It’s Lollapalooza weekend, and I know we all have a million things to do before we can fully enjoy the weekend, so I’ll keep this brief.

Smith Westerns proved last night why they are so loved. Every piece of praise heaped upon them by critics and fans is pretty much deserved. Their live show was insanely polished, and I couldn’t have imagined it going any better.

What really surprised me was how smart the show came off. They stuck to their strengths and didn’t try to do more than they should. A perfect example of this would be audience banter-they aren’t very good at it, so there was very little. Awesome. I’d much rather have no banter at all than terrible banter. That’s good thinking!

The real star of the night was the guitarist, Max Kakacek. Smith Westerns is a very guitar-driven sound, and Max delivered every note perfectly. So good, in fact, that I spent much of the concert shaking my head in disbelief. How can these guys be so GOOD??

See? That’s only two-thirds of the song, and it’s still pretty impressive! Anyway, you guys already know how I feel about the band…they were on my list of bands you can NOT miss at Lolla this year, and they came in third on my list of the best albums of the year so far. There’s no point in me going any further in depth about the show, because you really need to see it for yourself. I’ll leave you with a couple more shots.