Now that everyone’s finally recovered from their Capitol Hill Block Party-induced hangovers, Sound figured it was time to take a look back at the weekend and review just what went down in between downing all those drinks in the beer garden. Here’s our look back on the highlights from this year’s Block Party.

Best Performances

Enrapturing the mercurial (read: drunk) audience that is the Capitol Hill Block Party is no easy task. For a melodic, folky pop group to pull of this feat is an even more impressive undertaking. Fleet Foxes‘ 6pm set on Saturday had all the underpinnings of a great show, namely timing as pitch-perfect as their harmonies and a celebratory crowd, excited for the surely bright future of their hometown treasure. The performance was spot-on, elevating their somewhat mellow recordings into a transcendent live performance that was surprisingly bass- and percussion-driven without drowning out their trademark vocal harmonizing. On stage, Fleet Foxes showed experience beyond its years, deftly altering its sound to scale to the stage, embellishing the desperado-like guitar picking in “Your Protector” and building the chorus of “Drops In The River” into rock and roll bliss by holding the chord changes just a measure longer. (ER)

There were plenty of memorable moments pouring off the main stage, moving the crowd to dance, scream and go bananas. But, Portland’s the Builders and the Butchers over-packed Neumos on Saturday afternoon for a gimmick-free 45 minutes of just playing their asses off. On a day that featured no shortage of artists playing haunting canned beats and twiddling ably with computerized contraptions, the Builders and the Butchers  reminded us how good it can be when a handful of guys just strum the crap out of their acoustic guitars. They were a little bit Pogues, a little bit Decemberists, and a whole lot of good time. Surely there were plenty of people who entered that room out of sheer curiosity, and exited a new fan. (KR)

You know you’ve played a great set when the crowd thinks you’re too good to be locals. People in the crowd at Neumos kept asking Throw Me the Statue where they were from. Frontman Scott Reitherman’s constant response was, “Here. We’re from here.” The Central District boys played an energetic set backed by a rarely-seen brass section. The sax, trumpet, and trombone added some depth and punch to TMTS’ live interpretations of the intricate, many-layered-i.e. impossible to replicate on stage without a small army-bedroom pop numbers found on its debut Moonbeams. The band reveled in its expanded size, kicking things off with a raucous performance of “Groundswell,” and dusting off rarely-played “Moonbeams,” which doesn’t really work without a brass section. TMTS logged some quality time touring this past spring and it showed in its lively, exciting set. (MC)

Pleasant Surprises

Going into the Block Party, I didn’t know anything about the Dodos, other than that they were a band, and that I would probably dig them. Neumos was more packed than I’ve ever seen, which is saying a lot for a club in which I’ve always gotten stuck amid the crammed congestion of bodies. I slid into the back of the room, trapped between people, blocked by heads and shoulders. I could hear the music, sort of (Neumos has a way of turning up the volume just barely louder than my discriminating ears can handle). I was one among the throngs, stretching up on my tip-toes, craning my neck to its fullest extent just for one sweet moment of visibility. I managed to make my way to the stairs, where I stood two steps up, finally able to see over the pumping throngs. There were only two people making that music. Every now and then, two others would join them, but it was mostly just one guy on guitar and another on percussion. It didn’t matter. Their sound was big enough and tight enough to make them the hands-down best show of Friday. (KR)

Devotchka is one of those bands that, when you happen to stumble upon them, such as I did this weekend, you think to yourself, “How have I never heard these guys before?” Taking the main stage as the last act of this year’s Block Party, Devotchka filled the role of festival closer with great aplomb. Rooted in a host of worldly influences, Devotchka is a crossbreed of punk-rock inspired polka with Balkan-infused mariachi. Confused yet? Somehow they made it all work in a spirited performance that entertained even the most festival-weary of the crowd. (ER)

Wildest Crowd

Having heard little about Pleasureboaters, only that the band is great live, I had to check it out. Inside the sauna-like King Cobra, people were packed in to see this band. And for good reason. The thrash trio flailed and spazzed all over the place passionately delivering an intense performance. As people kept making their way into the King Cobra, no one seemed to be leaving, unusual for a festival such as the Block Party with so much to see all over the place. But Pleasureboaters seemed to captivate the audience and get everyone moving around to the dancey post-punk rock. And this show was home to the best drunken mosh/thrash pit I saw at the entire weekend. Guys and girls alike were throwing themselves into each other with such driving force, fueled solely by Pleasureboaters. And maybe some cheap beer. I saw at least three near-concussions, one resulting in a girl holding up three fingers in front of a guy’s face, mouthing the words “How many??” just to make sure he was still conscious. It was brutal and beautiful all at the same time. (JH)

Best Set No One Saw

Kristen Ward kicked off Saturday at Neumos. Broadcast live on KEXP, anyone not interested in braving the insane crowds of the festival could sit at home and enjoy Ward’s “folk-rock” stylings. But, in the actual room, there were maybe 30 people. It was a shame, since Ward sings beautiful urban country songs, decorated by exquisite rock guitar solos and languid pedal steel. Pulling mostly from her new album, Drive Away, she delivered one of the finest sets of the festival, and 98% of the crowd missed out. (KR)

Best Dance Party

As a critic, I love Girl Talk. As a DJ, I hate him. An amalgamation of over 2 decades worth of popular music, Girl Talk leaves no stone unturned on his hunt for beats, riffs, and vocal tracks. His mixes are a non-stop game of Name! That! Tune!, but to spastic effect. Girl Talk’s recordings leave room for cultural discourse: Feed the Animals is a postmodern masterpiece, a shining example of pop culture reflected upon underground (DJ) culture and then back upon itself. Live, there is nothing to do but shake, shimmy, jump, crowd-surf, scream, pump your fists, and act truly deranged pulling off whatever other body contortions you can manage in a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd. Unluckily for me, I was stuck in the beer garden for this show and with a bunch of aggro dudes jibber-jabbering on about Girl Talk merely popping songs into Ableton Live (he uses programming heavy Max/MSP, thanks Grandy) and how lost the art of DJing has become. Lost? I don’t think I’ve come across a DJ more on target, except for the fact that Girl Talk doesn’t consider himself a DJ. Whatever the case, I danced my ass off, and so did everyone else, except, of course, the two dudes next to me. (ER)

Best Dressed

Tim Harrington of Les Savy Fav went through at least three outfit changes on stage, including a royalty look of a velvet purple cape and crown, ending in nothing but his tightie whities. Or maybe they were blue. And he wasn’t lacking in dance moves, making waves with his pudgy stomach for all to see. He also dove into the crowd, wandered through singing to fans and making his way to the hot dog stand in the back. (JH)

The much-beloved locals in U.S.E. left no doubt they were fit for the mainstage after they got the crowd moving with their glammed-out, feel-good party jams. Though all the band members brought it, rocking through the set with sexy aplomb, keyboard/vocoder-wrangler Noah Star Weaver stole the show with his baby blue spandex top, short shorts, and headband combo. (MC)

Best Stage Banter

A few songs into Fleet Foxes‘ mainstage set, lead singer Robin Pecknold admitted, “I don’t really know how to communicate on a scale this large…I don’t know what I can say that would be relevant to everybody.” A woman standing next to me wondered out loud how they must have felt playing at Sasquatch, if they were intimidated by the size of this audience. Given their ability to hush a packed urban rock festival with little more than four-part harmony, it was hard to believe any of the band was unsure how to express themselves in such a circumstance. Pecknold and crew are not the first band to find playing music for people more natural than talking to them. However, he made an honest effort coming up with things to say to the crowd that everybody could agree on. “We’re on Capitol Hill,” he offered. “That’s relevant to everybody.”(KR)

By Michael Connelly, Jessica Harbert, Kim Ruehl, and Erin Resso. Photos by Blush Photo.