Austin City Limits Music Festival | Day One | Weekend Two

We made our annual pilgrimage to the great state of Texas this past weekend for the annual Austin Music City Limits Music Festival once again. Three straight days of amazing music (and food) catered to everybody with it's spanning musical genres. Friday night was highlighted by acts such as Andrew McMahon and The Wilderness who played to the early masses. Electro-pop darlings Crystal Castles got our dancing shoes moving with one of the better sets of the weekend, perfect mix of showmanship and dance influenced material had the Honda stage raging. Pop-rock siblings Brian D’Addario and Michael D’Addario of The Lemon Twigs put on a remarkable live set reminiscent and influenced by the likes of Queen and David Bowie. The late afternoon blessed us with the winner of this years Mercury Prize (an annual music prize awarded for the best album from the United Kingdom and Ireland), Skepta who's London Grime sound has received worldwide acclaim. His set was on point and delivered just as we had expected. Other worthwhile sets included The Revivalist, Bonobo, Eagles of Death Metal and The xx who headlined the Honda Stage. One of the most anticipated sets of the day belonged to Solange (who was running late to her scheduled time). Her set provided a perfect segway to her Brother-in-laws set, Mr. Sean Carter aka Jay-Z. The New York rap legend performed in front of a 40-foot inflatable dog balloon designed by Jeff Koons. He played all of his major hits and even had Damian "JR Gong" Marley join him for "Bam" off his latest album 4:44. His set included well known hits including crowd sing-a-longs such as "Empire State of Mind", "Big Pimpin", "Run This Town", and many more. He ended his set with a touching tribute to the late Checter Bennington of Linkin Park with his rendition of the hit mashup "Numb/Harcore" before closing out the night with "99 Problems". A great first day to kick off the festival.

JAY-Z looking over the large crowd gathered for his performance during weekend two of this year's Austin Music City Limits festival. Photo Credit: Robert Castro