The weatherpeople are fired. All of that worry and excitement about rain and lightning and everything else, and all we got was a short delay in opening the gates on Friday. Which also meant that a lot of my gnashing of teeth about the Friday lineup/schedule changes was for nothing - a bunch of those pre-3pm bands just disappeared from the lineup.
Friday: Started off the day at The Backseat Lovers, and they were excellent. They just genuinely looked to be having a good time up there, blasting out jangly rock and roll. The crowd was into it as well. Wandered over to see Machine Gun Kelly do his lame thing. I really don't understand the appeal of that schtick. He came out on a huge pink pill bottle and soon enough was singing that bad song where he just yells "fight fight fight" over and over. We left early to go over and get a spot for the Black Pumas, who were just as amazing as predicted. Super tight set and a lovely sing-along of "Colors" at the end. At the 7 o'clock hour, I caught a little bit of Chet Faker off to the side while eating some dinner, and then made my way back over to the Lady Bird Stage for George Strait. Multiple people had told me not to expect much from King George, that his live shows were boring, but I thought he was wonderful. Covered "Pancho & Lefty" and Tom Petty, played many of the great classics. I could have done without the tequila commercial song, or some of the other new tracks, but overall he sounded great and was engaging from the stage. I loved it.
Saturday: We made it in time to see part of the Surfaces set, which made my daughter happy. Most of the set was underwhelming to me, but I will readily admit that the pure joy of "Sunday Best," with the whole crowd jumping and singing and hugging any buying children candy, was nothing short of wonderful. Next up was AG Club. I thought they were great, once they finally came out. The rap shows at the Festival are a little annoying, in that they spend a large chunk of the short set time playing popular rap tracks by other artists. If I wanted to hear Kendrick Lamar or Olivia Rodrigo, I could just queue that up on Spotify! (although seeing all of the girls in the crowd go nuts for Rodrigo and turn to each other to holler the lyrics in each others' faces, was 100% entertaining). But once the group finally came out, it was a fun show. They had about 12 guys on stage, two or three just filming everyone else, and then several guys just hopping around and yelling, and then about 4 or 5 who actually had mics to rap. Made it fun, kind of loose and a party atmosphere. Phoebe Bridgers was, if I'm being honest, kind of disappointing. I love her songs. I think she's insightful and bruising and funny and smart and very, deeply interesting to listen to. But in a huge field, in the beating sun, in a crowd of people who mostly don't know what she is about, it felt flat. She even joked at one point that "here's another mid-tempo jam for you." I did feel cool that a friend had shown me her cover of Bo Burnham recently, so I could tell my friends that she was covering Bo Burnham when she played that song again. We next wandered over to Freddie Gibbs, and again, I was a little disappointed. First, he wasted a chunk of his time again with the dumb hype songs (including the exact same Kendrick song that the AG Club had used). But even when he came out, what I realized about Gibbs is that he's a killer rapper, but he's not very hyped up. So some chilled beat (like that lounge music "Something to Rap About" one) comes on, and he just starts hammering it with a steady outpouring of words. The only way he tried to really get people hyped was by repeatedly asking them to yell "fuck police." I still think he is amazing, but other than him making us laugh by making fun of his DJ and hype man, it wasn't a very exciting show. Modest Mouse was next, and they were excellent. The last time I saw them had not been impressive, so it was really cool to see them come through. The lead singer was wearing huge headphones and looked like he was ready to start mumbling like Rain Man, but he tore the show up. Really fun. We could hear Jack Harlow while we waited for Rufus, and it honestly didn't sound that great from a good ways away. I heard from someone else that it was a very fun show to be up inside of. Rufus Du Sol, while not being my type of music at all, was good. I liked their set design, with three big, white-lighted risers for the three guys to stand behind, and even though I didn't know their music, my friend and I had a good time talking about how it all sounded like the Matrix soundtrack being remade for Stranger Things.
Sunday: Part of me wishes that I had made it into the park a little earlier to see Shooks, but we hung at Lavaca Street Bar for a little too long, eating good food and watching football. By the way, that method to get to the park worked pretty well. $15-ish Lyft to Lavaca Street Bar (kind of out of the way of the festival crush), then a $6 Lyft to Barton Springs and Lamar. Not too bad. As we walked in, I could hear KennyHoopla going crazy over on the T-Mobile stage. Sounded pretty good from far away. Our first show was White Reaper, and they were awesome. The keyboardist is freaking hilarious and goofy and over-the-top in a wonderful way. Although at one point he made the major mistake of asking the crowd for a boxed water, which resulted in 30 of them being chucked at him immediately. If I'm judging things, and I guess I always am, I liked their set a few years ago better because it was on a tiny stage. But they still jammed. We wandered over to Lady Bird next, and could kind of hear Toosii yelling through some rap tracks. Band of Horses were wonderful. Even when their lyrics are a little depressing and down, the music is cheerful and laid back and happy enough to push through all of it. I thought they sounded great. I could hear Marc Rebillet as I went on a food/drink/bathroom run next, and the dude was something else. He asked the crowd what he should sing about, and of course, his next song became all about whipping out his penis. Greta Van Fleet were absolutely the truth. Loved the show. The band is tight rock and roll, bringing back the kick ass sounds of the 70's and 90's, and while some people may whine about the lead singer, I think it is great. Sooo good. At the end, we decided to skip the next hour to get closer for Duran Duran, and I'm glad I did. I wish I could have seen St. Vincent, but we were like 10 people back from Duran Duran and they put on the exact right show. All the classics, no filler, well-executed, and the crowd was eating it up. Exactly what an act in their position should be doing. We sang along, made friends with the other old people around us, and had a great time. Awesome Sunday - very rock heavy, which was excellent.
Even with a lineup that, overall, I was less excited about than years before, this weekend still came through in a big way. Very fun times.
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