I recapped the entire event in my glowing Unplugged column last week in Do in the Savannah Morning News, so here I’m just going to make some random observations and attach an album of the photos that I’d say are my favorites from the weekend.

But first, a taste of Paste’s writeup:

Canadian Mac DeMarco was one of [the highlights], posturing like a crazed frontman and mixing 80s metal covers into his original material, inciting moshing, screaming and stagediving from a packed crowd at The Jinx. Brooklynâ€s Christopher Paul Stelling had a more intimate show, arriving just seconds before his set but still managing to beguile those in attendance. His awe-inspiring guitar fingering and arresting voice, which was simultaneously smooth and guttural, was worth the trip alone. But the crown jewel of the festival for me, and likely for most, was seeing of Montreal play beneath a makeshift band shell in Forsyth Park on a warm, star-filled spring night.

Of Montreal is from Athens, Ga. just a few hours away, but this was their first time playing a set in Savannah. Based on the enthusiastic—borderline chaotic—response from the crowd, I think theyâ€ll be back. A heavily danceable set had everyone, from diehard fans and local families to curious passersby, moving with the music.

For the record, here are the acts that I saw — anywhere from a single song to the entire set:

Thursday:
The Last Bison, Ben Sollee, William Tyler, Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires, Chelsea Light Moving featuring Thurston Moore, Delicate Steve, Naomi Punk, Mac DeMarco

Friday:
Sam Sniper, Filligar, Heyrocco, this mountain, PUJOL, of Montreal, Alex Bleeker & The Freaks, The Suzan, Country Mice, BRAIDS

Saturday: this mountain, Field Report, Blessed Feathers, The Wild Feathers, Autumn Owls, Little Tybee, Bear Fight!, Royal Canoe, Fine Peduncle, Filligar, Dent May, Roadkill Ghost Choir, Jonathan Toubin’s Soul Clap & Dance Off

Sunday at the VIP and band brunch: Jamison Murphy, Lovely Locks

And there are so many more I wish I had seen.The venues this year were well chosen for their proximity, but I still couldn’t be as many places at once as I would have liked.

I took pictures — at least one or two — of each of the bands I saw, but a few of the venues were really not suitable for quality photography unless you’re sporting some super pricy equipment (and maybe not even then). I’m in love with the fact that Hang Fire has music again, but there no lights on the band. None. B&D Burgers’ stages — both inside and out — are poorly lit, and the stages at Congress Street Social Club are only a little better. Taco Abajo has enough light, but the cartoonish backdrop and structural pillars are problematic. I hope the lighting is something the venues themselves might address sooner rather than later — they certainly won’t see many appealing shots of bands at their venues if they don’t address the lighting problems. More importantly, I think the average music lover prefers venues that have more light on the band than on the audience . . .

Of course, the Savannah Stopover is all about the music, not the lighting, and one of my few complaints would be that we need even more music. Few folks turned out for early Saturday afternoon shows a year ago, so it made sense to wait and start the music this year at 4 p.m.. But I think crowds will eventually support sets from noon or 1 p.m. onward. And I hope that next year we’ll see Friday and Saturday night sets that run right up till last call. With all the venues seeming to run more or less on schedule — a rare feat in Savannah — I sort of ran out of music before I ran out of energy on the last two nights.

I also haven’t quite wrapped my head around the fact that so many young Savannahians in the Stopover’s target demographic don’t seem to quite know what the festival is yet. The Savannah Music Festival has had some similar issues. But it’s hard to blame the festivals. Both the Savannah Morning News and Connect Savannah had extensive coverage in advance of the Stopover; the Stopover has a robust social media game; people like me with literally thousands of social media contacts were routinely posting about it. But on the Friday afternoon that of Montreal was scheduled to play in Forsyth, a Facebook friend of mine — a young, intelligent, gay college student who would obviously be interested in that performance — updated his status with shock and surprise about the show. How did he miss that crucial news for so many weeks? How can people like him be reached? Will it just take a few more years to get the festival ingrained in the local culture?

By the way, rather than rely on my press connection, I bought a VIP pass for the event — just $120 — which included a significant number of free drinks, plus access to the Stopover recording sessions at Dollhouse Productions, to the artists’ lounge above The Sparetime, and to the final brunch on Sunday afternoon at one of the best party houses in town.

What. A. Bargain.

If the Stopover is ever forced to restrict photography as some festivals have been, I might need to go for the press credentials, but I’m happy to support such an amazing event and I prefer the freedom that comes with paying my own way.

I’ve already done separate posts about some of the acts that I caught: Mac DeMarco, The Suzan, Chelsea Light Moving, Filligar, Little Tybee, and The Last Bison. But there were plenty of others that excited me.

Among the standouts that I was seeing for the first time were Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires, Field Report, William Tyler, Filligar, and The Suzan.

I’ve seen both this mountain and Heyrocco multiple times, but they never cease to impress.

I’m going to post a much larger collection of photos to the Savannah Unplugged Facebook page in a day or two, so please like that page if you want to see that update and others.

So here are some of my favorite shots from the 2013 Savannah Stopover. Click for larger versions or open using Cooliris. If you hover over a pic, you can see the act and the location.

For these and more pics — many of dubious quality — click here for a Facebook album.

Mac DeMarco was the reason.

DeMarco looks a little older than 22, but his expressions and demeanor make him seem younger — maybe it’s the gap-toothed smile, maybe the wide eyes, maybe the speed with which he goes from laconically addressing the crowd to tearing into his guitar.

There weren’t any of the legendary stage antics last Thursday in Savannah — just all four band members doing a bit of crowd surfing near the end of the set. It was a great way to finish a stellar evening of music, with DeMarco taking the packed bar through the catchy, unpredictable tunes that have made him a rising star among a certain set of music lovers.

Consequence of Sound was on hand for the show and said in part:

Heâ€s a masterful band leader, his goofiness is just enough to be charming while also placing an emotional distance between himself and the crowd. And without making too much of a big deal about it, the crowd ate it all up like nachos or cheap beer, even if DeMarcoâ€s hooks and songwriting were overlooked in favor of his gimmicks and the songâ€s inherent danceability.

Dominick Mastrangelo got some great pics for BrooklynVegan. I pretty much stayed in one spot stage right — it’s the easiest place close near the stage to stand without getting pushed around by people going to and from the bar or the bathroom. And that angle gives some exceptional views of The Jinx decor . . . which somehow seemed especially fitting for the kind-of-campy set.

And I shot one video — “Annie” — with my newish Nikon D7000. I don’t really know what I’m doing with it yet, and the mic here definitely didn’t pick up as much vocal as I was hearing in the room. As I noted in a post a few days ago, I see a lot of crappy barroom videos, so a few more out there in the aether can’t hurt too much.

Here’s one of Geoff L. Johnson’s great shots embedded from the Stopover’s Facebook page, but the rest of the pics are mine.

The 2012 festival solidified the focus on up-and-coming indie bands headed to SXSW.

But the 2013 festival, which began last night and continues through the weekend, looks to be changing the game even more. What an incredible opening night.

I started out with a few hundred others at the glorious new North Garden at the Ships of the Sea Museum on MLK. Under the covered pavilion, The Last Bison ripped through their set with a kind of verve and joy that isn’t always associated with the indie scene. The incredibly talented Ben Sollee followed, after a brief intermission during which William Tyler plugged his guitar into the Third Man Records truck in the parking lot. If you haven’t heard William Tyler play guitar, you might want to add that to your list of life’s goals.

Then I headed to The Sparetime for more of Tyler, this time playing electric and acoustic, layering loops in ways that were simply crazy good.

The crowd was still building at 10 p.m. when Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires took the upstairs stage at B&D Burgers, but the band was electric and tight. Given the maturity and depth of their southern rock sound, I was expecting some older folks; the band might sound wise and savvy, but they sure look young.

And let me hear add one pet peeve: poor lighting! It bugs me as a photographer, for sure, but it bugs me as a patron too. Tough to get any shots at all of Tyler at The Sparetime or The Glory Fires at B&D.

So then I biked up to the magnificent — really — renovated hall at the Knights of Columbus on Liberty Street. It’s a massive room up above Mellow Mushroom that most Savannahians probably don’t even know exists.

There was a big crowd at the KofC for Thurston Moore’s new band Chelsea Light Moving. I’ll admit to being sort of a doubter about the Sonic Youth guitarist’s new project, but I loved the set. And I loved that it started with a song about New York poet Frank O’Hara.

And then I caught about half the excellent set by Delicate Steve at Club One, then a song each of Bronze Radio Return at B&D Burgers and Naomi Punk at The Jinx.

Then The Jinx started filling up for what turned out to be an energetic, really fun set by Mac DeMarco.

Followers of the indie scene will no doubt understand just how amazing it is to see that lineup in one night.

For Day 2, the Stopover offers a free all-ages show in Forsyth Park with of Montreal and opener Royal Canoe.

But there are plenty of other promisting acts on the complete schedule. The music gets rolling at 4 and there are six different acts playing at both 5 and 6 p.m. After the show in the park, I’m hoping to catch some combination that might include The Suzan, Jacco Gardner, HAERTS, Country Mice, Ambassadors, and Snowmine.

It’s going to take me a while to edit all my pics, but here’s a quick gallery of a few unedited ones (I also got a couple of not-completely-awful videos of DeMarco). First up is The Last Bison, then William Tyler, then Thurston Moore with Chelsea Light Moving, then Mac DeMarco:

So while I don’t expect DeMarco to make out with an audience member, dive from the stage into the audience, or strip for an inspired rendition of U2’s “Beautiful Day” (NSFW!), I do expect we’ll at least hear some finely crafted and quirky tunes about living, loving, and cigarette smoking.

There’s an absurdist’s wildness but also a studied simplicity to DeMarco, the 22-year old Canadian who grabbed the indie-world’s ear with Rock and Roll Nightclub and the simply-titled 2 on the Captured Tracks label.

From the Pitchfork review of Mac DeMarco’s recent album 2:

DeMarco writes about life — both the heavy moments and the mundane ones — with economy and newfound grace. He’s still not entirely upfront, but he has a knack for building songs where the realness of his subject matter lies just below the surface. In a Pitchfork guest list from earlier in October, DeMarco cites Jonathan Richman as a role model, mostly because he felt that Richman had “a very enjoyable time his whole life.” Richman is an expert at writing entire worlds into his songs, an approach that DeMarco nails on 2.

Mac DeMarco by Brad Elterman

There are a few moments during the 2013 Savannah Stopover when the collective energy will converge on specific venues. That’s going to happen early on opening night at the Ships of the Sea for The Last Bison and Ben Sollee. It’s going to happen again the next night for of Montreal in Forsyth Park.

And expect to see all the festival insiders and visiting journalists at The Jinx on Thursday for DeMarco’s set, all trying to see just how much there is there.

I love this live version of “Freaking Out the Neighborhood”:

Yours Truly Presents: Mac DeMarco “I’m a Man” from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Click here for the full Savannah Stopover schedule.

Click here for my slowly growing list of 2013 Savannah Stopover previews.

Paste begins the list by answering obvious question of what counts as “new”:

Our criteria “new” simply means “new to us,” a band or solo act we havenâ€t covered in any significant way prior to 2012. We eliminated established artists with new bands (sorry, Divine Fits) or new names (sorry, Father John Misty).

A few that have played or will play in Savannah:

#2: Shovels & Rope. The duo from Charleston has played Savannah a number of times, including for The Unchained Tour and back in January at The Jinx on the same bill as Dare Dukes.

Hardly all that new to folks around these parts, but congrats to Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent.

Here’s one of my favorite songs from Shovels & Rope:

#4: Field Report. The band from Milwaukee is booked for the 2013 Savannah Stopover. Here’s a quick sample:

#5: Grimes. Grimes played a packed gig at the Telfair Museums’ Jepson Center during the 2012 Savannah Stopover.

Mac DeMarco by Christina Hicks

I’ll have more about DeMarco and Field Report in upcoming posts, but here’s DeMarco’s latest video:

Here’s a preview of Paste’s entire playlist: