Day one of Austin City Limits Music Festival 2024 is in the books. As always, Austin's Asleep at the Wheel kicked things off with boot scootin' Texas swing. As the moon rose over Texas, country soul crooner Chris Stapleton and early pop punks blink-182 brought it home.
Here are the eight best things we saw at ACL Fest on Friday.
Chris Stapleton
Chris Stapleton turned ACL into Stagecoach with enormous, twangy hooks and the most powerful southern voice since Trent Lott. He sings with the fury of a wolf picking apart a carcass—and with striking interiority. If you want a cowboy on a white horse baby, he tells his muse, well, “I ain’t there yet. No, I ain’t there yet.” Who doesn’t like a man who's working on himself? — Ramon Ramirez
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Blink-182
The pop punk, powerhouse trio brought the house down. Seriously. Here’s a taste: fireworks, fireballs, aliens, and a celebrity sighting. The crowd went wild for new songs and bonafide classics. A set so good, Tom DeLonge actually teared up at the end. — Mars Salazar
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Foster the People
Mark Foster brought swagger to the Honda stage at sunset. Clad in ethereal off-white, every robotic plea Foster breathed into the mic was a sermon to the pulsing crowd. “It’s so good to be here, it’s been seven years. There were many mountains we climbed to get here, and I’m sure you have climbed many mountains too,” Foster said. Playing old hits and tracks off 2024 album “Paradise State of Mind,” Foster the People cultivated a groovy, hip-swaying vibe. “Sit Next to Me” and “Don’t Stop (Color on the Walls)” were familiar crowd favorites, and beach balls flew through the air.
“Being up here, I think about how lucky we are. I think about all the artists just getting a start,” Foster said to the crowd. “Support your local artists, support your local venues. It’s important that we maintain hope, kindness, love, and stay together through all of this.”
Of course, the set concluded with what many of us came here for: “Pumped Up Kicks.” Voices echoed the lyrics back to the stage in a moment of beautiful unity juxtaposed with the song’s violent themes. — Mars Salazar
Carín León
You can tell Carín León is at home in Texas. The Mexican regional star is best known for fitting a soulful and vast vocal range into the choppy guitars and booming horns of Mexico’s northern music. León’s distinctive vocal sound is heavy and smooth in a style more similar to American R&B, soul and country, than norteño or banda. A master of the “come closer, nah go away” ballad (“Ojos Cerrados,” “El Tóxico”), León gets a crowd excited, then dancing, then moody. Plus, he’s more than willing to end a Mexican-flag waving, Victoria-sipping set with “Tennessee Whiskey.” Pero bien Contry ese primo sonorense. Man, does he fit in. — Emiliano Tahui Gomez
Dasha
The backstabbing bestie kiss-off "Ain't No Friend of Mine" was a high point in the country upstart’s set, but "Austin," — "the song that changed my life," Dasha said — was a real ACL Fest moment for the books. As the Nashville singer-songwriter stomped the stage (in what will surely be some of the best statement boots of the weekend), a corps of nearly a dozen muscle-bound dancers took the stage behind her to recreate her viral TikTok dance. If that wasn't enough shade for the wayward cowboy whose truck broke down before he hit the city limits sign, halfway through the set, the brawny backers ripped off their shirts Chippendale-style.
The ladies in the crowd screamed wildly. And somewhere across the country in Nashville — Dasha told the Statesman backstage that the deadbeat ex in the song was actually from Tennessee, not Texas — an unmotivated guitar-slinger on a dirty futon curled up in shame. — Deborah Sengupta Stith
Stephen Sanchez
Stephen Sanchez began his set Friday like he was on a 1950s variety show, complete with an introduction that called the crowd a “live studio audience.”
His velvety voice and smooth delivery turned the energy up for fans as he blended rock and jazzy sounds with his signature style, vintage sound. Sanchez maintained a high level of showmanship throughout the performance including his spiffy appearance. “It is very hot and we are wearing suits,” he remarked at one point. Before the final song, he tossed his guitar to a bandmate and left the crowd dancing to a swinging number. — Keri Heath
Mannequin Pussy
Mannequin Pussy exploded on the scene with feral riffs and howling punchlines that hooked right through a sun-baked crowd. The Miller Light stage was ablaze with distortion bleeding from towering speakers. Singer Marisa “Missy” Dabice addressed the audience in a breathy, seductive purr, “I want all the boys, all the men, in the audience to scream pussy as loud as you possibly can.” The Philly four piece dedicated their set to shaming the god-fearing, before blazing into their commanding power ballad “I Got Heaven.” The vibe got even heavier when “Control” broke open a mosh pit with a parading Mexican flag and furry kitty cat head. Guitar feedback hissed as the beet red singer stripped off a white gauze gown mid-set for a crop top and shorts. “Thanks for waiting for me, that dress weighs, like, 10 pounds,” Dabice said. Black boots bounded across the stage as maniacal laughs transformed into feral barks, punctuated with “Perfect.”
Chaparelle
There were three full-service cowboy hats worn onstage during local supergroup Chaparelle’s ACL-christening set at the IHG Hotels and Resort stage Friday. And yet the twangiest bandit was the lap steel player—in a black ball cap.
He turbo-charged the local all-star band’s new material.
“It takes a strong woman to look at you and smile,” singer Zella Day sang with wry wit and clear purpose.
The band is the brainchild of she and Texas songwriters Jesse Woods and Beau Bedford. Their ballads are about “dreaming of the honky tonk,” making romantic a “mess of things.” They write about dancing “to the beat of a two-step” and quantifying heaven.
“Dude she’s so hot. That’s the kill shot,” a loud young man told his friends between songs, referring to Day.
She stayed unbothered, on mission:
“Thank God we came up with our own spelling, because we have it on a poster behind us,” she said.
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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Chris Stapleton, Blink-182, Carín León, more. Best things we saw at ACL Fest on Friday
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