Last fall, then-Friday Night Lights star Scott Porter did an absolutely terrific job guest-blogging for us from the Austin City Limits music festival. Now that he’s graduated to the big screen — starring in Bandslam, which opens Friday the 14th at a cinema near you — we invited him back for another turn at the keyboard.

“What up, Music Mix!?!  I’m back for another go around on this blog thing, and I’m hoping you’ll enjoy it.

What brings me back this time is my new movie, Bandslam.  It’s about a battle of the bands in the great state of New Jersey. It has awesome music, broken promises, heartbreak, and the happiness that can only come from finding your place in this crazy world.  In other words, it’s awesome.

It takes place at Van Buren High in Lido, New Jersey.  A school where music is as big as football is in Texas. Every year, MTV sponsors a battle of the bands, and each high school in the tri-state area sends a representative of their own. I play Ben Wheatley, the lead singer of the band that has represented Van Buren in Bandslam for the last two years — only to come in second twice.  He’s back one more time to win the whole thing, but has to go head to head against the band that the movie is centered around to do it.

The best thing about this movie was the live performances of all the actors and bands involved. Everyone had to play. Everyone had to sing. No exceptions.  I learned how to play guitar for this film and actually got to perform again after a three-year hiatus from the stage.  It was exhilarating and made all the difference in the world in the final cut of the movie: you can feel the battle and the concert vibe all the way through.

EW.com came around and asked me if I’d like to try something new here and throw together a “setlist,” if you would.  I asked if I could toss together a list of the 10 best live performances I’ve personally ever seen. A perfect Bandslam night. There are some links to videos, some links to mp3s of the lesser known songs.  I was lucky enough to find some videos from the actual shows I was at. For those that don’t have clips… well, my words will just have to do.

The songs that made the list were the most memorable, incredible, mind-blowing and/or passionate performances I have witnessed in person.  Keep that in mind when you read.  I know that everyone has a list like this and mine might not be chock full of the Beatles or the Stones, but it’s honest.”

After the jump, in no particular order, Scott Porter’s Perfect Bandslam roster.

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