Monday, June 9, 2025
Greg AckermanReview

Festival review: Second Saturnalia Festival gets mixed weather, lots of psychedelic music

[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”24″ display=”basic_slideshow”] The second Saturnalia Festival took place last weekend at The Sahara Lounge and neighboring Webberville Baptist

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Greg AckermanReview

Music Festival Review: 10th Utopiafest featured Lukas Nelson, Patty Griffin, STS9

Last weekend’s 10th Annual Utopiafest held for the first time at Reveille Peak Ranch just outside of Burnet saw ideal weather conditions perhaps for the first time in the festival’s history as the event dates moved to their latest time of the year thus far. The limited-attendance festival featured performances by Sound Tribe Sector Nine (STS9), Patty Griffin, Lukas Nelson and John Medeski’s Mad Skillet among other acts that followed in the Americana / Jam band slant the festival bookers lean toward.

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Greg AckermanReview

Song Premiere: Walker Lukens’ Election Confession brought Bright Light Social Hour and Joi Chevalier together and it was magic

The Bright Light Social Hour can geek-out with the best of them. Case in point, when the band was invited to participate in Walker Lukens’ Election Confession project which aims to mobilize younger voters, they met Texas Comptroller candidate Joi Chevalier and wrote a truly geeky song relating her story of meeting her Australian husband online in the early days of the internet. The interview and session took place at Native Hostel. 

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Greg AckermanPreview

Live music preview: Luscious Heaven Shoegaze show and The Nothing Song label launch

There are probably more small, independent, local record labels in Austin than you’d expect. That fact isn’t stopping The Nothing Song owner, Trish Connelly from launching her own label on 7″ featuring talented newcomers, Blushing. The Cheer-Up Charlie’s booker is announcing the newly formed label at her Luscious Heaven: A Night of Shoegaze and Dreampop on Saturday, November 3 (this weekend) at the aforementioned Red River club.

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Greg AckermanReview

Live music review: White Denim played stellar tour finale at Mohawk Friday

When White Denim lost 40 percent of their roster to Leon Bridges’ tour, things looked uncertain for talented founder, James Petralli. The path to the sound the virtuosic guitarist is constantly seeking was temporarily muddled. What was never in doubt is Petralli’s ability to make exceptional music. White Denim’s sound was largely built around former drummer Josh Block’s unorthodox technique who left to tour with Bridges full-time as did guitarist Austen Jenkins.

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Greg AckermanLiveReview

Live music review and photos: Bob Moses played Emo’s with Mansionair

Vancouver-via-Brooklyn-based electronic group Bob Moses brought their Battle Lines tour through Austin at Emo’s last Friday, October 19 supported by Mansionair. Bob Moses is actually a duo comprised of Jimmy Vallance and Tom Howie, their pop-electronic work was filled out with a lineup of live drums, bass, keys, guitar and vocals for a set list that drew heavily from their latest album, “Battle Lines.”

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Greg AckermanLiveReview

Live music review: Arctic Monkeys taped Austin City Limits TV episode Saturday

Austin City Limits, the long-running PBS series,  continued its 44th season with the debut of the UK’s Arctic Monkeys on the program. The popular alternative rock band (who headlined at Austin City Limits Festival over the weekend) taped the episode Saturday evening at the Moody Theatre at ACL Live. The relatively intimate space gave fans the opportunity to see the British rockers up close, behind the cameras of the ACL TV crew. 

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Greg AckermanLiveReview

Festival Review: Iconic artists mix with future stars at Austin City Limits Festival

Last weekend’s Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL Fest) featured legacy acts Paul McCartney, David Byrne and Metallica along with upcoming stars, Janelle Monae, St. Vincent and Austin’s own Shakey Graves. We’re partial to female-fronted acts and we’ll take this opportunity to point out it was the many talented female fronted acts along with legends Sir Paul and Byrne who garnered the most attention over the three-day event held at Austin’s Zilker Park. 

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AlbumGreg AckermanMusic VideoReview

Album review: The Bright Light Social Hour released first new music in three years Friday

After covering The Bright Light Social Hour for nearly a decade, since their debut album The Bright Light Social Hour dropped, I can honestly say I couldn’t be more excited for the group. If you clicked the link, you saw tens of thousands of plays their debut has on Soundcloud which isn’t even the most popular streaming platform they’re found on. The band was hot. You couldn’t turn on KUT (KUTX didn’t exist yet) without hearing one of the band’s singles.

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