As the sun set on the final day of the 2026 Austin City Limits Music Festival, The War on Drugs offered a joyous respite from the electronic maximalism that dominated the weekend prior to Sunday’s headliners closing out the festival. In an hour-long set on the Snapchat stage, the Philadelphia-based rock seven-member band brought goodwill and great music.
After more than two decades together, the War on Drugs came prepared with an airtight setlist holding thrills from start to finish. The band, fit with a host of keyboard and guitar players as well as a baritone saxophonist, showed seasoned chemistry. After 21 years, their Springsteen-meets-Wilco style of Heartland Rock comes as second nature. Even with such a cohesive group behind him, frontman Adam Granduciel stole the show with a guitar-hero level performance.
Some moments, like the huge, jangly chords driving “Red Eyes,” brought focus on the band’s ability to put together a stellar pop tune. Others, like the 11-minute take on “Thinking of a Place,” centered texture and extended improvisation. During “Thinking of a Place,” Granduciel went full-on rock god, getting into a power stance before tearing into one dynamic solo after the other.
Each of the eight songs, which averaged about seven minutes, felt larger than life, as if they could go on forever. Even interludes unfolded slowly, songs often starting with long, sometimes grating intros laden with guitar feedback. The loosely packed, largely middle-aged crowd, many accompanied by their children, didn’t seem to mind the pace, and the palpable placid vibe permeated the atmosphere.
The all-killer, no-filler setlist left little room for crowd interaction, but Granduciel flashed approachable humor the few times he spoke.
“This next song goes out to all the pedicab drivers hustling their way around Austin tonight,” Granduciel said, introducing “Strangest Thing,” another downtempo odyssey. “I took seven of them in the last two days. I got ripped off every time.”
As Granduciel sang “Now the sky is painted / In a wash of indigo,” the “Strangest Thing” lyric vividly reminded everyone of the stunning autumn sunset fading behind the stage as the band’s set continued. A gentle breeze lapped Granduciel’s greying shoulder-length hair, bubbles blown from the crowd silently popping overhead as the singer guided The War On Drugs’ uplifting set into its home stretch.
“Pain”, the penultimate song, occupied a cozy middle ground between the preceding slow-burns and bangers, riding a mid-tempo groove until Granduciel broke out yet another epic solo on his beat-up Fender Telecaster. “Harmonia’s Dream” made for an ecstatic finale thanks to five minutes of built-up tension that the band stretched to its absolute breaking point before the song’s cathartic climax.
“Don’t look away,” Granducial sang, his usually steady voice shaking with passion. “It’s just a dream.”
