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Rock the Garden

Rock the Garden 2010

Rock the Garden 2010
Rock the Garden 2010Walker Arts Center
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June 19, 2010

Rock the Garden Again

The summer of 2010's first (and best) outdoor music festival was kick-started by local phenoms Retribution Gospel Choir—the scorching side-project of Low's Alan Sparhawk—who championed the "rock" in Rock the Garden in slash-and-burn style.

The next act was Grammy Award-winners and viral video sensations OK Go, whose high-octane performances and rollicking new record are brimming with irresistible hooks, vintage Prince and noisy nuance.

The party continued with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, the Brooklyn collective revered globally for live shows that blaze through gospel, soul and funk—think R&B revue in a revival tent.

MGMT took the stage last, mining the pop canon of the past five decades to come up with glittering sounds, game-changing grooves and cosmic-pop hooks. They performed their new release, Congratulations, for a dazzling-yet-irreverent art-rock finale that ran the gamut from futuristic to funky, grand to glam, epic to positively euphoric.