Before this set on Sunday afternoon, I’d only really seen Anderson .Paak on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, where his prodigious musical talent could show under that acoustic microscope. But here he was taking it to the big stage, first as a bouncing singing MC like the next Jamiroquai, and then sitting down behind the drum kit to drop some stadium-quality party beats. Man was he killing it. A friend quipped that there hasn’t been as good a frontman-slash-drummer since Phil Collins. That’s quite possibly true.

Paak’s band, the Free Nationals, opened the show. They are the kind of musician’s musicians that could all solo all over the place, but Paak had them keeping it super tight, and the music was like magic. It didn’t hurt their crazy good vibes of his hip hop funk that the clouds also parted and the sun finally came back to Fuji Rock during his Green Stage set.

Towards the beginning of the set, Paak walked to the edge of the stage and asked the crowd, “Hey, can I come out there and party in the rain with you?” He then brought the whole band over, and the guitarist was looking at him like, “Yo, you want me to get electrocuted?” They never actually went down. But shortly after the rain stopped and the sun started to shine. And man, with his music, was that vibe contagious!