Coachella, the giant three-day music festival that takes place every April in Southern California's (normally scorching) Indio desert, for all intents and purposes kicked off 2012's entire summer music festival season on Friday, April 13. But the weather was so un-summery this year, confused festival-goers might've thought they'd somehow accidentally teleported to Britain's rainy Glastonbury when they boarded the free Coachella shuttle. Rain? At Coachella? A festival famous for dry heat in the near triple-digits? It really almost didn't feel like Coachella at all, as shivering music fans huddled together in scarves and woolly hats instead of their usual sundresses and teeny American Apparel bikinis; the video screens on the two outdoor stages were lowered out of fear that the harsh desert winds might topple them over; and the queues for coffee, tea, and hot chocolate snaked considerably longer than the lines for frozen margaritas (definitely a Coachella first). It was enough that when

Time to get excited people: The Grateful Dead's Bob Weir, members of the National and some of their Brooklyn buddies have released a teaser clip of rehearsals for this Saturday's "Bridge Session," streaming live on Yahoo! Music! The one-off supergroup's only plan is to have a long, freewheelin' set full of hits, covers, and unexpected surprises. And just to whet your musical appetites, they've chosen a particularly juicy sneak preview, a cover of Bob Dylan's "Most of the Time":

Saturday marked the convergence of South By Southwest's final rager with St. Patrick's Day...so that's another way of saying that downtown Austin's 6th Street basically turned into the sixth circle of Hell. Oh, don't get me wrong: SXSW had been a blast all week, a Spring Break-ish spree of great live music by everyone from Bruce Springsteen and Lionel Richie to Fiona Apple and Norah Jones to Santigold and Skrillex. But by the Texas musicfest's final day, I was more burnt than a Salt Lick BBQ grill. So the last thing I wanted to do was battle a bunch of green-beer-swilling rabblerousers for a spot in yet another block-long line to get into yet another overpacked 6th Street sports bar. No, Saturday called for a little relaxation, SXSW-style, and I thankfully got it, although along the way I still managed to occasionally party as hard as SXSW fixture Andrew WK.

Okay, South By Southwest. Enough already. You have too many bands. Really, SXSW? Jack White AND Eminem with 50 Cent AND Skrillex AND the Cult AND Temper Trap AND about 1,817 other acts--all on the same Friday night? Come on, SXSW, pace yourself.

Well, pacing oneself was so not on the agenda during SXSW's first big weekend night, as what appeared to be the entire population of Texas descended upon Austin's 6th Street to watch (or, more specifically and sadly, stand in block-long queues for) the abovementioned acts and more. It was astounding that with so many options this evening, every venue was still so beyond-capacity packed, and that it seemed like there were even more revelers out on the sidewalks than in the clubs. (The flier-strewn, beer-and-I'm-scared-to-ask-what-other-liquids-soaked 6th Street felt like a combination of Mardi Gras, Tailhook, and the set of Mad Max, and when I finally pushed through the teeming crowds and made it back to my hotel room at the end of the night, I felt like I needed to take a bath in equal parts Febreze, Purell, and bleach. But hey, a little chaos and uncleanliness is all part of the SXSW experience.)