ACL Fest 2015 Friday Listings

American Aquarium

12:15pm, BMI stage
This Raleigh, N.C., sextet takes its name from a Wilco lyric, reflecting an early alt.country sensibility. 2012's Jason Isbell-produced Burn. Flicker. Die. was supposed to be a farewell. Instead, a decade into the group's recording career, Wolves imagines what hometown heroes Whiskeytown and the Backsliders sounded like in their prime. – Jim Caligiuri

Son Little

1pm, Austin Ventures stage
Yearning voices Philly native Son Little, a deeply soulful singer/guitarist who's collaborated with the Roots and RJD2. His modern take on deep blues offers subtle electronic inflections and a nod to hip-hop in both timing and rhyme. An eponymous full-length debut due this month follows 2014 EP Things I Forgot. – Thomas Fawcett

The Maccabees

1pm, Miller Lite stage
Fourth release in 12 years, Marks to Prove It finds this London fivepiece turning in a quintessential British indie guitar band effort: tentative rockers and piano-driven ballads wrapped in vocals pitched somewhere between a yawn and a plea. All wrapped in the requisite epic, widescreen feel.
– Tim Stegall

A Tribute to Andraé Crouch

1:15pm, Tito's Handmade Vodka stage
Andraé Crouch had a seismic impact on modern Christian music. That's his choir on Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror." Raised in the Church of God in Christ, Crouch & the Disciples dominated gospel in the late Sixties/early Seventies. Crouch passed away earlier this year at age 72. Special guests render impassioned renditions of classics like "Soon and Very Soon." – Greg Beets

Nate Ruess

2pm, Honda stage
Since Fun played ACL 2013, the year after it won a pair of Grammys for Best New Artist and Song of the Year (No. 1 hit "We Are Young"), the New York trio has pursued anything but fun. Frontman Ruess debuted solo in June with Grand Romantic, arena rock whose vox misses bandmate Jack Antonoff's songs in his spin-off, Bleachers. – Raoul Hernandez

Royal Blood

2pm, Samsung Galaxy stage
Big rawk riffs on a four-string stints neither on power nor accessibility for this bass/drum duo from the UK. Royal Blood's bestselling, Mercury Prize-nominated debut prompted patronage of two different generations of rockers in Jimmy Page and the Arctic Monkeys. – Michael Toland

Billy Idol

4pm, Samsung Galaxy stage
Second solo LP, 1983's Rebel Yell made William Michael Albert Broad a leather-boy pinup with a punk rock sneer. The 59-year-old Brit is hardly retired in the millennium: 2014 dropped both his highly readable autobiography, Dancing With Myself, plus Kings & Queens of the Underground, trademark dance grooves and rock guitar. – Tim Stegall

Brand New

5pm, HomeAway stage
For 15 years Brand New has tortured us. The Long Island fourpiece drops off, resurfaces, throws us gold, and disappears again in cyclic bursts of angst. In April, they suddenly embarked on their most extensive tour in five years after releasing two new songs. If this is the start of a disappearing act, we'll take what we can get. – Abby Johnston

Run the Jewels

5pm, Miller Lite stage
Atlanta MC Killer Mike and Brooklyn rapper/producer El-P continue an unlikely redemption story. Unapologetic in the runaway road raider approach to their first two eponymous releases, the tag team maintains some order on their relentless promotion and proclamation of society's ugly truths via a lyrical intensity never before seen in hip-hop history. – Kahron Spearman

Sons of Bill

6pm, BMI stage
Anchored by the shared songwriting of brothers Sam, James, and Abe Wilson, Sons of Bill carved an Americana foothold on last year's fourth LP, Love and Logic. Produced by former Uncle Tupelo/Wilco drummer Ken Coomer, the Virginia quintet coated alt-roots influences with a more expansive polish, at times hearkening the Jayhawks. – Doug Freeman

Rhiannon Giddens

6pm, Tito's Handmade Vodka stage
On the Carolina Chocolate Drops' 2012 grand slam Leaving Eden, singer/banjo picker/fiddler Rhiannon Giddens' contributions – specifically the title track and single "Country Girl" – outgrew the Grammy-winning act's old-timey string band confines. The 37-year-old opera-trained singer's 2015 solo debut, the T Bone Burnett-produced Tomorrow Is My Turn, approximated Elizabeth Cotton and Nina Simone in one timeless voice. – Kevin Curtin

Foo Fighters

8pm, Samsung Galaxy stage
A hit HBO documentary miniseries dovetailing into last year's Sonic Highways LP, followed by a Foos tour only briefly derailed by an onstage injury, Dave Grohl remains remarkably indefatigable and seemingly omnipresent.  – Tim Stegall