Philip Kobernik of Hey Marseilles in the Camp Long lodgeIt wasn’t quite the po’ man’s Doe Bay Fest, but the 12th annual Arts-in-Nature Festival hosted by The Nature Consortium was its own weekend of music and art in the frame of nature. Held in West Seattle’s woodsy Camp Long, the festival had music coming out of cabins, in front of ponds and inside a geodesic dome. And for the price of a donation, I will gladly take it.Here’s what you missed from Hey Marseilles, Chris Ballew, Air 2 A Bird and others:Jug band covers of Gwen Stefani inside a geodesic dome: Dressed exactly the way you would expect a jug band to dress, complete with two beards, the Beaver Deceivers brought down the house–err, dome–with jug and washboard jaunts, including covers of “Hey Ya” and “Hollaback Girl.” These songs work surprisingly well with a jug. Densely instrumented hip chamber pop bands, get on it.Hey Marseilles’ big little living room show: Speaking of densely instrumented hip chamber pop bands, Hey Marseilles’ all-acoustic Saturday night closing set was absolutely glorious. Even if you’re over the hype or already riding the wagon as our Best Of poll suggested, this was a standout among Hey Marseilles shows I’ve seen. What’s so infectious about this band is the goofy-passionate onstage spirit that defies the sweetness and seriousness of their record, and that spirit shined in the small, warm setting of Camp Long’s lodge. Musically, it took advantage of the almost churchlike high ceilings and didn’t overpower the 72-capacity room. And in the living room vibes, frontman Matt Bishop ended up taking questions from the crowd in between songs, probably not actually expecting questions. Untethered from their amps, they had more space to move than seven guys usually do onstage, which had Sam Anderson hoisting his cello atop a cabinet and band members strolling down the aisle between the folding chairs. They were pushing the ends of their catalog with the longer set, but it still didn’t satiate a crowd who erupted into a standing ovation (which is just weird to have to do at a pop show) and called for one more (a cover of “Love Vigilantes” by New Order).The Curious Mystery’s curious homemade sitar: Nicolas Gonzalez started getting into making his own instruments “because [he] was living in the middle of Texas and listening to a lot of world music,” but he experiments with different sounds in his band. Psychedelic and garage stuff isn’t usually where I lean, but I went hoping Gonzalez’ creativity in making the instruments he displayed in one of the cabins ( retooled music boxes, a bowed instrument that looks like the cage cover of an electric fan, a sitar) would translate into creativity in playing them. Multiply that creativity by four, including Shana Cleveland’s wooshing lava voice and a dirty, bluesy rhythm section, and I will lean wherever you want me to lean. I’m buying their album from K Records, and I’m looking out for more.An anachronistic steel drum experience: What’s a Sunday without hearing the theme song to “Beverly Hills Cop” in the distance? Fourth- and fifth-graders from South Shore School, whom the song predates by about a decade and a half, played the song on the steel drums.Air 2 A Bird’s Amos Miller making beats off a tree and then proceeding to freestyle about it. Gabriel Teodros, Amos Miller and Hollis Wong-Wear brought only themselves, their minds, their voices, their passion, which is really all they’ll ever need. The crew was in their element with the kids who were around, too–their album cover was designed by a youth in the Youngstown Art Program, and they’re involved in various youth-oriented organizations including Youngstown, WAPI’s Katalyst program and others. Always witty, always down-to-earth, Air 2 A Bird is the Seattle’s wisest in hip-hop, and they don’t need beats or a big set-up to prove that.Chris Ballew recreating his entire career in the course of a day: Chris Ballew of Presidents of the United States of America started Sunday morning in the lodge as his kids’ rock alter ego Caspar Babypants, went through the afternoon playing his Babypants repertoire off and on in one of the cabins, and closed the festival evening with a Nature Consortium benefit show of him reviving select old Presidents songs, album by album, from the first album to the last. He candidly confessed his reservations about making a second record too soon (“We really made a good EP into a record. There was a lot of fluff on the second record.”), told the story behind “Peaches” (there was this girl…), laughed about run-ins with MC5 when Presidents covered “Kick Out the Jams,” and spliced into songs with stories about the band, the writing, his family and anything else he could fit in between chords. Ballew wasn’t going to recreate the Presidents all by his lonesome, but he could provide the backstage pass.