The Hold Steady: Chillout Tent

There was a stage and a PA
Up in western Massachussetts
The kids came from miles around
To get messed up on the music

She drove down from bowdoin
With a carload of girlfriends
To meet some boys and
Maybe eat some mushrooms

And they did and she got sick
Now she's pinned and way too shaky
She don't want to tell the doctor
Everything she's taken

The paramedics hovered over
Like a somber mourning family
They gave her activated charcoal
They flooded her with saline

She got really hot and then she came to in the chillout tent.
They gave her oranges and cigarettes

He was rough around the edges.
He'd been to school but never finished
He'd been to jail but never prison

It was his first day off in forever, man
The festival seemed like a pretty good plan
Cruise some chicks and get a suntan

His friend gave him four but he said only take one
But then he got bored
He ended up taking all four
So now my man he ain't that bored anyways
The paramedics found him
He was shaking on the side of the stage

Everything was spinning and then he came to in the chillout tent
They gave him oranges and cigarettes
She got really hot and then she came to in the chillout tent
They gave them oranges and cigarettes

She looked just like a baby bird
All new and wet and trying to light a Parliament
He quoted her some poetry
He's Tennyson in denim and sheepskin
He looked a lot like Izzy Stradlin
They started kissing when the nurses took off their IVs
It was kind of of sexy but it was kind of creepy
Their mouths were fizzy with the cherry cola
They had the privacy of bedsheets
All the other kids were mostly in comas

He was kind of cute
They kind of kicked it in the chillout tent
She never saw that boy again

She was pretty cool
They kind of kicked it in the chillout tent
He never saw that girl again