Andrew Bird (5:30pm): After this set, one Austinist staffer remarked: "This guy just beamed in from planet music." And with a stage full of spinning gramophones, violins, finger cymbals, and glockenspiels, it was hard to dispute that quip. Bird took the stage slightly late due to a tardy finish by Blue October, which had the crowd snarling over their shoulders at the lengthy drum and guitar codas coming off the main stage. But when he began, everyone got excited and strangely quiet for a festival audience. Bird knew how to play a larger stage, and concentrated on bigger, catchier songs from his most recent two albums like "Fiery Crash" and "Fake Palindromes." The sounds were soaring and strange, and simultaneously melancholy and hopeful. As he led his trio through a flawless set, Bird jumped on multiple instruments, but was an utterly calm presence in strange green sunglasses amongst a sea of music fans. The audience simply took it all in with a smile and an enthusiastic response that only grew as the music continued. A true highlight.

Arctic Monkeys (6:30pm): An enormous crowd turned up for Arctic Monkeys, but seemed to be more curious observer than serious fan. Like Oasis and many British acts before them, the Monkeys aren't huge on showmanship: they simply turn up, plug in, and rock. The crowd seemed to be looking for something more from England's biggest band of this year, and offered polite applause but not much enthusiasm. Frontman Alex Turner looked incredibly young (he's 21!) on the huge video screen, and his mild frustration with the crowd seemed obvious as the show rolled on. The tide turned for a bit around 7:05pm when the band unleashed a sonic one-two punch of "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefoor" and current hit "Florescent Adolescent" to a warm response. Overall, the set was tight and competently played by all. But it appeared that the band needed a push from the audience to take the show somewhere special, and that never quite came to be.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (7:30pm): This set just had everything going against it. CYHSY are really captivating in a club setting, but the sound mix had little mid-range, leading to an unfortunate highlight on the nasally vocals (not CYHSY's strongest point) at the expense of the quality music. A large portion of the crowd were hanging back on the fringes to dash out for an Arcade Fire spot, which made it tough to connect to the on-stage goings on. And adding insult to injury, the jam band Cross Canadian Ragweed was playing nearby with a fury, leading to the only time this weekend when we've heard one stage overpower another. As a result, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah came across as more background music than main attraction. The experience may have been different at the very front, but we felt bad to see an interesting group have to endure such an unfortunate set of obstacles.

The Arcade Fire (8:20pm): This was the one we'd all been waiting for, and it didn't disappoint. The Arcade Fire seem to have embraced their inner superstar, and turned up with an enormous stage full of deep red lighting, circular video screens, church organs, and who knows what else. After a strange opening video montage of public access-style church footage, the enormous band entered to a roar of welcome. The show focused heavily on Neon Bible rather than their debut album, which likely caused a little disappointment among some fans. But the 11(?) piece band were clearly ready for the headlining spot, and drove the show with great pacing and surprisingly polished showmanship. Anthems like "Keep The Car Running" and "No Cars Go" were sung in unison with the audience, and even quieter numbers like "Haiti" seemed to keep the crowd engaged. The band channeled their high energy into head flailing, Régine Chassagne's dancing, percussion pounding, and even some light stage banter from Win Butler. He asked simply: "Do you guys have any energy left after a day in this heat?" Everyone did, and they showed some serious love to the collective of talented Canadians. It was a fantastic finish to Saturday, and was also the best thing we've seen so far.

Images via Joshua Huck.