When last I left you, I was on my way to the Sasquatch! Main Stage to settle in the for the night, but I got distracted by Johnny Cash's reincarnation, Vince Mira. Gene Stout wrote about him last night.

Over at the main stage, clouds gathered overhead, threatening a downpour, which seems to happen when Neko Case is around, as she was for the New Pornographers. (A few years ago at Zoo Tunes, she sang "Buckets of Rain," and wouldn't you know it, the heavens opened up and answered her.) It didn't rain, and Case and Carl Newman sang leads and delivered the kind of consistent pop that always pops with "Mass Romantic" and "Sing Me Spanish Techno." Dan Bejar from Destroyer guest sang a couple of songs.

"We're kind of like a drop-in center," said Newman.

Sri Lankan singer M.I.A. threw Sasquatch! into high gear, hitting the ground running with her brand of world/club dance (Brazil via her birthplace, London), with two back-up dancers/singers who kept the over-stimulated masses on their feet as it was impossible not to respond to the beat and her voice. Near the end of her aerobically-charged set, she brought what looked like 100 people onto the stage for Sasquatch's biggest on-stage dance party.

Rain at the end of her set sent festival goers seeking cover under anything they could find: the smart kids in front of us had a tarp we envied, raincoats, stadium seats, umbrellas.

But it let up a little for Modest Mouse, whose frontman, Issac Brock, has the kind of spastic delivery that fits with songs like "Dashboard" as his body and face become its own act. His punctuated prose always makes it sound like he's angry, or just making amplified points in an argument. The video cameras zeroed in on legendary Smiths' guitarist, Johnny Marr, who joined the band in 2006.

Finally, R.E.M. They're not a band I'd normally go to a show to see, but I've changed my mind after last night. Here we were, shivering and huddling for warmth, rain coming down on our heads, soaked to the bone, but Michael Stipe's voice cut through the discomfort and lifted me up. He took off his shoes and socks and performed bare-foot to keep from slipping on the stage. He said the last time it rained so much at one of their shows, it was in Cologne, Germany, and it was six inches. It wasn't that bad last night, but suffice to say, it sucked enough. But again, Stipe and R.E.M. -- who are on a world tour that began in Vancouver Friday -- showed how 25 years in the business have honed them into professional performers who can successfully integrate the old with the new, mixing in crowd-pleasing sing-a-longs like "Losing My Religion,""The One I Love," and "Man in the Moon" with new songs from the "Accelerate" album such as "Man-Sized Wreath" (about George W. Bush at the grave site of Martin Luther King, Jr.) and "Horse to Water" for nearly 2 hours (almost to midnight). I still think Stipe's lyrics are his real gift, with "Hollow Man" and "Final Straw" pulling at every angst-string in me, making me forget the rain and cold and making the wait for them worth every minute.