After overcoming some technical difficulties and a delayed start to their set, New York foursome Battles played a charged, hour-long selection of their signature eclectic, electro-rock to a massive crowd at This Tent.

It sounds glamorous, working the red carpet for an awards show like the VMAs where heaps upon heaps of celebrities (and numerous B-list cast members from Laguna Beach) waltz by in their designer duds.

Flashback four years: Somewhere in suburban Chicago, local heroes Fall Out Boy are preparing to take the stage. Fourteen-year-old girls across America haven't heard the name Pete Wentz and MTV2 watchers, who have not yet succumbed to the power of "Sugar We're Going Down," have just awarded Michelle Branch the Viewers Choice Award.

Music fandom is a very bizarre beast. It's one thing to scour the Internet to buy overly expensive tickets for a band you've been worshipping for years, arrive at their show with said tickets two hours early to ensure you will be within arms length of the band, and then proceed to lose your shit during the first few chords of every single song.