Phoenix / Photo by Ian Witlen

THE BEST

Best Reason to Love French People: Phoenix
Forget freedom fries. The French have earned their keep, and if you have any lingering issues, check out Phoenix, whose set at the That Tent Friday night had Bonnaroo's biggest stars enraptured. Passion Pit, Chairlift, the Beastie Boys, and White Rabbits all stood side stage, fist pumping, and, in MCA's case, jumping up and down. Even America's most cracked-out reality TV jester, Flava Flav, showed up… in a Dwight Howard Orlando Magic basketball jersey. The fivesome's set showed a band at their tightest; the starts and stops and abrupt shifts of "Long Distance Call" and "Lasso," both taut jams that move from Maroon 5-like keyboard grooves to jangly guitar punk in seconds, couldn't have been more fluid. The crowd chanted along to the band's new single, "Listzomania," and lofted frontman Thomas Mars up on their shoulders after he ran around the mud-caked pit, crooning in his Oxford button-up and designer jeans to the faces of glow stick-toting hippies who haven't showered in days. Phoenix dish out sugary, unforgettable pop music -- and I wouldn't be surprised if it became more popular than the baguette. -- William Goodman

Best Friday Night Prayer Meeting: Al Green
With nothing at all to prove at this point, it would have been easy for Al Green to phone this one in and cash his check. Instead, he donned a three-piece suit, brought along a full band with horns and backup singers and tore the roof off the What Stage on Friday night. After remarking that his bassist "played the underwear" off his instrument, he said, "(Let's get) down-home here for a second," before transforming the gospel plaint "Amazing Grace" into a ravaged, gutbucket blues. Next came a version of "Let's Stay Together" that the Reverend preached more than sang. Then a tortured take of "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" and a sinewy funk workup of "Love and Happiness." Shouting "Here I am baby" over the outgoing vamp of the latter, Green put himself out there for his congregation, and with a fervor -- and generosity of spirit -- commensurate with his higher calling. -- Bill Friskics-Warren

Best Front Person: Karen O
Despite having already played Coachella and Sasquatch, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs showed no signs of Festival fatigue as they played a rambunctious, supremely confident early evening set. But if you were Karen O, would you ever get bored of scooping crowds up in the palm of your hand? Dressed in black and yellow leopard print leggings and a baggy white, blue, and red dress, the singer put into relief just how personality-deficient so much of her frontperson competition truly is. She was equally arresting making slow, graceful, almost tai-chi like arm movements or spraying beer foam from her mouth. And she sings too! Coquettish on the discotastic "Zero" and seductively haughty on the martial "Runaway," where guitarist Nick Zinner's fractured chording battled O's charisma to a temporary truce. There would've been no shame in defeat. -- DM

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Best Brooklyn Band: Grizzly Bear
The members of Grizzly Bear can walk down Brooklyn's chic Bedford Avenue like champions. The Radiohead-influenced, Billboard Top 10 debutantes (Veckatimest bowed at No. 8 a few weeks back) won the imaginary battle of the outer borough bands on musicianship alone. On record, the quartet can sound precious and timid. Live, they killed. Inside the medium-sized This Tent, Chris Bear's drumming hit with seismic force, Ed Droste's voice soared, Daniel Rossen's clever guitar playing ranged from coruscating swirls to jazzy vamps, and Chris Taylor coaxed eerie moans and wails from woodwinds and effects pedals. The next round's on them, TVOTR. -- David Marchese.

Best Psychedelic Voyage: Animal Collective
You never know what you're going to get when Animal Collective play live, but their set at the Which Stage Friday afternoon was certainly mind-expanding. Overlaying hip-hop-style drumming with free-form synths and guitar -- and punctuating it all with disembodied vocals that could be as scarifying as they were soulful -- the trio's unfettered experimentalism didn't try to take the sweaty, sunburned throng anywhere. That is, other than on a journey to the center of their minds. The collective's slow-burning psychedelia threatened to flicker out at times, but at their combustible best, they approximated the ecstatic reveries of incendiary Kraut-rockers Can. -- BFW