The nearly four-decade story of Meat Joy, the genre-bending early Eighties quintet returning to Austin for three homecoming shows this week, is one of happy accidents.

One hundred and eight miles away from Barton Springs Road, where tens of thousands of festivalgoers marched cheek by jowl towards ACL Fest’s second weekend, an intimate crowd of 800 congregated in small-town Texas last weekend for the recently rebooted Welcome Home Festival.

The party’s over. Pleasant temperatures held for the final date of Austin City Limits Festival, where the Chronicle team caught another heavyweight run of Austinites in Quin NFN, Kathryn Legendre, and Caramelo Haze. From out of town, corook brought their viral “If I Were a Fish” and M83 arrived at 2011 classic "Midnight City.”

Alongside the typical drinks sponsors and wristband scalpers, enterprising vendors of shiny eclipse glasses made a new addition to Barton Springs Road this year.

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.

When I think of David Beck, I first think of an absolute killer of an upright bassist. But the second thing that comes to mind is: comfort. He’s got this cozy voice and warmhearted nature as a songwriter.

South by Southwest 2024, the music festival portion of which takes place March 11-16, announced its first round of showcasing artists today.

Stacking Katy Kirby, Jane Leo, and Grace Sorensen back to back, Sunday of Austin City Limits Festival opened with a Chron-beloved run of Austin-affiliated artistry.

In the spirit of getting a bunch of artists together in a field, Saturday of Austin City Limits Music Festival generated notable crossovers.