The Band of Heathens formed 20 years ago in '05, but it was this weekend in '08 that we "discovered" them.
This was the weekend that they rescheduled the Arkansas game in Austin because of Hurricane Ike, and may have been the first time a home game was played during the then 1-weekend ACL Festival. Limited hotel capacity used to be a thing in Austin.
They played a day show at the Festival...we went to the game, regrouped, and looked through the Chronicle for live music. Saw "The Band of Heathens" listed as an ACL Aftershow at the Saxon Pub, and decided that sounded cool.
Holy Mother of God that show was the best small venue show I've ever been to. The dudes were juiced up from the ACL show and brought the house down at Saxon. Shit I was 42 years old then and it changed (or at least fine tuned) the way I listen to music.
The band has changed, grown, evolved over the years since then....but at their core, they are still the same band. They regularly play all over Texas in the Fall, and I encourage y'all to catch them if you can.
https://bandofheathens.com/tour/