Let me warn those with delicate sensibilities, this story contains profanity and a graphic description of a sexual act. If you are offended by such things, skip this section (and stop being such a fun-hater).  

During The Decemberists' song "The Wanting Comes in Waves," I noticed that many of the people in front of the stage were looking back and pointing to something up on a cliff next to the lawn. I looked back to see what everyone was looking at, but I couldn't locate it. I ignored it, and thought that maybe this was just one of those crazy "groupthink" kind of things. Then I saw people take out their cameras and begin taking pictures. Now I knew something was up.

Oh yeah, something was up all right. Off the lawn, on a rocky outcropping, were two people making out. Oh wait, not just making out, they were intertwined, totally nekkid and gettin' bizzee. The sun was bright, and while they were far away from where I was standing, there was no mistaking what was going on. Legs were up in the air, pelvises were thrusting, bodies were gyrating, and nothing was left to the imagination.

Meanwhile, the gawkers in front of the stage had caught the attention of the band. Remember, the band was playing The Hazards of Love, a tragic fairytale love story; this occurred during the song, "The Wanting Comes in Waves," the story about desire that is musically rhythmic, switching from harpsichord to guitar rock as it goes in waves; it has several climaxes, each followed by quiet.

Decemberists' frontman Colin Meloy looked up at the couple but kept playing. The Queen was singing her part, and it seemed pretty serendipitous to the Deed that was being done. As the music came to one of the major climaxes, security showed up; the couple began to get dressed as the song hit a quiet point, prompting a cheer from the crowd. Just as they left, the song hit the final climax and was over.

The guy behind me said "Oh my God! That was the most awesome example of music and fucking ever!" Indeed, drunk guy. Indeed.

Girl Talk (day 3, evening, Wookie Stage): When I first heard the music of Greg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, I was listening on my iPod and switching laundry from the washing machine to the dryer. I say this illustrate that I was in an extremely mundane environment. Nevertheless, when I heard "In a Big Country" mixed up with "Whoomp (dere it is!)," I laughed out loud and started dancing. Seeing this live? I was not thinking that this would be impressive. After all, it is just a guy on a laptop, right?

Well, right...it is just a guy on a laptop. Just one crazy-hyper guy on a laptop. This man was leaping up on top of a table, the speakers and into the crowd, shaking his fists and hips throughout his set.

But that was not all' the stage was packed with fans who got jiggy with their bad selves the whole set. Also entertaining to watch...but still not all there was. The crowd was the I had seen outside of the Main Stage, and everyone was part of the dance party. Crowd surfing erupted everywhere! People's hands waving around in the air just like they didn't care!

Girl Talk could have gotten away with this just playing some of the sonic tapestries from his albums, but instead he mixed many of the samples live, holding on to the fiddle from "Come on Eileen" or Blur's guitar riff from "Song 2" for longer than on the albums -- letting the crowd hear it, dance to it and sometimes sing to it. An impressive display. Because I want to forget about the Ben Harper set, I will consider this a fitting conclusion to the weekend.

Side Note #2: Girl Talk Is no Moby

During the Girl Talk set, there were people on stage shooting toilet paper into the air, creating some fun-looking chaos in an already chaotic scene. Then beach balls reading "GT" bounced around the crowd—and some blew away in the wind, en route to suffocate some small desert animal.

Jane's Addiction (day 2, night, Main Stage): I was surprised on a number of fronts here:

1. Dave Navarro is one of the premier guitarists in rock history.

2. I forgot how many of their songs I knew. Leading with "Three Days," they fired through songs from Ritual de lo Habitual and Nothing Shocking, with only a couple new songs. They hit all of their hits, including but not limited to: "Been Caught Stealing," "Mountain Song," "Ain't No Right" and "Stop." They closed with a sing-along of—you guessed it—"Jane Says."

3. Perry Ferrell = a complete and total crazy person. His banter was a little over the top, with the sexual and drug references sounding a little cliché. However, he is one athletic guy who knows how to work the crowd.

M.Ward (day 1, afternoon, Main Stage): When he played with a band, it met expectations: timeless singer-songwriter stuff played by a tight, talented band. What was surprising was watching him play the acoustic guitar without the band, which he did for a few songs in the middle of the set. I was confused how he was hitting the strings, his strumming hand moving quickly and rhythmically in ways that didn't look comfortable. This guy is a songwriter, but he is also a guitar guy, which you wouldn't necessarily know from his studio work. This man will be around for years to come.

St. Vincent (day 2, afternoon, Wookie Stage): This little elf of a woman has a mesmerizing guitar-playing style. Her music goes from melodic pop to guitar rock unexpectedly. She played tunes from her two albums, Actor and Marry Me. While it is fun to hear these songs live, it really is her guitar playing that you can't turn away from.

It appeared that she was stumbling as she was hitting the cherry red guitar. As mentioned in a couple different places (see below) there were a number of problems with the sound, so when I saw her spastically waving her arm around, I thought she was trying to get the sound guy's attention. But no, it was just her smacking the whammy bar on her guitar.

What I thought was a little disappointing was her backing band. They were fine musicians, but at one point she tried to lead the crowd in some rhythmic clapping. The crowd was not getting it—and the band was just standing there. Hellooo! Help a sista out!