ACL Music Festival 2018 Review

ACL Music Festival (Weekend One – October 5-7)

This massive two-weekend festival entered its 17^th year with lots of space, acts, experiences and people. Last year’s Zilker Park expansion was repeated this year, offering more separation from the massive video screen accompanied stages, more room to wander and more room to rock.

Greta Van Fleet
This band of four very young Michigan men delivered all the blood, sweat and groove that the audience expected, not more. While they’ve got the massive raw elements of pure Zeppelin, they’re not Led Zeppelin – just the sassy, spunky and electric blues energy of those first two 1969 albums.

Sporting a tanned and fringed vest, vocalist Josh Kiszka was really on and powerful. His wailing vocals were strong throughout the set, making it look easy to howl. Brothers Jake (guitar) and Sam (bass and sometimes keyboards) and drummer Danny Wagner didn’t waste any time between songs, wringing and bringing energy with gusto. Jake’s effective rhythm riffing and frequent lead breaks were tasteful and tuneful – at just the right settings. When he played his Gibson SG behind his back, he held it upright so that it looked like a giant headless man was shredding away. Nothing new, but proficient and dripping with attitude. The band was nice and loud, offering the kind of danceable groove at 4:35 on Friday afternoon to set the mood for the rest of the weekend.

Manchester Orchestra
One of the byproducts of a giant festival is choosing between Greta Van Fleet and Manchester Orchestra – two great bands competing at the same time. Both had huge audiences and I’m sure not a single member of each crowd had FOMO. The band played as if the audience was in its back pocket, ending up with the mesmerizing and settling down tune, “The Gold.” A nice way to say goodbye, ‘til later.

Gang of Youths
This Aussie import took to the giant Honda stage earlier in the day (1:40 pm) to some infectious anthem rock that is not too distant from U2 (minus the Edge’s chiming guitar). Melodic, laid-back melodies drive some very listenable sounds. It was so good that it was impossible to pull away and do the whole bar-hopping thing that multiple stages provides. Each song had compelling melodies that just hit the right nerve of energy, swelling dynamics and story-telling. I could listen to these guys for hours. Frontman David Le-aupepe roamed the stage as if in command (his band was in total control of the laid-back vibe), interacting with the large audience as if it was a hometown crowd in a small pub.

CHVRCHES
The painted frontwoman of this Scottish band, Lauren Mayberry, cried “I need a miracle” and was the first of many artists I saw over the weekend with fun face paint – warrior style. It makes sense given the angst wrapped around religious imagery of many of their songs.

At one point she announced that it “was a bad day for humanity,” referring to the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh, partly apologizing for her commentary since they were Brits and had their own Brexit going on. It’s always been par for the course for musicians to take their role as “bards” or spokespersons for the people at large and it’s not surprising that most popular young artists lean towards the left. Pardon this older, washed-up rock critic for forgetting that a Constitutional judge interpreting law through a 231-year-old document was bad and that interpreting that document as being protective of the unborn was somehow against humanity. Whoops! I argued with a woman on a platform about her reproductive rights. My bad.

The band sounded great, with tight rocking pop songs that the giant sea of an audience loved. See the set here.

David Byrne
This old talking head has silver hair now but is still the consummate showman. The first visual that stood out was the band outfits – uniform grey suits and dark sunglasses adorned each member as they moved around the stage in sync with the beat in front of giant, chain curtains. Imagine a video with tv fuzz as the backdrop. Very nice. “A Taste of Life” began with his signature jerky movements, but it wasn’t just old nostalgic tunes that carried his set. Tribal, rhythmic grooves and staying in that moment made his set feel like a giant party.

Bells of Joy
Maybe you’ve come to #ACLfest and been put off by the leftist leaning politicartists that proselytize from the stage, thinking this is a haven of atheist pagans. That would be ignoring the platform and stage given to gospel music each day and each year of the music festival. Someone in upper management knows the connection of spiritual music to rock and roll and they honor it.

San Holo
Non-stop beats, blips and rhythm. And don’t forget the lights. They flashed so brilliantly that the Tito’s tent felt like a midnight rave in the daylight. The dude known as San Holo (aka Sander van Dijck) was all over the place, playing “future” bass guitar and spinning records and keeping the audience moving. See his set here.

Deftones
Everyone’s favorite 90s band had a swelled crowd at the American Express stage at the east end of Zilker Park seemingly in their back pocket like a familiar old friend. Frontman Chino Moreno interacted with the crowd, utilizing the giant snake pit catwalk that Metallica had installed for its set later on Saturday night.

Chino and band weaved through “Rocket States” and “Around the Fur” to kick their set off. He brought out his guitar for “Swerve City” after playing the hit “My Own Summer.” “Knife Party” and “Engine No. 9” were both energetic, the latter of which where Chino got in the crowd like Sonny or Bono. They churned, rocked and made their fans feel good. Drummer Abe Cunningham, keyboardist Frank Delgado, bassist Sergio Vega and guitarist Stephen Carpenter really make some great noise while Chino works the crowd and makes lots of friends.

St. Vincent
Totally cool, edgy and electric. Songs that cut and drive. The band she uses is hard driving and rocking, but St. Vincent is like a solo act – Anne Erin Clark with a backup band. Now that I’m a married man, though, I don’t really like looking at the leather outfits, which I could do without.

Metallica
Austin City Limits Music Festival (like the renowned television show) is known for its upcoming alt rock stars (now meaning loads of EDM heroes and spunky song-crafters), but they get down, dirty and heavy every once in a while. Cue Metallica.

Almost ten minutes before their scheduled set time was to begin, a video of Clint Eastwood and echoes of “Nothing Else Matters” started the crowded show. The band jumped right into their business of thrash with “Hardwired” and “Atlas, Rise!”

Frontman James Hetfield thanked the audience, stating, “We’re glad to be here celebrating live, live music. We’re here to play some new stuff,” followed by, “We might play some old stuff,” and then they kicked into “Seek & Destroy,” which they stretched out and reeled back into. This was followed by another classic, “Creeping Death.”

Throughout the set Hetfield and Kirk Hammett utilized the giant cat walk (named the snake pit because some very excited fans got to stand inside the loop for an upfront perspective of the show). The giant video screens on left and right – with random images in center – gave those of us in the back and chance to feel like they were close to the action, too.

Hammett played several guitars throughout the night – a cool custom painted super hero guitar, a metallic glitter purple strat-like body and a nice gold Les Paul. Both he and Hetfield did a nice double lead at the end of the snake pit during “Welcome Home (Sanitarium).”

Hetfield later made an interesting introduction to “Now That We’re Dead.” He thanked the old school friends, took a poll to see who was seeing the band for the first time (a lot in the crowd) and then he said, “We’re all Metallica family here tonight. And I’ve got one question for you, ‘Are you alive?’ And if you want to live forever, first you must die.” Lots of red painted faces flashed on and off in multiple squares on the middle video screen.

Bassist Robert Trujillo got the crowd to chant, “Hey! Hey! Hey!” to help start, “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” During the song he squat squared off with Hammett for a crouch-off. Hammett kept playing some really blistering solos and they even jammed some Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Hetfield then teased the audience with a question: “You want heavy!?” Then they played “Sad But True.” At the end of it Hetfield took his Destroyer guitar head stock and kind of slammed it down on the stage and started coaxing some cool sounds out of it by twisting knobs and then strumming the strings towards the upper side of the neck. The band then shifted into a lightning fast version of “One” and then “Master of Puppets.” Then the show was over, but no one was fooled. A three-song encore of “Battery,” “Nothing Else Matters” and “Enter Sandman” truly finished off the night, along with a short but cool red fireworks blast above and behind the stage. Watch the entire set here on Red Bull TV.

That’s only a tiny snapshot of a packed weekend, but that was my ACL Music Festival experience in 2018. If you’re able, come see almost the same lineup this coming weekend.

(Doug Van Pelt)

More Deftones photos: