(ed. note - photos coming. No. I'm serious)

On day three of the ACL Festival Dennis and I finally broke away from our steady diet of twang. We didn't mingle with the jam band freaks. We did, though, get to experience the wonders of rawk.

We opened the day with the ultra-hyped Kings of Leon. A weird cross between Skynyrd and Interpol, these Florida boys were dirty, hairy and tiny. They were good, but I imagine that their tour bus is the stinkiest vehicle on the planet.

We then stuck around for part of Jack Ingram's set. It was raining and we wanted to get to Lucinda Williams but what we saw was good. In the rain we then began the long trek to one of the main stages to see Lucinda.

I've seen Lucinda a couple of times and she and her band always put on a great show. I was worried, though, as I know that it normally takes her a handful of songs to really get into the swing of things and she wouldn't have much time in this setting. Well, she and the band were in rare form and sounded great. They sounded great, that is, until they were about halfway through "Real Life Broken Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings." Lucinda, you see, appears to have a hard time remembering her own lyrics. She keeps them on a stand onstage and has a guy whose sole function appears to be to come up between songs and flip to the correct pages. Well, he screwed up. Lucinda stopped halfway and was frantically flipping through pages. After cursing a blue streak and literally throwing her songbook she stopped the song. After blaming her memory on doing too much acid, she basically gave up on her set. One more song and she was done. It was memorable, to say the very least.

We then decided that we would go all the way across the park to the other stage in order to get a good vantage point for the festival's headliner, R.E.M. This meant that we'd have to sit through two other bands, Yo La Tengo and Ween. My ears may never recover from this decision.

Yo La Tengo have a huge following in the NYC area and are pretty clever songsmiths. They just don't know when a song is supposed to end. They literally drag out most every song for twenty minutes. Just when you think you can't take a particular track any longer they take another turn and go on for another ten minutes. It wasn't awful. It was, however, incredibly loud.

It was nothing compared to Ween. Before this show I was familiar with exactly one Ween album, "12 Golden Country Greats" and one single, "Push th' Little Daisies." Now I've experienced classics like "Waving My Dick in the Wind," "You Fucked Up" and "Poop Ship Destroyer." Talented boys, those Weens. I also have experienced severe pain in my ears. Seriously, the bass level during their set was completely absurd. It was like being hit with a jackhammer for an hour. While I certainly didn't get it whatsoever, their fans were hanging on every note. It was bizarre. I know I have at least one reader who is a big Ween fan. So, uh, Jesse...

We then wrapped the day and the festival with R.E.M. I've seen the lads many, many times but Dennis hadn't. It was a pretty good show, better for Dennis than I. I wanted to hear old stuff that I hadn't heard them play a zillion times. I was sated somewhat with the chesnuts "Begin The Begin" and "World Leader Pretend" but would have liked some others. I could have done without "Everybody Hurts" and their tendancy to do every track from "Automatic For The People," but I'm just being picky. Michael was in rare form and it was a fun time.

A great way to end a great trip. Until next year...