Come on/Lets find a way to be happy
Bonnaroo has come and gone, and I felt like I owed it to myself to go through and collect all my thoughts into one blog entry about it.
So I got there on thursday night around 7:30 and set up camp. My tent, which I'd bought 2 days earlier at Outdoor world was an unbelievable piece of shit. It was missing parts and leaked. Awesome. Also, it was too small for even one person to be comfortable in.
Anyways, I walked over to Centeroo, the large area where all the stages were immediately afterwords. I was expecting, based off the schedule I had in hand that the Wood Brothers would be starting on "this tent" shortly. I had, of course, forgotten to adjust my watch for the fact that I was now in the central time zone, so I watched the earlier band go first. They were called I-9, and apparently the lead singer, a 25-30 blond woman, had been at bonnaroo as a spectator the year before. And now look at her! She's the opening act on the opening night on the second smallest stage! I jest, of course. It was a pretty neat little story, with lots of subtle-as-a-tsunami allusions to doing lots of drugs. It's all good. The only thing I remember from their actual music was that on one song, she sang the line "You're tripping over me" at least 50 goddamn times.
After they finished up, I walked around Centeroo to get my bearings and figure out where everything was. Got back just in time to watch the Wood Brothers. They were great live, even better than the record. Line of the night goes to which ever brother was the singer, with: "There are so many of you. Last place we played was a coffee house for 21 people."
I had planned after that to go see Patton Oswalt, but that was put on hold in favor of sleep. The drive had worn me out. Of course, I didn't sleep much, for two reasons: 1) the idiot 3 tents down kept setting off fireworks all night (something he would do all weekend, much to my chagrin) and 2) the girl in the tent next to mine, who seemingly had no volume control, was in a seemingly constant state of selling hash for more than it was worth.
I was up really early the next morning. I had expected that Bonnaroo would be the kind of thing that ran 24 hours a day, but after 4am until about noon, it's completely dead, save a few volunteers who have to pick up trash from the night before. I wandered around friday morning before wandering into the cinema tent to watch soccer.
Watched the wood brothers play a second set on the small "sonic" stage later, before moving over to catch Ben Folds. Just wonderful. His set was eclectic, fun, interesting, and he was having a good time. So were we. The highlights were a great version of Landed, a stellar version of Annie Waits, and some choice pre-song and in-song quotes. "I wrote this next song with Dr. Dre" he said before playing Bitches aint shit. Later, during Rockin' the Suburbs, he blessed us with. "Just like those guys in korn did/I'm rockin' the suburbs/except they aren't talented" In addition, the harmonies he got the crowd involved with on Army were amazing.
I met up with Lauren Manley and Rachel Schlow after that to see Patton Oswalt in the comedy tent. Before it started, Lauren asked if I was at Bonnaroo "Just for music, or for other stuff too." I told her I still don't do drugs, and she gave me a "Good for you" that was about as condescending as I've heard in a while. I've never understood why people act condescending towards me because I don't do drugs. I probably would've said something about that, had Oswalt not come on stage right around that time. I wasn't a huge fan of his, but his set was brilliant. There are far too many great quotes and jokes to list all of them here, but if you wish to hear about his set, I'm happy to quote it for you.
After that it was off to Oysterhead. Oysterhead consists of Trey Anastasio, Les Claypool, and Stewart Copeland. In case you were wondering, Stewart Copeland is the greatest drummer alive. You need to remember that. Their set was long, loose, and jamming, with the clear highlight being their performance of Mr. Oysterhead, and also Les Claypool dressing up like Elvis while Trey Anastasio played a guitar with antlers.
Got Ben Folds to autograph some stuff for me! Word!
Saw Tom Petty. Holy fucking christ. You dont' realize how many classic songs he's responsible for until he's playing them all back to back. His set featured damn near all his major hits. He also brought out Stevie Nicks to sing with him on several songs, including Stop Draggin' My Heart Around and I Need To Know. Highlight song was the extended, heartbreakingly fucking brilliant version of Learning To Fly that featured an audience singalong of the chorus that was at least 3 minutes long.
After that, I was too tired for My Morning Jacket's set, so I went to sleep.
Holy fuck, I just finished Friday.
Saturday was an interesting day. I spent my morning in the Discoteque Arcade playing old school video games because that tent was airconditioned and it was 7400 degrees outside. I got in line for Lewis Black, but the line was literally so long for his first show, that I couldn't have gotten into his second show. So I wandered around some more, catching parts of Elvis Costello's set while I ate a midafternoon breakfast.
Beck came on Saturday afternoon. His set featured these crazy puppet versions of his band being shown on the huge screens. At the time he started playing, I was getting a soda, and couldn't see the stage. I could however see the screens, and thereby, the puppets. I was very confused. The puppets added a whole other dimension to the set, which was well played and crisp. The video between his set and encore featuring the puppets making fun of hippies was classic.
Radiohead was the last thing on that night. I'll probably catch flak for this, but I never could get into Radiohead. I really love Fake Plastic Trees, but that's about it. I've never been overwhelmed by their music, technically or emotionally, and I think things like their playing a 2 and a half hour, 28 song set dont' impress me as much as they do others, because the bands who I think are great live bands(Pearl Jam, REM, Springsteen, Phish, etc) play sets that are longer than that normally, and it's not treated as a big deal. Hell, Zwan only ever made one album, and their set was 2 hours and 20 minutes when I saw them. So that's my thoughts on Radiohead, and seeing them at Bonnaroo felt like being the only person at Prom without a date. Everyone was singing along, having a good time, knowing every word, and I was just bored. The technical side of their set, the sound clips, noises, light effects, etc, which most people found to be interesting and dynamic, I found to be pretentious and hindering. So after about an hour and a half of their set, I walked back to my tent. It worked out perfectly though, because right as I was walking down the road towards my tent, they started playing Fake Plastic Trees, and they absolutely killed on it. I stopped in the middle of Bonnaroo's 7th avenue and sang along, as did a guy who was enjoying the music while tripping, and sitting on his car.
Got up the next morning, packed my tent. Screwed around, saw bands. I remember thinking Sunday that I wanted to make a conscious effort to see as much as possible, and as a result I didn't really see anything I can remember. Except Sonic Youth, whose set I stayed for and it was amazing. If you were looking for the most technically skilled rock band at Bonnaroo, it was not radiohead. It was the sonic youth. Watching them play is like watchign people discover new ways to speak. What they do to Rock and Roll should be illegal. And that's a good thing.
I skipped Phil Lesh becuase I hate the Grateful Dead.
And so that's Bonnaroo.
This is unrelated to anything I just wrote, but I can't watch the video for Patrick And Spongebob Confront The Psychic Wall of Energy without being happy.
So I got there on thursday night around 7:30 and set up camp. My tent, which I'd bought 2 days earlier at Outdoor world was an unbelievable piece of shit. It was missing parts and leaked. Awesome. Also, it was too small for even one person to be comfortable in.
Anyways, I walked over to Centeroo, the large area where all the stages were immediately afterwords. I was expecting, based off the schedule I had in hand that the Wood Brothers would be starting on "this tent" shortly. I had, of course, forgotten to adjust my watch for the fact that I was now in the central time zone, so I watched the earlier band go first. They were called I-9, and apparently the lead singer, a 25-30 blond woman, had been at bonnaroo as a spectator the year before. And now look at her! She's the opening act on the opening night on the second smallest stage! I jest, of course. It was a pretty neat little story, with lots of subtle-as-a-tsunami allusions to doing lots of drugs. It's all good. The only thing I remember from their actual music was that on one song, she sang the line "You're tripping over me" at least 50 goddamn times.
After they finished up, I walked around Centeroo to get my bearings and figure out where everything was. Got back just in time to watch the Wood Brothers. They were great live, even better than the record. Line of the night goes to which ever brother was the singer, with: "There are so many of you. Last place we played was a coffee house for 21 people."
I had planned after that to go see Patton Oswalt, but that was put on hold in favor of sleep. The drive had worn me out. Of course, I didn't sleep much, for two reasons: 1) the idiot 3 tents down kept setting off fireworks all night (something he would do all weekend, much to my chagrin) and 2) the girl in the tent next to mine, who seemingly had no volume control, was in a seemingly constant state of selling hash for more than it was worth.
I was up really early the next morning. I had expected that Bonnaroo would be the kind of thing that ran 24 hours a day, but after 4am until about noon, it's completely dead, save a few volunteers who have to pick up trash from the night before. I wandered around friday morning before wandering into the cinema tent to watch soccer.
Watched the wood brothers play a second set on the small "sonic" stage later, before moving over to catch Ben Folds. Just wonderful. His set was eclectic, fun, interesting, and he was having a good time. So were we. The highlights were a great version of Landed, a stellar version of Annie Waits, and some choice pre-song and in-song quotes. "I wrote this next song with Dr. Dre" he said before playing Bitches aint shit. Later, during Rockin' the Suburbs, he blessed us with. "Just like those guys in korn did/I'm rockin' the suburbs/except they aren't talented" In addition, the harmonies he got the crowd involved with on Army were amazing.
I met up with Lauren Manley and Rachel Schlow after that to see Patton Oswalt in the comedy tent. Before it started, Lauren asked if I was at Bonnaroo "Just for music, or for other stuff too." I told her I still don't do drugs, and she gave me a "Good for you" that was about as condescending as I've heard in a while. I've never understood why people act condescending towards me because I don't do drugs. I probably would've said something about that, had Oswalt not come on stage right around that time. I wasn't a huge fan of his, but his set was brilliant. There are far too many great quotes and jokes to list all of them here, but if you wish to hear about his set, I'm happy to quote it for you.
After that it was off to Oysterhead. Oysterhead consists of Trey Anastasio, Les Claypool, and Stewart Copeland. In case you were wondering, Stewart Copeland is the greatest drummer alive. You need to remember that. Their set was long, loose, and jamming, with the clear highlight being their performance of Mr. Oysterhead, and also Les Claypool dressing up like Elvis while Trey Anastasio played a guitar with antlers.
Got Ben Folds to autograph some stuff for me! Word!
Saw Tom Petty. Holy fucking christ. You dont' realize how many classic songs he's responsible for until he's playing them all back to back. His set featured damn near all his major hits. He also brought out Stevie Nicks to sing with him on several songs, including Stop Draggin' My Heart Around and I Need To Know. Highlight song was the extended, heartbreakingly fucking brilliant version of Learning To Fly that featured an audience singalong of the chorus that was at least 3 minutes long.
After that, I was too tired for My Morning Jacket's set, so I went to sleep.
Holy fuck, I just finished Friday.
Saturday was an interesting day. I spent my morning in the Discoteque Arcade playing old school video games because that tent was airconditioned and it was 7400 degrees outside. I got in line for Lewis Black, but the line was literally so long for his first show, that I couldn't have gotten into his second show. So I wandered around some more, catching parts of Elvis Costello's set while I ate a midafternoon breakfast.
Beck came on Saturday afternoon. His set featured these crazy puppet versions of his band being shown on the huge screens. At the time he started playing, I was getting a soda, and couldn't see the stage. I could however see the screens, and thereby, the puppets. I was very confused. The puppets added a whole other dimension to the set, which was well played and crisp. The video between his set and encore featuring the puppets making fun of hippies was classic.
Radiohead was the last thing on that night. I'll probably catch flak for this, but I never could get into Radiohead. I really love Fake Plastic Trees, but that's about it. I've never been overwhelmed by their music, technically or emotionally, and I think things like their playing a 2 and a half hour, 28 song set dont' impress me as much as they do others, because the bands who I think are great live bands(Pearl Jam, REM, Springsteen, Phish, etc) play sets that are longer than that normally, and it's not treated as a big deal. Hell, Zwan only ever made one album, and their set was 2 hours and 20 minutes when I saw them. So that's my thoughts on Radiohead, and seeing them at Bonnaroo felt like being the only person at Prom without a date. Everyone was singing along, having a good time, knowing every word, and I was just bored. The technical side of their set, the sound clips, noises, light effects, etc, which most people found to be interesting and dynamic, I found to be pretentious and hindering. So after about an hour and a half of their set, I walked back to my tent. It worked out perfectly though, because right as I was walking down the road towards my tent, they started playing Fake Plastic Trees, and they absolutely killed on it. I stopped in the middle of Bonnaroo's 7th avenue and sang along, as did a guy who was enjoying the music while tripping, and sitting on his car.
Got up the next morning, packed my tent. Screwed around, saw bands. I remember thinking Sunday that I wanted to make a conscious effort to see as much as possible, and as a result I didn't really see anything I can remember. Except Sonic Youth, whose set I stayed for and it was amazing. If you were looking for the most technically skilled rock band at Bonnaroo, it was not radiohead. It was the sonic youth. Watching them play is like watchign people discover new ways to speak. What they do to Rock and Roll should be illegal. And that's a good thing.
I skipped Phil Lesh becuase I hate the Grateful Dead.
And so that's Bonnaroo.
This is unrelated to anything I just wrote, but I can't watch the video for Patrick And Spongebob Confront The Psychic Wall of Energy without being happy.