New Superstars

October 9, 2019

Billie Eilish

Metric

The Cure 

Jenny Lewis

New Superstars

One of the reasons that I love the ACL Festival is that the organizers do a consistently amazing job in booking a wonderful mix of established musical icons as well as pegging up and coming potential superstars, often just before or during their incredible breakouts onto the music scene. This was especially apparent on day two of this year’s festival where I was able to catch sets by long established bands like Rock n Roll Hall of Famers, The Cure on the same day as watching breakout superstars like Billie Eilish.

Cherry Glazer

The Cure

Day Two of the festival was by far the most enjoyable for me as I got to see some amazing live music and experience seeing some of the most dynamic new acts in music at the moment. Even though I missed the morning and early afternoon, I arrived in time to catch a set by the amazing Brittany Howard. I had seen her perform with her band the Alabama Shakes, but this my first chance to catch her as a solo act and she was terrific. 

My next stop was at one of the smaller side stages where a huge crowd had gathered to see Judah and the Lion. I have not generally been a fan of most Christian rock bands, but I have to admit that they performed a pretty nice set of music. Staying and watching their full set, kept me from getting a decent spot for the next act that I went to watch, Billie Eilish.

Brittany Howard

The 17 year old phenom has burst onto the world music scene in the past few years and has developed a massive following, especially among the younger music fans and they packed the area in front of the stage and beyond, making getting anywhere close to the stage nearly impossible without having preplanned and setting up a place well before her scheduled start time. Her set was really good and while it is not exactly my style, it certainly had the mostly young crowd in a frenzy. 

Much more my speed was the next set that I watched by one of my favorite Canadian bands, Metric. I had the good fortune of seeing them play on two previous occasions and I was sure I wanted to see their complete set here at ACL. I am a huge fan of lead singer Emily Haines and they feature one of my favorite young guitarists as well, the impressive James Shaw.

 

Metric

They opened the set with my favorite song of theirs, “Breathing Underwater” which was great before launching into a great set that relied heavily on their upcoming new release which is due out soon. Their performance was one of my favorites of the entire weekend and it left me wanting to be sure to catch a headlining set on their next tour, they are truly a great band.

The Cure

The final act that I went to check out was another of my favorite bands of all time, the headliners of day two, The Cure. Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year after what has been an incredible career that finds them as relevant and awesome today as they were at the height of their fame during the eighties. They played a full set that was heavy on some of their biggest hits to a massive crowd. They were playing opposite Childish Gambino, who I would have liked to see, but I was not about to pass up the opportunity to see the legendary band once again.

 

I stayed through the entire set, which is something I rarely do for ACL headliners, even though I had tickets for one of the official aftershows at the Historic Scoot Inn featuring Cherry Glazer and Jenny Lewis. I was able to make it in time by catching a taxi to the club where I arrived to the sold-out show just before Cherry Glazer opened the show.

 

Cherry Glazer

I was not at all familiar with Cherry Glazer but they were a great young rock band, I was really impressed and happy that I picked this particular aftershow to attend. I was even happier when Jenny Lewis came on. I had seen her and her former band Rilo Kiley before, but never seen a full solo set and she was amazing. She has sort of reinvented herself as a sort of alt-rock EmmyLou Harris and had the crowd enthralled with her incredible voice from the opening notes of the show. 

Cherry Glazer