Live In Concert From Npr's All Songs Considered

In the midst of pouring rain, nothing could stop the Newport audience from singing even louder at the Sunday night singalong. Pete Seeger and his grandson, Tao Rodriguez, led the festivities with Joan Baez, Ben Jaffe and members of Balfa Toujours.

Colin Meloy and his crew led the crowd in a singalong of "Sons and Daughters."

The Avett Brothers stomped and hollered high-energy songs from its new album at Newport Folk.

It's been a number of years since Gillian Welch has put out a new album or regularly performed, but she's a regular fixture at Newport no matter what. With David Rawlings, they treated fans to many Welch classics, plus threw in a cover of Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit."

After spending nearly 20 years delivering crunchy, underground guitar rock for a major label, Sonic Youth has returned to its indie roots for its 16th studio album, The Eternal. Out now on Matador Records, Sonic Youth's latest effort is among the band's finest, with a fuzzy, tightly orchestrated mix of psych-punk rock and noisy jams. The band showcased the album in a full concert, recorded live from Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club July 7.

The Antlers have released one of the year's best albums. 'Hospice' is s an epic but intimate album of astonishing beauty, as well as one of the most moving, heart-wrenching set of songs I've had the pleasure of hearing. It evolves and unfolds majestically, soaring from hushed moments to grand, cage-rattling swells of shredded guitar noise. This performance was recorded live at the Black Cat in Washington, DC in March, 2009.

Hear Metric in a full concert from Washington DC's 9:30 Club.

Passion Pit is poised to be one of the year's breakout bands. Hailing from Cambridge, Mass., the brash and high-energy electronic outfit received a ton of hype thanks to last summer's single "Sleepyhead," a concise burst of blissful electronic pop. A year later, Passion Pit follows up its debut EP, Chunk of Change, with its first full-length album: Manners pairs that glossy, ebullient music with dark, soul-searching songs. Hear selections from Manners and more in a full concert recorded live from Washington, D.C. The performance is followed by an interview with the band.

In a year of great music, the 'Dark Was the Night' compilation is near the top. Now comes 'Dark Was the Night': The Concert, a truly mammoth undertaking. Members of The National curated the event to benefit AIDS research with performances by David Byrne, The Dirty Projectors, Bon Iver, Sharon Jones and My Brightest Diamond.

Annie Clark, who writes and records under the name St. Vincent, has never been a fan of convention. Her 2007 debut, Marry Me, was filled with off-kilter rhythms, strangely melodic electronic arrangements, and cryptic narratives. St. Vincent's latest release, a candidate for one of 2009's best albums, is even more surprising and inventive. Hear selections from the album, Actor, as St. Vincent gives a full concert, recorded live from Washington, D.C. on Friday, May 23, 2009.

Dan Deacon has built his reputation on live shows: comically unpredictable messes of frenetic dancing, audience participation and theatrics, all powered by the Baltimore resident's wildly addictive electro-freak-pop. Since getting his start in 2003, Deacon has always performed alone. But for his latest tour, he's joined by a 15-piece backing band. Deacon conducts the traveling orchestra from the dance floor, where he plants himself in the audience with a tangle of cables, analog drum machines and vintage electronics. This concert, from the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC was recorded and webcast live on May 17, 2009.

When the enigmatic rock group Animal Collective released Merriweather Post Pavilion in January, it immediately became an early frontrunner for 2009's best record. Months later, it remains the year's most wildly imaginative release, with a strangely infectious stew of tribal rhythms, pulsing synths and shimmering vocals. Here, Animal Collective stops by Washington, D.C., for a full concert — a show webcast in its entirety at NPR Music. In addition to live streaming, the performance from the 9:30 Club will remain archived on this page and in the Live In Concert podcast.

Emerging out of the sound of the spring peepers that close her new album, Middle Cyclone, Neko Case and her five-piece band opened the night's performance with "Maybe Sparrow." The stage was set in something out of a nature cartoon with trees painted on long banners and an owl overseeing it all. Behind them videos of cyclones, airplanes and anthropomorphic animals were projected on a screen. But the attention was clearly on Case, her stunning voice, as well as her solid backing band. She gave a full concert from Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club, which was webcast live on NPR.org.

The music of Mates of State has always been playfully innocent and unabashedly upbeat. Since forming a decade ago in Lawrence, Kan., the husband-and-wife duo of Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel has released a string of sticky-sweet studio albums with hooky synth lines, two-part harmonies and bounding rhythms. But on their latest CD, Re-Arrange Us, Gardner and Hammel show that they've grown a little older and wiser, with their richest and most reflective collection of songs to date. The band was recorded live at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. on Apr. 4, 2009.

Since the 2009 South by Southwest music festival and conference ended a week ago, we've spent much of our time back decompressing and making sense of everything we saw and heard. All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen, Monitor Mix blogger Carrie Brownstein, All Songs Considered producer Robin Hilton and Song of the Day editor Stephen Thompson discovered dozens of new bands, took in more concerts than most people see in a year, and came back with some new favorite artists. On this edition of All Songs Considered we wrap up our SXSW '09 coverage with a final look at some of the most memorable acts.

Last year's Furr found its way onto many best-of lists, including NPR's, and with good reason: It refines the rough edges of Wild Mountain Nation without losing Blitzen Trapper's natural forward motion. The band headlined NPR Music's day party from The Parish in Austin, Tex., on March 19.

David Longstreth, the visionary behind The Dirty Projectors, has a knack for deconstructing music and then reassembling it with distinct guitar-and-vocal arrangements. At The Dirty Projectors' SXSW concert, the band presented new material from Bitte Orca, a new album due June 9. Recorded at the SXSW showcase at The Parish in Austin, Tex., on March 19, 2009.

K'Naan questions the credibility of American hip-hop: After all, even the toughest American neighborhoods aren't as dangerous as his hometown of Mogadishu. His background informs a style that hits hard, with a message that hits even harder. K'Naan's latest album, Troubadour, features the talents of Mos Def, Chali 2na and Metallica's Kirk Hammett. Recorded at the SXSW showcase at The Parish in Austin, Tex., on March 19, 2009.