I covered three days of the Austin City Limits (ACL) music festival at Zilker Park in Austin over the weekend for the Austin American-Statesman.
This year the festival is spread over two weekends, so I’ll be back at it again in a few days. In the mean time, I wanted to share some of my favorite images with you.
Let’s take it one day at a time.
FRIDAY
Muse was the headliner of the night. Despite a delay due to technical difficulties, they put on a great show with pretty good lighting.
Arctic Monkeys were fun to watch and had great afternoon light.
Blind Boys of Alabama were great! Gospel and soul by four blind gentlemen who had music in their blood.
Jimmie Eat World – a 90’s favorite.
Scenes from around the park…
SATURDAY
Kings of Leon was the headliner. After seeing Muse the night before, Kings of Leon was a little disappointing both photographically and musically.
Deap Valley isn’t my kind of music, but they were great to shoot!
Vintage Trouble! My favorite of the whole festival! They were old school James Brown kind of blues funk. I could have watched them all day. Such high energy and so much fun!
Valerie June – a beautiful lady with a beautiful voice. I enjoyed photographing her. I love the way her hair curls! Also, she spent some time in the media area and she’s just as nice as she looks and sounds!
The Bright Light Social Hour was another fun one to shoot. More great hair. Saturday was just an all-around “work your hair” day.
True Believers rocked. They’re super talented and I’m surprised they didn’t make it bigger the first time around.
The Verve Pipe played the kid’s stage. I don’t know this band that well, but it just seemed strange that they had a “family set.” Seem strange to anyone else? Oh well, the kids enjoyed it.
Lissie – I didn’t stay long, but she sure could sing!
Scenes from around the park…
SUNDAY
Lionel Richie put on a great show. He’s an odd choice to headline this kind of festival, but I think everyone really enjoyed him. The drawback to his performance for me was the giant LED video board behind him. During a few of the songs, clouds appeared on the board, which were white-ish/yellow-ish, very mellow. They translated in my camera as neon pink, green and yellow. I had to wait until the screen turned off to shoot a useable image.
Eric Church was a fun one. High energy country with a band that likes to move. You got your money’s worth on that show.
Grouplove was fun too. They have some good songs. And who doesn’t love a leopard print body suit?
MS MR – I just have one question. How did she get her hair that color? They knew what they were doing up there and were clearly having fun.
Divine Fits – honestly the only thing I remember from that show was the giant sign they used as a backdrop. I was 3 days in at that point, everyone started to sound the same.
Scenes from the park…
There you have it, three days worth of concert coverage. I’d tell you more about how I did it, tricks and tools of the trade, but right now, I’m exhausted. I still have another full weekend ahead of me, so I’ll catch up with all the technical stuff after week 2.
I had SO many more pictures, and my amazing partners in crime – Jay Janner, Tina Phan and Erika Rich – had incredible photos too. You should check them out!
Click here to see ACL photos from Fri., Oct. 4, 2013.