"But I don't like to play naked!"
- Sting

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The day started nice and slowly, with bagels and burgers at the campsite, then Regina Spektor and Damien Rice as the first shows of the day. I've been digging Spektor's radio release, but I have to say I was underwhelmed by her show overall. Then again, it could have just been the sun melting my brain. Rice's music is slow and beautiful and creepy. If you're not familiar, he did the entire soundtrack for Closer.

A quick stop in the mist tent and a few minutes of Ziggy Marley rejuvenated us from the afternoon heat (of course everyone we would want to see would be on stages rather than under the shade of tents. I'm pinker than I was the day before). Sudhir and I split off to grab food and make brief appearances at Spoon, Ween, and Franz Ferdinand before working our way as close as possible to the front for The Police. We worked pretty close for the first few songs of Franz Ferdinand too, who were great, but we had other priorities. So we weaved our way around hippies during the last of Ben Harper's set (which was a pleasant surprise and awesome, welcoming Ziggy Marley back for a final rousing "Get up! Stand up!").

And success! We worked out way up as close as possible. Not quite within sweat range (the 'floor' was blocked off and required waiting in a separate line with no guarantee of getting in), but we pressed up against the barricade immediately before the bocked off floor section. We made friends with two ladies from Chicago and a third who thought she might pass out because her first concert was The Police, back when she was 14! And then there they were! I got to hear Message in a Bottle, Synhronicity (which means I won the bet about what they would open with, but Sudhir was a close second), Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Walking on the Moon, Wrapped Around Your Finger, King of Pain, The Bed's Too Big without You, Every Breath You Take, and everything else I could have asked for. And they were fantastic! Top of their game! All the rumors and kinks were clearly worked out and they were great and funny. And as a special added bonus, Andy Summer talked Sting into taking his shirt off* for the finale! (alas, no dancing among us, as promised). It was great - one of those things that easily could have disappointed, considering how high the expectations were, but it was just right.

Afterward Sudhir and I were exhausted and our feet and legs hurt, but a couple of caffine-infused cliff bars and we rallied to once again maneuver through a giant crowd to decent viewing for the midnight to 2:30am Flaming Lips show.

Which was the perfect ending to the night. Once again, Duncan was near, as Wayne talked about loving each other and taking care of each other and played Do You Realize and the show ended to a recording of What a Wonderful World. Perfect.

*I was going to include pictures with this entry, but alas, the picture cd from target appears to be incompatible with vista. Shocker.

UPDATE! Pictures! Yay!

One more day to go...