Combining the same set up as its warmer, spring version, the fall Buzzfest provides a friendlier climate to the line-up of bands ranging from veteran headliners to entry level up and comers, who for the second year in a row gained most of the attention.

Following a week-long rain storm, the lawn section was a mud pit, which saw many people cover themselves in mud and slide down the hill (which led to immediate ejection if caught). These activities definitely gave the kids something fun to do when someone was on the stage playing the same songs the band before them were playing, only with different lyrics.

With some sub-par sets from the main stage, a large portion of the fans found salvation in the side stage, which sported some quality up and coming talent, such as Sugarcult, The Used, OKGo and H20, amongst others.

The Used gave the best performance of the day by far, until Sugarcult performed and narrowed the margin, but even they had to incorporate The Used vocalist Bert McCracken into their set.

The Used provided the edge that H20 could have provided earlier if they would have dipped into their past songs, rather than playing it safe and sticking to their newer pop-oriented songs.

From the opening of the set, The Used laid it all out. McCracken, wearing a single Misfits skeleton glove, spent a great deal of his time bouncing from stage to barricade, back to stage. The audience responded to the chance of participating and screamed back as much of each song as they knew. Surprisingly, many people know the lyrics despite the band’s debut being relatively new.

“Box Full of Sharp Objects” definitely saw the audience give its strongest effort of the day, pulling off a swirling circle pit and screaming along with McCracken and drummer/vocalist Branden Steineckert.

The band closed with a tribute to all the musicians in the audience, “A Taste of Ink.” This saw the entire band, including bassist Jeph Howard and guitarist Quinn Allman lay it all out and leave everything on the stage. McCracken screamed and convulsed as the song came to a close, eventually throwing the monitors off the stage and falling to the stage floor. This band definitely owned all the other bands who performed that day.

The most anticipated set of the day was Box Car Racer’s, which seemed more like a drum and guitar exhibition for Tom DeLonge and Travis Barker. One would expect the two to be highlighted due to the popularity of Blink-182, but having members David Kennedy and Anthony Celestino in a shroud of darkness while Barker and DeLonge were spotlighted was a bit lame.

The set covered their entire release, only in a different order. The music sounded fine, but the darkness of the stage and lack of dynamics from the performers made the set boring for quite a few of the fans, who headed over to the side stage to get a good spot for Sugarcult’s set.

Completely abandoning the humor, no matter how childish, associated with DeLonge and Blink-182 added to the lack of interest from fans who wanted to be entertained, not watch a sterile demonstration of songs.

Box Car Racer’s set still weighed in as the best of the day on the main stage. Despite the clinical feel of the set, DeLonge and company pulled off a tight set and showed promise. Unfortunately, headliner Everclear sounded like they had been too lazy to practice.

Everclear’s set felt unprepared and sounded horrible as vocalist/guitarist Art Alexakis’ throat dryly scrapped out hits like Father of Mine, while the rest of the band seemed to be having a hard time staying in time. Hopefully next year the Buzz will get a headliner who is on tour or coming off, not one who has been on the shelf.

Impatience and the feeling of being covered in mud and sweat led many people to bail on Everclear before they even started, but even more headed out the doors as the band stumbled through their set.

The earlier part of the day drug on through hideous performances from Incubus-wannabes, Audiovent (whose lead singer is Brandon Boyd’s brother.) Watching Hoobastank sound as horrible as their name and hearing Saliva blow everyone’s eardrums with the same set they performed last year (with the addition of a couple new tracks) also proved painful for the number of people who quickly abandoned the pavilion to the side stage to see OKGo perform.

On one hand, it was refreshing to see a rock festival, but on the other hand, it shows kids still have a long way to go before they re-master the concept of playing rock music and not just throwing together drop-d riffs and squealing over them.