Whether it is due to it not being a school day or the fact that many more hip-hop and electronic artists were due to perform, or maybe both, ACL’s second day saw a sharp influx in the amount of attendees that weren’t old enough to legally drink and those that like to binge drink with their “Greek” brothers and sisters. However, since there were many bands that attract that demographic playing, it was a bit easier to find a spot at the acts that are widely ignored by the casual club music fan.
The first of those acts was Andra Day, whose beautiful, soulful voice combined with a talented band was some of the best R&B that the festival is going to see over the weekend. In between performing songs like “Only Love” and “Rise Up” from her debut album Cheers to the Fall, Day also paid tribute “to the artists that came before.” In what has become unfortunately relevant again in our time, Day covered Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam”, and on a lighter note performed a great rendition of Queen’s “I Want It All”. The only downside that would become reoccurring throughout the day was that the opposite, fairly close stage had a loud band that drowned out the dynamic vocals and made Day’s banter almost indecipherable.
In one of the first conflicts of the day was the choice to see hip-hop pioneer LL Cool J or brit rockers Catfish and The Bottlemen. The rapper opened his set with the classic “Mama Said Knock You Out”, and with the help of DJ Z-Trip soon had thousands of people waving their hands in the air. As an actor, LL definitely knows how to play to a crowd and give a engaging performance.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the park, the British rock group Catfish and The Bottlemen were bringing the rock with mostly tracks from their hit debut album The Ride along with material from their newest release The Balcony. From older hits like “7” and “Soundcheck” to their newest hit singles in the US, “Cocoon” and “Kathleen”, The Bottlemen had the crowd singing along to almost every song.
A band that was surprisingly good and fun to watch was Cage The Elephant. The energetic performance by singer Matthew Schultz combined with the eclectic range of songs made them a must see act. The sheer amount of hits that they have in their repertoire was surprising as well. Schultz & Co. played hit after hit with songs like “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked”, “Shake Me Down”, “Trouble”, “Mess Around” and “Come a Little Closer”, and that was only a sampling of their setlist.
In what was probably the classiest performance of the weekend, multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird and his band took the stage and opened with an instrumental violin piece that led into “Capsized”. It was a nice refugee for festival-goers that were tired of all the hip-hop and electronic music of the day. Despite having to compete with the overly loud performance of Two Door Cinema Club on the near stage, Bird just said, “Oh man. Are you kidding!?” and continued with his performance. Though Bird’s catalogue is large, he picked a good sampling from past albums and a healthy dose from his newest Are You Serious. The constant switching from violin to guitar to performing counter melodies of whistling and violin made it a truly amazing performance.
As the festival came down to its last hours the crowd seemed to be equally divided in three directions. One group ran to go dance to DJ Kygo, another section of the crowd massed around the opposite stage to watch rapper Kendrick Lamar, and an equal amount of people filed out the exit to beat the crowd to buses, taxis or late night shows. Kendrick Lamar’s performance mainly consisted of videos played on the screens with black and white celebrity footage like Oprah, Prince, and Michael Jordan. After performing songs like “Backseat Freestyle” and “Swimming Pools” early in the set he brought out Schoolboy Q to rap with him on “That Part”. He also performed hits like “Don’t Kill My Vibe” and “M.A.A.D. City” but the often times long pauses between songs saw many people heading for the exit.
Check out our coverage of ACL Fest Day 1!
