Perhaps best described as Bonnaroo and Coachellas Texas cousin, the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival returned to the Lone Star state over the weekend. One of the summers most eclectic music gatherings, the multi-band bill featured a number of festival season stars, including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, String Cheese Incident, the Raconteurs, Ben Harper, Gnarls Barkley, the Duo, Galactic, Guster, Massive Attack, the Shins, Gomez, Kings of Lean, Iron & Wine, Cat Power and New Monsoon, among many others.

Recalling Lollapaloozas affinity for Gnarls Barkley covers, a number of artists interpreted the duos hit song Crazy throughout the weekend, including
Cat Power, Paolo Nutini and, of course, the songs author. Covers also dotted a number of other setlists: Nickel Creek touched upon two female icons with Gillian Welchs Wayside and Britney Spears Toxic, Van Morrison paid tribute to Sam Cooke with You Send Me,
Marah mixed the Whos Baba O’ Riley with Feather Boa, G. Love performed
Dr. Dre/Snoop Doggs Gin & Juice, WEEN waxed poetic on Wings Let Me Roll It,
Kathleen Edwards showed off her tender side with Neil Youngs Only Love Can Break Your Heart, and the Raconteurs rolled out Sonny Bonos Bang Bang. Even Gnarls Barkley got into the cover game with a version of the Doors Who Scared You. During his set, Ben Harper brought out his summer tour companion, Damian Marley, for a version of the reggae classic Get Up.During its set, Galactic invited out Meters guitarist Leo Nocentelli, who in turn brought out Buddy Miles for ‘Them Changes’ during the New Orleans Social Club’s performance.
After their festival performances, a number of artists headlined evening shows throughout the Austin area. Of particular note, Guster paired with Gomez, while the Shins split a venue with the Duo. On Saturday New Monsoons also performed to a sold-out crowd Stubbs BBQ, inviting String Cheese Incidents percussion team of Michael Travis and Jason Hann out for Painted Moon and En Fuego.