My Friend Went To Bonnaroo And All I Got Was This Crappy Post
Well, it's been two weeks since I got back from Bonnaroo. I've been meaning to make a post about it since day one, but life gets in the way. You know how it is when you travel away from home and work for 5 days...stuff piles up. Anyways, I've finally had time to digest my experience so that I can relate it in words that consist of more than one or two syllables. Since this was my first time, it was all very overwhelming and I'm still re-running stuff through my head and remembering things that happened with a little more detail.
Our ragtag bunch left on Thursday morning at around 10 a.m. We would be spending the next 6 hours on the road in two different vehicles. I rode in the truck pulling the camper with my friend Ron and the owner of the camper, Eddie and his sister. My buddies Ed and Woody and their wives Ange and Tracy (respectively) rode in the other vehicle. We played car tag all the way down to Manchester, Tennessee. About halfway down, we figured out that Eddie had forgotten to fill the camper up with water. Water is pretty expensive at Bonnaroo, so we stopped at a rustic campground on the way down to fill up.
Several hours later, we arrived in Manchester to sit in a loooong line of cars for several more hours...
...right after I took this picture, the line started moving and I was left to run after the car for about 1/2 a mile. Since I don't ever run more than 10 feet or so, right off the bat, my feet and legs were wrecked. Everyone thought it was funny though, so HARDEE HAR.
The next step in the process of entering Bonnaroo is to submit to a security search of your vehicle...
I'll just say this now...I did not have a single problem with the security at Bonnaroo. For the most part, they were very hands off. The guys that searched the camper were friendly. In the picture above, the guy on the right was singing the "Bad Boys" theme song to the cop on the left and making fun of him. Good times. The security staff in the festival also seemed to have a good sense of humor and I never saw a single problem between them and anybody else. I know for a fact that there were indeed problems, but I never saw one. In fact, in a crowd of 80,000 people, I never saw a fight or any other bad behavior.
We were very fortunate that we were able to camp in the Accessible area. This was thanks to Ange bringing her handicapped car tag along. She needed to be close and fortunately, we could all be together....close. We were basically 1/8 mile from the gates...
We set up our camp. Eddie, his sister and Ed and Ange stayed in the camper, Ron and I had our tents (in the foreground) and Woody and Tracy had a tent (in the background. It was a pretty cozy setup. By the time we got all set up, it was about 11 p.m. I chatted with some neighbors, who were kind enough to let me borrow their hammer for our tent stakes several times. Everyone around us was very cool and I didn't have a problem with any of them either. I really wanted to see The Black Angels and Mute Math, but we were too late. We did go into Centeroo after a few beers and checked out Rodrigo y Gabriella
Very excellent Spanish guitar duo. I hung out for most of the show, but I was itching to explore Centeroo, so I missed the Pink Floyd covers they played. I checked out the Disco Tent for a little while...
...which was cute, but kinda' boring by yourself. I also checked out the silent disco and got a shot of the fountain at night, before the water turned brown.
But after all that travel, I was pretty wiped out. I roamed around a bit more and then made my way back to camp. It was about 2 am and I was ready for sleep.
One thing I have to say about sleep at Bonnaroo. I was in a tent with a cot and when I hit that cot, I was out like a light. As close as we were to Centeroo, I didn't wake up for anything and slept great. But....when that sun came up around 9am, I was up no matter how tired I was. This is mostly because I normally get up at 6am and mostly because when the sun came up, the temperature went from about 60 to 90 in 5 minutes. So I didn't really want to be in my tent anymore. I even brought a tent fan, which I never used because I was never in my tent once it got hot. And it got hot....miserably so at times.
Friday I awoke and rambled somewhere to do my morning duty. On the way, I came face to face with a cop on horseback, nosing through the campsites. I stopped for a minute and said hello to her and asked if I could pet her horses nose, which she said yes to. Memories of working on Mackinac Island... I didn't get a picture of that. In fact, I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to. I got back to the site and since everyone was still sleeping, I took my jambox and my giant bubble wand out in a field and listened to some Jimi Hendrix, "Electric Ladyland" as I made bubbles. A few people stopped by and I let them have a go at it. It was a really good way to meet people and a great way to start my first full day at Bonnaroo. After everyone was up and at 'em, we all decided to hike over to Shakedown Street.
From what I've heard, Shakedown Street is like the lot scene at a Grateful Dead show, only bigger and 24 hours a day. I've been to a bunch of Dead shows and Shakedown Street was not like any lot scene I've encountered. It actually reminded me of what it would be like to walk down a bazaar street in Mos Eisley. Case in point, this is the first thing that I saw when I turned onto the street....
Evidently, this guy is the President of the United States on Bonnaroo. At least that's what he claims on his CD that he gave me. The band is the Bongoloids and he is Ray Bong. He was simultaneously hilarious and mind blowing, what with his playskool guitar hooked into a synthesizer setup.
My friends were shopping on Shakedown, but I wasn't in a buying mood, so I just tagged along and did some people watching. You can basically buy anything on Shakedown. I saw some excellent artists and some tasty food, so I noted those things for a return trip later. I had a gyro that upset my stomach and that kinda' set the tone for all the food I bought from vendors at Bonnaroo. Note to self, don't buy any more vendor food at Bonnaroo. We walked the whole length of the street and back down again. The weirdness was thick that day. I was the only one in our group that wanted to see Tortoise, so I made my way back to the campsite and grabbed my Camelback and headed into Centeroo.
On being alone at Bonnaroo. I spent a lot of time alone seeing shows. This didn't bother me until Sunday, when I realized that I had gone to a bunch of shows alone and hadn't spent too much time with my friends. The reason for this was mostly because they had different bands they wanted to see and those times clashed with the bands I wanted to see. Like I said though, it didn't bother me too much. What I soon realized was that at every show I went to by myself, all I had to do was strike up a conversation with the people around me and I had instant friends.
So I checked out Tortoise. They were pretty excellent. All instrumental, experimental jazz with great percussion and vibes and a little bit of King Crimson guitar weirdness thrown in for good measure.
I don't know how I pulled it off, but I ran into Eddie and his sister after the Tortoise show, I encouraged them to join me and we all saw the Micheal Franti & Spearhead show together. They had never heard his music so I was pretty happy to introduce them to it. And, as expected, he put on an excellent show.
It was my favorite show of the whole weekend. Micheal Franti is just such a cool guy and his music is equal parts funk, reggae and dance with a whole lot of political activism thrown in. I've listened to him ever since he was in the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and I respect the hell out of him. He really knows how to get the crowd going and all around me were happy faces. "All the freaky people make the beauty of the world", was a high point for all of us. Eddie and his sister loved it too.
I really wanted to catch Manu Chao next. I ran into my buddy Ed (another chance occurrence) and we split off from Eddie to go meet up with Ange at the Lily Allen Show. On the way, we stumbled upon this...
This "parade" pretty much summed up the whole experience of Bonnaroo for me. There was a little bit of everything there and I really had a hard time figuring out what to capture. I just wanted to capture the moment. It was strange, fleeting and beautiful.
Sigh.
Once that moment passed, we made our way over to Lily Allen to pay homage to her cuteness.
We showed up in time for her to relate a story to the crowd about girls who treated her mean in school and now she's all popular and they're all fat and pregnant and losers, etc. She obviously needs to grow up a bit. Kinda' reminds me of the first time I saw Fiona Apple in concert when she opened for Lucious Jackson. Very talented and very immature. But still very cute. We never did meet up with Ange. We headed back over to Manu Chao for a bit.
I didn't stay long because at that point, my energy was really waning and his show requires a level of energy that I just couldn't muster.
Look...it's Captain Goodtimes!
We also peeked in on the Black Keys show, but after a couple of songs, we ultimately decided to just go back to the campsite for some dinner. I cooked up some excellent churizo burritos for everybody and all was really right with the world. A few beers later, we decided to head over to the Tool show. I didn't really get any good pictures of that show, but it was a visual treat with all kinds of lasers shooting up through the night sky. The music was a sonic wall of energy that pressed against you and didn't let up. I'm not a big Tool fan, but I really liked them.
After Tool, Woody, Eddie and I headed over to the Art of Such n Such. It's basically the visual and theatrical component to the whole festival.
There's always a lot of cool stuff going on over there. When we showed up, there were guys pouring molten metal out of a big vat and just letting it splash and spark all over the ground. They basically had an open air foundry going. It made for a spectacular light show. I didn't think to film it, but it was great to watch. They were building metal sculptures which they then installed with gas pipes running through them. A lot of them were already built and were in various places shooting fire out of them. After awhile, we headed over to the DJ Shadow show.
It was a pretty spectacular show. I started the show up front, but got sick of this group of over muscled college dudes behind me who kept pushing each other around and myself by proxy, so I moved to the back. Turned out this was a good move because I could see the video screen as well. He must have had a VJ there, because the video was excellent and perfectly timed to the music. He played until about 3am. I stuck around for about 90% of the show and then my cot called out to me and I shambled back to my tent.
When I got back to the site, everyone was asleep, but I was wired. I wandered to the port-o-potties to take care of some business and when I got back, there was some strange girl fast asleep on one of our chairs in the middle of the camp site. I sat down next to her and was listening to some music and she woke up and looked at me and said, "I'm at the wrong campsite, aren't I?" I said yes, but she was welcome to stay if she wanted. I tossed a blanket on her and went to bed. She was gone an hour later when I got up to take a piss.
Mornin' Elwood!
If Friday was a day full of friends, Saturday was the complete opposite. I managed to drag a few people with me to see Dr. Dog. On the way to the show, some Hare Krishna approached me. I acted like I didn't see him, not in the mood to have a religion sold to me, but he pursued me. He asked me if I wanted a book and shoved some crappy meditation book on me. I looked it over, said thanks and continued walking. In the distance, I heard him say, "Sir! We accept donations!" Heh....donations. I handed the book to some girl while waiting in the long assed line for Centeroo.
Anyways....Dr. Dog...they rocked out pretty hard in the already hot-as-hell tent.
But after that show, we all split off. I headed over to go check out the Annuals.
I love their studio albums, but I wasn't really impressed with them live.
I took this picture after their show to give an idea of the crowds and the dust...
The dust got pretty bad. There were people wearing filter masks and bandannas over their mouth and nose. I lost my voice, probably more from screaming at every band I saw, so I was pretty quiet most of the weekend.
Look...it's a lady with a bunny hat wandering into a mud hut!
After the Annuals, I ducked into the Bonnarouge tent to check out the Firecracker Jazz Band
It was nice and cool in there and the jazz was red hot. Some of the members of the Squirell Nut Zippers were playing in the band, so I couldn't pass it up.
My biggest regret of the day was soon to come. I made my way over to see Ween. They're basically the one big act I wanted to see for the whole weekend. I made my way up to the front and had a great spot. I figured out a good trick to getting a good spot was to wander up to a sleeping person (they were sprawled everywhere) and act like I was their friend. Then I would basically stand above them and slowly work myself into a comfortable spot. So, like I said, I was right up front for Ween. I even have a couple blurry photos to prove it. They came out and played a couple songs and then an overwhelming fatigue hit me. It was just the heat and all the walking and being on my feet. So, I decided to wander off to the side of the stage, spread my blanket out and sit and enjoy the show. So I did that. The next thing I knew, I was waking up and the show was long over and the venue had pretty much emptied out to go see the Police. It was like a ghost town. I was happy to find that nobody had messed with me at all and I felt pretty refreshed. But I had missed the whole stinking Ween show. Man, I didn't know how to feel, so I shrugged, got my stuff together and shambled over to the Police show. I found a nice spot way out in the field and spread my blanket back out. I got myself a beer and lay back to look at the stars and listen to the Police. Their show wasn't spectacular either, but it was good enough.
I guess it was a good thing I slept, because I probably would have never made it to the Flaming Lips show, let alone stood through the whole thing. But I did and it was so good.
Words cannot describe. If you've seen them, you know what I mean...if you haven't then go see them and we'll talk.
By this time, it was about 2:30am and once again, my cot called to me. On this particular night when I stumbled into the campsite and threw myself into my tent, my friend Woody decided he would scratch and poke at me through my tent in an attempt to wake me up and get me to party. Little does he know that my sleep-fu is stronger than his. Plus, his ass was asleep when I got back from DJ Shadow, so he can't talk smack.
Sunday was to be my last day in this musical paradise. It was hot, double dusty and I was hungover like crazy. But I was till up around 9am. I basically lay around in the shade drinking water all morning. Then a friend asked me if I wanted to go check out John Butler Trio with him. I'd never heard of them, but I was game. So I grabbed all my stuff and we headed out. What I found out was that John Butler Trio rocks.
John Butler plays guitar, but he does so much with it that I can't even believe he's doing it all. He uses it as a percussion instrument, guitar, sitar and slide guitar. Plus he sings and raps and plays harmonica. He has a backing band (thus the trio) and they're kinda' reminiscent of G. Love and Special Sauce. They were my musical surprise of the weekend and I really enjoyed them. I'm so glad I dragged my ass along for the show.
After that though, I headed back to the campsite. The hot weekend had taken its toll on me and I was really just gonna' take it easy. I was supposed to see Wolfmother with my friends, but I stuck around the campsite and relaxed. It was really nice. And, fortunately for me, Ed and Ange came back and we all went to see the White Stripes together. We all finagled our way into the Accessible area to boot, so I was like 20 feet away from Meg and Jack.
They frickin wailed on the guitar and drums. I'm glad I remembered my earplugs or I'd probably be getting fitted for a hearing aid this week. I was so happy they played Ball and Biscuit and I'm Slowly Turning Into You (two of my favorites). It was just great to be right up front at such a hugely crowded show.
After the show, Ange hit the fountain....awww...how cute.
Then we headed to Widespread Panic, but I'm not a big fan, so Ed and Ange and I went back over to Shakedown Street. Once again they shopped and I watched. I did score some dollar grilled cheese sandwiches and a cheap import beer. I just kinda' settled into their shopping rhythm and dug on all the people scrambling around for their last little bit of Bonnaroo. People were starting to leave at that point, but we would spend one last night on the farm and head out Monday morning. I don't know what time I went to sleep, but I do know that I fell asleep in my camp chair and woke up to find beer cans balanced all over my body. Ed had been busy. I crawled into my tent and got poked in the head for my efforts by Woody and then sleep took me.
I could have slept all day Monday. It was overcast and cool. But we had to hit the road. The drive back was a drudgery and it took me a few days to recover and cough all the dust out of my lungs, but I survived and I'm glad to say, I really enjoyed it and would do it again in a heartbeat.
My official "bands saw " tally looks like this:
Rodrigo y Gabriella
Dubconcious
Tortoise
Micheal Franti & Spearhead
Manu Chao Radio Bemba Soundsystem
Lily Allen
The Black Keys
Tool
STS9
DJ Shadow
Dr. Dog
Annuals
Firecracker Jazz Band
Ween
The Police
The Flaming Lips
John Butler Trio
Bob Weir and Ratdog
Wilco
The White Stripes
Widespread Panic
That's 22 bands in 3 days...not bad. Next year, if I go, I plan on seeing fewer bands and just hanging out a bit more. At times I felt like a kid in one of those toy store shopping sprees...you can have anything you want, but you only have 10 minutes to collect it all. Next time, I want to mellow out a bit more. Pick a few choice bands to see and let whatever happens happen the rest of the time.