Favorite Songs of 2010

Since posting my favorite albums of 2010, I've been sort of mentally compiling a list of my favorite songs from the past year. I'm going to take the easy way out on this one though and refrain from posting it in any significant order. I'm not really one for comparing across bands, so the albums list presented me with enough of a challenge for one year, thus in alphabetical order (by band):

My Favorite Songs of 2010.....

Arcade Fire: "Modern Man"
"Ready to Start"

Beach House: "Used to be"
"Walk in the Park"

Bear Hands: "Belongings"
"Crime Pays"

Belle & Sebastian: "Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John"

Best Coast: "Boyfriend"
"Goodbye"
"Bratty B"

Blitzen Trapper: "Dragon's Song"

Broken Bells: "Mall and Misery"
"The Ghost Inside"

Broken Social Scene: "Sentimental X's"
"World Sick"
"The Sweetest Kill"

Caribou: "Leave House"
"Odessa"

Deerhunter: "Helicopter"
"Coronado"
"Desire Lines"

Frightened Rabbit: "Nothing Like You"

The Gaslight Anthem: "The Diamond Church Street Choir"

Girls: "Heatbreaker"
"Broken Dreams Club"
"Carolina"

Gorillaz (ft. Lou Reed): "Some Kind of Nature"

Kanye West: "Runaway"
"All the Lights"
"Lost in the World"

LCD Soundsystem: "I can Change"
"Dance Yrself Clean"
"You Wanted a Hit"

Local Natives: "Stranger Things"
"Wide Eyes"
"Shape Shifter"

Menomena: "TAOS"

The Morning Benders: "Promises"
"Excuses"
"Cold War (Nice Clean Fight)

The National: "England"
"Conversation 16"
"Terrible Love"

Neon Indian: "Sleep Paralysist"

Panda Bear: "Slow Motion"

Sleigh Bells: "Riot Rhythm"
"Crown on the Ground"

Spoon: "Written in Reverse"
"Got Nuffin"
"Nobody Gets Me But You"

Suckers: "Black Sheep"

Sufjan Stevens: "Age of Adz"
"Impossible Soul"
"Too Much"

Surfer Blood: "Anchorage"
"Catholic Pagans"
"Twin Peaks"

The Tallest Man on Earth: "The Wild Hunt"
"A Lion's Heart"
"The Drying of the Lawns"

Vampire Weekend: "California English"
"Diplomat's Son"
"White Sky"

The Walkmen: "Angela Surf City"
"Woe is Me"

Wavves: "Green Eyes"
"Baby Say Goodbye"
"Post Acid"

Wolf Parade: "Ghost Pressure"

Embassy Row's 20 Favorite Albums of 2010

I made sure to word the title of this post very carefully. I find that year end lists tend to send music lovers into a bit of a tizzy (I'll admit to being upset with Pitchfork for placing High Violet at number 23 on their list.) I'm well aware that my lowly little blog doesn't draw enough attention to cause anything close to an uproar, but still, to clarify, these are my favorite albums of the year, I'm not saying they're the best, but they're the albums that really stuck out to me, so I'll say they're worth at least a listen (or two.) So with all of that considered, from me to you- Embassy Row's Favorite Albums of 2010:

1) The National: High Violet

With 2007’s Boxer, The National took a few steps towards expanding their sound, on High Violet the band has been completely flushed out. Heavy on the violin, keyboards and horn section, High Violet is nothing short of grandiose. Every moment of High Violet swells with intensity, but manages to never feel excessive or over-indulgent. The album’s lush sound parallels nicely with singer Matt Berninger’s deep voice and quintessential “sad bastard” lyrics. Lines like “You’ll never believe the shitty thoughts I think” and “I don’t have the drugs to sort this out,” represent what has defined The National since their debut in 2001. The National present a sort of rally cry for the everyman, they’ve never been triumphant or fantastical. On High Violet, Berninger sings about finances and family, and captures it all with complete honesty and little complexity. High Violet is truly a triumph for The National; they’ve managed to make marked changes in their sound, while still staying true to the band they established 9 years ago.

2) LCD Soundsystem: This is Happening

James Murphy is a sort of god among men. His work with LCD Soundsytem has established him as perhaps the hippest man in the industry, and at 40 years old, that is an accomplishment worth mentioning. It’s true that LCD Soundsytem is meant to be danced to, it’s heavy on beat and provides more than a few expansive synth filled moments, but with a closer listen it’s clear that this is so much more than simple dance music. Murphy combines elements of 70’s punk, art rock and traditional electronic beats with a style and lyricism all his own. The newest LCD offering continues the more personal approach Murphy took on 2007’s Sound of Silver, but while Sound of Silver was Murphy’s ode to aging, This is Happening is an ode to relationships. On I Can Change, Murphy pleads: “I can change, I can change, I can change, if it helps you fall in love,” all the while asking his significant other to stay exactly who he fell in love with. This is the type of confusion and honesty that pervades the album. The lyrics range from self-deprecating to punch line worthy and seem to prove that Murphy has abandoned his former off the cuff style of recording. The longest song on the album, Dance Yrself Clean, shows off one of LCD's most intriguing abilities. The song starts with Murphy talking in circles, and suddenly breaks into a massive impossible-not-to-dance to beat. These transitions make LCD Soundsystem songs listenable both on and off the dance floor, which is one of the things that make their albums worthy of reverie. If This is Happening is Murphy’s last LCD Soundsytem album, he will have left us with an almost perfect example of his talents, a gift from the coolest man in music.

3) Beach House: Teen Dream

Beach House is comprised of Baltimore's singer/songwriter/keyboardist Victoria Legrand and guitarist Alex Scally. The duo creates thick dream pop anchored by Legrand’s powerful, husky voice. Teen Dream adds bends and shifts to the groups sound, allowing it to feel bright and sometimes bouncy. Teen Dream is more listenable than the band’s previous albums, partly because they abandoned some of the shadowiness that seemed to linger. There’s crashing cymbals, “ah ah ah’s,” and perfect arrangements all of which allow Legrand’s voice to gallop alongside her keyboard. The lyrics aren’t exactly the most important element here, the Sonics of the album and Legrand’s voice give them a hunting power, but on paper they’re much less pervasive. Teen Dream is a moody album, filled with shadows of gospel organ, churning keyboard and perfectly placed drum kicks. There is a soulful quality here that makes the album’s dark and light moments both powerful and serene at the same time, a paradox that has allowed Beach House to create and album that is not only unique, but also extremely listenable.

4) Arcade Fire: The Suburbs

Arcade Fire’s first album, Funeral has achieved something close to worship amongst their fans. Their baroque style, ambitious orchestration and anthemic momentum pushed Arcade Fire into the music world’s consciousness, and created a sort of larger than life presence for the band. Their follow up, Neon Bible was deemed a let down by some, it’s songs collapsed a bit under the weight of political statement and overdone arrangements, which made the anticipation for the group’s third album even more prevalent. Finally, 3 years after Neon Bible, Arcade Fire delivered The Suburbs, an epic quasi concept album that explores the connection between adulthood and youth, what constitutes wasted time and wasted effort, the results of looking back with regret. The album isn’t as depressing as it’s concept may sound though, in fact, with The Suburbs, Arcade Fire seem to be returning to the connective optimism that made Funeral an almost universally lauded album.

5) Sufjan Stevens: The Age of Adz

In 2005, Sufjan Stevens gifted the music world with his beloved Illinois, which placed his heavenly vocals and thoughtful lyrics alongside clever arrangements. 5 years later, Sufjan reemerged earlier this year with the All Delighted People EP, which set the stage for a new, more ambitious sound. Then we got the release of The Age of Adz, a monumental, electronics infused take on Sufjan’s usual gorgeous vocals and orchestration. This album features some of Steven’s most personal lyrics yet, mostly concerning his struggle with a prolonged illness prior to the release of the album. The Age of Adz requires an attentive listener (for example, the epic 25 minute closer Impossible Soul) its songs are long and shift periodically. Parts of the album can seems chaotic at times, but it’s Stevens’ ability to balance simplicity with chaos that makes The Age of Adz function as one of the best albums of the year.

6) The Tallest Man on Earth: The Wild Hunt

7) Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest

8) Local Natives: Gorilla Manor

9) Best Coast: Crazy for You

10) Wavves: King of the Beach

11) Vampire Weekend: Contra

12) Girls: Broken Dreams Club EP

13) Surfer Blood: Astro Coast

14) Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

15) The Morning Benders: Big Echo

16) The Walkmen: Lisbon

17) Broken Social Scene: Forgiveness Rock Record

18) Belle & Sebastian: Write About Love

19) Spoon: Transference

20) Sleigh Bells: Treats

Broken Social Scene, Town Ballroom, Buffalo, NY. 9-25-10

Broken Social Scene is quite the collective. The band's members are all pillars of Toronto's notoriously experimental music scene, and most are involved in numerous projects outside of BSS. The core of the band is quasi-leader Kevin Drew and Brenden Canning, but the group also includes: KC Accidental's (KC is considered the band that formed the basis for BSS) Charles Spearin, drummer Justin Peroff, guitarst Andrew Whiteman, Leslie Feist, Metric's Emily Haines and the newest member, singer Lisa Lobsinger, just to name a few. To pin-point BSS' exact sound would be difficult, with so many incredibly creative collaborators, the band's albums tend to include a little bit of everything. Their newest album Forgiveness Rock Record (which arrived 5 years after their self-titled 4th album) has already been established as one of the years best. Forgiveness finds the band in a much different place, most of the members had firmly entrenched themselves in other projects while BSS was on a sort of hiatus, and their collective maturity is apparent. Working from the title, it's clear that BSS is forgiving someone, maybe themselves, maybe each other, maybe something else entirely, but the main concept is there. Forgiveness contains the group's most easily accessible songs, shirking some of the more experimental instrumental tracks for genuine pop songs. I saw Broken Social Scene for the first time this summer at Toronto's Olympic Island Festival. That performance was filled with cameo after cameo and fan favorite after fan favorite, it was simply incredible. Being in Toronto made it possible for the entire band to be together, and appearances by Leslie Feist and Emily Haines sent the crowd into an uproar (rightfully so.) BSS is still touring behind Forgiveness Rock Record, so the Buffalo show was heavy on that material, but the band played a substantial amount of You Forgot it in People as well, which is always a welcome experience. Watching Broken Social Scene is pretty spectacular, the minimum number of people on stage for the night was 9, including guest appearances from The Sea and Cake members (The Sea and Cake's drummer John McEntire played co-producer for Forgiveness.) The amount of instruments used is really something to behold, 5 guitars, 2 drum kits, keyboard, synth, flute, trumpet, saxophone, banjo and 5 different singers. New member Lisa Lobsinger does a good job filling in for Feist and Haines, her rendition of the traditionally Haines sung You Forgot it in People track Anthems for a 17 Year Old Girl was spot on. Highlights of the night included the always awesome instrumental semi-close out Meet Me in the Basement, You Forgot it in People's Looks Just Like the Sun, a version of Lover's Spit dedicated to the band's engaged friends, and Forgivness' World Sick and Sweetest Kill. This is one of those shows that I doubt I'll ever forget, the vibe in the crowd was fantastic and BSS made it pretty apparent that they're one of the most talented bands around.

High Violet: Expanded Edition

Earlier this year, The National released their 7th full length, High Violet, which is sure to garner the band a spot on all year-end best-of lists. The band has announced that they will release an expanded edition of the album that will include 8 previously unreleased tracks, one of which is an alternate version of Terrible Love. The two disc set will be released on November 22nd.

A few random bits of news.

Sufjan Stevens is finally releasing a follow up to 2005's wonderfully grandiose Illinois, the new album entitled The Age of Adz, has an official release date of October 12th, but it's streaming in its entirety over at NPR, so you should probably check that out now.

Daft Punk's Tron: Legacy soundtrack FINALLY has a release date!!! It'll be out on November 22nd, judging from the tiny bits we've been privy to, it will most likely be quite the epic.


Also... Pavement played Colbert the other night, Gold Soundz sounded incredible of course, but the conversation between Malkmus and Colbert was the true highlight. Check it out via Stereogum.

Wavves at Mohawk Place, Buffalo NY, 9-16-10

Wavves' Nathan Williams has released two albums under the Wavves moniker, the first of which was a solo endeavor that contained a lot of lo-fi, feedback filled noise-pop, if you could even call it that. On close listen, it becomes apparent that beneath all the fuzz, Williams' is capable of crafting some pretty clever melodies, a talent that would surface in a big way on his sophomore effort. In 2010, Wavves added the late Jay Reatard's backing band to his line-up and released King of the Beach, which instantly became the soundtrack to every hipster/stoner/skate/surf-kids summer. On King of the Beach, Williams is still a lonely, self-deprecating, pot-smoking, 20-something with San Diego roots and a punk attitude, this time he just has better production. King of the Beach combines 90's punk with 60's Beach Boys melodies and more than a few ooooo--ahhhs. William's changes it up a bit though, and throws in tracks like Baseball Cards, which echoes more of Panda Bear than anything. Alongside a pack of surf-rock revivalists that have hit the scene in the past couple of years, Wavves has managed to take that vibe and soak it in attitude and experimental-type production, an aesthetic that has proved to be pretty irresistible. Mohawk Place is a VERY small bar/venue that has a pretty relaxed vibe. Mohawk's walls are covered in patron scribbled sharpie-graffiti and hundreds of band stickers, it's stage is small and there is never a shortage of people at the bar, so it's pretty much the ideal place to see a band like Wavves. The set was King of the Beach heavy but they included Wavvves favorites like So Bored and No Hope Kids. The crowd was really intense for such a small venue, and Williams and co seemed to enjoy the excitement. Wavves puts on a great show, but I was a little surprised at how short the set was. They only played for about 35 minutes and didn't include an encore, but despite that relative let-down, Wavves shows are still a damn good time.
(Sorry for the lack of photos , it got pretty rowdy in there.)

New Iron & Wine album!

2010 has been undoubtedly rich is the way of album releases, and it seems as though 2011 is starting out on the right foot as well. Iron & Wine's follow-up to 2007's The Shepherd's Dog has the ambiguous release date of "early 2011," and is entitled Kiss Each Other Clean. Cue the banjo!

Lollapalooza: Sunday 8-8-10

Frightened Rabbit:
Sony Bloggie
5-6 pm

I've written about Frightened Rabbit on here before, they're a Scottish 5-some specializing in anthemic folk-rock, if that's even possible. On 2008's The Midnight Organ Flight, singer Scott Hutchison's heartbreaking lyrics interpolated with the rest of the band's galloping melodies made for an album of definitive beauty. The band followed up this year with The Winter of Mixed Drinks, which provided a bit of a shift in sound. Originally a trio, Frightened Rabbit added two new members and thus has expanded sonically. Mixed Drinks missed the mark a bit though, the raw emotiveness of the former Frightened Rabbit is a bit crushed under the weight of heavy production. Lyrically, Hutchison's sometimes jarring honesty still exists, it just doesn't feel as brutal as before. Perhaps the band's new sound washes some of the eagerness away, or perhaps as Hutchison proclaims he's just "Not Miserable" anymore. Despite their relative misstep with Mixed Drinks, Frightened Rabbit's live talent remains unaffected. Describing this band as anthemic seems most apt when describing their live shows. The set at Lollapalooza was no exception. Frightened Rabbit played to quite the eager and packed crowd. Songs like The Modern Leper, Nothing Like You, Living in Colour, and My Backwards Walk were transformed into chants, and acoustic tracks like Good Arms vs. Bad Arms and Poke were greeted with hushed appreciation. The band finished up with Keep Yourself Warm, a Midnight Organ Flight track that provides the chorus "you won't find love in a hole/it takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm." It's an uncomfortable line for sure, but that's what makes it, and Frightened Rabbit heartbreakingly real.






The National:
PlayStation
7:15-8:30 pm

I've seen The National three times this year, Lollapalooza included, and my only explanation is that it's 100% worth it. The National is undoubtedly one of my favorite bands, so although seeing them here guaranteed that I wouldn't be anywhere near the stage for The Arcade Fire, I couldn't resist. 2010 brought about The National's fifth album, High Violet, which follows in the band's pattern of highly lyrical, perhaps melodramatic, relatively frill-less indie, but adds quite a bit of grandeur. High Violet is dense, powerful, and string-soaked, which sets it wildly apart from the band's earlier, more sparse work, though closer in feel to 2007's Boxer. The National have been progressing to more flushed out material in a way that seems natural and logical, steadily perfecting what it already knows. Singer Matt Berninger's voice is as connective as his lyrics, a bit harsh, but beautiful and magnetic. The National's live shows have a sort of manic/depressive feel. The more passive songs are met with a wandering Berninger, who's signature suit makes him look something like a college professor. On their more powerful songs, Berninger breaks into a frantic yelp, manically throwing himself into the crowd. This transformation of character usually occurs on Alligator's Able and Mr. November, though it slips in from time to time on less obvious tracks. The band's Lolla set provided most of High Violet, beginning with Runaway and concluding with Terrible Love. Earlier albums were also represented, Boxer's Mistaken for Strangers, Brainy, Start a War and Squalor Victoria as well as even earlier tracks Available and Cardinal Song. Once it was time for Able and Mr. November, Berninger scaled a plant-covered wall before leaping into the audience. His "my mind's not right" and "I won't fuck us over I'm Mr. November-s" were echoed instantly by the crowd. After three times, it's still undeniably captivating.






The Arcade Fire:
Budweiser Stage
8:30-10:o0 pm

I remember when I first heard 2004's Funeral. I was going on a road-trip to New York City with my Aunt and Uncle and basically begged my older brother to drive me to the store before I left so I could listen to it in the car. I was 14, sitting in my Uncle's minivan, with the headphones of my disc-man glued to my ears for eight hours. Funeral is one of the first albums I ever really loved. Sure, I was born in the era of CD's, so I wasn't unaware of the concept. But, given my age, most of my CD's were Backstreet Boys or Nsync, so the idea of an album as more than just a couple radio hits and a lot of filler was new to me. I don't think anymore praise can be given to Funeral that hasn't been already. There really isn't much controversy or argument, consensus says Funeral is near perfect. Arcade Fire's baroque style includes strings, horns, theatricality, ballads, anthems, story and majesty. Their 2007 follow-up Neon Bible seemed underappreciated, perhaps only if in the context of Funeral's definitiveness. Neon Bible is more aggressive, blends more styles into the band's aesthetic and isperhaps even more an album than Funeral is, in the sense that taken out of context it doesn't stand up as easily. Three excruciating years after Neon Bible's release came 2010's The Suburbs, and the adoration was renewed. On The Suburbs, the orchestra is back in full force, as are some of the more "rock" type elements found on Neon Bible. The story here is sprawling, and in true Arcade Fire fashion, quite dramatic, without being overly so. With their relative return to form on The Suburbs, there isn't much doubt that The Arcade Fire is one of the most important band's of the decade. I'll admit that I didn't catch as much of their Lollapalooza performance as I would have liked. Sprinting over from The National crowd before-hand left me watching the screens, but what I heard was incredible. The set began fittingly with Ready to Start, and was heavy on both Funeral and Suburbs material. Neighborhood 2 (Laika) followed Ready to Start and really cemented The Arcade Fire as headliner worthy. Also on the set list were, Rebellion, Month of May, No Cars Go, Keep the Car Running, Neighborhood 3 (Power Out) and Funeral Ballad Crown of Love (which Winn dedicated to The National) and finally Wake Up, providing quite the ending to not only their set but to Lollapalooza 2010 all together.

(Not my photo)

Lollapalooza: Saturday 8-7-10

Harlem:
Sony Bloggie
1-1:45 pm
The term "garage rock" tends to bring about negative connotations, especially in the context of song writing. Amateurish, poorly constructed, raucous, sloppy, whichever adjective you choose, Harlem manages to shirk each and every one of them, while somehow still sounding like they recorded next to their mom's minivan. Harlem's success began with their Free Drugs :-) EP which garnered them a stint at South By Southwest and lead to the release of their debut LP Hippies earlier this year. Harlem's sound is much cleaner than their fuzz enthusiast counterparts, and thankfully their songwriting stands up to the more stripped down style. The songs are clever, fun, and brilliantly hooky, paying homage to the likes of The Pixies and Nirvana (they even reference Nirvana on "Torture Me") and with lyrics about setting people on fire, this band is pretty hard to resist. I was really looking forward to Harlem's set at Lollapalooza and luckily they didn't disappoint me. These guys are exactly what a young band should be, a little bit goofy, a little bit hungover and a little bit disorganized. None of those things were negatives here though, it was all very charming and necessary. The members of Harlem, particularly co-founder's Michael Coomer and Curtis O'Mara share vocalist and drummer duties, which means quite a bit of band shuffling. This was far from excruciating though, in fact, knowing Hippies pretty well, it was quite interesting seeing which vocalist/drummer played on which songs. Overall Harlem's Lollapalooza performance was exactly what I expected: just a plain good time.





Grizzly Bear:
Budweiser Stage
4:15-5:15 pm

Needless to say Grizzly Bear's set was the highlight of my weekend. I count them among my favorite bands, and I had yet to see them at this point. My history with Grizzly Bear is not a love-at-first-listen story, in fact, the first time I heard Yellow House, I didn't like it at all. It was too abstract, sonic, even precious at times. About a year or so later, I gave them another shot, my music taste had expanded quite a bit and apparently time was all I needed. The band's Friend EP was a big part of my new-found love. The fact that both Band of Horses and Atlas Sound provided covers of the band's material made it more accessible, but the electric version of Yellow House's "Little Brother" was what really pushed me over the edge. Back-story aside, Grizzly Bear's 3 full-lengths and one EP show quite the progression. 2004's Horn of Plenty is ambiance focused and the least constructed, on Yellow House the songs start to gain some semblance of structure and form, the Friend EP provided altered versions of Yellow House material done by both the band itself as well as other groups, and their newest effort Veckatimest is easily their most accessible. Grizzly Bear's members are all multi-talented, multi-instrumentalists with a penchant for harmonizing and laborious song-craft. Grizzly Bear isn't about melody or structure, it's about sounds and they way in which they come into contact with one-another. The band's members are relevant outside of Grizzly Bear as well, Daniel Rossen has re-established his earlier band Department of Eagles and Chris Taylor has had hands in the production of both Dirty Projectors, and The Morning Benders. Grizzly Bear's songs are meticulous and dense, which can be difficult to re-create in a live setting, luckily, Grizzly Bear is just as conscious of their live show as their recorded material. Their set here was simply incredible. In an atmosphere like Lollapalooza, where big and loud tends to garner the most attention, Grizzly Bear really held their own. The band seems to have shifted a bit in the sense that the songs sounded fuller, and less sprawling, but the elaborateness and quality of sound remained. The harmonies were flawless of course, and there didn't seem to be a single fidgety audience member. The band is still touring around their newest release Veckatimest, so there was plenty from that album as well as Yellow House favorites such as Little Brother and Knife. Totally worth painting "Grizzly Bear" on my arm for (Picture to follow.)









Spoon:
Budweiser Stage
6:15-7:30

Spoon's career has spanned 17 years and 7 studio albums, to say that they are an institution of sorts would be an understatement. These guys are "indie-rock" in the truest sense of the words, what they play is rock, and they play it well. Spoon has never made a bad album, and I'm almost convinced they aren't able to. They released their newest album Transference earlier this year, and though perhaps not as good as it's predecessor, 2007's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Transference is a solid album from an incredibly consistent band. Consistency, not to in the sense that Spoon's albums are redundant, but rather that there is a quality of song and style that is always there. But what makes Spoon great is that they have expanded and experimented while withstanding not only a dedicated fan base, but also a great presence in the musical world. Earlier this year I saw Spoon play in Toronto with Deerhunter so I sort of knew what to expect from them here. Although the band is touring behind their latest effort, their rather large catalog of material guarantees the peppering of fan-favorites throughout the set-list. The band's Lolla set began with a Britt Daniel only acoustic version of Girls Can Tell's "Me and the Bean" and continued to include The Underdog, Don't you Evah, Stay Don't Go, I Summon You, Black Like Me, and a truly incredible cover of Wolf Parade's Modern World. Every song was played flawlessly, and Britt Daniel's signature yelp never faltered, as a Spoon die-hard, I may be biased, but this band really is something to behold.






Phoenix:
Budweiser Stage
8:30-10 pm

I stuck around after Spoon to ensure a good spot for Phoenix's Saturday night headlining set. The result of which was assault by numerous dancers and crowd surfers, as well as a lot of blurry pictures. No other band has blown up the way that Phoenix did this year. The French-pop group has been around for 10 years but 2009's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix put Phoenix on everyone's year-end best-of lists. Phoenix's sound is crisp and clean, their production is meticulous and their songs undeniable. Keyboards, more than a few 'poppy' moments and singer Thomas Mars' vocals reign supreme. For their Lolla set, the band played mostly Wolfgang material, as well as some gems from 2006's It's Never Been Like That. The show itself was quite the sight, a manic light show and a hugely impressive crowd, was it worth getting kicked in the head for? I'd say yes.

(Not my photo)