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.

I’m thinking of a band like Doug Mains & the City Folk and, more recently, The Last Bison.

The Last Bison kicked off the Savannah Stopover last Thursday night with a stirring set in the pavilion in the North Garden at the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum on MLK.

Ben Hardesty’s lead vocals are invested with a raw power and emotion that’s pretty rare, and the rest of the band contributes both energy and delicacy to the mix.

And there’s a sort of otherworldly beauty to the whole band when they’re on stage — they exude joy.

The night was a little chilly, which might have given the show an added edge as everyone was anxious to move around. Before the music started, guests had a chance to see the beautifully displayed posters submitted for the Stopover’s band poster competition and wander through the Ships of the Sea’s gorgeous North Garden, which many were seeing for the first time.

And I’ll add that once I tasted the blackberry flavor of Junior Johnsons’ Midnight Moon Moonshine, I was sure glad I had bought the VIP pass that gave me easy access. I know it seems crazy — even unbelievable — to some people, but I often buy tickets to events I’m excited about rather than relying on press access. Yes, press access is free. But nothing is ever really free.

Here’s the magnificent album Quill by The Last Bison:

And a selection of the pics I took. What a fun band to shoot:

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:

Ben Hardesty doesnâ€t look the part of a rock star as he navigates a rickety tractor through the sprawling ranch where he grew up and fell in love with music. On the edge of The Great Dismal Swamp, Hardesty developed his spirit of adventure, and passion for doing things a bit differently. His father, Dan gave him a guitar when he was two, and later told him, “It doesnâ€t matter if you play it right, just make it sound good!” Not the typical teaching method, but then again, The Last Bison is anything but typical.The seven-member ensemble led by Ben has seemingly risen from the marshes of southeastern Virginia to captivate the national music scene with a rare blend of folk that is poetically steeped in classical influences.

Check out this excellent piece by Jason Kendall, editor of Do in the Savannah Morning News: From a Virginia swamp to Savannah’s urban forest, The Last Bison wander.

The band has a such a rich sound that comparisons to the likes of Mumford & Sons seem right on the mark.

Here’s the video for “Switzerland”:

The Last Bison plays at about 6:45 on Thursday, March 7 at the Stopover’s opening night kickoff event in the new North Garden at the Ships of the Sea Museum. The band opens for Ben Sollee, who is slated to play at 8.

Click here for the full Savannah Stopover schedule. Click here for the Stopover page devoted to The Last Bison.

In the days leading up to the Stopover, I’m posting quite a number of short previews like this. So far I’ve previewed Stop Light Observations, Mac DeMarco, Little Tybee, Eric Britt, Heyrocco, Roadkill Ghost Choir, this mountain, Triathalon, Field Report, and of Montreal.

Click here for all my Savannah Stopover previews.

I love this poster of The Last Bison submitted by Amanda Hein for the festival’s band poster competition.