{This is part three in a series of recaps about Musicfest Northwest 2010 -- make sure you check out Thursday's and Friday's coverage too!}

The Builders and the Butchers:

Saturday at MFNW was chock full o' rad, with bands around every corner and all kinds of PDX-style awesomeness abounding. The day started off with an excellent lineup at funeral home-turned-venue the Woods, courtesy of KEXP: The Mynabirds, The Builders and the Butchers, Typhoon, and several other bands took the stage from 1pm on for our listening and viewing pleasure. The station crew did a massive amount of taping and shooting, so keep an eye out for words, video, and stills over at their website -- the BatB set was beyond epic and set up living-room style, almost microphone-free on a rug in the middle of the crowd -- and we're quite sure the fine folks of KEXP captured the performance with excellent result.

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Day two at MFNW: also known as Friday, September 10th. With tons of shows all over the city to choose from, we chose to spend our imaginary day with the folks over at KEXP for a series of kick-ass in-studios, and to focus on the highly anticipated Okkervil River / Bobby Bare Jr. and Tallest Man On Earth / Cave Singers sets that night.

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Musicfest, Musicfest Northwest, M-F-N-Dubs, Baby SouthBy -- whatever you want to call it, this past weekend's slew of shows down in Portland were nothing short of an absolute blast. We ran rampant through the quadrants for four days straight, shooting every show we could get our hands on, swooning exponentially more as each night passed. Here's just a fraction of what went on for the first half of the fest, during Thursday's and Friday's sets.

The big knock-it-out-of-the-park set on Thursday was David Bazan / Rocky Votolato set over at the Doug Fir. After the stage was properly warmed up all day with KEXP in-studios from the likes of the Cave Singers and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Rocky took the spotlight (after what was likely a gorgous set by Joshua Morrison, that we hit town a little too late to catch) and the room over for a good forty minutes, with a set that pleased both rabid forever-fans and fringe-fans alike. There was something almost infectious about his performance, as he surpassed the standard singer/songwriter storyteller vibe and instead delivered each song with a repectful, earnest, homage-y vibe that struck the major chords of our very own indie-lovin' heartstrings.

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at Crystal Ballroom

Portland's darling dream-pop duo come home to a packed house and a mailbox full of coupons.

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at Crystal Ballroom

The crowd in the Crystal Ballroom Thursday danced like they were at a Bee Gees show in 1978. I may have even danced a little myself (again, thank you beer).

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at Crystal Ballroom

The Thermals, Tea for Julie, and Stars of Track and Field rocked a totally roadtrip-worthy bill.

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