Top 10 Fun Fest Acts

So we hope everyone had just a dandy time at Fun Fest this past weekend.  ATH of course had a lot of fun jamming out, day drinking, and chilling with our music biz homies from around town.  As per usual, we thought we’d recap the weekend in list form via our Top 10 bands from the festival.  With so many acts to be seen, this can sometimes be a difficult task.  Follow the jump for who made the list.

10. Big Freedia – While you may never find the music of Big Freedia on this website, we will admit that this one of the most energetic and fun sets of the weekend.  A set with a big booty battle on stage, your very own big booty dancers, and tons of crazy energy means everyone has a good time.  Hella fun set.

9. Mastodon – Not sure how we pulled it off, but Sunday night we managed to catch parts of every headliner.  Mastodon was just about what we expected; the guys don’t move around much yet they can bring the rock better than most.  These guys are the best of an ever shrinking metal genre.

8. Wavves – It’s hard for us not to like this guy, or these guys. Now, 1/3 of Jay Reatard, and enough lo-fi for us to enjoy in short spurts.  Not to mention, we hadn’t seen him play in a bit, so it was nice to see an old friend on stage.

7. Cults – When a band only has about 3-4 songs out there, you’d think they would find it tough to create an interesting live set.  Cults proved us wrong and then some.  The band as a whole was full of energy and sounded great on songs like their poppy jam “Going Outside”.

6. OFF! – Come on! Keith Morris and Co. killed it, absolutely killed it. Speaking to Keith backstage, he seemed full of energy, and rejuvinated in a certain sense, and that definitely came across on stage. Unlike some of the other aged acts of Fun Fun Fun, these guys acted twenty all over again.

5. Appleseed Cast – These guys were one the most highly anticipated acts of the weekend for us and they surely delivered.  Weaving in some older tunes like “Steps & Numbers” with newer tunes like “Raise the Sails” made this the perfect set to begin our Saturday at Fun Fest.  This set ended with one ATH crew member yelling “The Cast” at band members wanting a longer set…

4. The Bronx – This is one of those bands that just give you straight up ballsy rock.  Sometimes your soul just needs a solid kick in the face, and this band definitely gives you a nice little push in the right direction.

3. Magic Kids – A few songs into this early bird set on Sunday, ATH staff members agreed that this band sounded better than most all the bands we saw on Saturday.  Almost… The sound was superb and frontman Will McElroy provided an enthusiasm that seemed lacking in some of the other Fun Fest bands.  Great set from this reltively young pop band.

2. Decendents – Did you ever love a band, and spend so much time with a band that when you finally saw them it was a huge let down?  This wasn’t the case for me when I saw these guys to break my Descendents cherry, nor was it the case for everyone else screaming atop their lungs at the set.  Now, if they will only give us  a new record, then I could be a super-fan all over again.

1. Dirty Projectors – So most of the day on Saturday we kept wondering if maybe the sound on the orange stage was a bit off.  All day we were pretty let down by bands on the stage until those Brooklyn kids known as Dirty Projectors took the stage.  The sound was incredible and the band packed that punch we felt was lacking with most other bands on the orange stage.  It’s a consensus amongst ATH staffers: Dirty Projectors were the band of the weekend.

Anyone we maybe left off the list?  Maybe we’ve got one here that doesn’t belong?  Let us know what you think peeps.

We were definitely very underwhelmed/bored by Best Coast (I hate pot, am allergic to cats), MGMT (it’s ok to move on stage guys!), Bad Religion (bad sloppy bass), A-Trak (nice guy, but a headliner), and Mr. Slick Rick (snooze).  They just weren’t doing it for us.