(Top photo by Greg Noire, ACL Festival)
An assessment of the success of any music festival — or any entertainment event — in the U.S. in 2025 seemingly has to include the following “pro” as part of its baseline: There was no trouble. And for ensuring that, Austin City Limits Music Festival security deserves healthy, prominently placed gratitude.
It’s truly sad that any writer covering something like ACL sees fit to include this factor in their recap. Because if it’s not immediately clear, the “trouble” I’m referring to is the worst kind of trouble — violence, politically driven agitation, someone sneaking a firearm or other weapon past an overworked and overwhelmed festival security crew and committing an atrocity. I’m guessing that few if any music journalists’ assessments of ACL Weekend 1 have even noted the presence of utter peace inside Zilker Park last weekend. Maybe I’ll be the only one — it’s supposed to be a given, after all.
But in these times, it feels as though taking a peaceful festival atmosphere for granted requires an almost astounding level of ignorance and naïveté. It’s been too turbulent to take it for granted for at least a couple of years now, dating back to at least the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks in Israel that infamously included hundreds of deaths at a music festival. Farther back in time, but closer to home, the 2017 mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas still leaves a dark legacy of its own.
I don’t wish to belabor this point, because ACL is supposed to be about music, bold and funny fashion statements, creative totems, open-air camaraderie and commiserating about how fucking hot it is. But the real objective here — because it doesn’t happen enough — is to supply a shoutout to the group of people who likely will never get enough credit for what they do for Austinites and tourists alike: ACL’s security staff. Whether these essential soldiers are handling screenings and bag searches at the point of entry, or making sure peace reigns inside Zilker, they have a job almost none of us would want. And they do it so the rest of us can revel in the achievements of our musical heroes and wander a sprawling outdoor picnic as our best selves, full of joy and free of fear.
In a previous life, I worked as a copy editor for a daily newspaper. One of my coworkers there referred to us as the offensive line of the operation: things are going great if you never hear about us, if no major mistakes reach print. ACL security, inside and outside, are the analogous unsung heroes of the festival. They’re the O-line that allows the rest of us to realize all of those things the festival is supposed to be about. Often, NFL offensive linemen don’t get full recognition of their work until it’s time for Pro Bowl or All-Pro selections. I’m doing it for the festival’s security personnel here, in my Weekend 1 festival recap, and saluting them for all that they do, because for those three days in each of October’s first two weekends, they are our guardians.
Because of them, I can now think about yet another heartening display of community and a weekend full of fine performances. Which it’s time to get to. Here are my top 5 sets of Weekend 1 and, in no particular order, 13 of my favorite song performances.
Top Sets of the Weekend
1. Wet Leg — The fact that Wet Leg is a real, collaborative quintet now — not just OG members Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers with touring friends — has translated into a beefed-up live sound, one which has made their postpunk-ish, often-witty rock a gnarlier festival animal. And to say that’s good would be understating it — “Chaise Longue” with three guitars was righteously heavy; “Pillow Talk” pounded away with the kind of jackhammer force that makes you say, “Oh shit, I need to film some of this.” On top of that, the new configuration frees up Teasdale — previously a cheerful-but-seemingly-shy crowd-connecter — in a couple of ways. Guitarist Josh Mobaraki seems to now be handling most of the emceeing duties, taking that off Teasdale’s plate. She also gets to shed her own guitar some of the time, allowing her to display the kind of physical showwomanship that previous viewers of Wet Leg shows probably didn’t know she had in her. Dancing, writhing and flexing (top photo) — and using a landline phone as both a visual and audio prop for closer “CPR” — Teasdale is now augmenting the look of her traditionally coded indie rock band with vaguely pop star-type theatrics. I had to ask myself: Is this something to worry about, in the sense that we might “lose” the Wet Leg we love to the allure of Top 40 aspirations, the same way we may have already lost girl in red? Who knows — but here in 2025, Wet Leg is simply one of the most enjoyable rock bands out there, and Teasdale’s newly elevated confidence is a refreshing new wrinkle. This was a kickass set.
2. The Strokes — They played all the big hits and still have all the chops. Just about every song seemed a touch faster than on the respective recordings you’ve been hearing nonstop on alternative radio since 2001. The excitement of the live Strokes lies purely in the most basic and time-tested elements of rock spectacles: Julian Casablancas’ almost inimitable brand of laconic-to-loud vocal versatility; the urgent rhythmic chug of those streets-by-way-of-the-garage chords; the addictive, feral solos of either Albert Hammond, Jr. or (usually) Nick Valensi; and only the most rudimentary colorful lights of nighttime concert atmosphere. Maybe the most impressive takeaway from this smoking Saturday headline set was that Casablancas can still snarl the likes of “Take It or Leave It” with the same manic, invigorating hunger he had at 22. Small, barely notable quibble: It would’ve been nice to hear one of “Macchu Picchu” or “Taken For a Fool,” two underrated gems from 2011’s Angles. Either would have slapped, slayed or slammed.
3. Cage the Elephant — True to form, Matt Shultz may have delivered the signature acrobatic move of any individual performer over the weekend, captured at left in Pooneh Ghana’s superb photo — and the mic-as-pogo-stick move is just a taste of the manic, sincere energy you can count on him for. Shultz and Cage are now a full-fledged, fully matured rock ’n’ roll animal onstage, reflecting the evolution and refinement of their music away from their brattier early days to an alternative sound that owes its share to Cage’s forebears, but is also self-made, unpretentious and occasionally glorious.
4. Phantogram — Following the Strokes, here’s some more New York representation on this list (and more to come, in fact). At their best, Greenwich’s Phantogram blend electronics, dream pop and rock about as well as any recording artists of this century, and they colored Sunday night with a mystical but urgent atmosphere. It had been some years since I heard “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore” prior to its appearance early in the show, and I found myself wondering whether Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter have ever collectively gotten credit for the sheer wallop of that thing. It was a hit, but it seems to have faded from alt-rock consciousness since. That’s a shame.
5. Hotline TNT — New York again, this time from one of the relatively new kids on the block. Those who might be called the “casuals” of ACL — the people who are really just there for one or two performers and the atmosphere, and don’t see any need to arrive at Zilker before perhaps 5 p.m. at the earliest — often don’t know what they’re missing with earlier sets like Hotline’s 12:45 Saturday gig. (In the casuals’ defense, of course, it was crushingly hot.) They’re indie darlings not because of any astounding sonic innovations, but because 1) they have a growing batch of very good songs and 2) because their mix of vintage-colored alt-rock and shoegaze harkens to when college radio was absolutely dominated by distortion and compression. Like most shows that early — when the sun is blazing, lights aren’t available and anything other than a static backdrop is pretty much a waste of time — Hotline TNT didn’t offer much beyond the music. But that music, led by frontman Will Anderson, was a moody — and importantly, focused and unmeandering — delight.
13 standout song performances
Modest Mouse, “Dashboard”
Phantogram, “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore” and “When I’m Small”
Strokes, “Take It or Leave It” and “The Modern Age”
King Princess, “Pain”
Gigi Perez, “Fable”
Wet Leg, “Pillow Talk” and “Ur Mum”
MJ Lenderman, “She’s Leaving You”
Hotline TNT, “Protocol” and “Candle”
T-Pain, “Hey Baby (Drop It to the Floor)”