TheDailyCity.com's Janessa Gursky reports from the first night of the 5th annual Anti-Pop Music Festival. See more photos here. 
Anti Pop 2009 officially has started! The opening party took place at the Gibson show room, Pabst Blue Ribbon and South Hampton sponsored the event (Produced by Fly South Music). The space was filled with participating musicians picking up their All Access Passes. By night's end, managers, A&R peeps and fans spilled out onto the street chatting about the week to come, shows to see and itineraries to be made.
Couple shows I saw:
Thomas Wynn & The Believers | Plaza
This show was a big highlight for me. I've been a fan for a few months. Being new to Orlando, I was unaware of the local band. But now they are all over my radar. Their performance was amazing: a combination of The Allman Brothers Band, The Black Crowes and Wiskeytown. The brother /sister harmonies of Thomas & Olivia are enough to give you chills and their guitar riffs will get you on your feet. "Southern rock" has come back to Florida in a big way! Thomas Wynn agreed to an interview with me on Saturday, and we'll have that online asap.
Pete Yorn | The Plaza
A pretty good initial showing for such a late show. Pete was scheduled to go on at 11:30 and at 11:25 the doors opened and the rest of the venue was flooded with late comers. My guess they came from the Minus The Bear show. Pete went on as scheduled and proceeded to play a full hour and a half with an encore; a great way to start a festival! And by the third song, people were at the stage bobbing their heads. A few die-hard fans added jumping and fist pumping. A highlight was his cover of "Bizarre Love Triangle."
The Festival's first sold out show was at Mumiy Troll at Will's Pub at midnight.
Photo Credit: Janessa Gursky