Well. . .In Hawaii, we don't get too many CONUS bands. Top three I've seen recently are:
1.) Fishbone (HI)
2.) Aquabats, The (HI)
3.) Demonics, The (CA) -this wasn't recent, but unfortunately, better than anything I've seen in the last couple years-
My criteria is more than just the music, but stage presence as well as crowd response.