Geese, Blood Orange, the XX, and More Reviews From Sunday at ACL

Villanelle Is Right at Home  

Wasteland that Zilker Park became, ACL Fest bought significant breaks this past weekend, namely no rain after Friday morning. That didn’t extend to a steady drizzle beginning with Villanelle at 1pm Sunday on the headlining AmEx stage. At first, the mist twisted up with swirling smoke coming from the stage into a menacing gloom – perfect for a UK rock band. “Fucking looks like England out here,” observed frontman Gene Gallagher to some 300 punters who found footing in a sea of foul-smelling mud. “Making me feel right at home.” Indeed, if anyone knows how to handle a festival disaster site, it’s a quartet led by an Oasis scion. Looking like his father Liam Gallagher, the Villanellen left any frills back home yet still emceed far more personable than dear old dad. No Oasis Jr., they nevertheless rocked purely Brit and Nineties to the core, so predominant in this new generational tide of indie practitioners. Yet would anyone object seriously to more Gallagher rock? Dirty riffs, that Gallagher whine in Gene’s genes, and ultimately banger after banger (“Attitude,” “Opportunity Arising,” closer “Placebo”) made overwhelming festival unpleasantry recede enough for the Brit-rock to take hold and any lingering questions of a Killing Eve / Villanelle crossover fade into the bemired background. – Raoul Hernandez

Jess Williamson Serenades the Gloomy Afternoon

There was something poetically fitting about Jess Williamson singing in the spitting rain Sunday afternoon. Her songs of yearning restlessness, lost loves, and determined independence suited the dreary forecast as the Texas songwriter made her ACL Fest debut opening the Miller Lite stage to a sparse crowd. 

Out later this week, her upcoming sixth LP, A Mile South of Heaven, represented heavily in the 10-song set, but the opening double shot of “Chasing Spirits” and “Topanga Two Step” from 2023’s Time Ain’t Accidental set the mood of an L.A. washed in a lonely, wanting dream. The new album’s lead single “Goodbye to All That” reset with a country escape though, Zack Wiggs’ pedal steel whining against Williamson’s twang, while “Tracking the Tropics” pulsed with a nostalgia for the songwriter’s salad days in Austin. 

The new material leaned more into Williamson’s Texas-styled songwriter roots, with strong melodies that hearken to her Plains project with Katie Crutchfield. Still, the unreleased “Hum of the City” shifted provocatively with an almost Joni Mitchell touch. 

Closing with a dip into 2020’s Sorceress (“Wind on Tin”) and a couple of Accidental favorites (“Hunter,” “Roads”) only seemed to emphasize the strength of the new songs, and how easily  Williamson inhabits country rhythms compared to the beats behind her previous album. As she noted in closing, “Thank you Austin. It’s good to be home.” – Doug Freeman

Flight by Nothing’s Got Fans

Miley Cyrus clearly hadn’t seen the appetite for Flight by Nothing when she declared the kids don’t wanna dance. Nearly 300,000 monthly Spotify listeners indeed translated to an impressive turnout for the indie pop quintet, launched here in Austin a decade ago. Even in the rain, friends and fans alike turned up to the 2pm disco, lyrics memorized and hips ready to wiggle. 

Sauntering onstage last in a saucy grand entrance, singer-guitarist Conner Redden performed with a Brendon Urie-like theatricality, reaching into a falsetto with ease and grooving with gravitas when fellow axeman Pacco Salinas, in a purple trench coat Prince would covet, strummed Nile Rodgers riffs and took many a solo. Alternately slapping and picking his bass, Porfii Rubio’s low end at turns doubled Salinas’ muted chug and set the groove with intricate solo melodies. Drummer Sam Morales and keyboardist Huey Houston backed Redden on the mic with equal charisma, though Houston, in a barely buttoned button-up, took the lead on cuts including 2023 single “track 02.” 

“It’s such a dream to be here,” Houston said, more than once. “I can’t believe we’re doing it.”

“We got any moshers in the crowd?” Redden asked before finale “COCAINE IS OK!” No shot, it seemed, that a band who’d previously covered Player’s “Baby Come Back” would have the heft. Yet as the fivepiece launched into the ripper, their hometown obliged, bouncing and slam dancing with glee. – Carys Anderson

Dexter & the Moonrocks Bring the Alt Rock Muscle

Overestimation cannot occur – repeat, not happen – when weighing the boost of confidence logged by a local indie act debuting on one of Austin’s biggest stages. Following up a strong showing from pedigreed Englishmen Villanelle, Dexter & the Moonrocks not only did ’em one better sonically, they finally stopped the murderously wearing drizzle of the previous two hours. “What a beautiful shitty day,” crowed frontman Jim Tuffs. “Thank you for partying with us in the mud.” 

Like their immediate predecessors on a stage once hosting Stevie Wonder, the Eagles, and Radiohead, to name three, Dexter and company tapped the Nineties alt revolution for both muscle and riff, a big sound for a big stage. Better still, their 45-minute take-no-prisoners set doubled as a homegrown release party for last Friday’s debut full-length Friends That I Don’t Like. “It’s a Lot,” with its era’s sneering delivery, then “Said What I Said,” “Mull It Over,” and in  particular the perhaps unintentionally ironic “Under the Weather” spine the album and made up the rangy heart of a palpable opportunity/performance. Tuffs exuded long blond charisma and a verbal flintiness, his voice naturally distressed, tough but pleasing. Ryan Fox sounded the beat until he appeared more drenched than the grounds, while guitar/bass sibling tandem Ryan and Ty Anderson tripled up the guitar-wielding frontman. Teasing Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man” walking off, Dexter & the Moonrocks staked their claim. – Raoul Hernandez

Calder Allen Unloads an All-Star Jam Session

Much like his 2023 ACL Fest debut, Calder Allen came to his Sunday afternoon set in the Tito’s Tent with a stacked local all-star lineup, including Conrad Choucroun and John Michael Schoepf laying down the rhythm and his uncle Bukka Allen on accordion and keys. The intergenerational pair of guitars from Charlie and Marlon Sexton most set the tone for the 45-minute, eight-song escapade though, curating a bluesy guitar triple threat alongside the younger Allen. 

The ATX songwriter’s dusky, restless ballads struck with a considerable power from the outset, opening with the title track from this year’s Fault Lines and allowing the elder Sexton to run free. Allen’s gruff, moaning vocals sunk into the darker thrum of “Dreamers Drifters and Hiders” and the howling “Carry On,” emphasizing the Ryan Bingham edge that shades much of the long-limbed and shaggy-haired 23-year-old’s pull. 

The set overall burned into a loose and blistering jam session, especially as “Shine,” from 2022 debut The Game, shifted into a sing-along of Faces’ “Ooh La La.” “Norwood County Line” offered up the perfect vehicle to close, with the sixpiece unloading into a bruising, low-down rip. 

Although he’s already three albums into his career, Allen’s still feeling out the edges of what his music can be, and right now that seems to be delivering a scouring live performance that cuts as deep as his songwriting. – Doug Freeman

underscores Brings the Club to the Beatbox Stage

Strutting up the rain-soaked backstage catwalk, singing “Point A” into the big screen-projecting camera, underscores entered ACL with cinematic finesse, then instantly transformed the packed afternoon crowd with warehouse club energy. 

Alone onstage with headphone silhouettes bleached into her night-black hair, dressed in a baggy grey shirt and boot-cut leather pants, the San Francisco-based producer and songwriter danced with as much zealous abandon as her fervent fans. Behind her, visuals borrowed imagery from the techno-optimist era of the iPod and suburban shopping center, rewriting her name into iconic mall store logos and distorting a colorful cul-de-sac into a surrealist landscape of early Aughts nostalgia.

As far as the eye could see, the far west lawn erupted in response to the opening notes of favorites like “The Peace” and “Inneundo (I Get U)” and stayed energized even when the artist slowed things down for solo version of “harvest sky,” her song with French pop futurist Oklou, and an intimate performance of “Wish U Well.” Detroit-raised, Austin-based rapper Danny Brown brought the hype level even higher when he hopped onstage beside the artist for their collaborative tracks “Copycats” and “Baby.” In the final climax of set closer “Music,” a giant joyous pit briefly whirled into being before fans bade underscores a breathless and triumphant farewell. – Caroline Drew

Geese Fly Close to the Sun

A discordant supercut of Knicks shots and Texas-tinged clips – the South Austin tug-of-war-winning “Bubbas,” an impressive mutton buster, etc. – fittingly welcomed Gen Z’s premiere rock band to the stage. From that point on, Geese set about distorting and distressing the seams of their discography for their playing pleasure. Stripped of cohering choral elements, a sparse arrangement of “Husbands” opened the set, before “Getting Killed” transitioned into a ferocious and noisy, spoken word-adorned introduction to 3D Country apocalypse hymn “2122.”

The screens and the New York rockers were in no-frills mode, barely addressing the crowd even when technical difficulties and re-tunings provided a pause in the action. A hi-hat malfunction temporarily sidelined drummer Max Bassin, prompting a stripped-down performance of “Domoto,” where frontman Cameron Winter’s baroque falsetto earned an earnest cheer and a rare smile from the vocalist in return. “Cowboy Nudes” and “Au Pays du Cocaine” went down largely as recorded; the tempo of “Taxes” received some mischief and the furor of the already explosive, mosh-pit-stirring finale “Trinidad” was chaotically relished.

For two albums, Geese was an acquired taste with a few easier-to-swallow songs. Since 2025 sensation Getting Killed, a swath of the mainstream developed a craving for their often cacophonous, structureless songwriting. The much-discussed rise was aided by marketing firm Chaotic Good and Winter’s hit solo song “Love Takes Miles,” but rewards an album that is no less noisy and experimental. Amid accusations that their newfound fame has more to do with algorithm finagling than substantive rock writing, the group’s wholehearted embrace of their least harmonious elements on the festival stage felt like a sneering assertion: They don’t care if you like them. – Caroline Drew

Blood Orange Creates His Own Frequency

Dev Hynes put his musicianship front and center during Blood Orange’s 56-minute set, bouncing between electric riffs, a thin-bodied electric cello, and a three-sided rig of keyboards and production equipment. He seemed happiest when his hands were busy. 

During a stripped-back cover of Björk’s “All Is Full of Love,” the British singer drew a soft, haunting melody from the cello’s slender strings, creating an airy intimacy around each note. “Jesus Freak Lighter” gave him room to tear into his guitar, while the infectious funk of “Uncle ACE” brought a palpable physicality to his playing. Later, he folded over the keys during the synth-soaked Empress Of duet “Best to You,” almost disappearing within the rig. 

His breathy vocals sounded weightless throughout, though backing singers Eva Tolkin and Ian Isiah occasionally took the spotlight themselves, including on “You’re Not Good Enough,” originally featuring Samantha Urbani. With headphones pressed over his ears for much of the set, Hynes appeared to be listening to the music as closely as he was performing it, shutting himself into a private music mind palace. His inwardness made the ending especially striking: “Charcoal Baby” brought psychedelic-soul splendor before “Champagne Coast” closed with a surge of heavy drums. When the closing number gave way to silence, Hynes stood still for a beat, almost as though he had just returned to himself after being so immersed in his own R&B-inflected soundscape. – Miranda Garza

Nostalgia, and Dance Music, Takes the xx to Higher Places

The xx might prefer a gothic atmosphere, but there’s a sweetness to their music – to the way Romy and Oliver Sim’s voices melt together, to the immediacy of their simple melodies, to the way their most electronic, beat-centric moments move you into a wordless trance. Nine years since their last ACL performance – and since their last new album – the English trio proved timeless Sunday at Zilker Park. 

Black-and-white cameras and plumes of white smoke awashed T-Mobile in Robert Eggers twilight as guitarist Romy and bassist Sim crooned “Crystalised,” “Say Something Loving,” and “Islands.” Stark images of the co-vocalists, often leaving their posts to play face-to-face at producer Jamie xx’s centerstage MPC setup, subverted traditional rock & roll gender roles; no root note relegation for the woman of this band. Frequent close-up shots of Jamie xx’s hands, triggering samples and drumming live rhythms, likewise underlined his essential role in the outfit, as the most ethereal aspects of their dream pop output became tangible. 

As the group moved from their early indie rock lullabies (“VCR”) into “On Hold” and “I Dare You,” from latest LP I See You, and plenty of cuts from each member’s solo catalogs, their projections sprung to living color. All the better for these increasingly electronic offerings, which – like this year’s festival lineup at large – yielded more dancing, more bouncing, more human connection than rock purists might’ve imagined. 

Midway through the set, Sim thanked the xx’s fans for sticking around “after such a long time” as the band picked up performing after eight years away. They didn’t play, or mention, any new music. 

“Get that paycheck!” someone behind me cheered in response. He didn’t sound sarcastic. – Carys Anderson