Best of Saturday

The Boom Bang, Guestroom Records Stage, 5 p.m.

It didn't take long for Norman Music Festival to kickoff with a, well, bang. After a fast and furious set from Gang Starr Museum, The Boom Bang took the stage to overcast skies, some raindrops and a looming fear of electrocution. It lit the set off (literally) by lighting a smoke bomb and launching right into one of its best executed sets this year. It was loose, fun and loud. Mother Nature brought the rain, The Boom Bang brought the thunder.

The Stuffies, Guestroom Records Stage, 7 p.m.

Hoping in for the delayed Psychedelic Horses**t, The Stuffies hoped right in and had a roaring good time. Its noisy, jangly punk was a blast, but the party got started when I stepped aside. I left for a bit and came back to a mix of added musicians playing Beach Boys covers with dancing gorillas, audience members tossing their beers in the air and general mass confusion. It was weird, it was awesome.

Depth & Current, Opolis Stage, 9 p.m.

The show would have been awesome enough just being the ominously loud set that it was. The place was buzzing with energy; with every bellowing lyric and rattling bass strum it felt like the venue was waving in and out.

But then, assumedly from the epic force of D&C, the power shut out.

No power, no problem. The guys finished their song, and let me tell you, acoustic grunge sounds better than you might think.

-Joshua Boydston

Colourmusic, Opolis Stage, 11 p.m.

It has revamped as nothing short of a metal act, and a 200+ capacity Opolis was not strong enough to contain Colourmusic's demented, cosmic heaviness Saturday night. Abandoning the back catalogue in favor of new material, hipsters were eye-to-eye with the cats on the wall, pressed so tight against each other that raising their hands to applaud the Stillwater act was a bit of a struggle.

Beau Jennings, Blackwatch Stage, 8 p.m.

A well-lit outdoor Blackwatch Studios stage accentuated everything about each act that played there Saturday, but Beau Jennings stands out beyond the rest with rock 'n' roll sensibility and a good-ol'-times attitude. A gem of a performance in the often-downtimed middle of the afternoon.

-Matt Carney