University Star

The eleventh annual Austin City Limits Music Festival kicked off with ease as over 70,000 music-going spectators marched into Zilker Park, Friday afternoon.

Seven stages welcomed this years participates, (and a children's stage): AMD, Honda, Austin Ventures, BMI, Zilker, Barton Springs and the main Bud Light stage.

Artists and bands such as The Wombats, infamous Asleep At the Wheel, First Aid Kit and Patrick Wilson were among some of the first to take the separate stages while the sun sat directly overhead.

Delta Spirit was the initial band to stand out as the lead singer let his raspy voice crawl in and out of the crowd from the AMD stage.

While Ben Howard and his indie-folk rock style picked up the slack as Delta Spirit's set ended just after 3PM.

The War On Drugs, Esperanza Spalding, The Afghan Whigs and Tegan and Sara were some of the artists to take stage during the later afternoon.

Tegan and Sara in particular played a great set. Opening with their hit, "Walking With a Ghost," then leading to others such as "Feel It In My Bones," "19" and a few new songs off of their upcoming album that is to be released in January.

Tegan admitted to the crowd that there was a good chance she would pass out while stage, and apologized beforehand.

"I don't want to blow my dancing load," she said as she demonstrated how she was only going to rock back and forth instead of her usual hyperactive display.;

A-Trak was the first electronic artist to stand out of the day when he began his set around 5:15PM from the Honda stage.

Alabama Shakes bounced back the sound waves just moments after A-Trak's set had begun from the Barton Springs stage. Which, due to the massive crowd gathered at the Alabama Shakes it was near impossible to hear much of their set. Lucky enough though, Weezer started their set just shy of 6:30PM--as well as the Black Lips, Patterson Hood, The Soul Rebels and Florence and the Machine shortly after.

Something was different about Weezer during this performance. The usually high-energy band was somewhat mellow, and had begun to look a little "distinguished," so to speak. After opening with "My Name Is Jonas," the band never really turned up the tempo as much as youthful-expecting crowd had hoped. Every so often you could hear "the dream of the 90's" reverb from Weezer's amplifiers, but the same band myself and others had seen before just didn't show up that day.

Friday night at ACL also served to Florence and the Machine's last show on their tour. As always, the ginger front woman did everything she could to incorporate the crowd into their show.

"It's not a festival until you take glitter from someone else's face and put it on your own," she said at one point of their set.

They went on to play all of their popular hits: including "Never Let Me Go," "Dog Days Are Over" and "Breath of Life."

Before leaving the stage, Florence Welch, lead vocals, stated to the crowd, "So this is a festival? If it's a good one then you might do some thing you'll regret."

Jam-bands such as Umphrey's McGee and Thievery Corporation helped keep the suspense of that night alive before the main acts came on at 8PM.

Avicii's set proved to be colossal. From atop a 70 foot, (or more), head, the DJ opened up his set from underneath a spectacle of modern light spectacle. He proved to be one of the more groundbreaking sets of the entire day, (hint the headliner spot), by making sure to spin all of the top Electronic Dance Music hits and all of his singles as well.

The Black Keys closed out the night. Considering their massive amount of material to pick from regarding their set list, they proved to play a show that could reach fans from all different time periods of The Black Keys career. Making sure to hit on enough songs from the albums Magic Potion, Thickfreakness, Attack and Release, Brothers and their latest, El Camino.

Closing out with "I Got Mine," (their biggest hit off the Attack and Release album), before sending the still 50,000 or more ACL attendees back to their homes and hotels for the night in await for Saturday's spectacles.