All Tomorrow's Parties - Saturday

It has been raining all night. Inside the tent is wet. All of our shoes are wet. Andy, one of the guys from D.C., wakes me up with the statement, "Who left their jeans on top of the tent? Man that's going to suck."

I decided to go sockless and get breakfast with Andy and Zac. Andy and his friend Mike are both engineers with NASA in Washington D.C. They are traveling with Mike's younger sister, Jessie, who goes to school in New York. Andy was telling me how lax security had been last year. Even though no one stopped us from camping, or exploring the country club, or smuggling alcohol into the venue, or really much of anything, it was apparently much stricter than last year. He said they had rowboats available to go out onto the lake, and last year there were huge drunken crabapple fights in the middle of the lake. Despite all of this, it is still the least security I've ever seen at a festival.

During breakfast, we see Nick Cave wandering around the gift shop. Many of the artists are hanging around, waiting for the music to start. The first act of the day is Sufjan Stevens, performing his album Seven Swans:



We meet up with my friend Joe from college and watch Sufjan from the top tier. Although I'm not as big a fan of Seven Swans as I am of Michigan or Illinois, it is still a fantastic performance. Like I mentioned earlier, Sufjan's show is sponsored by the Kutsher's gift shop. Hence, the tye-dye. Over the next two days, I'd see more and more people wearing tye-dye Kutsher's shirts, as a sort of tribute or ironic statement.

Joe has a tent to pitch, so we lead him back to the creepy houses. Near one of the houses, we find some old charcoal grills. Too good to be true. Nick, Joe, Zac, and I travel to a nearby Wal-Mart for coals and some cooking supplies. Tonight, we'd feast!

Back at the country club, we pop in to see bits of Antipop Consortium and El-P. Our main focus, however, is the Akron/Family performance that is happening on Stage 2. Before they go on, we watch Sleepy Sun.

Another recommendation by Jamie (who actually left on Saturday, probably because she left her jeans on top of the tent), Sleepy Sun are like the Black Angels with outrageous percussion and a sultry female vocalist that everyone fell in love with. They turn out to be one of the biggest surprises of the festival, as I had never heard of them beforehand.

But, ah Akron/Family! Last time I saw them was at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, as a six piece freak-dance outfit. Today they are a three piece, but still have enough energy to ignite the entire room:



After two amazing bands, I need some food and a bit of rest. I watch a few songs by Dead Meadow, and then go out and sit by the lake for a bit. Animal Collective headlines tonight.

Deerhunter is playing right now, and I'm sitting outside the stage, a bit tipsy from whisky and beer. I go in and watch him a bit, but I am not a huge fan. I'd much rather see The Melvins playing on Stage 2, so I dip out alone and catch some of their set. Halfway through, Animal Collective is about to go on, so I jet back to the main stage to catch one of my favorite bands for the second time in two months:



A pretty similar set to the Prospect Park show I saw recently, I am not as blown away as my friends. Still a great cap on a fantastic day of music.

Nick, Joe, Zac, and I head back to the campsite to reunite with Mike and Jessie (Andy decided to skip the cookout that night). My friend Jane arrives with a few friends and we cook rice and beans on the charcoal grill, along with some potatoes. A random guy with a mask shows up completely trashed, not friends with anyone. We are convinced he's going to kill us in the nearby Rob Zombie houses, but he just drinks all of our alcohol and pisses everyone off. Eric shows up after the chaos and tells us he lost all his money gambling with Steve Albini. We head to bed around 5 a.m., with one more day of music ahead of us.