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Rilo Kiley, Sam Barber, MJ Lenderman, and More Reviews From Friday at ACL Weekend Two
Welcome back to the dustbowl! Weekend Two of ACL Fest kicked off with returning players King Princess, MJ Lenderman, and Dylan Gossett, and added new acts including locals Farmer’s Wife, precocious Americana outlier Sam Barber, and freshly reunited indie rockers Rilo Kiley.
Farmer’s Wife Attempts a 1pm Mosh PitTGIFridays remain ACL’s best day: easiest entrance, lightest crowd, primo opening day lineup. Austin darkwave rockers Farmer’s Wife took expert advantage of a 1:15pm slot in the Tito’s tent to help ignite Weekend Two of the 2025 Zilker fall classic. Jacob Masson’s surfing bass and the alt-rock vortex of six-string tandem Jude Hill and Derek Ivy led vocalist Molly Masson, dressed like a pixie version of a certain “Like a Virgin,” into a 45-minute spellcasting. Atop the drum riser overlooking a full house, Jaelyn Valero struck an iconic pose: high sticks ‘n’ hot beats. When the singer strapped on an electric axe, heartshaped and hemoglobin red, Farmer’s Wife went full-on shoegaze. Dark tones from May’s five-cut Faint Illusions, follow-up to 2023 EP There’s a Monster, served as audio Ray-Bans to a cool, thrilling drive. “Fuck Greg Abbott [and] fuck Donald Trump,” shouted the frontwoman in her Sixties girl-group chirp, launching “Greg Abbott‘s Maxi Pad,” the set’s centerpiece. “Let’s see if we can get a pit going at 1pm,” she yelled. Not quite, but Masson’s unwavering, 100-watt grin and cheerleader energy drove the performance. When the band bore down on heavier fare, the down-tempo undertow offset the welcoming smear of their mouthpiece’s keening cry. When she sat on Valero’s bass drum for a gal’s moment, you could imagine the band through festival history, Monterey Pop to ACL Fest, especially when Masson ended the set by falling to her knees, yelling and pounding and punching. “We’re raised here in Austin,” she announced. “This means so much to us.” – Raoul Hernandez
King Princess Credit: David Brendan Hall
King Princess Plays the Fuckboy
Anyone still under the impression that all lesbians are wholesome, cottagecore-practicing smol beans could stand to check out King Princess, who everyday breaks down important societal barriers by reminding us that sapphics can be horndogs too. It’s a shame about her music, though.
There’s an inexplicable disconnect between the persona genderqueer artist Mikaela Straus – child of a Brooklyn recording studio owner and great-great-grandchild of a co-owner of Macy’s – seeks to present and the music they make. After bounding onstage in a white tank and shorts, layered underneath a black leather vest and chaps, they crooned “Cry Cry Cry” and “Jaime,” the shimmering, inoffensive lead tracks from September LP Girl Violence. The screen behind her projected a different white tank: One covering an animated pair of huge, bouncing boobs with the words, “Your Girlfriend Loves King Princess.”
“I heard a rumor that Austin loves pussy,” she teased before “Pussy Is God,” whose electropop beat would befit a Starbucks playlist if not for its subject matter. Not even a live band could lend these songs an edge. Skipping 2022’s Hold On Baby entirely, King Princess did command with cuts from 2019 debut Cheap Queen – soulful premiere single “1950” remains her best work – while a new track, which she said arrives next Friday, inspired hope that the songwriter may be finding their niche. “You told my mom I love cocaine then you lost my shirt on the 4 train,” they snarled, a hint of rasp poking through. Her majesty requires more depth. – Carys Anderson
Dylan Gossett Credit: Gary Miller
Dylan Gossett Earns the Hometown Mainstage
It’s a wild time to be a young country songwriter. Having nearly missed the boat on Zach Bryan, the industry is now signing up new song slingers at a pace not seen since the early days of blog bands, which can be a double-edged sword for artists just emerging in their careers. So the question for Dylan Gossett as he took the American Express main stage at ACL the past two weekends was how ready the 26-year-old was for primetime and how well he could hold down the major festival showing. Opening with the easy-rolling melody and harmonica licks of “Tree Birds” from this year’s debut LP Westward, the Austin native immediately locked in with the hometown crowd, with love ballads “Sweet Lady” and “Beneath Oak Trees” leaving the afternoon audience swooning. Harder kickers like “Back 40” and the heavy backbeat and banjo blast of “Hangin’ On,” which flowed into a “Folsom Prison Blues” breakdown, showcased the energy of the sixpiece band, which included Gossett’s older brother Blake on guitar. By the time his viral hit “Coal” landed as the penultimate offering to the tight 12-song set, Gossett proved that although he may just be getting started, his laid-back Hill Country rhythms and earnest songwriting have earned the accelerated attention. – Doug Freeman
MJ Lenderman Credit: Isabella Martinez
MJ Lenderman Holds It Down
When ripping through a guitar solo, North Carolina’s MJ Lenderman leans languid on his heels. When he’s singing, he slouches over the mic, leaning in to deliver his lines like your third grade best friend reciting a new dirty joke. The jocular lyricist had all the reserved wit of that third grader in his Weekend Two tone, opening with a cover of Greg Sage’s “Sacrifice (For Love)” before tearing into Boat Songs’ semi-titular snapshot of quarter-life class differences, “You Have Bought Yourself a Boat,” followed by the somber overgrown-teen ode “Toontown.” Lenderman, and his backing band, the Wind, were at ease for their second ACL performance, bending the tremolo bar into their noisier side, blending the “Rudolph” outro into “SUV” early on, and letting the scrappy, feedback-filled “Bark at the Moon” outro fuel the energy of “I Ate Too Much at the Fair” toward the end of their set. The second round setlist rearranged last Friday’s performance, adding “Rip Torn” and swapping “Hangover Game” for the aforementioned “You Have Bought Yourself a Boat.”
ACL serves as a near-end-of-the-road mile marker for Lenderman’s 2025 tour. The Southern alt-rocker rose to indie fame alongside neighbors Wednesday, reaching a tour date critical mass this year that pushed Lenderman to exit his role as Wednesday’s guitarist, at least onstage. Wednesday-ians Ethan Baechtold and Xandy Chelmis have subsequently stepped out of the Wind’s touring lineup. Bassist and fiddler Landon George and pedal steel gymnast Trevor Nikrant (Styrofoam Winos) filled their shoes with all the appropriate boyish zeal. – Caroline Drew
Sam Barber Credit: Gary Miller
Sam Barber Howls Bruising Americana
Had he been born in another generation, it’s easy to imagine Sam Barber fronting an alternative or grunge band. The Missouri songwriter’s darkly restless and poetic lyrics and steel-jawed, often indecipherable growl might seem better suited for a heavier backing, but young men pick up acoustic guitars to unleash their angst these days, and that’s a boon for Americana. Barber opened his late afternoon Lady Bird stage set with the understated drawl of “Better Year,” the 22-year-old’s guitar already boasting a Trigger-sized hole from his heavy strumming. The fiery howl and banjo pluck of “Streetlight,” from last year’s debut Restless Mind LP, hit an early set highlight, but fiddler Luisa Marion arguably stole the show matching her crystalline vocals to Barber’s rough moans on the stunning duets of “Restless Mind” and crowd favorite “Indigo.” Barber dipped into new EP Music for the Soul with the title track, “Home Tonight,” and bruising “Man of the Year,” before closing the 14-song set with a cathartic “Dancing in the Sky.” He remains one of the most interesting outliers of the new crop of Americana and country songwriters, powering with more of a raw emotion than smooth-voiced sing-alongs that suggests his evolution as an artist could go in any number of directions. But however he matures, he’ll be worth following. – Doug Freeman
Rilo Kiley Credit: David Brendan Hall
Rilo Kiley’s Enthusiastic Reunion
There was no festival waxing and waning at the heart of Rilo Kiley’s millennial-dominated audience. Even though lead singer Jenny Lewis’ mic stood stubbornly off for the first third of opening tune “The Execution of All Things” and similar tech hiccups bumped along throughout the set, the dedicated crowd never lost its footing. Neither, to be sure, did the reunited Aughts indie darlings. The alt-rockers stuck to the Execution of All Things through Under the Blacklight era of their discography, giving an earnest, professional treatment to upbeat major label singles “Silver Lining” and “The Moneymaker” and circuitous fan-favorites “Paint’s Peeling” and “Spectacular Views” alike. Lead singer Jenny Lewis, coquettish in a Fifties-inspired babydoll pink dress, handily captured the emotional dynamism of the group’s surging songwriting in her eternally powerful voice and dramatized performance, smashing the final keystrokes of “I Never” with the toe of her Mary Jane.
The reunion is clearly a happy one. Lewis and guitarist/vocalist Blake Sennett addressed the audience sparingly, but their performance effusively embraced the crowd and distortion-laden, jam outros hearkened to their scrappiest early material. The quartet’s jaunty playing was undoubtedly infused with loving nostalgia, eagerly reflected on the faces of gathered fans. A Lewis-directed live-to-screen GoPro feed filled the wall behind the band for parts of “With Arms Outstretched,” zooming in on the band members’ gleeful faces as Lewis danced across the stage, pointing the unfaltering camera this way and that with childlike documentarian gusto – youthful and polished all at once. – Caroline Drew
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