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GULF SHORES, Alabama — At the inaugural Hangout Music Festival in 2010, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals delivered a standout performance. Today, they topped it, with a truly epic late-afternoon set on the 2011 festival’s Surf Style stage.

Thousands were in attendance to hear the group’s raw, R&B-fueled rock, an audience bigger than any at last year’s fest. But as much as she loved the attention, Potter advised listeners to appreciate the setting, too.

“You know, on a beautiful day like this, you shouldn’t be looking at us,” she said, indicating the surf crashing nearby. “You should be looking out there.”

“I don’t want to leave the Hangout,” she said later in the set. “I want to stay here forever & ever with all you beautiful people.”

Nothing lasts forever, and the set, which include a ragged but punchy version of Heart’s “Crazy on You,” did come to an end. And when the last notes faded from that stage, a pulsing bass rhythm suddenly was audible from the nearby Boom Boom Room.

Anyone hoping to move from Potter’s set to Bassnectar’s 5:45 p.m. show in the Boom Boom Room was already out of luck: The tent was so densely packed that even getting close was a considerable challenge.

For better and for worse, the 2011 Hangout Fest had clearly hit its stride by this time: The crowd was everywhere, beer lines ranged from long to gargantuan and foot traffic was dense along the boardwalk that serves as the festival’s major thoroughfare.

Grace Potter at the Hangout Music Festival It’s early on their new tour as Grace Potter and the Nocturnals play the beach at Gulf Shores, Ala., for the 2011 edition of the Hangout Music Festival. In this interview, Potter says the tour so far is “phenomenal.” She says, “Every time we get back out on the road, it’s like summer camp.” Watch video

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