DCist attended the Hopscotch Music Festival this past weekend and hung with some local favorites.

As a general rule music festivals give a pretty poor representation of a particular city’s music climate and as such, no real sense as to how that city might receive a band or group of bands. Yet, Raleigh’s Hopscotch Music Fesitval is unlike most music festivals. Whether due to the big names that play the city plaza or the heavy focus on experimental music (Thurston Moore was this year’s improviser in residence), Hopscotch draws people from anywhere in a seven hour radius. Still, there’s a strong local focus and a large percentage of the crowd drove thirty minutes at most to catch these shows. What’s more, the festival is still small enough so that unlike, say, CMJ or SXSW, there are no more than five bands playing opposite each other at any given time. As such, this year’s Hopscotch Festival provided perhaps a more accurate picture of D.C. bands’ reception outside of the D.C./Baltimore the comfort zone.