is doing this whole dream pop, 90’s ish alternative (not really shoegaze but hinting at it) type sound. Its definitely a bit more “rock” than LDR.
And so we went. And everyone around me must have been 16 or something man. Like I was straight up the oldest dude there. You turn around and see kids looking like babies, like straight up the guy next to me looked like he was 15 at the most. Considering Suki’s music is probably directly aimed at this demographic, it makes total sense. I was even overhearing people talk about their favorite songs they found from her on tiktok and spotify playlists. The generational shift happened y’all. And a lot of these kids weren’t even Gen Z. This was Gen Alpha, the NEXT generation. It was just kind of crazy!
The performance was pretty cool. I really liked her live band and she performed pretty damn well too. I heard her music and was unimpressed, but left the show actually liking the performance. She definitely needs to find a way to translate that live energy into a record and soon. Its cool for the kids and all, but ultimately it was fine. Somewhat mid at points, but very engaging. I thought this show was going to suck, but it ended up being a pretty big surprise! Also she covered Taylor Swift which won over a larger part of the audience. Good vibes all around. If you are one of the “girlies” then you will most likely enjoy this too.
Niall Horan
One Direction C-lister took the main stage and we decided to go see what was up and yeah man, this certainly is a UK pop star doing his thing. His set kinda reminded me of watching Bleachers and The Wallows (who all played on the same stage as well, which is wild to think about). There was this dressed up rock vibe going on and nice production too. I always enjoy when an artist makes a stage their own, with their own props and lighting and stuff.
I’m going to be real though, I don’t know anything about dude and probably won’t start. It was pretty harmless live for me and enjoyable. Tons of screaming girls. Like if this is your bag, your steeze, then yeah you should go. For me, I was able to enjoy it from afar and didn’t mind getting close. But also I didn’t know a single song, ultimately it was chill.
Tash Sultana
We left Niall a bit to go check out Yves Tumor and Tash. Yves was packed to the gills and we couldn’t really enter so we made our way across the park to catch weekend 1 exclusive artist, Tash Sultana. And it felt like we were watching an NPR Tiny Desk session on the main stage. I don’t really know too much about her other than she is a multi-instrumental specialist and also works with loops sometimes? Her set was a ton of fun though and if you’re a fan then you definitely don’t want to miss her live.
Me personally, I’m not that big of a fan of hers. But was interested to see her from a far and luckily found my friends also watching her sitting down with their park blankets. And yeah she played a bunch of instruments and it was soulful and it was funky and everything. Great vibe-y atmosphere and perfect for this hour honestly.
Glorilla
So we kinda wanted to watch Glorilla and as we made our way to the stage it was just massively packed with raging kids. The DJ started with all these classic turn up songs like Mo Bamba - Sheck Wes and Faneto - Chief Keef. And the kids were turning up. A little bit too much since apparently one or two kids threw shoes towards the stage. Gen Z (and I guess now) and Gen A kids really need to learn how to control their concert rage and not completely lose themselves since these things have been happening with a frightening frequency. Didn’t expect it to see it happen at this festival but it did. It is what it is man, I like to lose myself to the music and the live show as well but you need to keep yourself grounded. Anyway we didn’t stay long, and I only knew two songs anyway. Maybe this weekend we’ll give another shot but we’ll see.
Ivan Cornejo
I caught a few songs from Ivan Cornejo. I just learned the guy is 19 years old. It was mostly sad regional Mexican music like corridos and stuff like that and it was mostly fine. If you’re into the guy, and into this sound, then yeah its for you. For me, it was missing some flair and oomph. Again I only saw a few songs, but it was very low energy. The stage almost seemed empty, but the true believer stuck it out and even got an encore. Hell yeah man.
Yeah Yeah Yeah’s
I was tired from the night before so I chose to see this from the back, mostly either sitting down or walking past. Its basically the same show I saw last year but with some new songs from the new album. No Date with the Night though. Overall, tons of fun. I love them. And I love the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s love song.
Death Grips / ACL & EMO’S AFTER SHOW
There are few bands and artists that I drop absolutely everything and buy a ticket the moment they announce a tour. Death Grips is one of those bands. I bought tickets to see Death Grips last December and have been thinking about it the entire year. I mean I’ve now seen Death Grips so many times and each time its way too good. Its a full assault on the body and on the mind. This time around, they enlisted Nick Reinhart as a touring member on guitar and Andy Morin appeared to be on hiatus. But the live show definitely changed up thanks to the guitar and its just way more intense now.
So lets start from Saturday which would be their second show that week in Austin. I line up at Emo’s like an hour and a half before doors open, these guys have no opener. I had seen some videos of the tour and was getting excited since they mined their setlist for some really deep cuts and yeah man like this was everything I wanted and maybe even more. I got to meet a nice kid, 10 years younger than me and we chilled and talked about the music we like, how we got into Death Grips and all that. I didn’t really understand the impact that Death Grips had on younger generations, but I guess they really have a lot of kids at these shows now. Which is sick! They played 29 songs at Emo’s, with no breaks. This was a classic Death Grips, balls to the wall type show. People were going absolutely feral and losing it in those mosh pits.
But I stayed wondering, how is Death Grips going to be received at ACL 2023? Like this is a very family friendly festival, which yes also has a ton of kids that want to get their rage on. But I’m pretty sure this has got to be the most hardcore band ACL has ever booked in its entire existence. The stuff I was seeing at the festival was absolutely insane. There was so many types of people there. You had your older folks, your adults, your gen z teens and 20 year olds and also some baby gen A’s thrown in the mix as well. Everyone, was going crazy and I mean everyone. I was seeing a bunch of guys hold each other and head bang in unison, I was seeing girls jump into the pit and go ballistic. I saw dudes who were just doing football tackle drills in the center of the pit. It got wild man. There were definitely a ton of people who didn’t know Death Grips like that but the music was able to get us all together. This was their rite of passage and I was helping them along. At one point, I’m pretty sure during “No Love” I opened a pit and just started going crazy during one of the verses and this one guy grabs me and was like “Bro I love you, you’re going crazy!” And that was the energy.
Yes it was absolutely insane, people were throwing themselves into each other, jumping around and having the time of their lives. Everyone was hugging it out right after brutally body slamming each other. Its really fun for me to experience and see this. I’m still paying the price and my body is still recovering from both shows, but damn, Death Grips killed it. They were just performing at the top of their game and seemed to genuinely enjoy playing not only to their main fans, but also at this festival. Fantastic show and my favorite of the night for sure.
Odesza
Biggest surprise of the entire festival for me. I had seen Odesza before and it was ok at best. I kinda wrote them off after that. And when they were announced as headliners this year, I just didn’t really care. But you know, when in Rome and all that. After Death Grips, I made my way to our meetup spot, only to then go on adventure inside the crowd to find my friends. I don’t know how we always are able to link back up together, but we did and I’m so happy since I was able to share this really incredible show with them. It was just a lot of fun man. Very theatrical, amazing performances, awesome drum line, the choreography, the lighting. Honestly it was so much fun. I found myself jumping and dancing so much for this and it was a great way to end the weekend. I am definitely going to see them again.
And that was ACL Weekend 1! Crazy! I had so much fun at the festival again this year and I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for any other observations. I loved seeing everyone have such a good time at Death Grips too man. I think that was a crazy gambit that highly paid off. People are always complaining about these damn kids being too rowdy. Well give them an artist where they can actually unleash that energy. I mean they got DEATH GRIPS dude. The sky is the ceiling now.
Thanks for reading and if you see me at Zilker Park for weekend 2, don’t be a stranger and say hi!
See yall!
