Aesop Rock holds court at the Capitol Hill Block Party main stage. Photo by bjnixon [flickr].

After a Friday that surprised me with huge crowds and much beer spillage (and good music), Saturday’s experience was much better. Armed with a new crowd-avoidance strategy, I zigged and zagged my way to every set I wanted to see (plus some).

Eric Grandy and crew naturally have all the reviews and pictures you’d want to see over at Lineout but we wouldn’t be much of a Seattle blog if we didn’t chime in with thoughts on what I believe is the best music festival in Seattle.

The Cliffs Notes version is below the fold.

The Cribs [m-s]: Catchy, high energy, and British. A surprise, to be sure. They’re damn good. I have nothing else to say about them except check them out if you get the chance.

Gabriel Teodros [m-s]: Hip-hop might be the story of this year’s festival. Blue Scholars [m-s] had people climbing up trees for better vantage points on Friday. Saturday, Gabriel Teodros had people inside the uncomfortably warm Neumos jumping and dancing and totally engaged in a fast-moving hip-hop tribute to ethnic ancestry and Northwest pride. The live band and DJ accompaniment was just right.

Aesop Rock [m-s]: Again with the hip-hop. I’ve known of Aesop Rock for awhile now but have never had the good fortune to see him perform live. His reputation as a “lyricist of the people” is near legendary - and with good reason. Pick up a copy of “Labor Days” sometime and I dare you not to be impressed.

As Grandy mentioned, the dude is a walking basketball hoop. He’s a big man. With hypeman Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz, Aesop Rock brought the street (?) down. Another set with energy to spare and a huge sense of urgency. If the streets weren’t entirely full at the beginning they were spilling over toward the end. Converts were made, old fans were thrilled, and I was in hip-hop heaven listening to the only man who has earned the title of hip-hop poet laureate. Aes (pronounced Ace) will be at the Showbox in October in support of his new album (which comes out August 28th). If you’re a fan of hip-hop or can appreciate lyrical genius in any form you’ll want to be there.

Grand Archives [m-s]: After Aesop Rock’s performance, it was back into the Neumos sauna to catch the last half of Grand Archives’ set. Their folkish indie rock ended up being a nice change of pace after Aesop Rock’s intensity. The sweaty crowd seemed generally pleased with their performance. I was mostly pleased to relax and lean against the balcony.

Against Me! [m-s]: After sweating away three pounds inside Neumos it was back out to the main stage for Against Me!. I won’t do their set justice because for most of it I was wandering around looking for something to eat. However, the energy leftover from Aesop Rock was amped up another notch. The crowd loved every second of it.

Spoon [m-s]: I’ve mentioned it elsewhere but I don’t think I’ve ever felt as ambivalent about a band as I do Spoon. They’re good. They’re technically sound and they don’t do anything worth criticizing. And I think that’s their problem. They’re milquetoast and after the relevant, energetic, urgent performances earlier on the main stage, Spoon didn’t seem to fit. That’s not to say the crowd didn’t love them. They did. The 1,400 people 2 to 5 years graduated from Greek Row were definitely into Spoon. I left about halfway through thinking that if I had seen them inside Neumos on some random Wednesday night I would’ve loved them. As it was, they didn’t inspire much reaction from me at all.

Intelligence [m-s]: Not satisfied with the water weight I lost earlier, it was into Neumos again for Intelligence. I leaned on the balcony and could read clearly the titles of the 13 songs on their playlist taped to the stage. “Wow,” I thought, “Thirteen songs. This might take awhile.” Then I blinked and it was over. Intelligence’s songs were each approximately the length of a television commercial. By song three I was getting annoyed. By song seven I was hooked. Intelligence turned out to be insidious (and catchy). The ballsy three-piece end their songs just as they’re about to get good. At first it pissed me off. Then I realized that Intelligence isn’t trying to get you to care about the individual songs; they’re about the whole set. And the set taken as a whole was just this side of brilliant.

After Intelligence, I left the Block Party weary and satisfied. On the way home, I stopped for a bite at the Pita Pit. It was 10:30 and the place was packed with block party attendees. The twenty-something couple in front of me asked the girl at the register if they were always this busy. “Well,” she said, “there’s a block party going on across the street.” The guy responded, “Oh, there’s a block party? What’s it for?”