THE BEST:

BEST INACCURATE WEATHER REPORT: ZAP MAMA
"THE SUN IS SHINING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" sang Zaire-born, Belgium-raised frontwoman Marie Dauine on "Show Me the Way," a fusion of jazz, funk, and Brazilian tropicalia. But she was wrong: actually, it was raining… hard. But, after a 30-minute delay due to water-induced electrical difficulties at the Playstation Stage, she was coolly strutting onstage like a ray of sunshine in a neon yellow dress with lipstick-red ruffles, gold pumps, a 12-inch vinyl record attached to her head, and a pair of orange Adidas sneakers slung around her neck. She made Erykah Badu look lazy. Behind her, three backup singers swayed side-to-side in multi-colored beach hats and scarves as a four-piece band -- drums, bass, guitar, trumpet -- built a hip-shakin' groove. The songstress tapped her throat as she sang to get a vibrato effect, laced on the sneakers, and ran in circles, crooning: "THE SUN IS SHINING / AND I CAN SEE YOUR SMILE!!!!!" Thanks to you. -- WILLIAM GOODMAN

BEST SUBSTITUTE FOR BAR HOPPING IN DOWNTOWN NYC: THE VIRGINS
Consummate hipster/Virgins frontman Donald Cumming is a former male model, and the lanky dude carries himself as such. Lookin' like a younger version of Verve singer Richard Ashcroft with scruffy, short black hair, an angular jaw line, and a knee-buckling strut, Cummings and his four-piece band cut the velvet ropes and invited you into their Chicago version of a Lower East Side club. Their disco bass and drums, melodic electric guitar riffs, and lyrics about getting high and shakin' your booty -- and the stuck-up Manhattan girls who do it -- proved to be just the trick: "When you're coming down, does the paranoia come around? Hey, rich girls!" he sang on "Rich Girls," the band's catchiest song yet. The crowd busted a move in their ponchos, an accessory that has definitely become en vogue at Lolla '09 thus far. -- W.G.

BEST INTERPRETERS FOR THE DEAF: THE KINGS OF LEON
The hearing impaired can can feel each vibration of music, which registers in the brain much the same way as it does for non-deaf fans. That said, Kings of Leon certainly had some very positive vibrations as a deaf couple danced in rhythm 10-feet from the stage to spot-on renditions of the band's Only By the Night hits like "Sex on Fire" and "Use Somebody." And no enthusiasm was lost in translation: a woman on stage signed each tune, shimmying on an elevated platform like a Go-Go dancer while relaying frontman Caleb Followill's Southern dramas of love, Chevy Novas, and boozing. She even played air guitar. Rock on. -- W.G.

BEST TORRENT OF EMOTION: MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA
A little rain wasn't about to drown out bandleader Andy Hull's angsty outpouring of emotion. Sporting his trademark knit cap, a bushy beard, and sandaled feet, the stout singer-guitarist suggested nothing so much as a Hobbit up there on the Budweiser Stage. But there was nothing diminutive about Hull's mystical-existential ruminations, all of them as impassioned as they were felt. "I can't thank you enough for standing out here in the rain for us," he said before introducing "I've Got Friends." "Our band has never had this many people like us, not in the same place," he added. It was as sincere an admission as any he'd made all afternoon, and that's saying something. -- Bill Friskics-Warren

BEST MASKER MARVELS: THE BLOODY BEETROOTS
There was nothing anonymous about the thumping, grinding, solar-plexus-pounding electro-punk of the Bloody Beetroots when the Italian duo, they of the trademark Venom masks, took over the decks at Perry's, Lollapalooza's designated "rave-in-the-round." Drawing on material from their forthcoming Romborama, including mixes of body-rocking club anthems like "Butter" and "Cornelius," Bobby Rifo and Tommy Tea kept the crowd moving -- and surfing -- throughout their exhilarating 60-minute set. "Trance is dead," read the T-shirt worn by one masked fan, perhaps stating the obvious, at least for as long as his cowled counterparts were throwing down onstage. B. F-W.

BEST PINT-SIZED BLUES: YUTO MIYAZAWA
Legendary '30s bluesman Robert Johnson never traveled to Tokyo – so it's unlikely he could have imagined the version of "Cross Road Blues" fans heard first thing Friday on the Kidzapalooza stage. Japanese guitar prodigy Yuto Miyazawa introduced his faithful but fierce cover of the classic Johnson tune this way: "Hi! I'm only nine years old! I hope you like it!" We liked it. Miyazawa has jammed with Les Paul and been praised by Ozzy Osbourne, but it hasn't gone to his head (which, at 4-foot-something-and-a-half, stands a good 12 inches lower than his grown bandmates). Hard to tell if Yuto's the next Jimmy Page or just a charming and talented novelty. But by letting him play the Kidzapalooza stage all three days, it seems festival organizers are betting the former. – Mark Bautz