If you didn’t make it to Austin City Limits this year, your ears missed out on an incredible musical experience.
Of more than 130 acts, there were seven performances that captivated the audience and stole the entire 10th anniversary festival.
Friday night headliners Coldplay and Kanye West weren’t the only good events at ACL. Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes, Cee Lo Green, Chromeo and Arcade Fire gave performances that had everyone at Zilker Park singing at the top of their lungs with their hands in the air.
Iron & Wine took the stage while rain fell over the park on Saturday afternoon. Their set featured jazz instrumentals, which are prevalent in their more recent work.
Both Cee Lo and Chromeo took it up a notch later in the evening with performances that oozed sex appeal. Cee Lo wasn’t modest about his sexual prowess and had four smoking hot women on guitar, bass, drums and keys. Dave Macklovitch and his partner, P-Thugg had their audience — which was comprised mostly of high school and college-aged girls — fawning over their performance.
On Sunday afternoon the Bud Light stage had back-to-back performances from Broken Social Scene, Fleet Foxes and Arcade Fire. As one might expect, there were quite a few plaid flannel shirts, Wayfarers and fedoras in the audience. Broken Social Scene performed a set of about 10 songs, one of which was a cover of Modest Mouse’s “The World at Large.” They brought their set to a close with a full, electrifying sound that was unmatched by any other act at the festival.
Fleet Foxes followed suit with an exceptional folk rock set which featured a number of songs from their first record. “Ragged Wood” and “Mykonos” captivated audience members and “White Winter Hymnal” was easily the most notable performance of their set.
As the last act of the entire festival, Arcade Fire opened with a suburbia-themed film. Their performance attracted fans young and old. They mostly played songs from their recent album, “The Suburbs,” which won album of the year in February; however, a sprawling, passionate performance of “Wake Up” ignited the audience, resulting in them screaming the lyrics along with Win Butler himself. The lights and sound from Arcade Fire’s set resonated across Zilker as the sun set over a brilliant performance — it was a perfect end to a perfect weekend.
