Rain has tarnished every Movin' On since I've been at Penn State, and last weekend was no different. Cancellation of the headlining performance made the day even more disappointing.

That said, the weather was gorgeous for the first half of the day, and, thanks to competent booking and a gracious headliner, even the rainy second half had some bright spots.

For one thing, the fact that the committee booked a talented, up-and-coming band as opposed to a washed-up act whose popularity has waned certainly bodes well for the future of the event. But that's the future. Let's talk about what happened last Saturday.

After the event was officially called off at about 9 p.m., most of the crowd began to head home. But some stuck around, hoping to get even a glimpse of Say Anything after waiting around for hours in the rain.

As a journalist with a story on the event due early the next day, I felt it was my duty to hang out for a while to see if anything transpired. Eventually (that is, once the rain let up enough for me to leave the Movin' On headquarters tent without getting drenched), I made my way over to Say Anything's tour bus, to see if I could get a quote from someone in the band about the disappointing turn of events.

Guitarist Jeff Turner descended from the bus to talk to me, but almost as soon as his foot touched the parking lot, he was verbally accosted by a small cadre of soaked Say Anything fans, begging Turner to see if lead singer Max Bemis could come out and play a quick acoustic set.

Turner conceded that it was likely impossible, as the band didn't have any acoustic equipment on its bus. Usually, when the band headlines a full tour, it brings with it several acoustic guitars so the members can all write while on the road. However, because they were only making three stops -- Late Night with Conan O'Brien the night before, Movin' On, and then a show in Ithaca -- they didn't have anything to play unplugged.

The fans, thinking quickly, offered the use of Automatic Loveletter singer Juliet Simms's guitar, which she had used for a similar purpose barely an hour earlier. At that, Turner said he'd ask Bemis and climbed back onto the bus. Really, I thought he was just being nice, and that would be the last we saw of him.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Bemis himself climbed off the bus.

He grabbed the borrowed guitar, lit a cigarette and sat down on the wet sidewalk. Though the crowd eventually grew to nearly a hundred, it was hardly a dozen at first. I've actually seen Say Anything a few times before and never with a crowd as big as was expected for Movin' On, but I've also never seen them with a crowd of people I could fit into my bedroom. It was absolutely surreal.

So although the rain prevented Say Anything from making a few thousand people happy, Bemis gave a few dozen an intimate, impromptu performance that was, for that lucky handful, a few thousand times better.

Adam Clair is a junior majoring in journalism and The Daily Collegian's senior music reporter. His e-mail address is asc5014@psu.edu.