When monsoon madness and music converge

For a while on Sunday afternoon, it was a music festival without any music.

The rain started falling halfway into Parachute’s 30 minute set. Sprinkles at first. Then big blops, the kind that splat on your sunglasses and make you scramble for a dry hiding spot for your smartphone.

And then the rain came harder and the wind picked up and the big My 92.9 Oro Valley Music Festival sign on the side of the stage flew off and landed a few feet from a group of fans pressed to the front of the stage.

That’s when organizers moved everyone back — way back. Beyond the sound booth about 500 yards from the stage. Back into the vendors’ section at the end of the putting greens at the Golf Club at Vistoso, where the Tucson IHeartRadio station was hosting its inaugural daylong music festival.

No one can control Mother Nature.

The rain eventually dissipated, but not until all of the Geico Insurance Co. plastic ponchos emblazoned with “Geico” had been snagged and a few people had taken refuge under grass-covered blankets. By then 30 minutes had passed and the festival was an hour behind schedule. Which meant that every act leading up to the day’s closer, the Christian rock band Needtobreathe, had to squeeze a full set into about 30 minutes. The only exception was Brooklyn pop rockers American Authors, who put on a 45-minute show.

Which was too bad. We only got about 20 minutes — five songs — from explosive newcomer Rachel Platten, who easily delivered one of the afternoon’s biggest moments when she sang her smash anthem “Fight Song.” Parents hoisted kids on their shoulders and young girls pumped fists in the air when Platten turned the mic on the audience and asked them to sing the chorus.

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Plain White T’s guitarist/vocalist Tim Lopez snuck out from backstage and tried to catch pop singer-songwriter Matt Nathanson’s 35-minute show. If he had hoped to remain incognito that notion faded away a few moments into “Kinks Shirt” when a trio of girls spotted him and begged for a selfie. He obliged with a smile, which emboldened a few other fans to snag selfies with the star. After a half dozen, he snuck backstage again.

Nathanson had just enough time to sprinkle some of his trademark humor in between a couple of his new songs — “Headphones” and “Gold In the Summertime” off his soon-to-be-released album “Show Me Your Fangs” — and his fan favorites including “ Come On Get Higher.” He got a big round of applause when Platten emerged with maracas during the tailend of “Faster.”

Plain White T’s frontman Tom Higgenson was quick to thank the audience for sticking around through the rain delay. He and his band whipped through a handful of songs including “Pause” off their most recent indie album “American Nights.”

“There’s one song we cannot not do,” he told the crowd as the band closed their set with “Hey There Delilah.” The good news, he reminded them, was that the band is set to return to Tucson on Nov. 21 for a full show at The Rock.

By the time American Authors took the stage, it was getting on 9 o’clock and some of the parents of school-age kids were packing it in and calling it a night. For those who left that early, they missed out on the festival’s most energetic performance. Throughout the greens, fans bee-bopped along to the Brooklyn indie-rock/pop band’s infectious music. As frontman Zac Barnett blasted through “Go Big Or Go Home,” James Shelley jammed on the banjo, something you rarely see at a pop concert. Shelley and his banjo were front and center on “Hit It” and played a major role in the band’s hit “Best Day of My Life,” which closed their set.

By the time Christian pop band Needtobreathe took the stage, more than half of the 6,000 people who had loosely filled the putting greens earlier in the day had left. Which was too bad; the band was an interesting addition to a show that focused on artists with mainstream radio appeal.