reply to Sidelines article about Bonnaroo
I still have to record my events at Bonnaroo, and I feel compelled to record the memories diary style, since this was such an epic event ... but I don't have the patience to spend and hour writing... I just posted the following in response to a Sidelines article about it:
Interesting that you omit that Chris Rock said anything about Clinton: He said more about her than the other two candidates combined.
Metallica disappointed me. Started twenty minutes late, I left after about 40 minutes of it; they tried act all big and badass: there was at least one moment where their lead guitarist was kneeling on the ground playing guitar with long wet hair, head thrown back, against a dark background with a solo spotlight on them; absurdly cliche, and their music was _not_ that heavy. It was pretty funny that the vast majority had never seen Metallica live before, when leading up to it I saw Metallica promos graffiti'd on the walls and porta-potties (which were filthy most of the time.)
Pearl Jam sucked, but that's probably just me; their frontman also said some very stupid things, things like "Gas prices have risen three dollars, blame Bush."
Sigur Rós was absolutely amazing. They managed to blow a speaker or something by the end of their second song, though, and it was a slow start due to the technical problems. Jónsi (their frontman) said, "The piano is exploding, I think," in a cute Icelandic accent. They received two standing ovations, and then the audience turned selfish: After the encore, the crowd refused to let them go (it was 3 AM and they were tired), chanting "One more song!" with a triple-clap. Originally the lights were dim with music playing, as a farewell; they instead turned the stagelights on and sent out the stagehands to clean up, to tell the audience to leave....
Kanye West was an embarrassment to Bonnaroo, and the only justifiable response is for Bonnaroo to never invite him back (and to encourage other venues to do likewise.) The story from the Bonnaroo crowd was thus: He didn't want to compete with Jack Johnson that afternoon, so he rescheduled for 2:45 am. Then he decided he was going to follow Pearl Jam, and that he didn't want to play when any other band was playing. So he waited until every band was finished playing, and went on at 4:30 [am], without so much as an apology. [He kept his fans waiting the entire night: the sun had risen before his concert ended.] Many people left, and the next day hundreds were wearing shirts cursing Kanye and graffiti extant. I also heard he was scheduled to play for 90 min. and didn't manage 60. When Rogue Wave played the following afternoon, they asked, "Is it true Kanye West didn't go on until 4:30?" The crowd responded with yells of "yes" and loud booing. All of this, after the Chris Rock joke that the only person with an ego greater than a presidential candidate was Kanye West. No other artist at Bonnaroo was half as irresponsible.
There's obviously very much that can be said about the festival; it is quickly developing a reputation for good reason. If you don't mind filthy toilets, rampant drugs, nudity, a $258 ticket and being trapped in the case of an emergency, Bonnaroo this year was awesome.
Billy Talent's music is absolutely horrible. I'm tempted to delete this entire album now, but without the bad you cannot appreciate the good. For some reason I have his self-titled album, and I'm trying to rate more of my music library: 12897 songs not yet rated. "Line & Stinker" gets 1/5 stars.
Interesting that you omit that Chris Rock said anything about Clinton: He said more about her than the other two candidates combined.
Metallica disappointed me. Started twenty minutes late, I left after about 40 minutes of it; they tried act all big and badass: there was at least one moment where their lead guitarist was kneeling on the ground playing guitar with long wet hair, head thrown back, against a dark background with a solo spotlight on them; absurdly cliche, and their music was _not_ that heavy. It was pretty funny that the vast majority had never seen Metallica live before, when leading up to it I saw Metallica promos graffiti'd on the walls and porta-potties (which were filthy most of the time.)
Pearl Jam sucked, but that's probably just me; their frontman also said some very stupid things, things like "Gas prices have risen three dollars, blame Bush."
Sigur Rós was absolutely amazing. They managed to blow a speaker or something by the end of their second song, though, and it was a slow start due to the technical problems. Jónsi (their frontman) said, "The piano is exploding, I think," in a cute Icelandic accent. They received two standing ovations, and then the audience turned selfish: After the encore, the crowd refused to let them go (it was 3 AM and they were tired), chanting "One more song!" with a triple-clap. Originally the lights were dim with music playing, as a farewell; they instead turned the stagelights on and sent out the stagehands to clean up, to tell the audience to leave....
Kanye West was an embarrassment to Bonnaroo, and the only justifiable response is for Bonnaroo to never invite him back (and to encourage other venues to do likewise.) The story from the Bonnaroo crowd was thus: He didn't want to compete with Jack Johnson that afternoon, so he rescheduled for 2:45 am. Then he decided he was going to follow Pearl Jam, and that he didn't want to play when any other band was playing. So he waited until every band was finished playing, and went on at 4:30 [am], without so much as an apology. [He kept his fans waiting the entire night: the sun had risen before his concert ended.] Many people left, and the next day hundreds were wearing shirts cursing Kanye and graffiti extant. I also heard he was scheduled to play for 90 min. and didn't manage 60. When Rogue Wave played the following afternoon, they asked, "Is it true Kanye West didn't go on until 4:30?" The crowd responded with yells of "yes" and loud booing. All of this, after the Chris Rock joke that the only person with an ego greater than a presidential candidate was Kanye West. No other artist at Bonnaroo was half as irresponsible.
There's obviously very much that can be said about the festival; it is quickly developing a reputation for good reason. If you don't mind filthy toilets, rampant drugs, nudity, a $258 ticket and being trapped in the case of an emergency, Bonnaroo this year was awesome.
Billy Talent's music is absolutely horrible. I'm tempted to delete this entire album now, but without the bad you cannot appreciate the good. For some reason I have his self-titled album, and I'm trying to rate more of my music library: 12897 songs not yet rated. "Line & Stinker" gets 1/5 stars.