AUSTIN, Texas — She opened with “Get the Party Started,” of course.
If there was any doubt about P!nk – known for her technically and physically extravagant shows – bringing the full spectacle to Zilker Park for the Austin City Limits Music Festival, that was quashed last weekend when she flew through the air using a harness and high wires.
This week, the crowd was ready for it. But it was the set leading up to it – full of hits, singalong covers and dance party beats – that made it fit so perfectly to close out the night.
P!nk told the crowd she had been people-watching at the festival.
“You guys are so beautiful,” she said. “So many good outfits.”
It was time to “Raise Your Glass” and sing along with the lyrics on the big screen – useful! P!nk brought the fan favorites early on in the night, with “Just Like a Pill” and “Who Knew.”
The singer filled the middle of her performance with covers.
“There are songs in this world that I wish I wrote,” she said, introducing “River” by Bishop Briggs.
Shortly into the song, there were sound issues, with sporadic static over her vocals, leading P!nk to stop the song while they got fixed. In that time she told the audience her 5-year-old’s favorite joke: “What did the fish say when it hit a wall? Dam.”
She followed the joke up with a short acapella verse of “Please Don’t Leave Me” before the sound issues were sorted and the band started “River” once again.
Her covers work well at a festival like ACL, where concertgoers who come to watch the performance not knowing the singer’s whole catalogue can still join in.
There was the ultimate audience karaoke tune, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Then there was Gwen Stefani’s “Just a Girl,” cut with 2008 P!nk song “Funhouse.”
And the classics kept coming throughout the night, including “Me and Bobby McGee” by Kris Kristofferson and – another big singalong – “What’s Up” by 4 Non Blondes.
There was another brief stop-and-start on “Cover Me in Sunshine” as P!nk stopped the song to ask her guitarist to tune his guitar.
She brought the audience back from the string of covers to the big P!nk hits with “What About Us” and then asked Zilker Park to “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” before leaving the stage.
So few acts use the time before coming back out for an encore to strap into a harness for an aerial routine above the audience. But “So What,” P!nk does, and P!nk did.
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