Cover Photo taken by Andrea Escobar Garcia

This past weekend I had the privilege of covering the Austin City Limits Music Festival for KANM Student Radio. I had the most incredible experience, and it's safe to say this was my best experience at ACL Music Festival. I’m so grateful to be from Austin, a city that values music so well and prides itself on being the live music capitol. ACL Music Festival is the perfect representation of this collective love for music the city shares and how music can bring people together.

Friday: 

Almost Heaven

I started off my day with the pleasure of interviewing the duo Almost Heaven in the press lounge. I unfortunately was not able to catch their set as I arrived later to the festival, but talking with them was delightful. The Austin based duo is incredibly talented and makes super danceable music and are very refreshing to listen to. The duo were also incredibly sweet and hilarious. We talked about their influences, style, and more! Keep an eye out on our social media and Youtube channel to catch our interview with the duo.

Amyl and the Sniffers

I had attended the festival with my assistant director plus my roommate, Grace Molnari, and her best friend Caroline Box. We all share a massive love for Charli XCX so we prioritized her set, we camped out at the American Express stage to get a good view. The first set we had the joy of watching at this stage was Amyl and the Sniffers. The band had fantastic energy with their electric music. I had previously heard some songs before, but never made my way around to listening. However, after seeing them live I am sure I will be diving further into their discography. The lead woman, Amy Taylor, was electric and her energy was contagious. Everyone in the crowd was having a great time, jumping, and singing along to their songs. The band also took time out of their set to share their political beliefs and a message to register to vote to attendees, which is typical of a lot of alternative bands but I really admired them using their voice in such a big capacity to crowds of thousands. If you have the opportunity to, I would definitely recommend seeing this band live!

Photo by Roger Ho

Labrinth

Labrinth is best known for his work on the soundtrack for the show Euphoria. I have not seen the show but his music is almost impossible to avoid, he's a big success. I was especially looking to hear Mount Everest and it did not disappoint. Even though I cannot say I'm the biggest fan of Labrinth’s music, I had a great time at his set and felt that his performance was very energetic. I also always enjoy interacting with others in the crowd and it felt amazing dancing along to everyone seeing him. 

Charli XCX

Wow. Just wow. Charli XCX was so worth camping out for. We were at the barricade and the feeling that came over us when she walked on the catwalk and was mere feet away from us was indescribable. I was so star-struck to see Charli with my own two eyes. I have been a fan of hers for a long time, so it felt so fulfilling to finally see her live. Her new album Music, Fashion, Film has been on repeat and I feel that it is my personal favorite of her discography topping the most known, Brat. Charli kept her set very fresh playing the majority of songs from her new album such as my favorite Card Declined while also playing remixes from Brat like 365 ft shygirl and iconic older songs like Track 10 and Pink Diamond. The set design was a beautiful industrial landscape turned into a club with a giant speaker at the very top. Her dancers were incredible, the lighting, pyro, and underwear confetti cannons were outstanding. As an environmental scientist, I also have to appreciate underwear confetti as being a more sustainable option than the typical glitter or plastic-based confetti, and I was very lucky to catch one! Charli also announced she had a special guest to share with us at her set, and we were shocked to see Tinashe come out. Tinashe played two of her newest songs off her new album Popstar which was released just last month. Since seeing her live at ACL I have not been able to get Melatonin out of my head and I definitely see it as the new biggest pop song. Overall this was for sure my favorite set of the weekend.

Photo by Henery Redcliffe

Saturday: 

Montclair

I got to interview the lovely band Montclair on Saturday afternoon. This Austin based band was formed from our very own Texas A&M University. We shared a conversation about College Station and how that formed their relationship and sound as a band as well as their favorite music and what inspires them. My interview with Montclair was one of the best conversations I have had. Again, I look forward to sharing this interview with you all soon on our socials! 

Suki Waterhouse 

Before interviewing Montclair I was unbelievably lucky as I was able to meet Suki Waterhouse before her set in the Press Lounge. I have been a longtime fan of hers and got to see her in Austin before at a free promotional concert she did for Daisy Jones and the Six. If you haven't seen the show I highly recommend it, she puts on a fantastic and moving performance. Suki was so incredibly kind, cool, and beautiful and I treasure my experience meeting her Saturday. I wasn’t able to converse with her for long as she had to go get prepared for her set but the brief moment shared was extremely polite. I also had the pleasure of listening to her set from afar while having to conduct other interviews, she truly has the voice of an angel.

SIMS foundation 

I also got to speak to the SIMS foundation. The SIMS foundation is a non profit organization providing mental health care services to the Austin music industry for over 30 years. Talking with this amazing organization was a very insightful experience for World Mental Health day. We have posted this talk with their representative to our social media.

Yosuke Yoshimatsu

Following my time in the press lounge I met up with my mother and KANM member, Bella Colunga. All three of us are fans of EDM so we were very excited to see Japanese DJ Yosuke Yoshimatsu. His set did not at all disappoint and was incredibly lively. He opened with an amazing remix of The Perfect Drug by Nine Inch Nails and continued with more of a techno sound. We all thoroughly enjoyed dancing along and it was one of my favorite performers of the weekend. The set was at Tito's stage however, which ultimately was a mess for the majority of the weekend due to its small capacity. 

Photo by Nathan Zucker

Snow Strippers

I’m a big fan of Snow Strippers so they were who I was looking most forward to seeing Saturday. I had seen them before at the Concourse Project in Austin, which was an incredible experience. I still had an amazing time seeing them at ACL, but I felt as though their performance fell flat of what you would expect to see from them outside of a festival setting. However they still got the crowd moving with their big hits like It's a Dream and Under Your Spell.

Photo by Phill McDonald

Rüfüs Du Sol 

Rüfüs Du Sol put on a radiant set. I chose to see Rüfüs Du Sol since my mother is a massive fan and was super excited to see them that night. As a big fan, she was extremely pleased with their performance and called it a blast. I too had an amazing time peacefully dancing towards the back of the crowd. Obviously Innerbloom, their most known song, was absolutely incredible live. I think the part that really made their set for me was their lighting and fireworks. It was a very stunning site and an almost out of body experience. 

Sunday: 

Geese

I’ll admit that I was a Geese hater. I went to see them because a friend convinced me I knew it was what the majority of our college fan base would want to see, and I know a lot of big fans. I felt that Geese was just not my thing at all and was not a fan of Cameron Winter’s voice. We only stayed for four songs as it was a struggle picking between sets to attend because they scheduled all the artists we wanted to see for the same time. I however was very surprised I actually really enjoyed what I did see of Geese. Maybe I prefer their live to their recorded versions but I felt mesmerized by Cameron Winter’s voice and found myself swaying along to their first few songs. Overall their set at ACL might’ve changed my opinion on them as a band. 

Photo by Roger Ho

Fcukers  

I was actually really looking forward to seeing Fcukers at the festival. However I didn’t realize til the day that the festival put them in Tito's tent. The crowd was decently large making it extremely difficult to see or hear the artist. It is not nearly as enjoyable being on the outside of the tent trying to listen in to see a set so we ultimately left after one song. I think that ACL needs to strongly consider the reorganization or removal of the Tito’s tent because it causes so many issues for attendees and has left a lot of people frustrated.

Blood Orange 

 This was my second favorite set of the entire weekend, which is still saying a lot as they’re competing with Charli XCX. I was so impressed with Dev Hynes' talent. They played popular songs like Charcoal Baby, Champagne Coast, and You’re Not Good Enough which definitely got the crowd going but for the most part it was a very melodic dreamy set. We got to witness Dev Hynes playing the cello and the incredible voices of his two singers he had on stage. Overall it was just an incredible performance. I found myself almost falling asleep due to the blissful and peaceful feeling finally hearing Blood Orange live gave me.

Photo by Andrea Escobar Garcia

Twenty One Pilots  

 Again, I might face backlash from the KANM Student Radio community for admitting this but I am not a fan of Twenty One Pilots. Instead I took the headliners as a moment to chill out and grab food following seeing Blood Orange’s set. I did however catch Tear In My Heart and Heavydirtysoul because those are two songs that I do genuinely enjoy from Twenty One Pilots. However, they did have a great energy and I bet they were amazing to see for longtime fans.

The XX

We only caught the last bit of The XX’s headlining set as we were just really dying to see Intro live. I was actually pleasantly surprised that their set was actually very hype, I was expecting it to be more low energy and chill than it ended up being. I had a great time dancing to the few songs we caught before the closing. The ended with Intro of course, and that was an experience I will never forget. I remember hearing Intro for the first time at a hockey game at probably age thirteen, I was in love with what I was listening to. Intro in my opinion perfectly captures the essence of what we all picture as the 2014 tumblr aesthetic and man did that feeling come to life while hearing it live. It was the most perfect closing song despite the name and ended my weekend on a magical note.

Photo by Roger Ho

ACL EATS 

It would be horrible to cover ACL without mentioning the incredible food I ate. ACL is proud to highlight local cuisine through having many Austin based restaurants as vendors. On Friday I got six vegan dumplings from Steamies Dumplings which were so delicious. These dumplings were the perfect last meal of the day before camping out for Charli XCX and kept me feeling good the rest of the night. On Saturday I ate Tofu Bahn Mi from Saigon on 7th. This was very yummy especially after drowning it in hoisin sauce, I feel as this was a great pick as well as it was extremely filling as well. Lastly Sunday was my calmest day so I chose to take the day to discover even more amazing bites. It has always been a mission of mine to try Bananarchy at ACl and I finally did it! Bananarchy was the perfect festival dessert as it left me feeling very refreshed even after devouring so much chocolate. Now, my favorite meal of the entire weekend was veggie bao buns from Bao’d Up. I am still dreaming of those delicious bao buns and craving them. I need to have them again as soon as possible. They paired their dumplings with an amazing housemade spicy mayo sauce. I wouldn’t have previously paired that with the veggie bun but it was incredible. My last snack of ACL also did not disappoint. One of my biggest weaknesses are buffalo cauliflower so of course I had to have some at the festival. Tender Dady made the most amazing buffalo cauliflower and I had such an amazing experience eating that while watching some of Twenty One Pilot’s set.