Please Stay – Coca Cola’s Sips and Sounds Music Fest is in full swing for Day Two at Auditorium Shores, featuring Benson Boone, AJR, Nessa Barrett and more.
On a day of classic Texas spring weather, temperatures dropped from 80s at doors open to 40s by the Sips and Sounds festival’s end. Benson Boone’s hoodies completely sold out as a result. But it was all worth it for the incredible performances audiences experienced that day.
Paul Russell
The Dallas, Texas rapper set the tone for the day with good vibes. For his song “facetime (4gLTE),” he had fans facetime their friends to bring the party to them. He got the crowd dancing with an unreleased dance song, making fans form a dance circle.
Austin Ashtin
The DJ brought the club to the festival with pulsing dance versions of songs like “Murder on the Dance Floor,” “Somebody That I Used to Know,” and “Girls.”
Nessa Barrett
Dark pop singer-songwriter Nessa Barrett played her latest album AFTERCARE for the growing crowd. She brought the nightcore vibes as clouds rolled in and temperatures started to drop.
DJ Cassandra
Cassandra Shankman recently made history as the first woman to win Best DJ at the 43rd Annual Austin Music Awards. She did things a little differently with her set, mixing beats with a live brass band. She surprised the band with “Calabria,” which they learned on the spot. She had the whole crowd bouncing along, then introduced salsa music for fans to pair up and dance to.
Chelsea Cutler & Jeremy Zucker Present: Brent
While Chelsea Cutler and Jeremy Zucker have successful solo careers, Brent is the name of the music that they make together. They are now on brent iii, the first full-length album in what had previously been a series of EPs. While they performed on the big stage, their set was small on spectacle- they both sat down, played guitar, and sang- but big on sound. They don’t get to perform together often because of their solo careers, but their duets and harmonies are really something special and it’s clear why these songs are significant to them.
Arcy Drive
Indie rock band Arcy Drive played their biggest crowd yet ahead of debut album The Pit’s April release. Bassist Patrick Helrigel introduced the band, hyping the crowd up for their entrance before leaving the stage and immediately turning around to enter with the rest of the group. The band rehearses and records as closely as they can to what they play live, so they are well-practiced pros on stage.
AJR
AJR is an indie pop band that made it big. The brothers started as street performers in New York City and now they translate that sound into what feels like a pop version of indie twee plus a Broadway-inspired flair for performance. The group still records songs in their living room, showing the crowd exactly how by recreating their song “Bang!” through live-looping on stage. Apart from their viral hits, the setlist also included a cover of what they claimed to be the “coolest song ever”- “All Star” by Smash Mouth.
Claire Rosinkranz
Returning from a performing hiatus, the bedroom pop singer-songwriter played basically all new songs. These tracks leaned more rock than her usual style with distorted guitar. Later, she slowed things down with a softer song called “Funeral,” where her band member and dad played violin. The highlight was her first performance of “Lucy,” a song she’s been teasing online for a while and she promises to release soon.
Benson Boone
The Austin crowd got to experience firsthand what the world saw at this year’s Grammy’s: Benson Boone is a bonafide star. High energy, explosive, jumping onto the barricade, the pop singer brought his all to Auditorium Shores. He closed out the Sips and Sounds festival with a bang, as everyone sang to the hit track “Beautiful Things” at the top of their lungs.
Between both days, fans could experience 17 artists in back-to-back sets. The Sips and Sounds Music Festival was packed with things to do, but despite the sold-out crowd, lines across the festival were manageable, and everyone could watch the shows from a good spot.
I am an Austin, TX-based photographer and filmmaker. I moved from Houston to attend the University of Texas at Austin, where I graduated in 2022. I'm a lifelong music lover and spend tons of time attending shows and making music. Some current favorites are Sophie May, Farmer’s Wife, and K. Flay.
