30 Seconds to Mars Stuns, Kendrick Lamar Gets Cut Off: See the Best Photos of ACL's First Weekend

Fall means a few things in Texas: football, the state fair and Austin City Limits. The music festival is the biggest of its kind in the state, with two jam-packed weekends of big-name performers you already love and new acts that might become your new favorite.

It was a beautiful and breezy 80-degree weekend at ACL, and it started out with a good bit of Fort Worth flair. Abraham Alexander’s Friday set on the IHG Stage treated fans to a little preview of what to expect on his SEA/SONS tour, which has no official stops in Dallas. But you can catch him during Weekend 2 of ACL if you’re making the trek down. During his set, Alexander mentioned that performing at ACL felt like a rite of passage, and notably he seemed a tad nervous. Despite that, he didn’t shy away from performing his painfully vulnerable tunes, giving the crowd an authentic, soulful set.  If you’re looking for a new blues rocker, he’s definitely it.
Over on the American Express Stage was a much-buzzed-about show by Lil Yachty. This writer's familiarity with Lil Yachty is mostly limited to that one Target commercial he did with Carly Rae Jepsen, but his last album got a lot of hype, so we checked it out. We didn’t mind his first couple songs, even if it consisted mostly of auto-tuned singing. At least he had a full backing band made up of all women, and he gets cool points for that. But the middle of his performance was reminiscent of that SNL skit with Timothée Chalamet saying "Yeet" and "Skrrt" over and over. No, thank you.

Next up was Maggie Rogers on the Honda Stage, who, judging from the massive crowd, was a must-see not just for us. Her live set sounded as impeccable as her studio recordings. Rogers' dancing and joyous energy make her live shows magical. The set list was packed with fan favorites such as "Retrograde," "Falling Water," "Alaska" and "Light On."  It felt like getting smacked in the face by incredible musicianship over and over, in the best way. "Light On" would have made for a better final song: It’s hard to beat an entire park lit up with cell phones and fans singing back word for word. It made us a little teary-eyed, to be honest.
We ended our Friday at the Honda Stage for Kendrick Lamar. The last time I saw Lamar was at Dallas' South Side Ballroom in 2015 when he was on the precipice of massive stardom. Since then, he’s released two more albums, won more than 10 Grammys and can now add ACL headliner to the list. Lamar was supposed to go onstage at 8:40 p.m., but was over an hour late because of plane issues. The explosive and imposing performer hit the stage around 9:45 p.m. and barreled through about 10 songs, jamming in as many hits as he could ("D.N.A.," "King Kunta," "Humble," "N95") before the festival shut his microphone off midsong, at 10:15 p.m. The audience finished “Be Alright” for Lamar and his army of onstage dancers, before he expressed his gratitude and left the stage.

Many fans were upset, and some seemed grateful that he made it at all. Lamar might hold the record for shortest headliner set at ACL Fest, and it’s also possible that he’s the only performer ever to go past the 10 p.m. curfew. That 15 minutes is going to entail a hefty fine to pay. Next week, Lamar gets a redo and a chance at redemption.

Saturday at ACL started off with more Dallas talent in Angel White. The Tito’s tent had a nice turnout for the newcomer. It’s hard to fit White into one genre; he has clear rock influences and some gritty country vibes. One thing is for sure, though: White and his band were having tons of fun onstage. The band delivered on the catchy bass lines. White didn’t set his guitar down often, but when he did, he had some funky, impressive dance moves. He and the audience had a shared energy, particularly during the crowd-favorite “Long Way Up.” This was a fun, almost-rockabilly set to start the day, and White did Dallas proud, y’all. Midday, Ben Kweller’s set offered chill vibes. The Austinite was unexpectedly vulnerable as he opened up about his son, killed in a car accident earlier this year, even ending his lighthearted set with one of his son's songs, “How I Am.” Talk about pulling at heartstrings. And, yes, that was Superbad's McLovin’ (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) with the blue hair playing bass.

At 6 p.m. the Honda stage presented quite possibly the most insane set of the weekend. Even those who weren't huge fans of 30 Seconds to Mars would soon be blown away by their antics. The show started with frontman Jared Leto climbing out of the rafters onto a platform at the top of the stage, from which he jumped, held up by bungee cords. How do you crank it up from there? With pyro, colorful smoke and giant balloons thrown into the audience.

Leto is a wild guy, and he created a definite spectacle and some core memories for the audience as he climbed off the stage and onto the barricade, getting up close. Then he brought Matthew McConaughey out and a ton of random audience members onto the stage before closing out the group's set.
Another must for us this weekend was Noah Kahan. The “Dial Drunk” singer is getting quite a lot of buzz while gearing up for a big amphitheater tour next year. Some fans have even dubbed him "Folk Malone." Kahan has a knack for cutting to the bone with raw lyrics of pain and truth coated in soothing soft vocals. Though much of his truly enjoyable set came from album Stick Season, Kahan just released a new version of "She Calls Me Back" featuring Kacey Musgraves.

While Kahan has been touring for a long time, he seems to still be getting used to his recent popularity. He appeared shocked, if not downright giddy, at the number of folks who showed up for his set. He may perform singer-songwriter type songs, but Kahan knows how to jam out and rip it up on stage. Saturday’s headliner, for this week only, was the one and only country queen Shania Twain. The megastar brought a little bit of her Vegas show to Texas for the night with a hit-packed set, working the stage from end to end with bright red hair and a shiny silver outfit. You don’t need to teach Shania about Y2K fashion. Even if she's not your favorite country musician, you'd have to be blind to not recognize her talent as a performer — we simply wouldn’t have performers like Carrie Underwood without the path Twain paved. And damn, some of her songs are just so catchy, we might be singing “Man I Feel Like a Woman” all week long.
Sunday was a U.K. invasion, starting off with a poppy set from up-and-comer Mimi Webb, who donned a cute pink outfit with tons of pockets while she worked the stage. The singer might benefit from some choreography or some dancers on stage, but overall it was an enjoyable set. We then had to swing by English singer Suki Waterhouse’s set and get our chill on. It’s clear she’s inspired by '90s female alt-rock, so much so she did a "Fade Into You" cover later on in the set. Waterhouse may be popular, but hers is definitely not pop music. The best thing about her set was that she was entirely unique next to every other act we saw over the weekend, with a sound not many are making right now. Around 4 p.m. it was back to the American Express stage again to see Niall Horan for his first time on the road since before the pandemic. He has a new album, plus his previous album for which he never got to properly tour. Both are easily digestible pop music with '80s rock influence. It’s easy to forget Horan was part of one of the biggest boy bands of all time, One Direction, but the massive turnout was a quick reminder. His is a very different sound from Harry Styles', and he’s entirely underrated.

Horan knows well he doesn’t have the same chops as a Harry or Zayn, so his songs make apt use of his vocal range and you hear the improvement from his One Direction days. He’s comfortable onstage and lets his personality and songs shine.

Sunday evening, another Irishman, Hozier, took the ACL stage as the best-dressed guy at the festival. His masterful guitar playing and soulful voice took the crowd someplace else. With a full and beautifully layered sound, he was a force — even people not at his stage were singing along. He was pretty funny, too. He kept the crowd entertained with little quips about how the sun was practically blinding him as it slowly lowered along the horizon during his performance.

We ended our first ACL weekend with Labrinth, easily our top pick for must-sees at the festival. He was headlining the T-mobile stage on Sunday. All of his songs are complex and theatrical, with a sound that fans of Euphoria are definitely familiar with as he helms much of the music for the show. His discography boasts collabs with Billie Eilish, Sia and, of course, Zendaya. We were pleasantly surprised to see his incredible, shredding guitar skills on display. Expect to see him on one of the main stage headliner slots soon.