Thinking back to October fourth
through sixth, I start to smile. Austin
City Limits was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. The sheer fact that
about 75,000 people attend each day was crazy to me having come from a small
town. However, with bands like Muse, Depeche
Mode, The Cure, Kings of Leon, Kendrick Lamar, Phoenix, Artic Monkeys, Lionel
Richie, and many more, who can blame the crowd?
The first
band of the festival I saw was Jimmy Eat World. From “The Middle” and “Sweetness”
to their newer songs like “I Will Steal You Back”, I was thoroughly impressed
with Jimmy Eat World. They had a great
upbeat vibe and the crowd loved it judging from all the heads bobbing and the
hippie mannequin someone held on a stick, dancing around to the songs.
One band I
just have to mention was Muse. Now
I’ve always heard they put on a great show, but I certainly underestimated these
claims. After about a thirty-minute
technically difficulty with a generator, Muse was up and at it. The light show
was incredible, especially to the song “Madness” where Matthew Bellamy had
sunglasses on that typed the lyrics to the song as he sang them! I was
extremely elated when they played many songs from the album Absolution including “Time is Running
Out” and “Falling Away With You”. I
don’t think I could pick a favorite song they preformed but, “Follow Me” was very well done by Muse.
Overall, Muse created a hauntingly perfect rock ambiance that I enjoyed greatly
from the fifth row, and it definitely made up for the thirty-minute delay.
Kodaline, a
small band from Dublin, Ireland that I have admired for a few years now, came
to ACL on the third day. I woke up early Sunday morning to be in the front row
of their show and it definitely paid off! With their Irish wit, nice looks, and
great musical talent, I loved every minute of it. I did not want it to end, but
another great band was up next. MS MR was unquestionably not what I expected. As Lizzy Plapinger, lead vocalist, strutted
out on stage with her—I kid you not—lime green hair, I thought, “This is going
to be a great show.” I was right. The energy of the performers and the crowd
was so in sync. It was basically like a big party. It felt like more than the
band was performing to perform, it band was performing for fun, because they
liked doing it. That is what I love
seeing, so MS MR was definitely one of my favorite shows of the festival. The all-girl, indie pop band Haim, which I
adore, was so entertaining. Even with a
few guitar mishaps these sisters didn’t let anything get in their way. You
could tell they were having fun too; Este talked about how she just wanted to dance
and Alana beat on her drums like it was a game.
I loved the free spirit these girls gave off and it made for a great
rest of the festival.
There are
so many other bands I could go on and on about! ACL was truly amazing and I am
so happy I attended this year. I loved seeing all my Zeta sisters throughout
the festival and hanging out! I cannot wait to go back with them next year. I
encourage everyone that goes to ACL to check out the smaller bands earlier in
the day because they have some great talent and potential to be huge in the
near future!
ZLAM,
Riley Anderson PC ‘13
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