Bourbon & Beyond 2026 - Line 8 (Violent Femmes, Maddox Batson, Maoli, Lindsey Stirling, Noah Cyrus, St. Paul & the Broken Bones)

Violent Femmes

One Liner: Seminal, sneering folky punk with more than just Blister in the Sun 
Wikipedia Genre: Folk punk, alternative rock
Home: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  C'mon man.  You know this one.

I can remember butchering these lyrics as "twister" in the sun as a child, and my favorite part of it was when it went really quiet and we all got low to the ground at camp dances, so that when they rip back in with the LEMMEGOWWWAAAAHHHN! we could all jump up and yell along and freak out.  Great times.  Funny thing though, I know a handful of these other songs, but I definitely never bought one of their albums or really got into any of it.  But "Blister in the Sun" (324.6 million streams) is a stone cold classic, "Add It Up," "Kiss Off" and "American Music" make me think of high school theater and building sets while jamming those and feeling very cool while counting off the items in "Kiss Off" before yelling "everything everything" with the rest of the nerds.  Pretty great.

Ten studio albums!  That feels like a lot!  But I guess 1983 was a really freaking long time ago by now, even if it feels to me like it should just be a few years ago.  That first album features "Blister in the Sun," "Gone Daddy Gone," "Add It Up," and "Kiss Off" and it went platinum. The whole album still sounds awesome. They kind of remind me of Devo with their weirdness that is still tuneful and fun.  I've listened to some of the recent stuff, and its fine, not as good to me as their OG stuff, but they apparently can still do the thing.

This is cool: "They were discovered by James Honeyman-Scott (of the Pretenders) on August 23, 1981, when the band was busking on a street corner in front of the Oriental Theatre, the Milwaukee venue that The Pretenders would be playing later that night. Chrissie Hynde invited them to play a brief acoustic set after the opening act."  I'd absolutely go see this - sign me up to sing their five top tracks right now!

Maddox Batson

One Liner:  If Justin Beiber was country adjacent and sucked even worse
Wikipedia Genre: Country, pop, rock (huh?!)
Home: Birmingham, Alabama
Day: Saturday

Thoughts:  Oh no.  No no no.  Like a Justin Beiber for country fans?  I'm 0:36 into "Girl in Green," which is his currently most popular song on Spotify, and this makes me want to die.

He was the kind of kid who was posting little covers to TikTok to try to get some clout, and a cover of a Sam Barber song blew up for him.  After that, his debut single also went viral and so Warner Brothers snapped him up.  They sent him out on a sold-out headlining tour across the US in 2024 and got to perform at CMA Fest.  

I have to stop this from entering my ears anymore.  Here is the most streamed tune, called "X's" and it likewise makes me sad to exist.  10.6 million streams from people who hate themselves.

Oh, the video made it even worse.  Much worse.  Oh God.  I hope I never hear that song again for the rest of my life.

Maoli

One Liner:  Country-adjacent reggae from a Hawaiian
Wikipedia Genre: No Wikipedia, but reggae
Home: Maui
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  My brain thought about Mitski when I first saw that name, and then was like no, that is "male aioli," which is really freaking gross and maybe I need to wean my brain from the Internet.  I don't even know what to do with the first song, like, if Bob Marley wanted to make a bad country song?  What are we doing here?

I don't know who asked for that, but take it back.

Oh, well now I learned something.  Maoli is one of the indigenous names for native Hawaiians.  This guy is apparently a native of "upcountry Maui" - his web bio says the following: nine independent albums, 15-year recording career, a "fixture across the Pacific islands and beyond."  I do not believe you.  I kept it rolling for a while, and its just bad reggae.  Every song has that organ bubble sound of the off-beat strike, which gets really freaking old after a few songs.  I REMEMBER STIR IT UP TOO, MAOLI!  I was hopeful for "If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body," but its all the same.  No thank you.

Lindsey Stirling

One Liner:  Someone eventually would try to mix classical with EDM and here we are
Wikipedia Genre: Electronic, classical, dubstep (wtf)
Home: Santa Ana, CA
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  Really hopeful for this one after two bad ones in a row.  Well, her most popular song is a Christmas classic mainly on violin, so maybe she can play the fiddle...  Oh God.  Line 8 is freaking cursed, y'all.  The next most popular song is Dubstep EDM plus fiddle?  Come on.  I had to hear this, now you have to as well.

If Evanescence joined with Skrillex and Boyd Tinsley.  I had to skip the rest of that one.  I can only do so much in the service of the music, y'all.  Unfortunately, this appears to be her thing - techno and classical violin.  It gets better, marginally.  When there are no overwrought lyrics, and it is just like a classical violin tune mixed with dubstep, I can kind of see the idea.  But when she covers "Radioactive" with the Pentatonix people, then you can call the FBI to have her arrested for war crimes.

Her YouTube videos are apparently very popular - over 3 billion total views - and she made the quarterfinals of America's Got Talent in 2010.  While still in high school, she wrote a solo violin rock song that helped her to win the state title of Arizona's Junior Miss.  Also, her Wikipedia entry is like 80 pages long, and includes a section detailing all of her violins, which are each named shit like Ace, Starlight, Excalibur, and Pickles.

My daughter walked into the home office as this was playing, wrinkled her nose, and was like "what are you listening to?"  It does not have the 17 year old girl vote, apparently.

You know what, my initial reaction was negative, but this is definitely something different and I think she is a pretty damn good violin player.  It is exhausting to listen to while trying to work, but I might go see what it looks like in person.

Noah Cyrus

One Liner:  Miley's little sister
Wikipedia Genre: None (which is odd), but this is folk and pop
Home: Nashville
Day: Saturday

Thoughts:  Yes, this is Miley's sister and Billy Ray's daughter.  I previously wrote a deep dive about her for the 2022 ACL that you can read here.  "July" is still a lovely song, and the version with Leon Bridges whips ass.  The original has flipping 1.3 BILLION streams, and the Bridges version another 305.3 million.  I definitely like the folky side of her more than the poppy side.

St. Paul & the Broken Bones

One Liner:  Soul re-dux powerhouse
Wikipedia Genre: Southern soul, soul
Home: Birmingham, Alabama
Day: Friday

Thoughts:  My deep dive on these cats was back in 2016, when they last came to ACL.  You can read it here, but I want to listen to their newer stuff as well.  It is, however, entirely unremarkable in comparison to what I said before.  These guys make great retro soul rock and nothing has changed with their new tunes.  It is fun.  They are a fun live show.