For Moogfest’s second installment as a festival under the AC Entertainment umbrella, mispronunciations were much less frequent. Last year, you’d hear “its pronounced MOGEFEST MAN” as you walked down the chilly Asheville streets. But with time comes familiarity and as far as hospitality goes, the second year of Moogfest in western North Carolina was ever better than the first. Rain put a damper on the new outdoor stage the first night of the festival and it was cold there all weekend, which kept people at indoor venues around town. It will be interesting to see if the outdoor stage makes the cut for year three, but one thing that is an obvious staple for Moogfest is its rare performances.

In 2011, nothing matched the chugging set from Tangerine Dream. Their “Floyd-esque” anthems built within each song, until a signature eye-closing moment made the experimentation worth the wait.  Those who left early missed what we dubbed the best set of the weekend. Here are some other highlights from the Halloween weekend of music set in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Nice to meet ya

One of the best discoveries of the weekend for us was Battles. The guitar, bassist and drummer trio gave the audience the perfect mixture of rock and electronic tunes. And hey, that’s what Moogfest is all about.

Best Visual Experience

We can’t talk about Moogfest and not mention Amon Tobin. This was definitely the most visually amazing set up. A video projection of high quality animations were projected onto stacked cubes on stage. Amon Tobin was actually suspended in one of the larger cubes in the center. From a technical standpoint this set up had to be the most time consuming and expensive. This made for a jaw dropping performance.

Best Attended

The entire Thomas Wolfe Auditorium was packed for St. Vincent. There was a variety of artists and music throughout the weekend but St. Vincent was something that everyone at Moogfest could agree on.

Best tribute

Every artist was ready to show their respect for Bob Moog, morphing their sound with synths and even the occasional Theremin.

Most Fun

Beats Antique brought a breath of variety to the weekend with their unique blend of world-music. They stole the weekend as they seem to do with every festival appearance of late. Their shows are especially entertaining because they capture several senses throughout their show.

Most Scholarly

Lunz project was the unique combination of Tim Story and Hans Joachim-Roedelus for a rare live musical collaboration. The combination of ambient and experimental music captured your soul. Polite listeners were taken on an electronic journey and enjoyed every moment of it.

Best job of making the rain not matter

It was cold and rainy and at the Moogfest playground (the outdoor stage) but Chromeo made the audience forget where they were with their “So-funky-you-can’t-stand-still” sound.