AUSTIN CITY LIMITS MUSIC FESTIVAL

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AUSTIN CITY LIMITS MUSIC FESTIVAL WRAPUP

Sure, there was weather. But what about the music? We didn't let a little wet and mud keep us from reviewing a ton of sets at the three-day Austin City Limits Music Festival. Here, our music team shares some of their highlights. Phew! Now we sleep.

Top moments: Michael Corcoran

1. Black Joe Lewis (Sunday). What other neo-funk performer can throw a Hound Dog Taylor song into the mix and keep the kids dancing? BJL is gonna make Round Rock real proud, trust me.

2. Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights (Saturday). It's Southern boogie in a way that the Geto Boys were Southern rap. Hardcore, stupid, but ultimately so satisfying.

3. Poi Dog Pondering (Friday). The sound was off, but this Austin/ Chicago band is great enough to overcome. Bummer about Chi-town losing the Olympics, though.

4. Greencards (Friday). I've seen this band dozens of times, including their breakout performance at ACL Fest 2004, but this was the best ever. Love the new guitar player.

5. Avett Brothers performing live for KGSR in the media area (Friday). I've not understood the fanaticism about this band from North Carolina until now. Unamplified, the vocals of Scott and Seth Avett were were so powerful, so instinctive and pure, that I couldn't help but follow them to the AMD stage.

Top moments: Joe Gross

1. The weather on Friday. I've been to every one of these festivals, and while 2002 was lovely, Friday featured the best weather since the fest started attracting big name acts. Clearly, the further back in the year the fest is pushed, the more rain becomes a concern. But I'll take one day of perfect, one day of rain and one day of mud (and more perfect temps) over a 102 degree weekend every time.

2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Friday night, AMD stage. Karen O is one of the most compelling frontwomen of her generation, blending downtown cool, sleeve-heart emotionalism and noisy angst. Live, you cannot take your eyes off her and her ability to move from the sexy dance-vibe of "Zero" ("try to hit the spot/ get to know it in the dark") to the still-raw-sounding "Maps" ("Wait ... they don't love you like I love you") with equal credibility is kind of a miracle.

3. !!!, Saturday afternoon, AMD stage. For about 10 minutes, the crowd was suddenly in England at one of that country's truly enormous music fests. To wit: Rain was pouring while on stage, a white guy in a track-style warm-up jacket sang and bounced around over long, loose dance grooves that were half electronic blurt, half rock swagger. What is this, Glastonbury? It was wild.

Top moments: Deborah Sengupta Stith

1. Raphael Saadiq: The former Tony! Toni! Tone! artist looked suave, sounded superb and seemed positively ebullient with an infectious vibe that spread from the stage and seeped into the soul of everyone it touched.

2. K'Naan:As I was running across the field from one set to another, the strains of the heartbreaking tribute song "Fatima" forced me to change course and catch a few minutes of the powerful Somali musician who puts a haunting face on love in a time of war.

3. !!!: Who knew the band's self-described "moody nightclub music" would work so well on a rainy afternoon? They embraced the afternoon deluge and tossed down their funky genre-smashing dance grooves so hard we almost forgot about the weather. Almost.

Top moments: John T. Davis

Friday: The grass. The grass, the grass, the grass.

Walter Wolfman Washington, setting the style threshold for Friday with his head-to-foot red ensemble, including a red Gibson guitar, of course.

Saturday: Poor, poor grass. It was nice while it lasted.

Cancer survivor Levon Helm headlining on the Livestrong Stage — Livestrong, of course, being Lance Armstrong's monument to cancer education and survivorship.

Sunday: A week ago, who would have thought the indispensable fashion accessory of the festival would be neoprene boots—that footwear that Louisiana singer Marcia Ball calls "Cajun Tony Lamas."

The best tag-team musical segue of the weekend — Ben Harper to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to Pearl Jam.

Top moments: Chad Swiatecki

1. Pearl Jam 'Austin City Limits' taping. Seeing the most consistent rock band of the past 20 years straight-up own the ACL studio for two hours was a musical moment I might never surpass. Old stuff, new stuff, Eddie Vedder being gregarious and reverential. Just about perfect.

2. K'naan. If you don't want to embrace every day and be a better person after seeing this Somali dynamo, check your pulse. Magnetic and adventurous at once, the guy could teach a master class in how to work a crowd like a speedbag.

3. Dave Grohl drumming. Saw it twice and both times it was the highlight of Them Crooked Vultures' still-developing sound. The flesh and blood version of "The Muppet Show's" Animal, I'd shed not one tear if this became his main gig as long as there's a drums-only clause for him.

Top moments: Patrick Caldwell

1. Former Led Zeppelin bassist and Crooked Vulture John Paul Jones joining Austinite David Garza and fiddler Sara Watkins onstage for a joyful cover of John Harford's 'Long Hot Summer Day.' It would have been inappropriate on the muddy and rain-soaked Saturday or Sunday, but on a toasty Friday afternoon the bluegrass jam was one of the festival's most ebullient moments.

2. The thunderous and transcendent appearances of the full Longhorn Band at the climax of Ghostland Observatory's Saturday day-glo dance rock spectacular. Last year fellow Austin electronica superstars the Octopus Project brought down the house with the Austin High band, but Thomas Turner and Aaron Behrens managed to do them one better.

3. Sound and the Jury Winners the Bright Light Social Hourno doubt won a few thousand converts Friday morning, with a hard-rocking set that left shirtless bassist Jack O'Brien grinning ear-to-ear.These guys earned it.

4. Dark folk singer Alela Diane played some sterling and intimate shows at South by Southwest this year, but her early Sunday performance with a full band was a powerful, soulful acoustic stunner that complemented a wet, gray morning.

Top moments: Peter Mongillo

Friday: Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Karen O took David Bowie-style androgyny to another level on the first night of the festival, rocking new and old material with costume changes, including a scary stocking mask adorned with day-glo orange paint, and concluding by smashing her microphone.

Saturday: Bon Iver. Despite the rain, the four-piece brought to life intimate material from Justin Vernon's exercise in sadness, "For Emma, Forever Ago" and the more recent "Blood Bank" EP that could have easily been lost in a festival setting.

Sunday: Suckers. Brooklyn-based psychedelic rockers in the same vein as MGMT and Yeasayer made the most of their 11:45 a.m. set, which included songs from their self-titled EP. The band was very much together; it should be interesting to hear the full-length when it comes out.

Top moments: Matthew Odam

Friday: Medeski, Martin and Wood were as tight as they were when I first saw them more than a dozen years ago at Liberty Lunch. Getting to see bassist Wood play mountain blues and roots with his brother Oliver just over an hour later was a nice counterbalance.

Saturday: Bon Iver had a beautiful and aching set that perfectly suited the rainy early evening set perfectly. Kudos to Ghostland for bringing out UT band.

Sunday:No rain! At least not as of 6:30 p.m. Enjoyed the retro raw and powerful rock from the Dead Weather. Jack White knows how to bring a band together. From what I heard about Pearl Jam's "ACL" taping, I expect greatness when it airs.

Food:Restaurant Jezebel's chicken and veggie skewers and Moonshine's corndog chicken tenders with honey mustard.