The organizers of the Austin City Limits Festival work hard to balance the ticket with headliners, not-quite headliners, and a big smattering of up-and-comers to fill out the program and make sure fans have almost ten full hours of music each day. While the big names who close out each night are incredibly famous, the odds are that even the most voracious music lover hasn’t heard of every act booked at noon on Saturday. Most of those artists are local Austin- or Texas-based musicians who are at the very start of their careers; many of them don’t even have a full album out yet. But sifting through the dozens of unfamiliar names is a lot of work for even the most dedicated fan, especially because styles can run from country to EDM to guitar rock to hip-hop.
To make that easier, we’ve done the sifting for you. Depending on which headliner you’re there to see, there’s probably at least one unfamiliar act who could end up at the top of your Spotify Wrapped list in December. Without further ado, here are some recommendations for ways to spend your afternoon at Zilker Park before the sun goes down:
Benson Boone and Cale Tyson
Twenty-two-year-old TikTok star/erstwhile American Idol competitor/Taylor Swift opening act Benson Boone released his debut album Fireworks & Rollerblades earlier this year. He’s since watched it climb the charts off the strength of lead single “Beautiful Things,” a soulful singer-songwriter tune that puts Boone in the tradition of artists that blend elements of rock, folk, pop, and soul to great success—think Zach Bryan or Noah Kahan. Also on that trajectory? Fort Worth singer-songwriter Cale Tyson, whose catalog includes the recent pop-country EP If It Ain’t Broke, which follows up the 2021 album Okay, a collection of the most danceable folk tunes you’re liable to find.
Benson Boone, 6:10 p.m., Honda Stage, Saturday (both weekends)
Cale Tyson, 12:30 p.m., T-Mobile Stage, Sunday (weekend one)
Blink-182 and Late Night Drive Home
Blink-182 is pop-punk royalty, one of the bands responsible for punk’s final breakthrough from angsty counterculture to the home of bratty frat-boy anthems. El Paso’s Late Night Drive Home, despite song titles such as “Worms Eat My Brain For Breakfast” and “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,” are more on the “emo revival” side of the current punk rock spectrum, but given their pedigree—their 2022 debut album, How Are We Feeling?, as well as this year’s three-song EP I’ll Remember You for the Same Feeling You Gave Me as I Slept, were both released on the venerable punk label Epitaph—you’ll probably have a good time watching Late Night Drive Home if you’re psyched about Blink.
Blink-182, 8:10 p.m., Honda Stage, Friday (both weekends)
Late Night Drive Home, 12:55 p.m., Honda Stage, Friday (weekend two)
Chris Stapleton and Dexter and the Moonrocks
There aren’t many live acts drawing bigger crowds right now than superstar Chris Stapleton, who closes out the festival’s first night both weekends. His bluesy, rugged brand of country draws almost as much from classic rock as it does from classic country, with just a hint of R&B courtesy of Stapleton’s soulful vocals. Those influences are also present in the music of Abilene’s Dexter and the Moonrocks. The band leans heavier into rock than country in presentation—but a group of fellas from West Texas can’t help but let a little bit of twang seep into tunes like “Sad in Carolina.” While the band has yet to record a proper studio album, last year’s seven-song live EP, Live from Dexter’s Basement, recorded in Fort Worth, shows what fans of the harder-edged parts of Stapleton’s sound might appreciate.
Chris Stapleton, 8:30 p.m., American Express Stage, Friday (both weekends)
Dexter and the Moonrocks, 5:10 p.m., BMI Stage, Friday (weekend one)
Dua Lipa and Chief Cleopatra
Pop is represented well on the ACL stages this year, with Dua Lipa, Reneé Rapp, and Chappell Roan all representing different points along the contemporary pop spectrum. There aren’t many rising independent artists from Texas on that same track, but the latest single from Austin’s Chief Cleopatra—this year’s “Cold Dancer”—shows her spinning off from the psychedelic-tinted soul-rock of her earlier work in the direction of something decidedly more pop-friendly. If that’s the lane she’s headed down, then fans of Dua Lipa, whose own brand of pop incorporates psych and soul, will find something to appreciate in her set.
Dua Lipa, 8:20 p.m., American Express Stage, Saturday (both weekends)
Chief Cleopatra, 12:30 p.m., IHG Stage, Sunday (weekend one)
Foster the People and West 22nd
Foster the People hasn’t reached the highs of their 2010 debut single, the ubiquitous “Pumped Up Kicks,” in the years since, but it’s still one of the more crowd-pleasing alternative rock bands on the scene. Austin indie band West 22nd—who has yet to release a full album, but found some success off the strength of the 2023 single “Sunburns”—is very much following in those footsteps, with a poppy, upbeat approach to indie rock.
Foster the People, 6:10 p.m., Honda Stage, Friday (both weekends)
West 22nd, 1:30 p.m., Tito’s Stage, Sunday (weekend one)
Leon Bridges and Jon Muq, Theo Lawrence
In 2015, Fort Worth native Leon Bridges began his climb to stardom off the back of a pair of classic-sounding pop-soul singles and with the help of Austin indie blues/psych/rock band White Denim. The album showcased Bridges’s resonant voice and gift for songwriting, launching him to platinum status and four Grammy nominations (including one win). There are echoes of that story in the career of Austin-based, Ugandan-born musician Jon Muq, whose 2024 debut, Flying Away, received a similar cosign to Bridges’s boost from White Denim; the album was produced by Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach. The two have different aesthetics—Bridges leans more in the direction of soul music, while Muq’s heart seems to lie with folk—but both have unforgettable voices that caught the attention of famous collaborators. If the throwback sound of Bridges’s early singles is your favorite thing about him, Austin-based Theo Lawrence has you covered with a country-pop sound that comes straight from the late fifties and early sixties.
Leon Bridges, 6:30 p.m., American Express Stage, Friday (both weekends)
Jon Muq, 1:25 p.m., BMI Stage, Saturday (weekend two)
Theo Lawrence, 2 p.m., IHG Stage, Friday (weekend two)
The Marías and Midnight Navy
The Marías rose from small-stage daytime act to subheadliner on the strength of this year’s Submarine, a collection of dreamy pop songs in both English and Spanish that grounded its genre experimentation in lush, hazy production that made the album one of the more pleasant things to drift away to with your eyes closed. That’s fertile creative territory, and Austin’s Midnight Navy found it similarly fruitful on last year’s De Melón, an impressive six-song set that has all the makings of what could be a surprise hit performance at the festival.
The Marías, 7:30 p.m., T-Mobile Stage, Friday (both weekends)
Midnight Navy, 1:15 p.m., Tito’s Stage, Friday (weekend one)
Norah Jones and Hudson Ingram
Grapevine-raised Norah Jones, the daughter of legendary composer and sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, achieved a rare level of stardom with her 2002 debut Come Away With Me. The album sold a staggering 12 million copies in the U.S. alone, and remains one of the best-selling albums ever released. While Jones has revisited the jazz-inflected sound of that album throughout her career, she’s also kept herself creatively vibrant by experimenting with other sounds—consider this year’s garage-y, soulful collection of songs, Visions, as well as 2020’s Pick Me Up Off the Floor, produced by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, and her unexpectedly fruitful collaboration as a country duo with Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong. While you won’t find a direct parallel to Jones’s music in the work of Austin’s Hudson Ingram—the son of wildly influential country songwriter Jack Ingram (Taylor Swift and Miranda Lambert are among his adherents)—the restless spirit the eighteen-year-old, second-generation musician shows on this year’s Peace, Love, and Paranoia ought to be familiar to Jones’s bigger fans.
Norah Jones, 4:10 p.m., Honda Stage, Friday (both weekends)
Hudson Ingram, 12:10 p.m., BMI Stage, Sunday (weekend two)
Sturgill Simpson and Chance Peña
Kentucky’s Sturgill Simpson helped redefine outlaw country music, blazing the trail carved by Willie, Waylon, and the boys with a twenty-first century vibe. His work is traditional—there’s more than a little Merle Haggard in his voice, and a fair bit of Buck Owens in his guitar—even as it aims to progress the genre forward. One argument that he’s succeeded? The burgeoning career of Tyler native Chance Peña. A former contestant on The Voice, Peña created a sound on his just-released debut album, Ever-Shifting, Continual Blossoming, which utilizes slide guitars and draws from influences on the quiet side of the country dial that match Simpson’s old-soul energy on a haunting collection of thoughtful songs.
Sturgill Simpson, 8:25 p.m., Honda Stage, Sunday (both weekends)
Chance Peña, 3:30 p.m., T-Mobile Stage, Friday (weekend one)
Teddy Swims and Kalu & The Electric Joint
Teddy Swims made his name on YouTube singing soulful covers of songs by artists ranging from Michael Jackson to Shania Twain to Amy Winehouse. But on his debut album, last year’s I’ve Tried Everything Except Therapy (Part 1), he proved he could use his voice to deliver original material, too. That album’s genre-spanning forays into rock, R&B, and the fringes of country feel cohesive because of Swims’s booming voice. Austin-based, Nigerian-born Kalu James similarly explores a variety of genres with his band Kalu & The Electric Joint, confident that his undeniable voice will serve as an anchor. There are soul, funk, rock, and pop elements to the band, which could become a new favorite for fans of Swims’s voracious, open-minded approach to genre.
Teddy Swims, 4:10 p.m., Honda Stage, Saturday (both weekends)
Kalu & The Electric Joint, 1:30 p.m., Tito’s Stage, Sunday (second weekend)
