Day 3 of Weekend One of Austin City Limits 2019 felt like the busiest of the weekend. If you want proof, look for photo and video posts of the sea of humanity watching Lizzo and waiting for Cardi B.
It was another day of intense heat, again nearing 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius) on Sunday afternoon. It’s Monday now and the temper has dropped bout 10 degrees Celsius to a more pleasant 26. Due to the heat, the grass on the field had taken a beating all weekend stirring up dust reminiscent of day at Coachella. For me, after 2 days wearing almost 10 pounds of camera gear from stage to stage I essentially had to take knee in the early afternoon and just sit in the shade for couple hours and have a beverage.
Entering the festival grounds just after 1pm after a 25 minute walk from where I parked, music at the VRBO stage nearby piqued my interest. Buckinghamshire, England’s The Japanese House were performing. 24-year-old lead singer Amber Bain’s voice had an uncanny similarity Sarah McLachlan.
After getting a coconut water to hydrate after being out in the elements for barely an hour, British punk rockers IDLES were up next. The mosh pit was intense. At one point guitarist Lee Kiernan came down from the stage to jump into the mosh pit. One festival goer was seen at the rail with a cut on his hand, but rocking out anyway.
After relaxing in a shaded lounge for a couple hours I ventured to the one tent stage for a bit of Gogo Penguin, the third straight British group I’d seen all day. The three piece band consisting of piano, upright bass and drums blended bits jazz, trip-hop and electronica into their instrumental set.
BANKS came onto the Miller Lite stage with no backing band on the stage. She performed on platform in the middle with along with two dancers and would come down to do choreographed routines during instrumental parts of each song. During her song ‘Fuck With Myself’ Banks kissed one of her dancers.
Kacey Musgraves performed at “golden hour” (just before sunset) at the AMEX stage. While there was a catwalk that is pretty common at Country shows, Musgraves never ventured past the edge of the main part of the stage while the majority of photographers were there. Musgraves is one of those artists with crossover appeal where even if you don’t like Country music, you’ll still probably enjoy her show.
Despite the fact Kacey Musgraves gave permission for media photographers to take photos for her entire set, the majority stayed only a few songs and then b-lined it all the way to the other side of the park to lineup for Lizzo on the Miller Lite Stage. At the nearby Honda Stage, Third Eye Blind was performing. They’re a band I’ve been wanting to see for more than 20 years, but due to the logistics of having to cover artists that are going at the same time at opposite sides of the park and possible limits to how many could take photos of Lizzo, I unfortunately still have never seen Third Eye Blind. I could hear them clearly and they sounded great from where I stood, but I couldn’t see them or get any photos. A highlight moment was when they played one of my favourite songs ‘Jumper’ and the audiences both watching Third Eye Blind and those waiting for Lizzo to start started singing the lyrics.
LIZZO really should have been one of the two main stages. The crowd for her was huge, likely the largest ever at one of ACL’s side stages. Lizzo even stated on stage that the Austin City Limits audience may be the largest audience she’s ever performed in front of.
After photographers exited the photo pit, they had a choice. Cover Mumford and Sons at the AMEX Stage at the opposite side of the park? Or cover Cardi B at the Honda Stage and be forced to swim through that giant sea of humanity previously mentioned. Many chose the latter and took 15-20 minutes just to get to the photo pit entrance, which was mildly chaotic with festival goers trying to get to the Platinum viewing areas. Had we known Cardi B would start her set nearly 25 minutes late, we could have taken some photos at Mumford & Sons and then just strolled up to the Honda Stage with the Miller Lite stage area vacated.
Seconds before Cardi B finally began her set the restless crowd briefly started chanting “What the fuck?” Despite her late start, Cardi B was on point during her hour-long performance.
I’ll have a full review of my ACL experience in the coming days. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of the photo highlights.
