Wondering what happened to day 2? Well, the truth is, I went jet skiing for the first time in a few years. Jet skiing on Lake St. Clair on a ridiculously nice Sunday afternoon. And on those choppy waters, jet skiing is extremely exhausting, more than I remembered. Although, we did jet ski up the Detroit river almost all the way to the music fest located just past it, so technically I did sort of make it to the fest that day. Anyway, let’s talk about day 3. I was, in a way, dreading day 3. Mostly because at the time I arrived, again around 7PM, the forecast was for rain/thunderstorms the remainder of the evening. Normally I would be all about it, but the fact that I had my nice camera and, more importantly, a rental lens that I did not feel like paying to replace, I wasn’t quite so thrilled to dance in the rain.

But as soon as I got there (conveniently meeting up with Jon without any trouble at all), the rain was all but forgotten about. We showed up just in time to catch the last half hour or so of Michael Mayer’s set just before Jas Shaw of Simian Mobile Disco took the waterlogged stage, equipment covered in white plastic bags. I guess I never knew what he looked like, but he definitely resembles a bleach blonde Matt Peabody. Don’t you think? Next up was Pretty Lights who I had seen at Coachella, but didn’t actually see on stage. So I was pretty surprised when I saw the drum set on stage. I know I’ve said it before, but one thing I really love is a DJ with a live drummer. Just adds so much to everything.

After about a half hour I figured I should probably just stroll around and check things out since I realized I’d spent almost my entire time at the fest at the Red Bull Stage. So I went and spent a few minutes at the other stages before meeting back up with Jon at the Vitamin Water Stage. We met under the giant “CANDY/CIGARETTES” sign, at which point we noted that this sign is probably responsible for adolescent smoking habits thanks to its subliminal juxtaposition of two words such as this. Then we made our way to the floor to check out Kenny Larkin, another total boss.

But the moment we’d both been waiting for were the closing German duo of Booka Shade. I’d been hearing about them for years. A few friends had seen them at 2008 Lollapalooza. A few friends had randomly seen them in Europe (true story, in multiple cases). But all agreed they were not to be missed and I had to agree. It was one of the most energetic acts of the weekend and the most fitting way to end the festival. It’s almost not fair how good they sound live. Check out some of my pics below. And again, you can find these and many more from throughout the weekend on our Flickr page. Also, I think the shoe shot has become my signature shot. It is pretty interesting to see what footwear all these artists wear, right?

The best part about this post is that in the process of looking up the perfect Booka Shade jam, I find an awesome remix by my boy Gui Boratto. It starts to get real juicy at about the 2 minute mark.
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