ACL Festival 2024 opened to mid-Nineties temps – that’s fall in Austin, y'all – and performances ranging from fest OGs Asleep at the Wheel to Nashville glam queen Tanner Adell and bilingual indie pop outfit The Marías. Here are some of the Chronicle crew’s standouts from day one.

Rally Austin inked a deal with Empire Control Room & Garage operators Heard Entertainment this week that loaned the company $2.2 million to buy and expand the property. The deal also guarantees that the East Seventh Street club will remain a live music venue for the next 20 years.

With a name inspired by the wild streets of West Campus, West 22nd boasts the distinct honor of being the first band made up of current University of Texas students to land an ACL Fest slot.

UT-Austin has nabbed some impressive new foot soldiers for its ongoing effort to expand campus-area live music experiences. Journalist Andy Langer and award-winning singer-violinist Carrie Rodriguez are now part of the Longhorn Live: Live Music Initiative, the university announced this week.

Kimmie Rhodes has plenty of material to fill a weekly Saxon Pub residency, but even if the series touts the veteran singer-songwriter’s name, Monday nights at the South Lamar venue aren’t really about her.

“HAAM Day,” it screams from the cross-street banner as you cruise South Lamar. It spills onto your coffee table as you flip through the Chronicle. It bounces up in conversation with your neighborhood bartender.

Imagine yourself at a concert in a relatively small, somewhat dingy room with low ceilings connected to a larger pool hall visible outside a doorway off to one side. There’s a pole smack in the front-middle of the space slightly obstructing your view of the low-standing stage. Playing that stage is Motörhead, or maybe Pearl Jam, or Pantera. Casual.

Airline noise, that’s the first striking aspect of the music video for Fastball’s “Hummingbird.” A carefree blond woman decked in white – white blouse, white bell-bottoms, white roller skates. It’s as peaceful an opening image as the serenity of the song itself.

Charley Crockett kicked off his Friday night hometown set at Moody Amphitheater with the title track off his latest album, $10 Cowboy, a not-so-subtle hint at how he self-identifies up to this point in his 20-year career.