20 Essential Acts to See at ACL Fest 2025

Jensen McRae

Friday, 3pm, Miller Lite stage

With her new sophomore album I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! (Dead Oceans), Jensen McRae unloads a breakup opus with the kind of incredibly smart, surprisingly funny, and deeply emotional songs that sets her on the level of Phoebe Bridgers and Michelle Zauner. The combination has lent itself to a natural viral success across social media for the L.A. artist, but her stunning vocals that can smoothly slide from low and understated to a crystalline, soaring swell herald an impressive songwriter only just starting to lean into the full breadth of her talent. – Doug Freeman

Maggie Antone

Friday (Weekend Two only), 3pm, BMI stage

With a crystalline voice and witty lyrics, Maggie Antone poses a crossroads between the musical sweetness of Indigo Girls and Tyler Childers’ sometimes sad country-folk. The Virginia native got her start with an album of acoustic covers called Interpretations, which included Blink-182’s “Adam’s Song” and her viral take on Childers’ “Lady May.” Her debut original album, Rhinestoned, arrived last year with hits that showed off her sassy and wholesome flair, including Austin shout-out song “Mess With Texas” and her most popular release, “Johnny Moonshine.” Just getting started, the young artist offers a sparkly future to female folk. – Flora Belle Farr 

MJ Lenderman

Friday, 5:30pm, Beatbox stage

MJ Lenderman imbues the cutting, concise imagery of a poet with the witty irreverence of a chronically online 26-year-old. Pair that with his equally alchemical songwriting – the twang of a North Carolinian raised on Drive-By Truckers, the guitar playing of a Sonic Youth student – and you get 2024’s Manning Fireworks, an empathetic portrait of boy failures and one of the best albums of last year. Alongside weary pedal steel and pitiful fiddle, Lenderman’s one-liners (“Kahlúa shooter/ DUI scooter”; “I got a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome”) have shot him to the top of the Alt-Country Revival – alongside his band Wednesday, of course, who played Levitation last week. – Carys Anderson

Sam Barber

Friday (Weekend Two only), 5:30pm, Lady Bird stage

Sam Barber has softly and solemnly built a following over the last few years through multiple EPs, a downpour of a debut album with 28 tracks, and many singles. A former American Idol contestant (2021-2022 season), the Missouri native really earned his golden ticket to playlists with his hit “Indigo (feat. Avery Anna)” last year. Since then, true to the name of his lone album, Barber has seemed restless – touring, releasing another EP, and developing his brand as a sad-boy country rocker. – Flora Belle Farr

Cage the Elephant

Friday, 6:30pm, American Express stage

Cage the Elephant is in limbo – too contemporary to get the credit they deserve from a generation of polished, punk-indebted bands whose unruly frontmen love to point to Mick Jagger or Iggy Pop as their performance idols but who really grew up watching Matt Shultz. Much like those record store bobbleheads, the band isn’t stepping off the stage, further postponing questions of their legacy. 2024’s Neon Pill chuggles with characteristic disco-rock undertones and quick-clip lyricism, minus some early pizzazz. It’s time for those of us still bedraggled and slouching to show up for the band that kept cigarettes in the limelight. – Caroline Drew

Rilo Kiley

Friday (Weekend Two only), 7:30pm, Beatbox stage 

The name of Rilo Kiley’s surprising reunion tour – Sometimes When You’re On, You’re Really Fucking On – pulls lyrics from their beloved 2002 anthem “A Better/Son Daughter,” but it’s also pretty demonstrative of the band itself. Singer Jenny Lewis, guitarist Blake Sennett, bassist Pierre de Reeder, and drummer Jason Boesel broke up rather acrimoniously following the release of 2007’s Under the Blacklight, tying a bow on four albums’ worth of slow-burning indie rock confessionals (“Pictures of Success”) and bombastic radio hits (“Portions for Foxes”). When the quartet announced their first shows in over 15 years, millennials everywhere rejoiced: They’re on. – Carys Anderson 

Hotline TNT 

Saturday (Weekend One only), 12:45pm, T-Mobile stage

In August, singer-guitarist Will Anderson joined a league of artists in removing his band Hotline TNT’s music from Spotify, declaring in spite of the penny-pinching, AI-touting monopoly, “A cooler world is possible.” The artist’s sorta-shoegaze indie rock is part of that world, for sure. June LP Raspberry Moon – the first Hotline project to be written by a full band, not just its founder – still boasts at times a fuzz-wah squall (“The Scene,” “Julia’s War”), but also finds joy in crisper guitars (“Was I Wrong?”) and relaxed melodies (“Break Right”). Most surprising (and least shoegaze) of all, Anderson’s everyman voice is clearer than ever. – Carys Anderson 

Clover County

A.G. Schiano characterizes her music under the moniker Clover Country as “bootgaze,” and while that might capture the expansiveness of her unboxed style of Americana, it doesn’t quite do justice to the easy pop lilt that drives so many of her songs into undeniable earworms. Following the catchy breakout of “Ultraviolet” from her 2024 EP Porch Lights, the Athens, Georgia-based songwriter’s freshly released debut LP Finer Things, on her own Undercover Lover label, continues to roll through waves of dreamy nostalgia awash with her effortlessly clever lyrical turns that strike with a profound simplicity. – Doug Freeman 

Car Seat Headrest

Saturday (Weekend Two only), 4:15pm, T-Mobile stage 

During the pandemic, one before-times flashback involved Car Seat Headrest on the headlining Honda stage during ACL Fest 2017, which the Chronicle described as “six-string racket: melodic without being sweet, noisy without being abrasive, straightforward without being boring.” Prepare for part deux! Fifth band LP for Matador since 2015, The Scholars sprawls nine tracks across 70 epic minutes. Eight-minute opener “CCF (I’m Gonna Stay With You)” begins like Fifties jazz skittering tribal bytes before dropping into trademark Seattle rock, frontman Will Toledo still emoting plaintive mumblecore. Eleven-minute, Kraftwerk-esque “Gethsemane” gets motorik, while penultimate cut “Planet Desperation” clocks an 18:52 indie operetta. – Raoul Hernandez 

Modest Mouse 

Saturday (Weekend One only), 4:15pm, T-Mobile stage 

Three decades into their career, Modest Mouse have become the platonic ideal of a legacy act: They tour frequently, and on such tours, they give relatively equitable attention to each offering in their lengthy, stylistically varied catalog. With his famous yelp, Isaac Brock leads the Washington ensemble through all of their joyfully verbose album titles, from the quiet critical darlings of their early days (The Lonesome Crowded West, The Moon & Antarctica) through their radio-dominating moneymakers (Good News for People Who Love Bad News, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank). There’s something for everyone in Modest Mouse’s innovative alt-rock canon. – Carys Anderson 

Magdalena Bay 

Saturday, 5:30pm, Lady Bird stage

Magdalena Bay puts on a live show that feels like pop theatre. Performing songs from their recent hit album Imaginal Disk, the duo leans into spectacle. Singer Mica Tenenbaum channels pop star charisma with choreography and stage banter, almost creating a jukebox musical performance of her and Matthew Lewin’s songs. Behind her, projections create a rich dreamscape and present talking head characters, props are wheeled out from the wings, and quick outfit changes take Tenenbaum from sunflower to angel to superstar. It’s not quite a concert, not quite performance art, but something wonderfully in between – a playful reminder that pop can still surprise. – Kyra Bruce 

Doechii 

Saturday, 6:30pm, American Express stage

A show-stopping summertime roll of dynamically precise festival appearances marked Doechii as the hip-hop act to watch this year. The “DENIAL IS A RIVER” rapper/singer has cultivated a cult of personality around her swamp-inspired sets and Aughts-infused preppy streetwear. Her girl-next-door TikToks of bonnet-donning bedroom dances and her irresistibly relatable, endlessly remixed track “Anxiety” have endeared her to a fandom that praises both her online authenticity and her electrically elaborate performances. The Swamp Princess’ Austin visit marks the beginning of the end of her Alligator Bites Never Heal era. Catch it while you can. – Caroline Drew

Japanese Breakfast 

Saturday, 7:30pm, Beatbox stage

If women threw undergarments onstage, Elvis to D’Angelo, could we toss bookmarks and manuscripts to Michelle Zauner? Despite barely touching on her superhero guise as an indie rock goddess – pixie-voiced pop channeled through a dragon heart – the singer’s 2021 memoir Crying in H Mart paginated an all-time great music book, the haute cuisine grief manual to christen its own literary genre. Sequel, film, follow-ups still await, so take solace in Japanese Breakfast’s fourth album, March’s For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) on ATX-kissed indie Dead Oceans. The delicate underside to previous breakout Jubilee, it blooms gently flavorful like Zauner’s prose. – Raoul Hernandez

The Strokes

Saturday, 8:15pm, T-Mobile stage

Julian Casablancas has been upfront about the Strokes’ financial motivations for staying together – you could tell as such on the band’s sluggish last album, 2020’s The New Abnormal – but that won’t stop me from howling along to “Last Nite” on the Zilker Park grounds. For all of the discourse the nepo babies of the 2000s post-punk revival have inspired over the years, Casablancas’ zippy, concise melodies and cool-guy drawl remain indelible entries in the rock & roll canon. Cue up Meet Me in the Bathroom now if you’re not in the spirit. – Carys Anderson 

Bebe Stockwell 

Sunday (Weekend One only), 2:45pm, Tito’s stage 

Rising folk pop star Bebe Stockwell carries a sweet whisper voice and delicate guitar playing, sounding like the feminine yin to Noah Kahan’s yang. She released her first album, Driving Backwards, in May with poetic songs like the forest siren-sounding “Call Me By Your Name,” reflective “Minor Inconveniences,” and longing finale “Live Forever.” Though she’s only been releasing music since 2022, Stockwell has old-timey storytelling in her soul and lyricism that steals the show.  – Flora Belle Farr

The Dare

Sunday, 3:15pm, Miller Light stage

Formerly known as coming-of-age alternative project Turtlenecked, Harrison Smith faces hedonistic electronic reinvention as the Dare. The sunglasses-sporting disco destroyer cultivated a cult following as the host and DJ of his infamous Freakquencies parties, and as a solid member of Charli XCX’s BRAT pack after co-writing and producing her raunchy club single “Guess.” The 29-year-old’s persona mirrors the ostentatious dance-punk adrenaline of his debut effort What’s Wrong With New York? The debauchery-drenched record oozes with the high-octane, hard-partying mentality of the 2010s, catapulting him to the forefront of the indie sleaze revival, where he resides on a throne of cigarettes and vodka Red Bulls. – Miranda Garza 

Rainbow Kitten Surprise 

Sunday, 4:15pm, T-Mobile stage 

North Carolina-born ensemble Rainbow Kitten Surprise could teach a master class in genre-bending with their intricate fusion of folk, electro-pop, indie rock, and soul. The band’s fourth record, Love Hate Music Box, represents a turning point, arriving last year after bassist Charlie Holt left the group and lead singer Ela Melo came out as transgender. The 22-track project flirts with vibrant synth-pop and retro dance rhythms with confessional lyrics that cover everything from creativity to self-reflection. The album’s sunny duet with Kacey Musgraves (“Overtime”) also marks their first collaboration, adding an essence of gratitude to their already positive sound. – Miranda Garza 

Wet Leg

Sunday, 4:30pm, American Express stage 

I implore anyone who grew tired of Wet Leg in 2022 (On the chaise longue, on the chaise longue, on the chaise longue…) to look past Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers’ most apathetic moments and listen to their two albums, that year’s self-titled and this summer’s moisturizer, in full. For every irreverent fuckboy kiss-off the duo writes, there’s an aggro alt-rocker (horny moisturizer highlight “pillow talk”), a tender ballad (“11:21”), or a straight-up-sweet pop-rock melody (“liquidize”) that bests it. You’ve gotta be smart to write dumb. – Carys Anderson  

Passion Pit 

Sunday, 6:30pm, Tito’s stage

ACL Fest 2025 offers a do-over for any South by Southwest-goers who missed Michael Angelakos’ inimitable falsetto and glistening synth-pop when he quietly dropped out of this year’s event. The Cambridge songwriter forged an enchanted, fully realized world on 2009 debut Manners: From the jovial syncopation of “Little Secrets” to the dramatic keys of “The Reeling” to the ethereal Mary O’Hara sample in “Sleepyhead,” the LP still inspires a strong wave of nostalgia – and still sounds like nothing else. – Carys Anderson 

T-Pain 

Sunday, 6:30pm, American Express stage

An important figure in all of our adolescence is finally receiving his flowers, and he’s loving it. No one has more fun at a T-Pain show than T-Pain himself. The man tears through hit after hit, skipping, spinning, and strutting across the stage – pantomiming sex acts with his microphone, nailing extended dance breaks, and sometimes even dressing up in steampunk attire for some reason. Seeing his joy at performing his hits is a sight for sore eyes. If you attended a prom or house party between 2005 and now, you already know all the words to his songs, so come ready to dance. – Kyra Bruce