Countrified pop ballads, stirring folk songwriting, and ferociously melodic alt rock from all over the world flooded Zilker Park on Saturday, but Austin felt especially integral to the second day of Austin City Limits Fest. Weekend Two-only locals Montclair and lluvii did our town proud with energetic early sets, while Louisiana transplant LeTrainiump – a 2026 wild card added to the festival bill hours before Weekend One kicked off – returned to the Beatbox stage for a rare double-weekend performance.
Montclair Puts Some Extra Kick in Indie Folk
Austin-based ensemble Montclair brought a welcome jolt of energy to ACL’s early afternoon with jangly guitars and easygoing, foot-tapping melodies. The fourpiece built their buoyant sound around heartfelt songwriting with a distinctly twangy streak. Live, those folk-rock foundations took on a little more muscle, with bright strums and buoyant rhythms giving the songs an extra charge.
The band opened with the upbeat “Pastel Lie,” setting the tone for the jaunty, guitar-heavy melodies that carried much of the set. Drawing from debut album Heart Is Alive! and first EP Passing Through, as well as newer singles, the band showcased a knack for storytelling. Bassist and singer Anna Connolly’s gentle vocals added a softer touch to “Hey Victoria,” floating over its plucky backdrop, while “Lucky Day” took a more playful turn, with Connolly and guitarist Casen Hutton sharing singing duties.
The group’s latest single, “I Scream U Scream,” introduced a change of pace, beginning with a spare piano passage before erupting into a layered instrumental swell. Later, “Passing Through” offered a quieter interlude, its pared back arrangement bringing Montclair’s introspective songwriting into sharper focus. “Groove Song” followed with a country-tinged lilt before “Killjoy” gradually intensified, culminating in a raucous, full-bodied outro. The finale captured the appeal of Montclair’s set: melodic songwriting with enough grit and momentum to make an early festival slot feel anything but sleepy. – Miranda Garza
Dámaris Bójor Plays to Northern Mexico
High bounce matinee about to manifest – DJ Cassandra, Laszewo, Suki Waterhouse – sophomore weekend Saturday afternoon incanted briefly with some definitive counterprogramming. In the terse window before Israeli alt-rockers Temper City amped dBs on the Miller Lite stage, Sonoran singer Dámaris Bójor could be heard from there all the way across the T-Mobile expanse to where she stood on the petite BMI stage. Second time in Austin after SXSW 2025 (“people here stole my heart”), the hybrid two-stepper from Hermosillo made an even stronger impression than her stilling Flamingo Cantina debut.
“Bob Dylan and Mexican music,” she called it, her Spanish-language piquancy fleshed out with American folk chords. “Arriba Mexico,” she cried to whoops from the modest but loyal crowd. “Arriba el Norte.” She added in her native tongue: “For those who don’t believe it, look at the map.”
In fact, Bójor continues making the point that Austin is just Northern Mexico, a fact borne out in original compositions like the one that followed, “Sonora,” a whistling trad-folker sounding directly related to Lone Star singer-songwriter sovereignty. Flanked by an acoustic and an electric guitarist, she lilted and lifted her northerness Westerly (NPR fave “Volar”), like Californian folk and country pioneers Joan Baez and Linda Ronstadt (“Passing Cloud”), only with a pinch of Juan Gabriel thrown in (“Porque Me Haces Llolar”). Then came her Border Patrol abduction story, “Stranger,” a song she wrote before they nabbed her once. As for that heart stealing business, Dámaris Bójor positively returned the favor. – Raoul Hernandez
LeTrainiump Finds the Grooves in Every Gear
After receiving a last-minute invitation to perform at ACL on October 1, Austin-via-Louisiana indie-pop artist LeTrainiump headlined a festival back home on Friday before driving through the night to Austin. He arrived around 5am, caught roughly two hours of sleep, and made it to the festival grounds by 10am for his Saturday set. “We did it because we felt like we were supposed to,” he told the crowd. “We felt like there were people here who needed to hear our message.”
Returning for Weekend Two, LeTrainiump wasted no time getting the crowd moving. His soulful vocals soared over the synth-heavy arrangements, which ranged from the bass-driven pulse of “TOO LATE” to the disco-tinged bounce of “RELEASE.” He danced through the set, pausing between songs to establish two ground rules: stay hydrated and communicate.
Before launching into Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You,” LeTrainiump shared that he learned the song when he was four and that it “changed everything about my life.” His upbeat rendition brought a nostalgic spark to the set, even getting the security guards dancing. The dreamy guitars of “STOP OVERTHINKING” gave way to the strummy, mantra-like refrain of “IT’S ALREADY OVER,” which closed the set on an infectious note. It proved impossible to stand still during a LeTrainiump performance, which explained why the local scored a coveted two-weekend slot. – Miranda Garza
Balu Brigada Boogies
Auckland City Limits, licensed by ACL Fest promoters C3 Presents, debuted in New Zealand a decade ago, canceled the following year, then ceased after its 2018 iteration. Coincidentally or not, Balu Brigada arrived from said same locale to dominate mid-afternoon Saturday in the park. Millennials entering Zilker as 3pm approached literally sprinted to the T-Mobile stage, which amassed a veritable multitude the group in no way disappointed. Thick drums, thicker rhythms, with post-punk poetics springing from double-shirted front bros Henry and Pierre Beasley, Balu Brigada rippled, skittered, and bounced – their new law firm, should be.
The horde boogied all three moves at once. A metronomic kick drum kept everyone headbanging to the group’s chill but ringing melodicism, Henry’s softly emotive tenor contrasting Pierre’s multi-instrumentalist alt delivery. “We were here last weekend,” ventured the former, “and the weather was considerably different.” Last summer’s major label debut LP Portal again centered set highlights “Backseat” and closer “So Close,” the Kiwis even calling out for their cousin Cole Beasley and locating him in the assemblage. Drop beats, double guitars, just enough fuzz to flesh out Portal live, Balu Brigada revived Auckland City Limits all by themselves, if only for 45 minutes. – Raoul Hernandez
lluvii’s Hip-Stirring Soul
How many times can the music writer describe a musical performance as “groovy” across six days at ACL before it loses its meaning? When the band’s got a song named after the word — okay, it’s spelled “Gruvii,” but still – an exception must be made.
Elements of cumbia (“Cumbia de la Luz”), hip-hop (“Rat Race”), jazz, and R&B (every time these mic-sharing vocalists coalesced in sensual harmony) swirled in lluvii’s crafty, adept hands at Beatbox, which felt more like the jungle thanks to a row of plants the locals placed at the edge of the stage. The greenery matched the coordinated olive-brown-pink costumes of the Carol Gonzalez-led quintet, who expanded their live footprint to 10 for their ACL Fest debut with an impressive roster of Austin musicians.
With Gonzalez at the center, quieter than her bandmates yet plucking essential melodies from her Mustang, backing vocalists Corinne Jones of CHERRI and Angel Estrada of EddieAngel swayed at stage right next to keyboardist/singer/designated hypeman Felix Kimbrell and keyboardist/violinist/soul-singing superstar Sophia Nance. Francisco Rosales of Midnight Navy and multi-instrumentalist Renu Jayasinghe played sax (and flute, in the latter’s case) on the left next to Ryan Gordon, noodling virtuosic high notes on a six-string bass. Beating bongos, rattling a shaker, and coaxing rhythms out of countless other percussive instruments, Midrange Jumper’s Paulo Zambarano painted inside drummer Kaylin Martinez’s sturdy lines.
The 3:30pm performance drew a modest yet dedicated audience of friends and family, but prominent Austin scene players spotted in the crowd signaled a certain IYKYK quality to this deservedly ascending act, KUTX’s current Artist of the Month.
“We are lluvii, L-L-U-V-I-I,” repeated Kimbrell throughout the band’s 45 minutes. He wanted his audience to look them up later. They should. – Carys Anderson
Ryan Beatty Serenades the Sunset
There was such a tenderness and intimacy to Ryan Beatty’s Saturday evening set that it felt almost voyeuristic. As the sun folded behind the Beatbox stage, Beatty transported to the crowd, slowly pacing the stage and slumping in a folding chair set to the side like he was drafting late-night confessionals in his bedroom.
Opening with “Secret Language” from this year’s Sweet Fortune LP, the recent country touch to Beatty’s brand of soft pop ballads rang through, with the pedal steel given prominence among his impressive fivepiece backing band. Especially on the acoustic cover of Willie Nelson’s “Summer of Roses,” which drifted into “Too Many Ways,” the California songwriter seemed to channel Glen Campbell or John Denver, while “Virtuoso” licked with a bluegrass breakdown flavor from the lap steel.
“Delancey” cut a moodier air, swooning behind Beatty’s high-tilting trill like a longing whispered from the back corner of a smokey jazz cabaret. Throughout, the band accented the arrangements with provocative turns and flourishes that lifted the songs beyond the saccharine, emphasizing the unique genre blend that helped earn Beatty a Grammy for his COWBOY CARTER co-writes.
The yearning of “Andromeda,” “White Teeth,” and “Bruises Off the Peach,” from 2023’s Calico, swelled piano into the “Fleur De Lis”’ finale, a perfect serenade to sink into with the sunset. – Doug Freeman
