If nothing else, the ads are going to bea source of constant amusement for me, as I have lately seen one advertising rental cars in Sri Lanka. No doubt this is Alex's fault, but I am only worsening the problem by mentioning Sri Lanka again. Sri Lanka! Sri Lanka!

Er, anyway... I forgot to mention Steven Malkmus in my Pitchfork recap, which was foolish, becuase I really enjoyed his set. Dude can play the guitar, and puts that to good use. I may have to look into getting some Pavement and such.

And as I mentioned, there was a free Decemberists concert in Millenium Park. I went with some UChicago folks and, not surprisingly, ran into more of them during and after the show, including Casey, who ventured up from FermiLab. They played with the Grant Park Orchestra, which put an interesting twist on some of the songs, though they seemed to have a little trouble staying completely in sync at times. Stuff like "The Infanta" gets a nice kick from having an orchestra behind it though. They played a decent mix, mostly stuff from Picaresque and The Crane Wife though.

During the main show, there was an unfortunately high contingent of family picnickers in the lawn area where we were sitting/standing. They were moderately distracting, as the show was a little on the quiet side, but I wasn't about to try shushing a thousand people. They left for the encore, and the more enthusiatic part of the crowd surged forward appropriately, including several breaks through the temporary fence separating the lawn from the seating area.

Colin Meloy opened the encore by singing the first verse of The Smiths' "Ask" a capella (up to "Ask me I won't say no. How could I?"); I was geeked, but not as much as if they had proceeded to cover the song fully. But it was still a solid encore, concluding with the ever entertaining prodcution of "A Mariner's Revenge Song". We were all swallowed by a whale again.

And then it rained. A lot. About five minutes after the concert. Fortunately, conglomerated set of 8 or so people we were by then managed to take shelter in a Chipotle (where most people got food) and a Subway (where I got food, and everyone else had to sit because there was no room in the Chipotle). We managed to get fairly soaked just traveling the 40 feet between the two nonetheless. Good times.