Saturday began fabulously. After a lazy lunch at Rudy’s (followed by some shopping), my friend and I headed over to ACL to see Grimes perform at the Honda stage. Call me twenty-three going on eighty-four, but I had never heard of Grimes before. Her music was trippy. Very, very trippy. Cool, but trippy. Her dancers (and half of the audience) danced like the Castithans in Defiance.
Yeah, I watched that show.
Despite sluggish aliens having taken over half of her audience, Grimes put on a great show. I may not “get” her music, but I could definitely appreciate it. If electronic “dream pop” is your favorite, then Grimes will be the most amazing show for you. If not, I would absolutely suggest at least stopping by her performance so you can open your mind (and eyes) to other types of music.
Next, we set up camp at the Passion Pit show (pictured above) at the AMD stage. I really enjoyed getting the chance to park my chair in the grass and listen to a great band that was… a little more up my alley. Saturday marked my first ever Passion Pit concert. Though they had played at ACL a few years ago, I was unable to attend the festival that year so I only heard about them by word of mouth… from my dad. Who is surprisingly up on it.
Though most people are “up on it” in comparison to me but anywaysssssss…. Passion Pit gave a really great show. If you’ve never seen them, you should make sure to include them in your schedule. If you have seen them, you should make sure to include them in your schedule.
See what I did there?
After Passion Pit ended, my friend and I decided to wander around the festival to find memorabilia and – more importantly – food. We ended up munching on some delicious burgers from P.Terry’s. ACL is unique in that its festival food is actually more-than-somewhat decent! If you ever have a spare moment (or are, ya know, hungry), you should make sure to wander over to the food area to get some delicious grub.
Next we hit Kings of Leon at the Samsung Galaxy stage (pictured above). I love Kings of Leon. Two of their songs are currently serving as ringtones on my phone. I listened to “Only By The Night” (their album released in 2008) on repeat during every. single. winter. break. in. college.
Don’t ask me why. It just randomly became my post-Christmas jam.
Like Muse the previous night, Kings of Leon did not disappoint. Thankfully, Kings of Leon didn’t inherit Muse’s knack for power outages so the show was perfect and not interrupted by, you know, complete and total loss of power. One thing to prepare for: they didn’t perform “Sex On Fire” until the end of their encore set (who knows if they’ll repeat that tactic again this weekend). I was very close to being devastated that they didn’t play that hit. And then they played it, so I was okay.
I know, great story… I’ll be sure to tell it at parties.
Bottom line: be sure to go to Kings of Leon on Saturday night. This was my second time seeing them at ACL and I really enjoyed both shows immensely. They just do a grade-A-for-AWESOME job.
What I missed:
Silversun Pickups – I saw them years ago at ACL and really enjoyed their show, but unfortunately my tire popped en route to the festival so I had to miss the show.
Wilco – An ACL classic, Wilco has performed at ACL several times. And by several, I mean I’m pretty sure they’ve performed every year I’ve been to the festival. If Passion Pit hadn’t been performing at the same time, I would’ve loved to catch part of their show.
Kendrick Lamar – I’m about to give away my age and idiocy but I’m really not sure who Kendrick Lamar is. All I know is that he performed at Cornell for Slope Day so that intrigued me… just not enough for me to actually get my bum away from the food and go see his show. I’ve heard he gives a decent show though so if you love his music (whatever his music is…?), you should definitely stop by his performance.