Bonnie "Prince" Billy and his band started their main-room Convention Hall set a good 10 or 15 minutes early, playing to the tiny crowd who happened to show up early in the big room. After one song, Will Oldham explained to the crowd that it wasn't starting time yet, so the set hadn't actually started. Oldham is, of course, a notorious eccentric perfectly willing to bend reality to his will. But other than start-time silliness, it was striking how conventional and crowd-pleasing the Bonnie "Prince" Billy set was. His backing band, which included Cairo Gang collaborator Emmett Kelly, played things expertly warm and loose, stretching Oldham's songs out into immensely appealing rambles and translating, say, the string arrangements on "Lie Down In The Light" into relaxed back-porch jams. The setlist had plenty of Oldham's recent material, but it still reached back for the old favorite "I See A Darkness," and Chavez's Matt Sweeney emerged to play on a couple of songs from his Superwolf project with Oldham. Oldham himself, meanwhile, projected more than enough presence and charisma to fill up the cavernous venue, making grandly Shakespearean gestures while leading absolutely gorgeous three-part vocal harmonies. His combination of idiosyncratic personal vision and play-the-hits populism made him perfect for a festival like this one. -Tom

The occasionally reuniting '90s indie O.G.s Chavez opened the large Convention Hall room with a strong set of tense, angular crunch. Frontman Matt Sweeney, in torn jeans and a beat-up baseball cap, projected a sort of weathered anti-glamor. Guitarist Clay Tarver, who recently wrote this totally charming New York Times piece about being an indie-rock dad, gave his kids plenty reason to be proud. -Tom

ATP perennials Shellac are, infamously, the most curmudgeonly of the all-curmudgeon Convention Hall bill last night. In that respect, they didn't disappoint last night, with bassist Bob Weston showing nearly as much acid-tongue wit during the between-song Q&A sessions as frontman Steve Albini. But Shellac's reputation as a band of brilliant cranks has come to somewhat obscure what's most important about them: They fucking bring it live. The trio would often extend their tracks into long, sprawling pieces, building tension one ominous snare-hit at a time, before finally exploding into glorious rock-out catharsis. And drummer Todd Trainer, in particular, has perfected a bugged-out form of showmanship; he's hold out his eight-foot ride cymbal over the crowd, for instance, letting audience members bash it, or he'd prowl the stage while whacking a snare at irregular intervals. As a unit, the trio did serious damage and immediately set a high watermark for every other band of the weekend. -Tom

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282

A Hawk And A Hacksaw took to the Paramount Theatre stage, and it was a venue that fit the inclinations of their orchestral, theatrical rock, working in a Béla Bartók tune midset. -Corban

Hannibal Buress

Reggie Watts

The Album Leaf

Cults