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<\/a><\/p>\nIt\u2019s said that New Orleans\u2019 seasons aren\u2019t like any place else\u2019s; instead of the usual spring, summer, fall, and winter, we get Carnival, Festival, Hurricane, and Football. This year, the majority of my live music experiences – in this town that is chock full of them – centered around the bookends to the Festival season, namely, the JazzFest <\/a><\/strong>and the Voodoo Music Experience<\/a><\/strong>, aka, the Voodoo Fest. Bringing up the rear of my short list of the best live is something we call lagniappe: a little something extra.<\/p>\n Top Headliners:<\/strong><\/p>\n I didn\u2019t expect Feist to be as much of a powerhouse performer at the JazzFest as she was – she was on one of the major stages of the festival at the same time as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were on a different stage, and the style of her singles and her more recent albums The Reminder and Metals seemed more intimate, countering the spaciousness built for bombast of the Gentilly<\/a> <\/strong>Stage. Leslie Feist\u2019s stage show was more than up for the challenge – she conquered the large crowd (large despite Petty\u2019s presence across the JazzFest grounds) with her guitar work, the backing of some great musicians, her inclusive stage manner, and with some strong renditions of songs like \u201cUndiscovered First\u201d and \u201cI Feel It All.\u201d<\/p>\n In October, Neil Young and Crazy Horse mounted the even larger Le Ritual Stage<\/a><\/strong> at Voodoo Fest, and though they mostly physically confined themselves to a setup consisting of a Persian rug and some of the amps and instruments close-in around it, the sound they made was huge, heavy, and joyous. Occasional past gems like \u201cCinnamon Girl\u201d and \u201cNeedle and the Damage Done\u201d were interspersed with longer, old-is-new-again work from Psychedelic Pill. The shredding and stomping in \u201cWalk Like A Giant\u201d was worth seeing all by itself, but Young and the Horse kept that energy and fire alive all through the performance.<\/p>\n The Locals:<\/strong><\/p>\n Shamarr Allen and the Underdawgs <\/a><\/strong>are thus far underwhelming on their studio albums but incredible live, and JazzFest was no exception. Only Allen can whip out songs that decry the sad state of affairs of his best girl not having sex with him and tout himself as being an atypical rock star (in a song entitled \u201cTypical Rock Star\u201d) with a burning intensity that this time had him destroying a trombone a la Pete Townshend. The next moment, however, had him performing first with his young son and then with a troupe of young players he and the Underdawgs have been teaching music to on a weekly basis through the Silence Is Violence program in New Orleans – and everybody brought a spark of that same intensity to the stage. Allen is a hardworking mass of talent who remains open and free with his time and teachings, and it\u2019s beautiful to see all of that live.<\/p>\n Even in New Orleans\u2019 biggest festivals, a nod must be given to the local hip-hop phenomenon that is Bounce, and Katey Red\u2019s Bounce Azztravaganza<\/a><\/strong> at Voodoo Fest was a convergence of far more than Triggerman beats and twerking – it was a chance for Cheeky Blakk<\/a><\/strong> to strut and call to a huge audience that seemed to appear out of nowhere once the show started. Blakk has a tough personality of her own that is one thing to hear on a recording but is absolutely stunning to observe in the flesh. Though Katey Red had scheduled other bounce greats to go on after Blakk, she set a bar for the rest that was tough to beat.<\/p>\n