This past Saturday, July 19, throngs of music-hungry fans converged on San Francisco, CA's Shoreline Ampitheatre for the 2008 Download Festival to have their craving satiated by sets from Yeasayer, Cut Copy, MuteMath, Gang of Four, and the Jesus and Mary Chain, among others.

For about 10 hours last Saturday (July 19), more than 20 bands and a handful of stand-up comics performed for several thousand Bay Area music fans at Download 2008's San Francisco stopover. The result was a telling mash-up of what music fans are listening to as 2008 hits its mid-point.

To whet your appetite for our extended coverage of this past weekend's (July 19-20) Download 2008, which we will be posting throughout the day, SPIN.com has put together this gallery of exclusive behind-the-scenes images of Datarock, M83, Yeasayer, and several other acts that supported headliners the Jesus and Mary Chain and Gang of Four.

Tech fiends and music nerds unite, as the U.K.-based Download 2008 event arrives stateside for the fourth year in a row, boasting the best of the old and new, led by performances from reunited legends like shoegaze trailblazers the Jesus and Mary Chain and dance-punk godfa

True, numerous festivals have been added to the Whitman's Sampler of musical options this summer, but what they lack Download 2008 has threefold: location, location, location. That's right, with an impressive bill, Download 2008 -- a SPIN experience -- will hit three cities across the U.S. in July and August -- Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia -- and offer fans an array of acts.