ACL Fest 2025 wrapped with sounds far and wide, old and new – from local trio the Point’s genre-blending world music to Chihuahua band Midnight Generation’s throwback disco to Passion Pit’s 2010s-nostalgic synth-pop. Here’s what we caught before the sun set at Zilker Park.
Credit: Isabella Martinez
The Point Takes ACL All Over the Map
The Point is a whole vibe unto themselves. Opening up the Beatbox stage on the final day of ACL Fest, the Austin trio served up their own fusion energy to counter the high afternoon sun by jamming through cuts of the recently released deluxe version of their 2024 debut LP Maldito Animal. It’s an intoxicating blend of world music, seamlessly blending disparate elements from various continental influences into a whirlwind of Saharan surf, Sri Lankan blues, and psychedelic conjunto soul. The dexterity isn’t surprising given the trio’s credentials: Keyboardist Joe Roddy is son of Austin rockabilly icon Ted Roddy; guitarist Jack Montesinos was onstage trading guitar licks with James Burton before he was out of middle school; and drummer Nico Leophonte has worked with icons ranging from the Fabulous Thunderbirds to Bo Diddley. The Point journeys far beyond those blues-based roots, though. Across the nine-song set, the outfit swung through new tunes with the delirious dervish of “Itis” and jazzy rip cord groove of “OBIRWY,” while “Leaving” dropped in a surprising mid-set soul vocal. Throughout, the trio unraveled the underlying threads of roots music from around the world to spool into an entirely new tapestry, but really the Point is just about bringing the listener along for the ride. – Doug Freeman
Credit: Isabella Martinez
julie Plays Old and Short
From drummer Dillon Lee’s asymmetrical, eye-obscuring haircut to guitarist Keyan Pourzand and bassist Alexandria Elizabeth’s melancholy boy-girl harmonies, Los Angeles trio julie lean surprisingly emo when translating their quiet-loud “nügaze” into a live setting. The artsy twentysomethings present a highly curated image: Brady posh in her choker and ribbon-adorned Fender, the band as a whole ominous with an onstage visual projecting some kind of discs slowly popping in and out of two old-school computers. Yet their melodies, while engulfed in distortion, remained on Sunday pleasantly hummable and a little dramatic, more Jawbreaker than Sonic Youth. Stationed in a line across the front of the stage – Lee, clearly working the hardest, sat parallel to his bandmates’ mics, not behind them – the auto-cap avoiders favored early singles like “april’s bloom” and “flutter” over 2024 debut my anti-aircraft friend – though LP opener “catalogue” launched their set with gusto. “It smells like burning sunscreen up here,” Pourzand said early on. The observation proved to be julie’s only audience address – until Brady announced, just 30 minutes into their allotted hour, that they’d be playing one final track. Fans waited for several minutes as feedback droned following the final pangs of “lochness,” but their chants of “one more song” didn’t inspire an encore. That’s one way to leave them wanting more. – Carys Anderson
Lucius Credit: David Brendan Hall
Lucius’ Twinning Vocals Lead a Sunday Service
The tandem vocals of Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig enchant with such a power that the artists have become as well known for their myriad collaborations as they are for their own music. But as this year’s self-titled fourth LP proved, Lucius remains their own mesmerizing force. The pair relies less on harmonies than their perfectly synced vocal twinning, intentionally emphasized in the mirroring of everything from the stage design to coordinated outfits down to their jewelry. Given that expected foundation, the most surprising moment of Lucius’ mid-afternoon ACL set on the Beatbox stage was when they split their vocals on new tune “Stranger Danger,” a brief but rewardingly jarring effect. Wolf and Laessig led the fivepiece behind their facing keyboards, opening the dual percussion blast of “Nothing Ordinary” by adding their own additional tom strikes. The earworming “Gold Rush” hit an early highlight from the new album, but “Dusty Trails,” from 2016’s Good Grief, met the biggest crowd response. The 11-song set pulled from across their career, including the new unreleased song “Lucy,” and delivered an aptly spiritual feel for the Sunday service that finally burst with the closing hair-flinging freakout and cathartic cowbell breakdown of “Genevieve.” – Doug Freeman
Credit: Gary Miller
Midnight Generation Keeps Disco Alive
Quieter Sunday afternoon, second weekend – save perhaps for a massive sprawl out front of starmaking B-stage Miller Light for Disco Lines – didn’t weed out the Tito’s tent either. Indeed, the festivalgoers spotted wearing “Disco never dies” T-shirts nailed Midnight Generation before the Chihuahuans made a sound. Dressed in matching gym sweats, three keyboardists doubling on bass and guitar plus a couple percussionists, flipped on the mirror ball and blurred the lines on 50 years of dance music. Relatively live, the Mexican fivepiece began high in boy band “Energy,” party-starter from spring full-length Tender Love. Riding a cathode bassline as well as the guitarist’s talk box, a clear rubber tube one makes Peter Frampton sounds through – only in the Live Music Capital could you witness a teen barely old enough to know what that is explain it to her friend – the opener galvanized the spillover tent gawkers. Choirboy harmonies doubled by backing tracks locked into equally thickened beats, pleasing the queer enthusiasts. Chic and Labelle joined in spirit and lockstep Seventies grooves. Midnight Gen Z couldn’t quite sustain that momentum, the quintet far too static onstage, and the energy in the tent flatlined far too early, but they kept their crowd and four on the floor. – Raoul Hernandez
Feid Credit: David Brendan Hall
Feid Is Unreal
AI is coming for your job, your livelihood, your daughter. Now, ACL Fest – infiltrated! By all appearances Salomón Villada Hoyos – Feid – represents Colombia atop Latin America’s age-old romance with… romance. Medellín cohort of Bad Bunny, J Balvin, and more, the 33-year-old singer/producer brought out the local Latinate at suppertime Sunday, skipping across the giant T-Mobile headliner stage under a monstrous green head glowering above him with a huge screen embedded in its dome. A DJ, an (unplugged?) guitarist, and a… “singer” (?) all backed the Autotuned man of the hour, who sang over himself singing the tracks – all mouthed by the brown ladies in the crowd. And yet, that turnout fit comfortably within the chair line, one of the smallest audiences at that sprawling stage over both weekends. “Amor de mi Vida” warmed in its Spanish ballad sway, but less and less applause rose as the set wore on. Reggaeton made for boats and bars, its big-stage blandness bore none of the excitement or throngs of past like-minded ACL showings at that same stage: Mon Laferte, Residente, Rosalía. Did the asteroid-sized noggin’ simply generate out of a 3-D printer backstage? And Feid himself, archetypal or algorithm? Anything (sur)real here at all? Hard to say, but this Live Music Capitalist gets the distinct impression he’s seen the giant green face of AI and he is us. – Raoul Hernandez
Passion Pit Credit: David Brendan Hall
Passion Pit’s Heartfelt Comeback
Michael Angelakos materialized on the Tito’s stage four minutes early with no walkout music or big band theatrics. Instead, he leveled with us. “Thank you for allowing me to sing to my mom,” who has Lewy body dementia, he explained, before crooning an uncharacteristically organic piano ballad. The unknown number contrasted with its incredibly famous follow-up, “Sleepyhead,” though the electropop master reworked it until it was nearly unrecognizable, ditching its iconic Mary O’Hara sample and squealing synths in favor of a minimalist dance mix. The sardines in the audience – Passion Pit deserved more than a tent – didn’t seem to mind. Angelakos, drummer Chris Hartz, and multi-instrumentalists Aaron Harrison Folb, Giuliano Pizzulo, and Ray Suen left other Manners highlights “The Reeling” and “Little Secrets” intact, which flowed seamlessly into the more commercial “Take a Walk” and “Carried Away,” from radio-dominating 2012 LP Gossamer, and new unreleased tracks, including “Brothers to the End,” dedicated to the singer’s sibling.
The forthright artist began his set seated at his keyboard, famous falsetto slightly clipped; by the end of it he’d jumped from his stool to his feet, voice booming, swinging his microphone in the air and raising his hands in triumph. “For many years I fucking hated” playing Passion Pit songs, he admitted to his fans, who’d been singing every word of those 2009 innovations. “You make me want to fucking tour all year long.” – Carys Anderson
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Carys Anderson moved from Nowhere, DFW to Austin in 2017 to study journalism at the University of Texas. She began writing for The Austin Chronicle in 2021 and joined its full-time staff in 2023, where…
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A San Francisco native who arrived fresh out of graduate school to his mother’s hometown of San Antonio in 1992, Raoul Hernandez began writing for the Chronicle that year, moved to Austin the following…
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