LEAF Top Five
Black Mountain/Lake Eden, NC
May 8-11, 2014

• Bootsy Collins

Twice a year, Camp Rockmont's bucolic alpine valley hosts the multifaceted Fest. From May 8 through 11, LEAF sold out to 6,500 capacity crowds each day, with a further 1,000 attendees on Saturday as part of the non-profit's educational Schools and Streets outreach program. Amid a kaleidoscope of impassioned poetry slams, late night techno DJs, stilt walking faerie processions and kids zip-lining overhead, focus remained on transcendent live music. Here's a look at who brought the funk:

Ledisi
The Fillmore
May 8, 2014

Take a night of Grammy-winning soul and tie it to one of the most under-rated voices in music today and you have one of the best shows touring the country in the past five years.

Ledisi's "The Truth" tour, featuring the Robert Glasper Experiment, found its way to The Fillmore on May 8, 2014, and did not disappoint. Glasper, a Grammy winner for his album Black Radio, fuses hip-hop, jazz, soul and progressive styles to reshape the musical landscape with original work, as well as reimagined covers of classic hits.

He started the night with the Sade classic "Cherish" and moved the crowd into a head nodding groove. He also delivered songs from the his Black Radio 2 album. "Let it Ride" (which is sung by Norah Jones on the album) and "Calls" (which is sung by Jill Scott on the album) were crowd pleasers, but his cover of Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" was the highlight.

Glasper's ability to capture the essence of a song and add a hip hop soulful twist is the definition of inspired talent. His sound on the album was true to form and perhaps even better live.

During the changing of the band you start seeing that The Fillmore is a chameleon of a venue - constantly changing, setting the mood and tone without physically changing its structure and set up.

Gaslight Anthem
The Fillmore
May 7, 2014

Slideshow Gaslight Anthem at Fillmore, 5/7/14

32 slides

Gaslight Anthem at Fillmore, 5/7/14

Click to View 32 slides

Setlist
The '59 Sound
Blue Dahlia
Biloxi Parish
Howl
Stay Lucky
Film Noir
Too Much Blood
High Lonesome
45
The Queen of Lower Chelsea
The Navesink Banks
Señor and the Queen
Wooderson
Drive
American Slang

Encore
National Anthem
Handwritten
Great Expectations
The House of the Rising Sun
Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts
The Backseat

Carolina Rebellion
Charlotte Motor Speedway
May 3-4, 2014

• Photo by Jeff Hahne

With so many performers spread out over two days, I thought it would be best to hand out a variety of "awards" to spotlight some of the weekend's best, interesting and odd moments. Scroll down for a gallery of some the crazy crowdsurfers seen over the weekend, too.

Mogwai
Amos' Southend
May 6, 2014

Yeah, it got loud.

• Steve Gullick
• Mogwai

Spottiswoode & His Enemies
Evening Muse
May 3, 2014

• Spottiswoode & His Enemies

Tousle-haired, scruffy bearded and rumpled suited, the half-English songwriter and carnival ringleader, whom the New York Times proclaims a genius, cut a commanding-yet-approachable figure onstage. Despite his leading query, Spottiswoode's lyric, witty and compassionate songs, as interpreted by his Enemies' telepathic interplay through two exhilarating sets, were anything but depressing - though a skein of everyday angst was woven through Spottiswoode's lyric tapestry.

Set opener "Beautiful Monday" was a case in point. Spottiswoode's acoustic guitar, soft as pastel mist, spun the pastoral folk rocker which saluted the pluck of ordinary people soldiering through their daily grind. Yet fueled by trumpeter Kevin Cordt's insistent, heroic riff, the tune transformed into a glorious paean to the workaday world. Careening from satire to childlike wonder, Spottiswoode and his crack crew punched home a message of triumph tinged with the fantastic, yet grounded in reality.

Greeting Charlotte friends in the audience, chatting with off-kilter charm, Spottiswoode was every bit the eccentric English gentleman. Yet the decisive edge of a Celtic warrior and the brimstone of a Presbyterian preacher bubbled under the surface, bursting out in moments of grandly sweeping drama.

Sleigh Bells
The Fillmore
April 29, 2014

• Photo by Jeff Hahne
• Sleigh Bells

In a flash as quick as one of the many strobe lights, Sleigh Bells hit the Fillmore stage on Tuesday night, tore through a 45-minute, 12-song set before returning for a four-song encore and leaving the crowd in a pile of sweat. Given the band's volume, intensity and raw energy, I'm not sure fans could ask for much more - aside from a return visit.

The noise-rock duo, which tours as a quartet, started the night with "Minnie" as singer Alexis Krauss danced and guitarist Derek E. Miller leapt, jumped and spun his way around the stage while shredding riffs. A quartet of Marshall amplifiers were stacked on either side of the drummer as the band's sonic assault hit the audience with thunderous might.

Rising Appalachia
Visulite Theatre
April 19, 2014

• Rising Appalachia

With that, Leah and younger sister Chloe, backed by guitarist/bassist David Brown and pan-cultural percussionist Biko Casini, launched into a funky, swaying and syncopated take on the proto-folk-and-blues nugget "St. James Infirmary." With Brown's rubbery upright walking bass and Casini's late-night jazz djembre,there was a lot going on onstage, including an artist seated stage right painting a sprawling canvas.

With two brief opening acts including a fiery dread-locked poet and Kevin "Kalimba Man" Smith's virtuoso turn on amplified African thumb piano, Rising Appalachia's arts-and-poetry-inclusive stage show resembled an alt-carnival crossed with a slice of Asheville street performance. (The Smith sisters are former Asheville residents who currently dwell in New Orleans.)

Combichrist w/ William Control, New Year's Day
Tremont Music Hall
April 3, 2014

• Photo by Jeff Hahne
• Combichrist

Kicking off its U.S. tour in support of the band's seventh album, We Love You, Combichrist opened with the album's first track "We Were Made to Love You" and its "Hate disorder love destroy" chorus before cruising through a mix of fan favorites and new songs.

While some fans crammed up front to get closer to the charismatic Norwegian frontman, others found plenty of room in the back to dance their asses off. Combichrist's NIN-meets-Marilyn-Manson-meets-Ministry approach wins over an eclectic fan base that splits its time jumping up and down, swirling in a mosh pit and breaking down into up-tempo dance moves.