Predicting ACL 2018: The International Lollapaloozi and City Limits

I've previously talked a lot about the strong link between the Chicago Lollapalooza lineup and the ACL lineup.  That same strong tie doesn't quite hold true for the foreign Lollas and City Limits.  There is some commonality, although it is more like 1 or 2 of the top 6 who will show up in Austin, not 4 or 5 of 6.  Still, I thought I'd have a look at the four international Lollapalooza and two international City Limits lineups announced so far (Berlin Lolla has yet to be announced) to see if we could divine anything from those posters.

C3 now runs two new City Limits shows, in Sydney and Auckland, and Lollapalooza now throws down in Berlin, Paris, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.  So, what do we have for the top lines from those posters?  First, let's check the history:

2016 Lineups:

• Lolla Brazil, Argentina and Chile all had the same top 6 headliners: Eminem (no), Florence & the Machine (no), Jack U (no), Mumford & Sons (yes), Snoop Dogg (no), Noel Gallagher (no).  So only 1 of 6 match.
• Lolla Berlin: Radiohead (yes), Kings of Leon (no), Major Lazer (yes), Paul Kalkbrenner (no, wtf?), Phillip Poisel (no, wtf again?), New Order (no). 2 of 6 match.
• Auckland City Limits: Kendrick Lamar (yes), The National (no), Fat Freddys Drop (errr, no?), Modest Mouse (no), Girl Talk (no), Shapeshifter (no).

2017 Lineups:

• Lolla Brazil/Argentina/Chile: Metallica (no), The Strokes (no), The Weeknd (no), The xx (yes), The Chainsmokers (no), Flume (no). 
• Lolla Paris: Red Hot Chili Peppers (yes), The Weeknd (no), Imagine Dragons (no), Lana Del Rey (no), DJ Snake (no), London Grammar (no)
• Lolla Berlin: Foo Fighters (no), Mumford & Sons (no), The xx (yes), Hardwell (no), Beatsteaks (no), Marteria (huh?  no).
• Auckland City Limits: Was cancelled in 2017, but is back for 2018.

What does that tell you?  People in other countries will allow headliners that would cause me to riot?  Yes, there are a few connections, but you aren't seeing a good, strong, wholesale connection here.  But let's check out the lineups for this year:

• Auckland City Limits: Beck, Justice, Future, Grace Jones, Phoenix, Peking Duk.
• Sydney City Limits: Beck, Justice, Future, Vance Joy, Phoenix, Tash Sultana.
• South America Lollas: Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Lana Del Rey, LCD Soundsystem (with Chance the Rapper in 7th, pretty weird that he gets lower billing than freaking Imagine Dragons or Del Rey).
• Paris Lolla: Depeche Mode, Gorillaz, The Killers, Travis Scott, Nekfeu, Diplo.

Interesting, little overlap between the families there.  We've recently seen The Killers, the Chilis, Vance Joy, LCD Soundystem, Chance, and Gorillaz here, so those won't be back.  

• Beck.  I'm already on record for believing he will be at ACL this year.  Hope I'm right. Yes.
• Pearl Jam could come back, but I kind of doubt it on such a quick turnaround.  I would be fully on board with this, so please yes, bring them back C3 peoples, but I don't see any indicators.  Tour is over in August (although not much of a tour), so they have the time to come to Austin in October, but no new music or real reason to suspect them. No.
• Justice.  I really don't know squat about Justice.  I vaguely recall some very French dance EDM from years ago.  Looks like they put out a 2016 album, so they are still putting out new music, but I don't recall any attention paid to that here in the States.  They are touring right now, hitting festivals all over the world, with their last one in mid-July.  So that leaves time for them to show up at both Lolla Chicago and ACL in Austin.  This could be the big EDM band for the year?  No clue, will go no.
• Phoenix.  Their album last year got some good critical press (even if it left something to be desired for me, personally).  Their tour this year, in addition to a few foreign fests, has space open where they could fit into both Lolla Chicago and ACL, so that feels like another band that could show up at Austin.  This one feels more up the alley of ACL people than Justice, so if I were going to pick just one of these two, it would be Phoenix.  I'll say yes for now.
• Depeche Mode.  Huh, who knew they had a 2017 album?  I think I missed that.  So they have some new music to tour behind (not that anyone would want to hear it at a Festival - just the hits, ma'am) and are on the road, in Europe and South America through the end of July.  That would leave time for both Lolla and ACL, but it feels like we already did the Depeche Mode thing a few years ago, and there wouldn't be much buzz for them to come back for another bit in Austin.  Going to go with no.
• Imagine Dragons.  Honestly, bring it.  I can't stand this band, but if they would play opposite someone good, and draw a huge crowd of dorks ready to yell "Radioactive" and "Thunder Lightning Feel the Thunder!" with them, then I'd be better off over at the empty Beck stage.  Their current tour goes through August 31, so they have the time to be in Austin.  I take it back.  Please don't bring this dreck to ACL.  Please let the history and traditions of Austin mean more than the popular current of garbage kidzbop rock.  Going with NO because I want that to be the answer.
• Travis Scott.  This guy also sucks.  "Antidote" is pretty dope, but its completely dumb popcorn rap with no lyrical power.  I swear the only reason he is popualr is because he keeps getting arrested at his jenky shows.  No real tour, just playing a few fests.  I see no reason for him to come to Austin, going with a no.

If I am going to take two artists from this list who I think might cross over to ACL, I'll go with Beck and Phoenix.