West 22nd Radiates Sonic Sunshine
A mere three miles down the road from their titular street, West 22nd planted a flag in ACL history as the first-ever band of current University of Texas students to nab a festival slot. Shaded from the scorching 2pm sun by the Tito’s Tent, the five-piece delivered an infinitely more pleasant dose of indie rock-infused sonic sunshine. With only one EP release under their belt, the young group is technically up-and-coming, but you’d never know it from the eagerness of their collegiate Sunday afternoon crowd. Pixelated palm trees and So-Cal-inspired graphics danced behind the group as they launched into opener “Hangman,” a deceptively breezy new single with perhaps their most cryptic lyrics to date. Guitarists Gabe Acevedo and Jeremy Ancheta jammed through road-trip-ready hits like “Sunburns” and “Savannah,” while vocalist Logan Madsen performed as a bona fide ball of energy. From a beefed-up interpolation of Declan McKenna hit “Brazil” during “Sunny Jones” to a Florence & the Machine cover, the group positioned themselves squarely alongside the big names of indie rock. After soaking in their infectious live energy, I can easily envision a not-so-distant ACL with West 22nd landing a main stage set – shade be damned. – Genevieve Wood
Orville Peck’s Giddy Country Comeback
Last summer, Orville Peck’s mental health was so dour that he canceled all of his foreseeable tour dates – a move he said he’d never made in 17 years’ worth of performing. Back in the saddle again, the cowboy returned to ACL for the first time since 2019 with blue eyes piercing through his black mask and an unassailable grin across his face. Though he’s known for his deep, Elvis-like bellow, a red leather-wearing Peck growled as much as he boomed – and elicited a cheer from his clearly charmed crowd every time the noise escaped his lips. Cinematic early hits “Turn to Hate” and “Dead of Night” repped Peck’s fresh sounding debut Pony, while debaucherous tour chronicle “Any Turn,” from 2022 sophomore LP Bronco, rollicked with the power of a Nineties honky tonk. Repping this year’s duets record Stampede, Peck cruelly teased a Willie Nelson appearance when he introduced “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other,” his cover of which features “this old guy from Texas.” The outlaw didn’t show, but Peck’s rendition – dedicated to “all the little [queer] Texan cowboys and cowgirls” – still soared. Rested and rejuvenated, Orville Peck in 2024 has a gay old time. – Carys Anderson
Cannons’ Groove Challenges Midafternoon Lethargy
At 4:45pm, the AmEx stage was a sea of pink bandanas, hand fans, and camo hats, anticipating the arrival of Chappell Roan in two hours’ time. Not quite the appropriate color palette for sleek 70s-inspired indie pop Cannons, who delivered an ultra-vibey set despite their crowd’s midafternoon lethargy. Instrumentalists Paul Davis and Ryan Clapham donned deconstructed disco-ball outfits, while frontwoman Michelle Joy worked center stage like a catwalk in a sparkling chrome gown and black knee-high boots. The undeniable bass plucks of ear-wormy hit “Hurricane” prompted a wave of audience hands in the air, some enraptured in song, others signaling security for water. The band truly hit their stride during a mid-set run of “Spells” and “Purple Sun,” the former a sexy, funk-filled jam set to twinkling synth and the latter drawing on Caribbean island-sound influences. Despite the group’s easygoing groove, I couldn’t help but consider if festival stress brings out the worst in human nature as a scuffle broke out between fans pushing towards the front row. No shade, ACL goers, but let’s treat each other well – even when there’s (quite literally) no shade. – Genevieve Wood
Chappell Roan’s Controversy-Free ACL Debut
Fans set up camp at the American Express stage first thing in the morning, braving the heat to secure a good view, which proved necessary; based on drone footage of the show, the pop supernova’s audience, stretching nearly across the entire length of the park, surely broke ACL records.
Read Carys Anderson’s full-length review of Chappell Roan’s ACL debut.
Tyler, the Creator Resumes His Austin Love Affair
Two reasons why Tyler, the Creator, like so many other Californians, loves Austin: We’re weird, and we’ve got “the biggest Whole Foods I’ve ever seen in my life.” “I probably said this last time,” he rightfully acknowledged – the ACL favorite paid us a similar compliment when he headlined in 2021. Not a whole lot has changed since the rapper/producer/director/clothing designer played Zilker Park then, but Tyler’s 2024 set underlined his musical evolution from hard-rapping edgelord to earnest, R&B-sampling – but still occasionally blunt – auteur. In between crowd singalongs “I THINK” and “See You Again,” for instance, he threw his earliest fans a bone by running through a bit of 2011 single “Yonkers” – but admitted he didn’t really want to sing it. Still, another Tyler-Austin anecdote proved his vulnerability: During an early trip to South by Southwest, he recalled, he stopped by a “Target by the freeway.” “That’s the first time I had some money, and I went in there and bought whatever I wanted,” he said. “And driving by it [today], I almost cried, because that was the first time I was able to just buy something. I have such a special place for y’all’s city because of that shit.” – Carys Anderson
Sturgill Simpson: Forever Outlaw
If Friday headliner Chris Stapleton has grown more country since breaking out from Kentucky in 2015, fellow bluegrass state hero Sturgill Simpson – also 46 and also making a name a decade on now – has gotten less. No matter, the effect’s the same for both auteurs: Neither could be more classic country outlaw. Semantics hardly matter in music and yet so many metamodern movers and shakers won’t admit or more so acknowledge a fealty to sounds in country music. Crowning Sunday evening on the massive Honda stage, Simpson lit a fire raging past the Allman Brothers and the Black Crowes to Derek and the Dominos – raging emotion set to guitars. Laur Joamets still handles an ax like Paul Bunyan, so he and the bandleader woodshed like mother truckers in a blazing start. Simpson still looks and sounds like Waylon Jennings, and still begs subtitles live, but few contemporary Southern soul men sound better. Wriggling out from under the weight of his own legend, he sings beautifully genre-free on July’s Passage du Desir. Live, the album’s suave continentality went up like so much stage smoke in the tight quintet’s heated execution. Newbies “Right Kind of Dream” slashed slide and “Jupiter’s Faerie” sighed steel, while indelible vets “Railroad of Sin” roared and “The Promise” pleaded. Country AF. – Raoul Hernandez
Keep up with the latest ACL news and follow the Chronicle’s coverage from the fest at austinchronicle.com/acl.
This article appears in October 4 • 2024.
