Day two of Austin City Limits Weekend One felt even hotter than day 1. With temperatures around 37 degrees Celsius and feeling like near 40 with the humidity, the compounding heat from the day before was wearing down on me.
I arrived in time to catch FINNEAS from the at the Miller Lite Stage. He had a sizable crowd at 1 in the afternoon which makes sense since he is Billie Eilish’s brother.
After getting water to keep me going I trekked over to the AMEX main stage to catch Norwegian pop artist Sigrid. She opened her set with ‘Sucker Punch.’ Fitting as the intensity of the sun was hitting me like one.
From there, it was a hike all the way back to the Honda Stage on the other side of Zilker Park to catch some Canadian content in Montreal’s Men I Trust. A common theme of the first three acts I covered was the chill vibes Of the music.
After a few songs I sought shade for a couple hours. When you’re carrying nearly ten pounds of camera gear for three days in this climate you need to pace yourself.
Alabama Shakes front-woman Brittany Howard was next bringing some soul to a packed Honda Stage full of teens camped out for Billie Eilish. Howard performed a powerful hour long set of her solo music.
I braved the sea of young Billie Eilish fans and stood in the thick of the audience for after Brittany Howard’s set. If there’s one thing to know about Eilish, it’s that she has a rabid fan base. Two minutes before the set even started, phones were in the air recording video.. and of course crappy vertical video. The cluster of 20/30-somethings I stood with marveled at how crazy it was to see the swath of phones blocking the view of the stage.
Eilish went right into ‘Bad Guy’ after an animated intro on the video screens causing screams and jumping. Beforw the third song Eilish asked the audience to make mosh pits causing cueing the fans further back to make their push towards the front. It was chaos and it was my cue to get the heck out. There were so many people there to see the set, it took nearly 15 minutes to squeeze through the masses and escape.
James Blake played the Miller Lite Stage next door after Eilish ended behind three keyboards. The audience took a bit to build up due to his set being right after Billie Eilish. It was a nice calm change of pace.
The Cure and Childish Gambino headlined the Honda and AMEX stages respectively at the same time.
The Cure performed a 24 songs set including a 7 song encore. A highlight was finally hearing ‘Friday I’m in Love’ live. Off the top of their set Robert Smith walked from one end of the stage to the other looking out to the crowd on hand.
Over at the AMEX stage Childish Gambino finally performed at ACL after being forced to cancel as headliner last year. Donald Glover went down into the pit area and performed on stage. As I approached the stage about five songs in, fireworks were launched.
Day 3 is set to to have Mumford & Sons, Cardi B, Kasey Musgraves and Lizzo among the top acts.
