ACL DAY 1 WEEKEND 1: Wild Belle & Purity Ring

Although a little skeptical of the back to back weekend formatting I went into this years ACL weekend One very excitable because of the absolutely killer lineup. Who wouldn't want to see THE CURE alongside Tame Impala, Local Natives and of course the super band Atoms for Peace. Sure you are bitter there are no single day passes available, and sure your are kind of confused at what this double weekend is going to mean for your experience. “But you will have immense regret if you don’t go,” I thought to myself as I forked over the money for my over $200 three day pass last spring. “You’ll get to see so many bands,” I whispered to myself for nearly six months while trying to justify my purchase, “You don’t need gas money, buy a bike already”. And sure enough the ACL gods delivered an incredibly surreal festival experience.

Driving in from San Antonio meant that much to my disappointment I had to miss FIDLAR, so my ACL weekend started with wandering between venues, as truly it should at this sort of thing. I caught a bit of Local Natives, who were an extreme show of musicianship and finally settled down at the Austin Ventures stage. Here I saw Wild Belle, a semi Jazzy act who I caught when they were touring with Toro Y Moi. Perfect for the late afternoon, siblings Elliot and Natalie Bergman alongside their band have a great stage presence that sells Natalie’s deep set vocals and their fun yet relaxed sound that somehow still puts me on edge.  You can see what I mean in their video. I might have worried that their strong beats and baseline wouldn't transition well to a live outdoor setting (having previously seen them at a small indoor venue), but they made appropriate adjustments. It’s hard to really classify their sound with 70’s style electronics, Elliot’s folk rockesque presence and vocals that stray in between soul and pop diva.  But that's fine because despite hailing from Chicago their sound just fits Austin. Welcome to Texas Wilde Belle, Ya’ll are welcome back anytime.

Great billing on the part of the festival they transitioned the crowd from daytime Friday afternoon into the nighttime trip that was the following set, Purity Ring. Part of the reason I was all about ACL this year was some of the electronic bands that were coming in, Purity Ring especially. Again this was a band that I imagine would sound quite different in a outdoors venue then in a closed space and I was interested to see how their sound translated.  The sound was definitely preserved and I was impressed with their stage presence. One of the things I love about this group is how they are able to exist in the realm of synthpop and still retain a unique sound, which I attribute especially to Megan James' Vocals. I was incredibly impressed at how they channel this uniqueness live; they have one of the coolest live setups both aesthetically and electronically. And of course what’s the neatest thing about their set up is how  contributes to the production itself. They played a solid set that hit up on pretty much their entire discovery, staying on stage much longer than most bands of their age would.  Thus with the dreamy pop behind me I felt welcomed into the surreal world of the musical festival and was ready to tackle the rest of the weekend. -Michelle Padley, Indie Overnight Promotions Assistant You can hear Michelle on air Monday nights at 10.