T.I., The Flaming Lips among Rites of Spring highlights

Friday
T.I. is sadly as well known for his prison sentence—and very public making of amends—as for his music lately. The ATL rapper will start a year-and-a-day term soon after this, one of his last public performances before heading to the hoosegow for attempting to buy machine guns and silencers (the chocolate and peanut butter of the arms market) from federal agents.

Q-Tip "There's a party over here, so you might as well be here...." OK, so "Galvanize," with its Diddyesque insistence on rhyming "here" with "here," is perhaps not the finest moment in Q-Tip's career, lyrically speaking. But the former A Tribe Called Quest frontman has built up enough cred over the years—so if the question is, "Can he kick it?" then the answer is, "Yes, he can."

K’Naan The Somalia-born Canadian rapper comes from a storytelling tradition that is palpable in his bracing rhymes about life's more shadowy, difficult passages. And as arrows in the quiver go, the line "I'd make 50 Cent look like Limp Bizkit" might as well be dipped in poison.

Okkervil River Will Sheff's dark, poetic lyrics and often frenetic delivery provide the frame for the Austin band's stark folk-rock. "For Real" remains one of the decade's most heartrending songs.

Saturday
The Flaming Lips Somehow over the course of their lengthy career, the Lips have managed to traverse the cortex of the popular imagination—all the way from the One-Hit Wonder Novelty Act Lobe (where they first registered via "She Don't Use Jelly") to the Biggest Bands in the U.S. Lobe—without ever allowing a cred-o-botomy to be performed on them along the way. So here's to the band that penned the official state rock song of Oklahoma ("Do You Realize??") and still puts on one of the best live shows going, Guitar Hero-controllered Kaoscillator and all.

Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears These Austin-based bump merchants combine the greasy get-down of James Brown with the gritty throw-down of garage rock. If you want a band that's all sweaty hustle and feel-good stomp, then here's your chance to get on the good foot. (The band also plays at Grimey's record store at 3:15 p.m.)

N.E.R.D. Better known for their production credits as The Neptunes. Maybe there's a reason for that.