2015 Austin City Limits Music Festival Lineup
Foo Fighters, Drake, the Weeknd, and Deadmau5 top fall fest
By Kevin Curtin and Raoul Hernandez, 6:01AM, Tue. May 5, 2015
ACL Fest stole its own thunder when the official website inexplicably posted, then deleted, the 2015 lineup on Sunday night, two days before its scheduled announcement. Mum’s the word from reps regarding how that hype-killing gaffe occurred, but we can assume someone got taken out back of the shed Monday morning.
This morning’s certified lineup confirms that Sunday’s dénouement was, in fact, the genuine article. Omnipresent modern rockers Foo Fighters, superstar rapper Drake, Canadian R&B/hip-hop futurist the Weeknd, electro duo Disclosure, DJ mascot Deadmau5, EDM thumper Bassnectar, and Brit quirks Alt-J are all set to headline the fall fest, running Oct. 2-4 and 9-11 at Zilker Park's Great Lawn.
Scanning down the bill, you’ll see Irish singer-songwriter Hozier, who cancelled his ACL Fest appearance last year due to illness, but recently returned with a sold-out show at Austin Music Hall booked by festival organizers C3 Presents. Similarly, modern country savior Sturgill Simpson earned his ACL artist bracelet after a recent two-night stand at C3 venue Stubb’s and an Austin City Limits taping. He better work on projecting his voice now that he’s on the same lineup as elder statesman Dwight Yoakam.
Secured as well is the first Austin show for erudite folk rockers the Decemberists since the January release of What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World. Also netted are young Fort Worth soul man Leon Bridges, who could have played any festival after his triumphant breakthrough at South by Southwest, recent PBS performers TV On the Radio, Eighties punk superstar Billy Idol, emo survivors Brand New, and Aussie psych lords Tame Impala – headlining Levitation on Friday.
While ACL’s late-blooming interest in hip-hop seemed to reach a pinnacle last year with double rap headliners Outkast and Eminem, the Fest remains a platform for microphone fiends in 2015 with the stadium-sized draw of Drake, who last played Austin in 2012, but also Run the Jewels, Chance the Rapper, and A$AP Rocky.
Growing at the same rate is ACL’s electronic music profile, which accounts for three headliners in addition to undercard attractions like Nero, Classixx, and Flosstradamus. Expect those acts to be parceled out in late-evening sets over the weekend so the notably young rave sector has something to throw their glow sticks at.
Last year, the artistic chasm between weekend one and weekend two of ACL Fest could be stated in one word: Lorde – the Kiwi teen drawing a huge crowd during her second weekend one-off. This year, ticket holders have to choose between weekend one exclusives the Strokes and Alabama Shakes, and weekend two headliners Florence + the Machine and Modest Mouse. Even among the lower strata of acts there’s exclusives, like first-weekend Texas troubadour William Clark Green versus SNL scion Elle King and Chapel Hill jubilee roots duo Mandolin Orange. The gospel tent remains its own divide between the two Fests.
Even with ACL being Austin’s most Top 40-baiting gathering, bubbling under this year are Rhiannon Giddens, fiddler/singer of Grammy-winning old-timey gang Carolina Chocolate Drops, passionate piano pop duo 21 Pilots, and fast-rising folksinger Rayland Baxter, son of Bob Dylan’s longtime pedal steel accompanist Bucky Baxter.
Austin artists playing the hootenany range from nationally known entities Gary Clark Jr., Shakey Graves, and annual shoe-ins Asleep at the Wheel to a host of local soldiers divided between weekend one – among them Ume, Leopold & His Fiction, the Wind + the Wave, Calliope Musicals, Residual Kid, and Mother Falcon; and second-weekend inclusions Tameca Jones, Knifight, the Nightowls, and Riders Against the Storm.
The online ticket window for ACL Fest passes opens this morning at 10am CST. Passes for the weekend of your choice run $250. Single day tickets carry a $100 price tag, but won’t be available until summer.
Alabama Shakes Alt-J Amason American Aquarium (weekend one only) A$AP Rocky Asleep at the Wheel A Tribute to Andrae Crouch Avers (weekend two only) Barton Hills Choir Bassnectar Rayland Baxter (weekend one only) Beat Connection (weekend two only) Bee Caves (weekend two only) Big Don (weekend one only) The Blessed Boots Boom Forest (weekend one only) Børns Leon Bridges Brand New Wesley Bray & the Disciples of Soul Calliope Musicals (weekend one only) Chance the Rapper Charlotte OC Cherub Gary Clark Jr. Classixx Con Brio Daughter Mikaela Davis (weekend one only) Deadmaus Decemberists DeRobert & the Half-Truths (weekend two only) Disclosure Drake The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers Echosmith Emisunshine (weekend two only) George Ezra Father John Misty Flosstradamus Brandon Flowers Foo Fighters G-Eazy Gabriel Garzón-Montano (weekend two only) Rhiannon Giddens José González Glass Animals Shakey Graves William Clark Green (weekend one only) Griz Halsey Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas (weekend one only) Marian Hill (weekend two only) Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors Holychild (weekend one only) Albert Hammond Jr. Marion Hill (weekend two only) Houndmouth Ben Howard Hozier The Hunts (weekend two only) In the Valley Below (weekend one only) In the Whale (weekend one only) Billy Idol Tameca Jones (weekend two only) Vance Joy Kansas Bible Company (weekend two only) Kaleo (weekend two only) Kehlani (weekend one only) Elle King (weekend two only) Kings of Harmony + 1 Koa (weekend one only) Maggie Koerner (weekend one only) Knifight (weekend two only) Tim Kubart & Mother Falcon (weekend one only) Leopold & His Fiction (weekend one only) The Levites Lion Babe The London Souls (weekend two only) Lord Huron The Maccabees Mako Milo Greene Mister G (weekend two only) Misterwives Moon Taxi Tyree Morris & Hearts of Worship Meg Myers Motown Pete (weekend two only) Muddy Magnolias (weekend one only) Nero Night Drive (weekend one only) The Nightowls (weekend two only) Of Monsters & Men Q Brothers Lanz Pierce (weekend two only) The Pop Ups (weekend two only) Nate Ruess Ready for Naptime Players (weekend one only) Residual Kid (weekend one only) Riders Against the Storm (weekend two only) Justin Roberts & the Not (weekend one only) Royal Blood Ruen Brothers Run the Jewels San Fermin School of Rock Hunter Sharpe (weekend one only) Sheppard Sol Kat Songhoy Blues Sons of Bill (weekend one only) Spirit Family Reunion (weekend two only) Chris Stapleton (weekend two only) Steelism (weekend two only) Strand of Oaks The Strokes (weekend one only) Sturgill Simpson The Suffers (weekend one only) Sylvan Esso Talk in Tongues (weekend one only) Tame Impala TV on the Radio Twenty-one Pilots Ume (weekend one only) Unknown Mortal Orchestra Kali Urchis (weekend one only) Adia Victoria (weekend two only) Kurt Vile & the Violators Walk the Moon Waxahatchee (weekend one only) Ryan Weaver The Weeknd The Wind + the Wave (weekend one only) Whiskey Myers (weekend two only) Years & Years Dwight Yoakam
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Kevin Curtin, Oct. 9, 2015
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ACL Fest 2015, Drake, Foo Fighters, Deadmou5, the Weekend
