The festival officially kicked off on Friday afternoon, with performances by soul band Lubriphonic, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars and indie rock stalwarts Cold War Kids. As French indie pop band Phoenix began to set up their equipment, clouds gathered for an ominous sign of what was to come.

Saturday morning, the National Weather Service issued several advisories for Tennessee, including a “particularly dangerous situation” tornado warning for western counties, early in the morning.

As the storm progressed east, Middle Tennessee fell under the same watch advisory at 1 p.m., causing festival organizers to delay the 3 p.m. opening until the advisory ended at 9 p.m. The delay resulted in many bands having their sets called off.

The Delta Saints, who won the coveted “battle of the bands winner” slot scheduled for Saturday afternoon, was the first band to have its set cancelled as weather conditions deteriorated. The Belmont blues rockers, who were featured in the Best of the Best showcase on campus later that night, won a competition Thursday to secure the slot.

“It was an honor to be selected out of so many talented bands that auditioned, and it was a huge disappointment to have our set canceled,” said bassist David Supica. “The most frustrating thing was that the storm let up during our set time (3:30), so we would not have had any issues with rain or lightning.”

A total of four bands were waylaid by the weather, including New Orleans jazz musician Trombone Shorty and Salvador Santana, son of guitarist Carlos Santana. Another, Two Door Cinema Club, was forced to cancel their performance earlier in the week due to volcanic ash shutting down European air space.

The most disappointment from ticket holders, however, came from the announcement that Passion Pit, a popular electronic act known best for their song “Sleepyhead,” would not play the festival due to illness. Response on Twitter and Facebook reflected significant disappointment, with one user half-jokingly asking for “a doctor’s note confirming [their] ‘illness’.”

“Good lord, I am so glad I didn’t pay for my Rites tickets this year,” wrote junior music business major Emily Harris on Facebook in response to the announcement. “I’m bummed I didn’t get to have a Rites experience at all this year.”

Despite the cancellations, Supica understands the predicament that festival organizers were put in.

“Regardless, I can only imagine how hard coordinating an event like that must be, so there’s obviously no hard feelings,” Supica said.

“We’re looking forward to trying out again next year.”

Canadian hip hop artist Drake is noted for his use of the internet to distribute free mixtapes, which has led to high-profile collaborations with Kanye West, Jay-Z, Timbaland and Trey Songz.  Drake’s debut album will be released later this spring.  Prior to starting his music career, Drake became known for his portrayal of the wheelchair-bound high schooler Jimmy on “Degrassi: The Next Generation.”

Ben Harper’s career has spanned the past two decades.  During this time, he has developed his brand of mellow beach-rock.

His bluesier band Relentless7 released its debut album last year.

The French alternative rock band Phoenix remains sustained on the strength of their highly acclaimed fourth release, 2009’s “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.”  The Grammy-winning album contains the synth-laden, dancefloor-ready hit singles “Lisztomania” and “1901.”

Boston-based Passion Pit built buzz on the strength on the 2008 EP “Chunk of Change,” followed by the release of debut album “Manners” in 2009.  The electro-pop group is known for synthy singles “The Reeling” and “Sleepyhead.”

Cold War Kids made their full-length debut in 2006 with “Robbers and Cowards,” followed by 2008’s “Loyalty to Loyalty.”  They are known for their piano-driven, minimalist style, supported by sharp percussion and storytelling lyrics.  The Southern California quartet recently released the EP “Behave Yourself.”

Two Door Cinema Club just released their first album, “Tourist History,” on the consistently reliable French electronic label Kitsuné.  The Irish trio serves up aggressively rhythmic, driving, melodic dance-rock.

The headliners are appearing as part of the non-profit organization Reverb’s Campus Consciousness Tour, which aims to spread awareness about environmental issues.
Educational outreach at the festival will include informational presentations, representation from other environmental organizations, carbon offsets, and carpooling.

The festival itself is designed to be ecologically friendly, with green riders, biodiesel fuel, and promotion of waste reduction and recycling efforts.  Reverb hopes to spread awareness about environmental impact within the music industry with this campaign.

But, mysteriously, it isn’t happening this year.

Festival promoters announced last week that the festival is being postponed until 2011, ostensibly because they couldn’t book “the cutting edge roster that everyone has come to expect.”

I’ll be the first to admit that Rothbury isn’t my thing. It, like Bonnaroo, was conceived as a successor to Woodstock ’69—a four-day celebration of music and environmentalism, intertwining hippie music with hippie causes. There was a time when I’d happily accept the kind of dubious idealism that comes inherent in a music festival seeking to change the world. But these days, I find music that places its agenda above the craft tiresome, whether it’s punk bands supporting long-dead anarchists or Toby Keith supporting boots in peoples’ asses. Even at Bonnaroo, I bounce between rolling my eyes and pumping my fist in solidarity, depending on who’s on stage.

But, with that being said, I find the reasoning behind the festival’s cancellation fishy at best.

For one thing, Rothbury’s line-up hasn’t exactly been “cutting edge.” The bills for the past two years at Rothbury have been loaded to the gills with “festival safe” jam bands—Dave Matthews, Trey Anastasio, former members of Grateful Dead and Zappa Plays Zappa chief among them. These are the kinds of bands with fans who will follow them along on tour without hesitation, they’re the glue that holds music festivals together and they’re not going anywhere. Outside of the usual suspects, the festival has pulled a few major acts into their fold—Bob Dylan, The Hold Steady and The Black Keys for example—but they’re not Pitchfork and no one expects them to be.

A commenter on the news Web site Michigan Live has another theory. Earlier this year, the Grant Township Board of Trustees considered an ordinance on “mass gatherings,” particularly aimed at Rothbury, that could shut down the party at 1 a.m., put strict limits on attendance and tie up venues and promoters alike in increased bureaucratic red tape.
Music festival-goers aren’t the hardest bunch of people to please. They’re more than happy to wallow in the mud and enjoy sub-refugee camp accommodations if the bill is right. At Bonnaroo last year, threat of tornado wasn’t enough to deter music fans from huddling under tents to see their favorite bands.

The one thing that is bound to send these otherwise supernaturally resilient fans into fits of rage is government interference. Attendees of the Wakarusa festival in 2006 complained about increased police presences in and around the festival grounds, including the promoter, who believed the festival had become a “police state.” The ill will felt by music fans nearly torpedoed the festival for good,

Governing bodies need to understand that there is a natural risk to hosting a music festival. Strict, regimented control runs counter to the peaceful free-for-all that music festivals represent. Look at Bonnaroo, for instance. Manchester’s police and government know that drug use happens at the festival, but outside of a handful of drug busts targeting dealers, festival-goers are largely left to their own devices while the city rakes in millions in revenue.

I’d like to believe that we’ve learned our lesson from Woodstock ’99, when mismanagement led to the festival being burned to the ground by rioting fans. I’d also like to believe that attendees have enough self-control to responsibly co-exist with tens of thousands of likeminded individuals for four days and that the residents would happily put up with the four-day hippie invasion to reap the benefits of economy and notoriety. But, then again, maybe I’m fooling myself into a new kind of dubious idealism.

Lance Conzett, a senior in the
journalism program, is editor of the Vision.

Sara Watkins

Arriving a couple songs into Sara Watkins’ set, the digital sounds from Friday were replaced by fiddle, banjo and stand up bass. Her brother Sean, played as well, so it was probably the closest thing we’ve seen to Nickel Creek in a while. Watkins talked about putting out a solo album post-Nickel Creek and did a particularly pleasant cover of Linda Ronstadt’s “Different Drum.”  She closed the set with “Long Hot Summer Days,” a song highly evocative of summers in the south.

Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears

One band with two saxophones: good sign. Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears played a terrific set, high in energy and high in quality. They were engaging but most of all, truly looked like were having a fine time themselves. That’s a lot of soul for a band dressed like the Geek Squad.  They cooked for the whole forty or so minutes, playing “Sugarfoot,” “Big Booty Woman” and “Boogie,” to name a few.

When frontman Joe Lewis wasn’t singing in his bluesy gravel, he was wailing away on the harmonica and dedicating “Prison Song” to T.I.

Grande Ole Party

The San Diego trio took the stage looking a bit like a poor man’s Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Lead singer Kristin Gundred awkwardly played drums standing up, snarling at the audience from under her brow and sounding like a shriller version of Grace Slick.

A few songs in, the set came to stop when the guitarist broke a string and apparently didn’t have an extra guitar.

“Does anyone know how to change a guitar string?”

Still a bit green perhaps? Yes.

N.E.R.D

After keeping the audience waiting over ten minutes, N.E.R.D came out and quickly incited crowd surfing and multiple mosh pits… because it was supposed to be the night we “lost our minds” and acted like “drunken popcorn,” (bet you didn’t know popcorn could get loaded).

Apart from the unnerving chaos of bodies slamming into each other and limbs flying in every direction, the mixing wasn’t great, burying the vocals under too much bass and a rubble pile of instrumentation, though the crowd managed to sing along to “Sooner or Later.”

Flaming Lips

Two days leading up to one hour and a half set, and the closer it got to 10:30 p.m., the more costumed festival-goers turned up. As the Oklahoma-based band got going, the rain storm we’d been hoping wouldn’t come, finally hit, making the confetti stick to the Rites of Spring banners and prompting the crowd to spontaneously chant against the weather.

Frontman Wayne Coyne took a quick walk over the crowd in his bubble and said he’d hoped this was the best *cough* party of our lives. Space sounds and politics, a light-up gong and a marriage proposal from one Teletubbie to another– it was the kind of weird you’d expect– nay– demand, from the Flaming Lips.

Coyne’s face filled the half circle screen as he talked in between songs and the compulsory concert background images.

By the end, the crowd was singing every word, with special regards to “She Don’t Use Jelly.” Bringing the set to its climax, Coyne inflated a giant confetti-filled balloon until it burst, launching the audience into cheers.

When Coyne introduced the last song, as one that epitomizes what the Flaming Lips are about, the crowd buzzed. They knew exactly what was coming. “Do You Realize??” brought Rites of Spring to a satisfying close, and if folks were a bit soggy, no one let on to anything other than contentment as the crowd dispersed from under the colored paper lanterns.

For photos from day two, click here.

K’NAAN took the stage opening  with “In the Beginning.” A Somali refugee, K’NAAN is technically hip hop, but it’s a hip hop apart from the Top Forty garden variety. Rather it’s fused with his ethnic roots and the lyrics speak of more than than clubs and parties.

One song, for example, which he played near the end of the set, tells of murder of his two best friends. K’NAAN started singing “Waving Flag” a cappella (the original version with added verses not on the album)  and pulled the crowd in quickly–though the crowd didn’t seem too conscious of the subject matter. It made for an interesting juxtaposition. Murder and  matching neon “Party with Pi Phi” baseball caps.

Okkervil River

Sitting in the middle of the hip hop intensive line up, was Okkervil River, a band hailing from Austin, Texas. Frontman Will Sheff and company came out in suits, playing a mix of songs from their self-titled 2007 release and their latest, The Stand-Ins.

They got off to an okay start, but as it started to get dark, Okkervil picked up their intensity, especially during the “Sloop John B” derivative “John Allyn Smith Sails.” Despite the inexplicable howling from some Vandy frat boys, the set was pretty solid. “Lost Coastlines” was another high point for the band. The lights played off the trees at the back of the stage and the drummer worked himself into the standard drummer frenzy.

Santigold

There was noticable anticipation from the crowd for Santigold, and when she finally came out on stage, she near blinded everyone with bright white lights. It was like a plane was landing in front of the stage. And it was loud– tones so deep that you can feel them in your chest.

On either side of the stage were Santigold’s back up dancers– stoic gold-jacketed sentries of sorts, not so much as twitching without it being synchronized.  Set highlights were  “Creator” and Unstoppable.”

Q-Tip

Arguably the best set of the night, ironically with the most that went wrong. A few songs into Q-Tip’s  energetic brand of hip hop/R&B blend, the sound cut out, and then again, and again, until they halted the show to fix whatever was happening.

“Wouldn’t happen at Belmont!” someone yelled. Q-Tip stalled, contemplated telling jokes and finally beat boxed until the sound came back.

He jumped around the stage and really got people going, leaving more than a few wondering how T.I. was going to follow that.

T.I.

The funny thing about the jail-bound T.I.’s set, was that it was hard to tell at first when he actually took the stage because of how many people were up there in the first place. Well, he was the one dressed in white, telling the crowd about how he was trying to turn his negatives into positives.

Before starting the set and in between the first and second songs, T.I. shifted the mood, dropping the n-word and launching into that typical rapper posturing. There was almost more of a difference between him and the other hip hop type acts than there had been for the ultra indie Okkervil River.

Yet, walking back through the crowd showed what a draw he had been as the audience was least double from a few hours before.

Check back with The Vision for continuing Rites of Spring coverage. For photos from day one, click here.

“The main reason I bought a ticket this year was because I had to see Springsteen,” said sophomore Stephen Turney.  “I’ve been wanting to see him for years and now I’ll get to see him in front of 30,000 people, which I imagine is probably the best way to see him. I also am really looking forward to seeing David Byrne, Wilco, Erykah Badu, the Decemberists, Girl Talk, Bon Iver, Neko Case, and Okkervil River.”

“I’m ecstatic that Phish is on the list,” sophomore Nick Floyd said. “Some people judge Bonnaroo by the headliners, but what really matters are those who are playing during the daytime. That having been said, I think this lineup is great and I will definitely have some scheduling conflicts…I’m looking forward to Gov’t Mule, Phish, Springsteen, Bela Fleck, and Rodrigo y Gabriela among others.”

Both Turney and Floyd are returning attendees of the festival, which has been running every year since 2002.

“Most Bonnaroo memories are made around the campsite,” said Floyd. “I’m lucky enough to go with an ever-growing group of friends and family from home, and each year it gets better. It’s almost like picking up a conversation we left a year ago. There is a definite level of camaraderie at Bonnaroo. Yeah, the music is amazing, but that slow walk back to the tent as the sun rises while everyone yells profanities about the very late Kanye West is what memories are made of.”

Bonnaroo is a camping festival, held on a 700-acre farm. Roughly 100,000 people attend every year. Some stay in hotels or RVs, but many camp out for the weekend.

“Must have [camping] items include above all a tarp, preferably a really big one that you can spread out to give you shade,” Turney said.  “If you don’t have a tarp, you will probably be miserable at your campsite.”

“You need a tent of course, but also bring enough sleeping gear to ensure a comfortable night’s rest,” Floyd added.  “Sometimes it’s hard to sleep beyond 8 a.m. due to the weather, and if you hadn’t crawled in the sleeping bag until 3 a.m. that morning, you are going to need the most solid sleep you can get.”

Tickets for the festival are currently on sale. General admission tickets are available for $249.50. VIP packages are $1,349.50 per pair of tickets.

The ninth annual Americana Music Festival isn’t big, but it curries sincere reverence from artists and fans alike. “I’m more excited about playing this conference than any other. South by Southwest, CMJ, all of them,” said Ben Kweller during his Saturday night set in The Basement. The festival attracts a crowd of Americana devotees, who travelled to Nashville from all corners of the nation, plus England, Australia and even Japan.

All of these fans joined together Thursday night for a spectacle of an awards show which included performances by Steve Earle, Buddy Miller with Robert Plant, Joan Baez, Kane Welch & Kaplin and others. The evening was like the live equivalent of an Americana themed mixtape, showcasing some of the best and newest stars in an incredibly vast genre. Watching the Americana Honors & Awards at the Ryman is fascinating because of how demonstrably different it is from similar music awards shows. The music is always at the focus and, when music isn’t being played, musicians or industry types are speaking very passionately about their craft before stepping to the left, picking up a guitar and singing a song.

But the togetherness was short-lived and quickly dissipated by the time the awards show was over.

There is an odd age difference which pervades the Americana Music Festival. Attendance at The Basement was largely made up of younger people in their 20s, there to see musicians who pushed the boundaries of what “Americana” means and were on the cutting edge of music in a genre that is inexorably linked to the past. Though Ben Kweller is a popular musician who has filled local venues like Exit/In and RCKTWN for years, his show at The Basement was sparsely populated. The playing room, which isn’t very large to begin with, was only half full. The population increased slightly for Kweller and dispersed before Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, but it was hardly ever nearing capacity.

Meanwhile, only a few short blocks down the road, Cannery Ballroom and Mercy Lounge were like stepping into an entirely different festival. The average age in both venues skewed 20 to 30 years older, many of whom were wearing membership badges. The difference between the two venues may have been because Kweller had the misfortune of playing against instrumentalist of the year winner Buddy Miller, but the same gap could have been seen on any night. Most of the Basment’s shows were bands to be blogged about, O’Death and local folk throwbacks Those Darlins chiefly among them, while the established acts took root at Cannery, including Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters on Wednesday night. There seemed to be very little crossover between the two worlds.

But in a festival like the Americana Music Festival, there are no wrong choices to make. Because the festival is so lean, it is limited to the very best musicians available who are playing within the bounds of the genre. Even Kweller, who cut his teeth as an alternative rock wunderkind and is only now starting to turn towards the roots of purely American music, was well deserving of his slot in the festival. Raul Malo and Jason and the Scorchers certainly impressed, but they were expected to. What was more exciting was to see the new stars get a foothold among the legends. Many bands like the Waybacks and Christopher Denny are put in the unique situation of being able to perform alongside their greatest inspirations like Jim Lauderdale and Joe Ely.

Though the weekend long gas shortage put a damper on the festival for locals, the shows that they were able to make without being stranded in the Station Inn parking lot were well worth the risk.

In last month’s issues of Paste Magazine, an article declared that, along with fellow Nashville singer/songwriter Katie Herzig, Brooke Waggoner was one of 25 artists to watch. Waggoner, a classically trained pianist, has the incredible ability to pull apart the most seemingly simple melody and arrange the resulting tune into dozens of different ways. There’s no shortage of piano playing singer/songwriters in the world, but Waggoner’s songs make her look more like a composer than the average piano-playing songwriter.

Waggoner demonstrated these skills on her latest release, “Heal for the Honey”, which featured a veritable orchestra of local musicians. In her Next Big Nashville performance, however, she brought things back to basics with a stripped down solo performance. It would have almost been intimate, had Cannery not taken inappropriate times to remind the audience of their smoke machine.

Unfortunately, Waggoner’s performance brought up one of the frustrations of Next Big Nashville—there’s no telling when these shows will actually begin. Waggoner was scheduled to begin at 9:45 but apparently started early at 9:30. By the time I managed to park at Cannery and make my way inside, she was already finishing up her set. But even with only two and a half songs, I could tell that I had cause for my disappointment.

When going to see a Forget Cassettes show, it’s important to remember that Forget Cassettes in 2008 is completely different from Forget Cassettes in 2006. They may as well be two entirely different bands at this point, despite the fact that the band has always been directed by Beth Cameron. In the past, the band gained notoriety for energetic, but contemplative art rock songs. “Quiero, Quieres” and “Patience, Beth” off the band’s 2006 album “Salt” are great examples of what made the band famous outside of Nashville.

But now, you could never tell that the band was once inexorably linked with …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. Their performance at the Rutledge was weighed down by melodramatic Gregorian chant, which slowly plodded forward over the top of Cameron’s piano playing. They’ve become more PJ Harvey or Rasputina than Yeah Yeah Yeahs, instead choosing a dark, ethereal mood over sporadically aggressive catharsis.

It’s hard to separate the new band from the old band, mainly because it’s the same band. It’s even harder to convince an old fan that change is a good thing, even in the face of the fact that Cameron is still a talented songwriter and the band is just as talented as they were six years ago.

When The States changed their name to We Were the States last year, it confused just about everyone. I lost track of how many people wondered out loud if the band had broken up and changing the name on their MySpace page was a passive way of closing the curtain on their band. In the end, it turned out that they didn’t want be confused with the Brooklyn band of the same name and when “We Are the States” turned out to be too self-aware a name, they went the opposite direction. Now, with all that confusion out of the way, the band can go on doing what they’ve always done: playing catchy rock songs loaded down with distorted fuzz guitar.

We Were the States are devoted disciples of the Pixies’ trademark loud, quiet, loud rock and roll cadence. They’re nothing if not energetic and show great promise of improving and impressing in the future.

Something about the Clutters’ performance at last year’s Next Big Nashville didn’t sit right with me. The band had performed as a three piece due to the departure of organ player Ali Tonn, a return to the foundation of the band. But by now, they had two albums with Tonn’s influence under their belt and the removal of her pop counterpoint to the band’s garage punk roots left a serious deficit that need to be filled.

Enter Wurlitzer piano player Todd Kemp to save the day. The band went without an organ player for a while and it’s unclear when Kemp joined the band, but he is a welcome addition. But, that isn’t to say that he is an exact replacement for Tonn. What Tonn’s organ brought to the Clutters’ music was a bright, piercing Farfisa organ sound which cut through the wall of distorted guitar and bass. Kemp’s Wurlitzer has a more traditional piano sound which tends to meld into the rest of the sounds more. Maybe it was just The End’s mixing, but I found myself having to listen for the piano in some songs because it had a tendency of disappearing into the mass of noise. That being said, Kemp strikes me as a more capable pianist who adds more than catchy organ riffs sprinkled throughout.

Although the band works as a trio and could have easily soldiered on without the keys, their performance at The End blew last year’s show at Exit/In away because the band feels more complete.

By midnight, Next Big Nashville was starting to wind down across the city, but not at Next Big Nashville. How I Became the Bomb arrived on stage shortly after midnight, decked out in a set of new costumes. Before, the band looked like they had fallen out of a Devo video, but now the band looks like they’ve come from another planet to kill Superman with glitter and purple.

I can only assume that the band’s wardrobe change is timed to coincide with the release of their next album, which is rumored to hit the internet later this month in a series of installments. Although the album has yet to be officially announced, that didn’t stop the band from packing their set almost entirely with new songs. Some of them like “Harvest” and “Danger Lady” are familiar from the band’s recent shows, but many are entirely new. In fact, the only two songs to grace the band’s setlist were “Killing Machine” and “Secret Identity” off their 2006 EP.

These new songs don’t resemble a grand shift in sound like Forget Cassettes, though. The band is still playing the same synth-pop tunes that place heavy emphasis on odd electronics like keytars and vocorders. There’s a lot to like about this band and they haven’t done away with any of it. Most notably, lead singer Jon Burr is as expressive a singer as ever and Ricky Bizness’s bass lines are infectious and surprisingly complex for a pop band. The band’s yet to be titled forthcoming release is one of local music’s most anticipated records. But it isn’t at the top. That designation belongs entirely to the next band.

Several people were turned away at the door for being under age, with the bouncer at the door pointing to some hastily scribbled signs stating the party’s age requirement. But, before hitting the door, no one knew that the party was 21+, even when the show was still at City Hall.

It became immediately apparent inside that the ruling wasn’t being actively policed. A small smattering of black X’s were sprinkled into the crowd milling about before the Features took stage, and those people remained inside unmolested until they chose to leave. Nothing about the decision to keep non-drinkers outside made much sense.

“There wasn’t even any logical reason to keep us out,” wrote Tennessee Tech student Kassi Thomas in a Facebook note, “They were serving the same drinks as they were 3 hours earlier when we were there to see Brooke Waggoner.”

But sometimes, you can’t argue with City Hall (or, in this case, Cannery Row), and many of those would-be attendees wound up going home early. Which is a shame, because arguably the biggest band of the festival was about to play.

The Features were named Nashville’s favorite local band in a poll conducted by the Nashville Scene, and for good reason. They’re a holdover from the days of Spongebath Records, which propelled a wealth of Middle Tennessee’s most talented musicians, including Matt Mahaffey of Self, into relative stardom. After a turbulent year or so on Universal Records, the band returned to self-production and has slowly built up local hype for a new record.

There’s something very fanatical about the Features’ fanbase. The band’s long awaited second album, “Some Kind of Salvation”, isn’t available for purchase until the end of September, but a mistake made by digital music online shops Amazon and Lala resulted in the album falling into the hands of diligent fans months in advance. New songs like “Baby’s Hammer” and “Foundation’s Cracked” turned into boisterous sing-a-longs led by fans who have committed the songs to memory.

Unlike How I Became the Bomb, who largely excised old material from their set in favor of giving crowds a taste of new material, The Features kicked off their set with “Circus”, the organ fueled rollercoaster which closed their 2004 major label release “Exhibit A”. Other old songs like “Exorcising Demons” and “Me & The Skirts” were thrown in as well, but an outsider would have never known the difference based on the crowd’s energy. The best they could do is identify what makes these new tunes different from four years ago, namely the new emphasis on cutting bass lines, as performed by founding member Roger Dabbs, and away from loud, expressive organ rock.

But, with all that being said, the 45 minute Features set was completely typical of the band’s usual performances. Singer and guitarist Matt Pelham was typically a stone wall who only seldom addressed the audience and, while the band performed admirably, they didn’t blow me away like they did with a long set this summer at Mercy Lounge which allowed them to break out old, once thought retired, songs like “Armani Suede”. Worse yet, the crowd was large, but not by typical Cannery Ballroom standards. It certainly wasn’t the mass of people it would have been had the show remained open to 18, 19 and 20 year-olds.

It’s been a year since I first saw the youthful dynamo that is Kindergarten Circus at last year’s Next Big Nashville and, if anything, the band has only gotten louder and more impressive.

Kindergarten Circus funnels a clear influence from blues rock bands The Who, The Kinks and early White Stripes through gritty, raw garage punk. This band is all about crashing distorted guitars punctuated by blistering blues-inspired solos. There’s a good reason why the boys in the band gushed about their adoration for The Clutters in a questionnaire on Janet Timmons’ “Out the Other” blog last year. Closing your eyes, it’s easy to forget that the members of the band are only 17, 16 and 15.

Although the elder singer and guitarist, Dillon Watson, is still the focal point for the band, bassist Logan Sissom and drummer Aaron Browning have grown as musicians and stand-out on their own as well. The band is like a rusty freight train, barreling down the tracks with no hopes of stopping. That is, until something breaks and the whole thing is derailed for a bit. Whenever Watson had to stop to change tuning, the momentum collapsed and they had to work to build it back up again.

The teenage trio is the best reason why Nashville is sorely in need of an accessible all ages venues without the baggage associated with RCKTWN.

Following Kindergarten Circus as the Grand Palace showcase were Velcro Stars, a band that has somehow become more famous for being a springboard for other bands like former drummer Andy Spore and How I Became the Bomb and, now, current bassist Jonathan Brock and Shoot The Mountain.

“Basically, if you start a band and join Velcro Stars around the same time, your other band will f—in’ blow up,” joked singer/guitarist Shane Spresser after introducing Brock as “Nashville’s newest celebrity.” Why Velcro Stars haven’t been launched into the stratosphere of local rock fame is a mystery, but maybe it has something to do with how completely “un-Nashville” they are.

Although Velcro Stars are based in Murfreesboro, their sound comes straight from Athens, GA. Keith Pratt and Spresser wail through light-hearted pop songs in the style of Robert Schneider, The Apples in Stereo and, on a larger scale, the Elephant 6 Collective. Somehow, Athens has becomes the national headquarters for bright, happy tunes.

Consider Velcro Stars as an ambassador from Athens, bringing the fire of twee pop down from Olympus to whoever will listen.

Shuttles are a great idea. In theory, you can travel from Cannery Row to anywhere you want in 20 minutes or less. Shuttles keep you from having to burn gasoline speeding down West End. They protect you from the horror of trying to find parking at the Rutledge. They put every show at your fingertips, allowing you to hop all over town, collecting stamps until the back of your hand is overcome by a splotch of colored ink.

In theory.

For the most part, the shuttle service does everything that it advertises. Unless, that is, you’re hoping to cross the river to see what’s going on at The 5 Spot or LimeLight. When I got on the dark shuttle from Exit/In in hopes of seeing Dukes of DaVille without having to figure out where LimeLight was, I was eventually informed of this limitation. Although, the driver did offer to drop me off with the understanding that he wouldn’t be coming back.

Tempting as a long walk across James Robertson Parkway is, I wound up at Cannery instead. But before my shuttle arrived at Cannery Row, I was treated to a high-speed winding tour of Nashville’s venues from the comfort of a dark shuttle in which I was the only passenger. On my eventual ride back to Exit/In, the driver told me that fewer people have been riding compared to last year. She confided to me that “it makes driving hard with an empty bus.”

The Pink Spiders have had a rough couple of months. Founding members Jon Decious and Bob Ferrari left the band and trashed remaining member Matt Friction in a tell-all interview with the Nashville Scene. The band’s still struggling to get their nearly scrapped third album out in stores after being unceremoniously dropped from Geffen, all while attempting to recapture lightning in a bottle with a band full of new members.

In all truthfulness, I hadn’t planned on seeing the band play after seeing a tired, egotistical performance by the band at last year’s festival. But after a wayward journey via shuttle, I stuck around to see how the new Pink Spiders faired. What was most immediately noticeable was that they’ve apparently done away with the costumes, finally casting off the tired gimmicky image they’ve foisted upon themselves. Matt Friction had a good thing going with Silent Friction and The Pink Spiders are virtually the same band, except with more ego than most people are comfortable with.

If the band can reinvent itself as a band first and not an image, then maybe they can move past their dismal recent history and win back some of the fans they’ve spurned. Until then, they’re playing adequate Kinks-inspired garage pop songs and there’s nothing wrong with that.

After another shuttle ride across town, Glossary had already taken stage at The End. After witnessing the historically phony Pink Spiders, it was a culture shock to see a band that was nothing if not genuine. Glossary played a stripped down set of Americana tunes rooted deep in Southern tradition. This is a band that’s playing music only because it’s in their nature to write and record these songs.

That sentiment was best reflected when they released “The Better Angels of Our Nature” last year for free online with only a limited pressing of CDs sold in stores and direct from the band. Unfortunately, their set was over before I knew it, after only a handful of songs. But even though I was only able to see the band play three or four songs, I can say with confidence that they put on one of the best shows of the night, if not the festival. The band isn’t riding the cusp of local fervor like How I Became the Bomb or The Features do, but they still put on a show made up of reliable, good ol’ fashioned tunes.

One of the beauties of Next Big Nashville is that, from time to time, you’ll stumble across a band that you’ve never heard of before. Sometimes they’re playing across the street at a time when you’ve got nothing else going on. More often, they’re a band preceding the band you showed up to see in the first place. Dead Confederate, an import from Georgia, is one of those bands.

The band’s lighting was strikingly minimalist. All of the overhead lights were shut down and replaced, instead, with bright white can lights which would burst and dim like flash bulbs. The result was a band quite literally appearing larger than life, with their shadows dwarfing them on the walls. This same trick was attempted by Mother/Father in December when they opened for the Protomen, but they didn’t quite pull it off. Dead Confederate has the sound and presence necessary to use a moodier rock aesthetic.

Dead Confederate blends shades of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine into a shoegazer wall of sound. Everything about the band lends well to the kind of ethereal, psychedelic sound that they presented at Next Big Nashville. Dead Confederate is a band worth keeping an eye on, just like Wax Fang was last year.

Next Big Nashville poses some problems for some bands. Generally, the sets are shorter and bands are at the whims of the person running the soundboard. More than one band was cut off short by Bruce at The End without any negotiation for two more songs. So, what’s a theatrical band like the Protomen, who employ elaborate make-up, costumes and framing devices in their live shows, to do? I had assumed that they would have simply dialed back the theatrics, but this assumption was completely and utterly wrong.

The Protomen started their Mega Man inspired rock opera three years ago with a self-titled album about a freedom fighting robot who attempts to get revenge for his brother, who was apparently killed in an assault on fascism. As time progressed, the band has swelled to include a four person chorus, all while holding down their songs with 8-bit tunes upgraded to fit the energetic rock & roll fury put forward by the band’s two guitarists. They’re larger than life and know it, which is immediately obvious from their live performances.

In 2009, the band will finally release their second act. Because the new album is so close, they dismantled their usual setlist to mash together old songs and new. The band has such power over the crowd that although it was approaching 1 a.m. midway into their set, no one seemed ready to leave. That’s the sign of a great live band.

Now in its third year, Next BIG Nashville has ballooned from its humble beginnings in 2006 as a simple showcase over a weekend at Mercy Lounge. Last year saw its line-up of bands quadruple in size from 36 to 147 and in 2008; the number has grown to over 250 artists performing in over 18 venues across town. Beyond the shows, NBN has added on an entire music conference featuring panels, exhibitors and demonstrations hosted by the Musicians and Country Music halls of fame.

Only artists with some kind of connection to Nashville are allowed onto the festival’s roster, although that connection can include “personal history, business connections or musical endeavors,” allowing in bands like Louisville, Ky., rockers Wax Fang, who held their CD release show at The Basement and have often supported local bands like The Protomen and Glossary (both are performing in NBN 2008 as well).

Bands involved in this year’s NBN include The Features, Superdrag, Space Capone, Brooke Waggoner, Kindergarten Circus, How I Became the Bomb, The Dynamites, Forget Cassettes, The Pink Spiders, Cortney Tidwell, Caitlin Rose and dozens of others. Belmont is represented as well by bands like Biscuits and Gravy, Six Gun Lullaby and Lorien.

Festival wristbands are on sale at TicketsNashville.com for $35 each in advance or $45 for walk-ups. Wristbands allow entry to all Next BIG Nashville venues and showcases, exclusive after-parties, discounts from festival partners like Grimey’s and free subscriptions to music magazines like Paste. The VIP badge, $100 in advance and $125 for walk-ups, includes all the perks of the wristband, plus free swag and access to VIP receptions.

Of course, if you’re not interested in the entire festival, individual tickets can be bought at the door of your show of choice, but be aware that the people who shelled out more cash get priority if the show hits capacity.