Okkervil River's Will Sheff and Travis Nelsen / Photo by Karen Chan

1. I once read a news story about a biker-dude lottery winner who lived at home with his mom on Long Island and admitted to enjoying a "sponge shot"—after wiping down the bar at the end of the night, his favorite bartender would squeeze the funky liquid into a glass for our hero to down. That's what the Gutter Twins (led by grizzled and gristly alt-rock vets Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli, who also played SPIN's Friday night Lolla afterparty) sound like. And look like. They might not be the first thing you'd want to hear at 2:30 on a sunny afternoon, but their dive-bar goth went down much easier than you'd expect.

2. One of the thrills of festivals is the unannounced special guest. When word came that Slash would be appearing with Lollapalooza major domo Perry Farrell in the itsy-bitsy dance tent, I changed plans and raced over to where hundreds of wet, stinky bodies pressed tight to get a glimpse. I made it through two Satellite Party songs (I think) performed by Farrell, his wife, and a guitarist-not-named-Slash before my sweating knees (who knew knees could sweat?) begged for relief.

More after the jump