Austin City Limits Music Festival has seen its share of unpredictable Texas weather over the years, and on Friday, the festival's 25th anniversary edition got another reminder that sometimes Mother Nature has plans of her own.

Rain in the days leading up to the festival had already softened the grounds at Zilker Park, and continued showers Friday ensured there was no escaping the mud. Festival organizers confirmed the show would go on despite a flood watch in the area, and by the time gates opened, boots and ponchos had become nearly as essential as wristbands.

But if the conditions made getting around the park a little more complicated, they also added something to the experience. By late afternoon, the increasingly muddy grounds had become part of the show itself, particularly during what was easily one of the best performances of Day 1: Turnstile.

Here are five of our favorite sets from Friday at ACL, unranked.

Turnstile

It would be difficult to imagine a band better suited for Friday's conditions than Turnstile.

The Baltimore hardcore favorites already tend to inspire chaos wherever they go, but at ACL, with rain falling and the ground thoroughly soaked, their typically rowdy crowd transformed into one giant muddy mosh pit.

And it was glorious. 

Yet for all the aggression and intensity of Turnstile's music, there was something unexpectedly moving about the set. Throughout the performance, visuals featured fans talking about what hardcore music and its community have meant to them, emphasizing the sense of belonging and family that exists within a scene sometimes misunderstood by those outside of it.

That feeling seemed to extend directly into the crowd.

Cameras captured fans embracing the mess, celebrating together and throwing themselves into the pit, while other moments reflected the political undercurrent running through several performances Friday. An anti-ICE flag appeared prominently among the audience, while a "Melt ICE" button shown on screen drew enormous cheers.

It all made for a strange but powerful juxtaposition: one of the heaviest performances of the day was also one of its most communal.

Turnstile didn't simply overcome the weather. They made the mud feel like part of the production.

Jesse Welles

If Turnstile's politics were largely expressed through the audience, Jesse Welles was considerably more direct.

That isn't particularly surprising for anyone familiar with the Arkansas singer-songwriter, whose increasingly visible catalog tackles war, corporate greed, health care, politics and other uncomfortable realities with a sharpness that has helped propel his rapid rise.

At ACL, those songs clearly found a receptive audience.

At one point, Welles declared, "It feels good to be in Talarico country!" referencing Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, the Austin-area politician locked in an unusually competitive Texas race against Republican Ken Paxton.

The comment drew loud cheers from the Austin crowd, as did much of Welles' pointed material. But the performance worked because the politics never felt separate from the music. His ability to package weighty subjects inside deceptively straightforward folk songs remains one of the most compelling things about him, and seeing thousands of people respond to those songs together only amplified their impact.

Amyl and the Sniffers

Few artists were ever going to let a little rain slow them down, and Amy Taylor certainly wasn't one of them.

Amyl and the Sniffers delivered one of Friday's most ferocious performances, bringing their reliably unruly punk energy to an already messy Zilker Park.

Taylor was commanding from the start, matching the band's relentless sound with the kind of stage presence that makes it nearly impossible to look away.

The Australian frontwoman also took a moment to voice her support for "Jane Doe," the former Cornell University student whose allegations of being drugged and sexually assaulted by multiple fraternity members have received renewed national attention following a civil lawsuit and the reopening of the criminal investigation.

Taylor applauded the woman's courage, prompting another loud response from the crowd.

It was a serious moment inside an otherwise wildly rowdy performance, but one that felt particularly timely given the rapidly developing story.

Izzy Escobar

One of the pleasures of a festival like ACL is stumbling onto an artist earlier in the day and immediately wanting to know more.

On Friday, that artist was Izzy Escobar.

Escobar brought an easy charisma to the stage, showing off a warm personality and impressive presence alongside a voice that should appeal to listeners drawn to rising artists such as Olivia Dean and Sienna Spiro.

She also seemed completely unfazed by the weather, at one point joking about the disconnect between the sunshine in Austin and the rain falling over the festival.

It was the kind of small, charming interaction that helped Escobar quickly win over the audience, but her performance suggested there is plenty more substance behind that personality. In a day packed with considerably bigger names, she emerged as one of Friday's most welcome discoveries.

Night Traveler

For longtime Variance favorite Night Traveler, Friday represented a milestone.

The Austin band made up of Adam Fischer and Hunter Glaske arrived at ACL after a recent run of dates opening for none other than Stevie Nicks, but despite years of touring and steadily building an audience, Friday marked their first major festival performance.

Getting to make that debut at ACL, in their hometown, surely made the occasion even sweeter.

The band delivered the atmospheric, emotional sound that has made them a favorite of ours over the years, while also offering fans a glimpse at what's ahead. Their set included an unreleased song which they said was partly inspired by their recent time on the road with Nicks.

After sharing stages with one of music's most enduring icons, returning home to play ACL felt like an appropriate next chapter.

And considering the rain, mud and unpredictability surrounding Friday, perhaps it was fitting that one of the day's most memorable moments belonged to a hometown band experiencing something completely new.

ACL's first day may not have gone exactly as anyone envisioned when they pictured October in Zilker Park. But sometimes the mess becomes part of the memory.

If Friday was any indication, ACL's 25th anniversary isn't going to be a particularly clean one.

That's not necessarily a bad thing.

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See photos from day 1 of ACL below.