Paul Wall On a stifling hot summer day, the coolest stage at the festival was the Mercury Stage sponsored by Red Bull. Tucked underneath the interstate at the edge of downtown, the shade and cool breeze made for a pleasant arena to catch The People's Champ, a certain Mr. Paul Wall.

As the crowd swelled, the Swishahouse rapper flashed his ice and unleashed a furious set of hits including "Sittin' Sideways," "Chunk Up the Deuce," and "They Don't Know." Either the large, hometown crowd had him pumped up, or the heat lit a fire under the stage, but either way, the result proved to be one of the most inspired Free Press Summer Fest sets I've ever seen. MARCO TORRES

Paul Wall (times two) I've seen Paul Wall perform in Houston a few times now, but I've never seen him better than he was on Saturday. The setting helped a lot: Is there any place more appropriate for the iced-out player's swang-and-bang sound than beneath the overpasses of downtown Houston?

The People's Champ drew a massive early afternoon crowd to the shady Mercury stage, so large that hundreds of hip-hop heads crowded in with no chance of even glimpsing the rapper. Longtime fans were rewarded with cuts from throughout Wall's career, including his classic flow from "N Luv Wit My Money."

His best-loved cut of the day, though was the Texans tribute "Houston," which had the large assemblage chanting along to the chorus: "I'm from Houston, Texas, home of the Texans." It was the single most H-Town thing that I saw and heard all day. NATHAN SMITH

Vintage Trouble Before Saturday, I did not have a clue who Vintage Trouble was; they just happened to be starting as we were wandering back from newly minted Houston alt-rock heroes American Fangs (nice job, guys). I looked up the group on the FPSF app, and they're from Laurel Canyon, but a damn sight removed from the mellow early-'70s scene of Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne.

Like, seriously. In just two songs (Paul Wall beckoned), Vintage Trouble peeled off some funky-soul/gospel-rock that was as satisfying, uplifting, and bracing as anything I saw. And they did it in suits. It wasn't just me, either. "My vote for most underseen/underrated band of #FPSF is Vintage Trouble," @tolli05 tweeted us. "Those cats blew the doors off this motherfucker!" They really did. CHRIS GRAY