The concerts yesterday were pretty sweet. In fact, the entire experience was near perfect aside from the nearly two hour wait to leave the festival due to a horrible traffic jam. I’ve been to plenty of festivals and it seems like exiting traffic is always a huge problem for them because in most cases they are trying to get every car to leave through a single exit.

The first show that I saw yesterday was Lake Trout followed by a few songs from the Drive By Truckers. In my opinion the Drive By Truckers are much better suited for a club like I saw the previous night, but they sure had the crowd digging their new material that they debuted at the show yesterday.

I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed RJD2. I have a few of his albums, and as my friend Justin and I were talking, his music at times can go really dark and spaced out. That wasn’t the case for his set yesterday. We didn’t stay for the entire set, but I would really like see him again.

Michael Franti & Spearhead provided a great amount of soul and reggae filled tunes that were the perfect mix for a slightly drunk afternoon. The thing about these guys and Franti in particular, is their ability to make just about everyone has a good time regardless of if you’re a fan or not. I’ll admit that I’ve never been too huge on their albums, but in the two times that I’ve seen them live, I wish they would have played a little longer.

After the Michael Frantic & Spearhead show, I headed over to the Sunrise stage to catch who Ben Harper later acknowledged as “the best living reggae musician alive,” Burning Spear. Great reggae tunes splashed through the crowd’s ears that perfectly matched the absolute perfect weather that we’ve been experiencing since we arrived in Florida.

The Flaming Lips started their show with Wayne in the large inflatable ball, rolling atop the crowd of happy and slightly “enlightened” concert goers. This set was kind of a let down for me because the set was almost song for song the same as their performance at the Vegoose Music Festival in October of last year. I did enjoy the new tunes, and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing “Do You Realize?” and their cover of Ozzy’s “War Pigs.”

The night ended with Ben Harper’s performance on the Everglades Stage. Ben and his band, the Innocent Criminals drew their set heavily from their upcoming album, “Both Sides of the Gun.” They also played some great earlier stuff like “How Many Miles Must We March,” and “Forgiven.” New songs like “Better Way” and “Serve Your Soul,” are absolute monsters live.

Today we will be seeing Slightly Stoopid, Mofro, G Love, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Spam Allstars, Wilco, and the Black Crowes.

More in depth reviews of the festival and individual performances will commence next week.