2013 marks the first year that the Austin City Limits Music Festival -- Texas' other large outdoor music festival, never to be confused with Houston's own Free Press Summer Fest -- expands to two consecutive weekends with identical lineups. At this point the lineup for the festival, scheduled for October 4-6 and October 11-13, is weeks away from being announced.
Rewind:
ACL 2013: What's Next For Texas' Other Big Music Festival?
The annual ACL announcement is always a big deal for Texas festival-heads. Granted, it's not as rich in flavorful band reunions and bearded, tattooed folk like Fun Fun Fun Fest, or weirdo corporate gigs like SXSW, but what it does offer is mainstream spectacle.
Last year's Iggy & the Stooges set was probably as "dangerous" as ACL has ever ventured, beyond that one time when it scheduled Wilco up against My Morning Jacket in 2007.
If Bruce Springsteen and his fleet aren't back in hibernation by October, they could be a great get too. Houston didn't even get a date with the Boss this past year, so yeah.
Having major musical acts tethered to Austin for two weeks straight would also be grand for cities like Houston, Dallas and New Orleans, and pretty much most of the Southwest.
Daft Punk is every ACL fanboy's wet dream, since the Internet was "cheated" out of a surprise gig in front of the state capitol during SXSW that was never ever going to happen, ever. Alas, the robots have already denied over and over again that they will be playing any shows in 2013.
Nobody listens, though.
And please, no more Jack White appearances for at least three years, or when his EDM project is fully functional.
Over at the Spacelab festival site, people are asking for everyone from 311 to Nine Inch Nails to play ACL. Nearly everyone is begging for Mumford And Sons and Bon Iver, if that tells you anything about the board's granola-tivity.
Let's indulge in some more speculation, shall we?