Grade: B+ | Genre: Brit Rock/Country Summary: Keane and Tift Merritt both put forth great performances on this Midtown Saturday. If the rain hadn't put a damper on things, it would have been the perfect afternoon of music. Date: June 11, 2005 Location: Atlanta, GA In the Saturday afternoon session of Music Midtown, the headlining act was none other than the rain. Tropical storm Arlene fulfilled its promise and dropped buckets upon the music festival. Thousands thumbed their nose at the pesky rain to take in the stacked music calendar that Saturday had to offer. Scanning the stages, we had the Pixies, Alan Jackson, Black Eyed Peas, Tom Petty and dozens of other acts battling for space in the listener's busy calendar. My money for the afternoon settled on Tift Merritt, the Features and Keane before I had to cut the fun short to book it down to Decatur to catch the Open Mic Shootout.

The day began dry at the Hooters/Kicks 101.5 stage to see the lovely Tift Merritt. The John Deere crowd was definitely representin'. I think I even heard some good ol' boy say like "I'd like to see her laid out over a tractor." It makes you wonder what he thought was sexier -- Tift or the tractor. Allusions to bad country songs aside, the stage was pretty sparsely attended at the start. You'd have never known it from the way Tift was playing. She was making sure word of her performance spread like wild fire through the festival. She was having a blast as she ripped into these well-crafted songs with a passionate grace and ease. Her vocal range was astounding, as she stepped it up several notches at will to floor the crowd. She was ever so sexy in that sheer dress, and the way she was messing with that tambourine is the stuff cold showers are made of. I was ready to marry her at the end of the set, and I'm not the marrying kind.

She had to lean on her more upbeat catalog to play over the Hot 107.9 R&B/rap stage that was close by, but it didn't take anything away from the performance. The set list favored her latest release Tambourine though there were plenty of Bramble Rose numbers to keep things interesting. By the end of the hour, the crowd had swelled four times the number that started the show. Tift Merritt is probably the smartest artist in country today and she is posed to launch. After last year's Grammy nomination, it is just a matter of time before she is a household name.

So that brings us to the prized jewel of the day -- Keane. The rain had already started to make its way through the crowd during the Features set and by the time Keane got to the stage, everyone was soaked through to the bone. In and of itself, it wouldn't have been horrible, but every so often a breeze would kick up to strike piercing chills through you. Keane frontman, Tom Chaplin, let us know that they had been kind enough to bring the crappy weather with them all the way from England. I bet that was difficult to store in the overhead luggage compartment. It must have been quite a charge for the boys of Keane to look out over thousands upon thousand braving the rain just to hear them play. They sampled from Hopes and Fears fairly thoroughly stopping off to pick up the occasional b-side ("Snowed Under") as well as new songs from their upcoming release. They sounded very sharp and it was interesting to finally see the rock band that forms their sound without the help of a guitar.

It may have just been my overactive imagination, but the rain seemed to rise and fall through the epic vistas that Keane's songs took us on. The only problem with their set was not sensing the audience. Everyone is wet, cold and cranky. Most were here to see Keane though a few were just holding their spot for the Killers and the Pixies. When Keane went down tempo for their slower songs, the crowd started to get very restless. They should have seen this and focused their efforts on the songs doped up on caffeine. For those Atlantans who are disappointed they missed Keane at Midtown or couldn't deal with the relentless rain will have another chance to catch them soon. They will be playing the Tabernacle in September.

So that concludes my wonderful weekend at the Music Midtown Festival. I have some great memories and a gravely voice to show for it. I wanted to go down and catch Tegan & Sara's set this afternoon, but it was too long of a haul after a crammed weekend to see one band. If you want to read more on the music festival, check out our Friday night coverage of the White Stripes and Interpol and Patrick will be hitting you tomorrow with a review of the Killers and Bloc Party.