Kendrick Lamar, Ethel Cain, and More Highlights From Friday at ACL Fest

After travel delays truncated his Weekend One set, Kendrick Lamar delivered a full-length, whirlwind headlining performance on Weekend Two (photo by David Brendan Hall)

The addition of rising alt-pop star Ethel Cain made quite the argument for round two of Austin City Limits Festival – as well as second-weekend-only acts like Tegan & Sara, M83, and Sudan Archives still to come on Saturday and Sunday. A major Friday crowd at the IHG Stage for Cain appeared to agree.

Under sunny skies on Friday the 13th, the Chronicle team also caught standout sets by Austin-based festival first-timers Font and We Don’t Ride Llamas on big stages. Sadly, we weren’t over at Stubb’s for the Breeders’ ACL Nights show, where Dave Grohl guested on guitar for Kim Deal’s Pixies classic “Gigantic.” Find all of our Zilker Park highlights below.

Kendrick Lamar’s Commanding Weekend Two Comeback

Kendrick Lamar (photo by David Brendan Hall)

After travel delays cut last week's headlining performance down to a slim 30 minutes, you’d forgive the gigantic crowd gathered at the American Express stage for squirming a bit as the minutes ticked past 8:40 with no Kendrick Lamar. But 5 minutes after the set was due to start, K.Dot arrived, launching into a whirlwind tour of his 13-year career. If last week boiled down to the heavy hitters, the full time slot gave work spanning an immense career room to breathe, pairing can’t-miss singles – “DNA.,” “King Kunta,” “Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe” – with deeper cuts for the “day ones in the house,” as Lamar put it at the top. “Worldwide Steppers,” from 2022’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, was delivered with little frills and a sparse backing track, placing a laser focus on precision and delivery. Alternatively, 2012 good kid, m.A.A.d. city track “Money Trees” came complete with six back-up dancers creating an onstage simulacrum of Compton – skateboarding, a laundry cart, milling about the streets – as Lamar commanded the crowd. Short interludes and more hidden gems, like a dusted-off delivery of iconic feature “Nosetalgia,” let the pacing settle between mega-hits. Just 5 minutes shy of hitting the 10pm cutoff, Lamar wound to a close with “Savior,” another nuanced choice after the hype of typical ender “Alright.” He left crowds with the same promise that concluded his breakout 2013 ACL headlining set: “I will be back.” – Abby Johnston

Font Looks the Big-Stage Part

Font (photo by Jana Birchum)

Shame, Fontaines D.C., Squid – Austin has a history of falling during South by Southwest for five-piece, clean-cut, sometimes-group-singing post-punk bands, generally of the British variety. Opening up the 12:55pm American Express stage, Font presents our most likely homegrown, non-Marchtime edition of the clearly marketable phenomenon. Booking at both Levitation and ACL this year, the latter on a headliner stage that debuting locals rarely land, plus recent dates opening for Japanese Sub Pop act CHAI – all riding on only one streamable 2022 track – has attracted the same excited or jealous inquiry from Austin scenesters. “What’s going on with Font?” Easy answer’s in Austin-based Ground Control Touring agent Timmy Hefner, who’s also booked Iceage and Japanese Breakfast. On Friday, Font looked extra road-ready on separate raised platforms, with the jumbotron eating up lead vocalist Thom Waddill’s san serif arm tattoo and furrowed brow. Auxiliary percussionist Logan Wagner perched next to drummer Jack Owens for a mega-setup of the Bauhaus-inspired band’s most consistent element. Beyond bongos, and after an alternately frenetic/soft rock start, each track revealed more fonts. Only-out song “Sentence I” hit catchily second, while the third found Wadill leaving his synth post to wiggle briefly up front. Some chatty Kendrick Lamar campers nodded along for local favorite “I hate looking at engines” – previously self-released in 2021 and since scrubbed, hopefully due for reemergence. In fact, before finally utilizing all synths for the finale, Waddill promised a new track next week. – Rachel Rascoe

Jimmie Vaughan’s Suede-Smooth Sole ACL Return

Jimmie Vaughan (photo by Gary Miller)

Starting its 100th day (so we’re told), ACL Fest looped back to the inaugural weekend of the Zilker Park fall classic. “With Jimmie Vaughan, Arc Angels, and Eric Johnson, Sunday's lineup represents Austin’s inexhaustible fascination with guitar heroism,” opined the Chronicle for the gathering’s first iteration on Sept. 28-29, 2002. Given Vaughan’s sole return in Friday’s second set, 12:55pm, less changed than one might guess. Eighty-four degrees enough to soak you still with perspiration, weekend two lit a fuse with an international blues legend who’s called Austin home since the Seventies. Head-to-toe in black under a cream-colored suede jacket, Vaughan warmed up his trademark Stratocaster with 1990 Family Style instro-workout “D/FW.” Backed by a sextet with a three-piece horn section, the 72-year-old Dallas émigré locked into his suede-smooth sting by second song “Roll, Roll, Roll.” Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown’s slow blues “Dirty Work at the Crossroads” rang Vaughan all over: sustained single notes piercing the Lone Star heat like shrapnel. Guitar on his hip, pointed skyward, his ripping runs and shredded strings shot off fireworks from the giant Honda stage. State anthem “Texas Flood” reigned next, his solo same as inclement weather: swift, sudden, and blistering. – Raoul Hernandez

Inside We Don’t Ride Llamas’ Topical Punk Songbook

We Don't Ride Llamas (photo by Jana Birchum)

With covers of both the recently-internet-revived Bôa single “Duvet” and the Daria theme song, Austin family band We Don’t Ride Llamas detailed their snarky/dreamy Nineties influences and chops to hit spot-on live recreations. Otherwise, after 2022 rager “The Flies,” the quartet revealed that they’ve been writing, and pretty fearlessly at that. Swaps between punk and alt-rock on unreleased tracks highlighted singer Max Mitchell’s love of jumping from sharp snarls to sweet melodic lines, while the siblings all shared earnest song-introducing duties. Bassist Kit declared one “about how white supremacy destroys the family structure, but [the song] fucking rocks.” Guitarist Chase, before a fast-paced new highlight, explored “how minorities have to try 10 times as hard as their privileged counterparts, and how this affects the production and creation of art.” Drummer Blake chimed in on the pharmaceutical industry before adding “Free Palestine!” Time cut off before their intended finale, WDRL wrapped with a metal takedown of Texas state negligence during the 2021 winter storm. The high-efficiency, highly-localized use of a local’s ACL Fest debut proved refreshing, especially given WDRL’s prominent placement on the midsized Miller Lite stage. – Rachel Rascoe

Fans Worship Ethel Cain’s Southern Gothic Pop

Ethel Cain (photo by Lauren Johnson)

Ethel Cain’s stunning 2022 debut LP Preacher’s Daughter kneels under the weight of its darkness, a song cycle of literary outcast anthems crawling through isolation, abuse, and unanswered pleas for love. In the Friday afternoon heat among the biggest crowd to crash the IHG stage annex of ACL, Cain’s trauma pop countered as almost celebratory, a communal catharsis with young fans shedding tears on the front row and screaming lonely lyrics together. As the stage persona of 25-year-old Hayden Silas Anhedönia, Cain absorbs and absolves like an amulet of teenage angst. The Florida native contorted the crowd across seven cinematically epic songs in her 45-minute set, winding a monotone-spun fatalism into high-wailing release. The slowly unfurled opening of “A House of Nebraska” crashed as Cain fell to her knees, pleading communion that erupted as she took to the edge of the crowd for “American Teenager.” She also shouted out a meal at Terry Black's BBQ during her visit. The singer’s scrawl of searing guitar and southern gothic brutality over provocative pop layers spectrums somewhere between Fiona Apple and Sharon Van Etten – intoxicating and harrowing on the Texas-touched escape of “Thoroughfare” or twisted, dead longing of “Sun Bleached Flies.” But as Cain bounded into the crowd to close with bad love ballad “Crush,” she hugged fans and let acceptance flow amidst all the world’s damage. – Doug Freeman

Portugal. The Man’s Career-Spanning Mashup

Portugal. The Man (photo by David Brendan Hall)

Even in a tight festival hour, Portugal. The Man made space for the land acknowledgment that they’ve made a feature of their shows. Brianelly Flores and Raven Price-Smith, UT-Austin students and co-directors of operations at the university's Native American & Indigenous Collective, gave opening remarks, calling for support in lobbying their school to return the remains of thousands of Indigenous people currently kept in its collections. After, the Portland-based band crowded the stage, eight in all, to mash winding guitar solos and glittery, danceable tracks. Over almost two decades, Portugal. The Man has gained acclaim enough to attract an elbow-to-elbow dinner-hour crowd through the likes of infectious rebel yell “Feel It Still.” Their live set showed how much grit still exists: Crunchy guitar mashups wove throughout, punctuated by flashes of Seventies art-rockers Yes. A brassy, scuzzy sax roared to life on “Modern Jesus.” Groovers like “Purple Yellow Red and Blue” pulsed with fuzz the recording doesn’t quite capture. As the sun set over Zilker, colorful lights prepared us for the headliner portion of the night while Portugal. The Man sent everyone off with a cover of Nirvana’s “In Bloom.” As if another acknowledgment of their dichotomies, undulating background images spanned from Care Bears to aerial footage of flooded streets. Somehow, the mashups – all of them – worked seamlessly. – Abby Johnston

Portugal. The Man (photo by David Brendan Hall)

Stay on top of all of The Austin Chronicle's festival coverage at our ACL hub and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.