You won't mind getting lost in Labrinth's set at ACL Fest during Weekend Two
Never has an artist’s name so aptly embodied what they represent. The mysterious British crooner named Labrinth makes music that leads you down dark pathways where danger lurks, promise beckons and the light at the end of the tunnel may or may not lead you home. Cloaked in heavy smoke, he ripped his heart out onstage at Austin City Limits Music Festival, with a drummer behind him and barely visible backup vocalists who occasionally emerged, singing with the fervor of a gospel choir and the gravity of a Greek chorus.
He seemed genuinely humbled by the massive crowd that packed forward to hear him. This experience was a dream, he said, and he shouted out the dreamers in the crowd. “I back you every single step of the way,” he said, before diving deep into “The Feels.”
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Everyone sang along to “Felt So Alone,” a song that embodies his ability to capture that pathos of youth in song. But the real singalong came at the end, when the band played a couple notes of “Mount Everest” — a song featured on the HBO TV show “Euphoria” — then paused while the entire crowd sang the first two verses a capella. Surrounded by beams of light that formed a cone around him, the crowd shouted along as he took us to “the top of the world” then continued shouting (futilely) for one more song for as the lights on the stage went down.
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Catch Labrinth if you can during Weekend Two. He performs at 7:15 p.m. Sunday on the T-Mobile Stage.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Labrinth's set at ACL Fest croons and soars with HBO 'Euphoria' hit