Was it another great day at Rock the Garden, or what? They had the beer lines better figured-out this year (the fact that Summit boss Mark Stutrud was there hanging out no doubt helped). They had a pretty terrific food selection for these sort of things. And too bad that hill next to the Walker can't be used for concerts all summer. The one obvious improvement for next year might be a Jumbotron screen (the fact that half the crowd couldn't see the visual sensation of pint-sized Sharon Jones tearing up the stage would have been a travesty if the aural side of it wasn't equally sensational).

Not to bash on MGMT more than I already did in my print story on RTG, but I actually thought the Brooklyn wizards were going to defy the low expectations at first. The band was pretty electrifying early on with hazily rocking songs such as "Destrokk" and the Prince-on-acid rocker "Flash Delirium." After "Electric Feel," though (song No. 4), it became a completely bipolar set: The audience came to life only when the other two hits off "Oracular Spectacular" started up, but it was utterly zombified otherwise. The turnaround between the drab 12-minute "Siberian Breaks" and "Time to Pretend" was whiplash-inducing. I also thought it was pretty pithy the way the guys in the band snidely kept trying to make fun of the VIP "Skybox" sections. Dudes, those are the people who put in a lot of money or manpower to the nonprofit organizations that make RTG happen (and mind you, I wasn't in the section myself; I sure wish I had been so I could've adequately see Jones in action, though.) Despite playing about an hour shorter than a normal, Jones and the Dap Kings were able to show off all the things that make them so great. The Kings' range of greasy, slow-grinding was on full display in the opener "If You Call" and the remake of "This Land Is Your Land," but then it sped things up to double time and tripled the intensity in "She Ain't a Child No More" and "The Way It Is." Jones showed off the tenderness in her voice in "Mama Don't Like My Man" and her full growl in the show climax "100 Days, 100 Nights." Her sassy, cool personality also shone brightly. My favorite line was after her dance expose in "The Way It Is," when she quipped, "Forgive me for acting up." Thanks was in order, not forgiveness. OK Go was a bit too kitschy for one short fest set, pressing the confetti-thrower button two too many times and joking around too much. I thought their handbell performance of "What to Do" – with all four members chiming on bells a la your local church ladies – was funny at first but got old when it actually turned kind of serious. And anyway, the Chicago band did just fine playing songs like the opener "Good Enough" and the new "Back From Katmandu" in a plain, straight-up fashion. And there was no gimmick to Retribution Gospel Choir's opening set, just bleeding guitar work and a rapidly paced delivery ("White Wolf" was especially fierce). RTG was clearly a breakthrough for RGC. Tom Wallace shot a great photo gallery for us at RTG.