I would like to call Bonnaroo miserable, but I had such a damn good time this year.
I was riding high for this entire week after it…starting to wind down now.
the dust, good lord.
i think i prefer the mud.
my respitory system sucked all weekend. I think i’d rather have ruined shoes than ruined lungs but either way, it beats everyday life.
Man that dust sucked. This might have been one of my favorite fests ever. I had a blast. I dunno…the vibe was just great, plus that late night Mule helped too. Great music, Good neighbors, good friends, goods times… plus security let us in w/ whatever we wanted all weekend. It was weird, the only thing we got jacked was 2 ! Miller Highlife’s in Centeroo. Good stuff.
Did anyone else see Rodrigo Y Gabriela?
Glad you guys had a good time.
Sorry about the dust though, that is what my comment from above was directed at. Just looks bad, the music must have been great though.
More pictures!
Yeah, I just got over my lung-sickness from last weekend. Took a long time, eh? Unfortunatly, I woke up this morning not weezing, but instead puking and sleeping and using the bathroom every hour all day today. I got a bug or something. It sucks. I feel like shit.
groans
Ok, so its time to spill the beans on what happened to old Jawbone on those eventful days in Tennessee we all cherish every year. I’m not gonna do this like i did my Wanee review since it just wasn’t the same kind of weekend. I’ll do this a bit more organized; mostly musical reviews with brief narrations and stories in between, a lot shorter and a bunch of pictures! Here goes:
Campsite scene: I’ll be honest when i say that this was the biggest draw for me going into the festival. The lineup of artists this year wasn’t much to my liking. I mean there was a lot of shows i was excited for but not like past years where the lineup has been filled with all my favorite artists. This year i originally planned on skipping the festival altogether for the reasons of the lineup consisting of less and less bands i really like and that i was just so satisfied with the past 3 years and my bank account is getting over it that i just figured it would be interesting to take a year off. My brother and his girlfriend (who have at least been part of my B-roo crew each of the 4 years we’ve gone) were excited for it as always and were excited to have a couple of their friends going. I wasn’t the least bit excited for their friends going since the one friend that was making his Bonnaroo debut went to Coventry with us and bitched the whole time nearly ruining our grooves. But then i found out that a great handful of my friends from Ft Lauderdale were going too so i jumped at the chance to make it great for everybody and combine the 2 parties, especially thinking about what it would be like for all these people that i know at Bonnaroo without me and me sitting home with nothing to do because all my friends are where i usually am. So i went. The assholes in the camp did a lot of bitching and wound up leaving on Saturday morning. Up until that point for unrelating reasons i was having doubts about my being there; thoughts like “i think i’ve outgrown this” and such but by Saturday all of that had turned around and the groove was back. I think the 2 might have gone hadn in hand but not specifically responsible for each other. The rest of us (we had about a dozen folks at our camp) had a great time. We made good friends with out neighbors from Louisville but originally form NOLA who brought a lot of help and fun to the mix and only made it more interesting since we already had half of the camp getting to know the other half who had never met each other before (i was the only person at our camp that knew everybody) and now i had new strangers to make new friends. We were all such good neighbors that we’re all going to try to keep in touch to neighbor again at future Bonnaroos. Easily the best campsite scene we’ve had of our 4 Bonnaroos.
so that’s the basic overview of what our living situations were for the weekend. Now, onto the music! (in chronological order):
Apollo Sunshine: This was the first act we saw at Bonnaroo. They played the smallest stage in Centeroo on Thursday night. A really energetic burst of excitement on stage. They said that we were by far the largest crowd they had played to and they didn’t dissapoint. I don’t even remember what they sounded like but i remember them as being something esle for sure. Everybody on stage played every instrument possible and at one point it escalated into a giant drum circle on stage. It was cool but at the same time i can’t help but realize that they carry the flaw i see in a lot of the better bands of the day in as much as they just seem to try too hard to impress or be something great instead of just being and being great. Either way, it was a lot of fun watching them.
Friday was spent mostly at the campsite with my brother and his girlfriend listening to their friends bitch about the heat and dust while all my friends were down at the stages checking things out. I kind of wanted to go with them but there wasn’t much to see early on Friday so i decided to go down there with them all day Saturday instead. I went down to the stage late friday afternoon with my brother and his girlfriend for something we knew little about but were oddly excited for and it turned out to be one of the better sets of the weekend…
Manu Chao: I had never heard of him before the lineup announcement but his high placement on the bill, the biography they put up on the website and the song they put on the website got my expectations up for sure and i wasn’t let down. He’s from Europe somewhere, i think either Spain or France but he plays a music that has a lot of reggae in it as well as punk rock and spanish influences making it something truly unique. He would sing in english and spanish at the same time during a chill reggae groove and then it would get nuts and all fast and heavy and everybody would start jumping around and yelling and then right back into the groove. He was really captivating. See, anybody could just marinate on a generic reggae groove for a couple hours and all the preppy hippies would sit there and get high and act all cool and shit but Manu Chao is somebody that plays music that he loves because he loves it and that’s why it stands out and that’s why its different and that’s why its great. I’m keeping my eyes out for a live album of his because that’s how i think he should be heard. He just had too much energy for the studio.
Tool: What can i say? i was a little skeptical about this one, as i’m sure a lot of people were and for good reason. Tool is a great band and i really agree with the fact that they exist on such a high level like they do and i can totally understand why a lot of people i know love them as much as any of us love Phish. And they’ve got a great sound and spot on musicianship in the studio and on the stage. With that being said, i think they were in the wrong place at Bonnaroo. There…i said it. In the most basic terms i’d like to point out that the whole point of Bonnaroo is that its there to be a euphoric positive environment for people to bond and share an experience together. And Tool is a band that refuses to share anything with anybody. They had to put their own shit up on the jumbotron instead of letting themselves be videotaped like everyone else, they completely disconnected themselves from the audience, barelty even proving that they were on the stage at all other than just seeing their over indulgent silouhettes up on the backdrop and chiming in from time to time with some sarcastic remark about everybody being smelly hippies or something and on top of that their music is entirely anger-fueled and in a completely different realm as what Bonnaroo is meant to fill in people. I’m sorry if this seems harsh, most of my thoughts on this has built up over the past week thinking about it a whole lot. At the time i was just bored but i finally figured out why i’ve always been bored with Tool. They have no range. No range. And its not so much that every song sounds the same so much as every song IS the same. Bouncing bass riff with heavy reverb and distortion on the guitar and the double bass drum charging while the guy moans about shit. That’s all. There’s no wistful or celebratory or uplifting songs. Its all harsh. Sorry to sound like such a hippy scenster but this is just how i feel about it. A festival is a place where “moments” should happen. Something where the line between artist and audience is blurred by the connection and Tool did just the opposite. I probably will get slammed as an ignorant prick for saying these things but i just felt like it was the pink elephant in the room. It was cool with all the bright lights and loud noises but they should really keep it in the arenas from now on.
We left Tool a few songs early and took advantage of the short lines in the rest of Centeroo as a little more than half the festival was watching Tool and the other half was at their campsites wating for the late night sets. We (brother, me and brother’s girlfriend) got rid of the urge in the back of our minds once and for all and rode the ferris wheel. That was pretty fuckin’ sweet.
The String Cheese Incident: probably the definitive “jamband.” Not the best but they’re what i think of when i think of jambands and lets not forget that Bonnaroo is a jamband festival. So when in Rome, be in Rome so we grabbed some pale ales and watched the String Cheese Incident and damn did it feel good. We had just been over at the main stage for Tool watching half the crowd freak out and the other fall asleep and nobody was smiling and we couldn’t help but wonder where the fuck we were. SCI reminded us that we were in the happiest place on earth. There’s my fuckin’ headies! Bust out those hoola hoops dammit and make 'em shine! I didn’t think that a late night Cheese set would work, especially after Tool but damn was i wrong there. They were just what the doctor ordered. I could have stayed there all night but i’m just much too curious of an individual so we left after just short of an hour.
STS9: In my defense this is what we originally left Cheese for. STS9 is just the essential late night band; something that could go on for all hours of the night until dawn and you don’t even notice the time passing. But alas, we had an obligation and we had to leave them too.
Medeski & Martin in some small ass tent?: Medeski Martin & Wood is easily one of my favorite live bands. Seen them nearly a dozen times and i’ve never been let down. So we had to see what it would be like as just a duo. But Bonnaroo did something weird and built a small jazz bar at the festival and put one (2 if you count them individually) of the biggest names in jazz in there and only let 300 people in to see them of 80,000 people that paid for their tickets. That’s fucking whack. But we got in. My brother’s girlfriend was #297, my brother was #298, i was #299 and our friend was #300 and they shut the gate (they eventually let more people in and filled in the spaces as people left). It was weird. It really looked like an old jazz bar, really intimate and clean. But we were at a festival on a sweletering farm in the middle of the country. It was entirely dissilusioning but it was cool to see the boys again, even without Wood. And it was pretty much that; MMW without the W. But still cool, just not all the way as awesome as normal, and we were all so fucking exhausted by that point. We stayed for a little over an hour but it goes down in history as the only time i’ve ever walked away from John Medeski and/or Billy Martin.
crashed out.
Please note that a lot of my complaining about Friday had a lot to do with all the stuff i was talking about earlier what with not finding my groove right away and questioning my being there and the negativity and all that. But that would soon change on Saturday.
Saturday we all went down to the stages quite early and i wound up staying down there until the wee wee hours; about 17 hours down at the stage on Saturday. That’s fucking crazy.
Dr. Dog: This was a band that i hadn’t heard much of but most of my camp loves them. They were really good. Different sound but somehow reminded me a lot of Apollo Sunshine from a couple nights earlier. Just that “new band” feel i guess. Good though. Solid start to the day.
My brother and his girlfriend went back to the camp for a while after that and i stayed down at the stages with my friends going in and out of the fountain (i was even in there next to Billy Martin and one point) and almost seeing Hot Tuna and carrying on and having fun and watching some music that i would otherwise be completely oblivious to.
Regina Spektor: Really sweet, cute voice with some decent instrumental skills and a ver daffy russian charm that was all and all very feelgood and amusing. I don’t know how else to describe her but there was this really tall and loud wook that invaded our space during our set and was out of control and just so fucking tall.
Ziggy Marely: really didn’t plan on seeing this (if i was down there alone i would have for sure hit up Warren on the Sonic Stage but i didn’t feel like it was worth ditching my friends for). We went and watched a few Ziggy tunes. I don’t know much about him other than his last name but he was actually really good. A lot better than what i’ve heard of any of his brothers and he played a Bob tune when we were watching (i forget which one even but it was that really sweet one with love in the title, i don’t know i just cant think of which one it was right now) but it was really good. Had a lot of heart in it.
Damien Rice: that’s the guy’s name! Thank you Bonnaroo schedule! He was good i guess. I wasn’t really paying attention but i’ve heard some of his albums and i’ve never complained.
It was at this point that i deliberately seperated from my friends since none of them know about Keller and had plans of their own and dammit, i just don’t miss Keller. I was supposed to meet up with my brother and his girlfriend somewhere for Keller but i still had about a little under an hour to kill before that happened. I checked up on the Sonic Stage and was pleasently suprised.
North Mississippi Allstars on the Sonic Stage: Another one of those old school Bonnaroo bands that just kicked it all back in gear for me at the right time to remind me of where and who i was. And they might be my favorite Sonic Stage band. That’s just where they belong. They even covered an old Dylan tune (“Oxford Town”), the only Dylan cover i saw all weekend.
Keller Williams & The WMDs: I really didn’t know what to expect from Keller with a band. I’ve seen Keller about as much as i’ve seen MMW so i was interested to see him in a different light as well and that’s for sure what it was; different. If it was my first Keller show i’m not sure how i would feel about it but it was definately cool to hear some of those songs electric and what not, and he’s just the best at festivals. No fest is complete without Keller there. He dropped the best setlist call of the weekend in there with the Dead’s “Brown Eyed Women” (the bottle was DUSTY but the liqour was clean). It sure was.
Time to wrap our bandanas over our faces and meet up with the rest of the camp for the main event.
The Police: As i’ve stated before, the generational gap in my family completely skips the Police and i’ve never independently gotten into them or Sting. But man was this a lot of fun seeing them at Bonnaroo. They’ve really just got some great songs and that’s all you need to be a great Bonnaroo headliner; great singalongs. They weren’t as good as Petty last year but they were just a joy. For the first while we were all just chilling up high on the hill listening and laying down and singing along and syaing “what the fuck man? Sting at Bonnaroo? This is too much!” but then all of a sudden an army of tripping kids appeared in front of us in a meditating circle and issued out doses to each other and wearing glow sticks and everything. It was around this time that my brother’s girlfriend discovered that by cupping our ears we could hear the music a lot clearer. She told my brother who told me and i told one of my friends who told the rest of them and we went on watching the Police roll out the classics. About ten or twenty minutes rolled by (probably like an hour. There is no time at Bonnaroo) and my brother tapped me on the shoulder and said “holy shit man. look!” I looked in front of my to find all the tripping kids cupping their ears frontwards and backwards with huge smiles on their faces and laughing hysterically. We then saw our whole area cupping their ears and smiling. We had started the ear cupping revolution and soon we started the ear cupping dance revolution and the Police drove on and ended with all of us laughing as hard as we did all weekend.
Feeling good about the world and all together and the Police ending a little early we figured we go and stake out a good spot for the Flaming Lips late night set. We walked up on the Lips playing already. They were playing War Pigs and everybody started scrambling to get closer when it stopped and Wayne Coyne said “oh shit, you guys were listening to that? We’re not playing yet folks, this is just a soundcheck but hold tight and we’ll be out in just a few and we’ll try and make it as good as you seem to be feeling right now and we’ll make this the best Bonnaroo ever” or something like that, we were all feeling too good to care about what his exact words were.
The whole vibe of waiting for the Lips was the best one of the weekend. We were all so excited but feeling too good to care about any performance at all. There were some kids from Nashville talking to us and saying funny shit and i looked at some friends of mine stading next to me looking straight ahead with disgusted looks on their faces and i followed their eyes. They were watching a guy right in front of us flagerantly making out with this girl. I mean it was totally unapologetic disgusting 3 days of filth, head full of rolls make out and then the guy grabbed another girl next to him and they started making out! There were hands going in pants and toungues everywhere and it was so gross. Us and the people around us made it awesome though throwing out all kinds of sarcastic remarks that the 3 “lovers?” completely ignored. Stuff like “hey man, should we be paying you for this?” and “Come on man, my mother’s still awake right now” It was classic shit. Wayne Coyne was onstage nearly the whole time getting shit ready and talking to the crowd. I love his approach. He just doesn’t hide shit from anybody. And then it happened.
The Flaming Lips: Like i stated in my Tool rant above, i normally don’t like a lot of big production stuff being brought to the festivals. But the way the Lips did it was just so right. It was a spectical but it was still human. They had a giant UFO come down and Captain America ushered them out of it and Wayne surfed the crowd in a giant beach ball before picking up guitars and blasting balloons and confettli and launching the crowd into that euphoric “moment.” Because the Lips were there with us. There was a lot of things happening on stage but they bring it so that we’re all right in the middle of it. They blur the line of artist and audience as well as anyone i’ve ever seen. Perfect for Bonnaroo, perfect for late night on the Which Stage. The music itself wasn’t nearly as important as the feeling and that was exactly the point. I’m not to into the Lips. I’ve only got one album (an old one, the one with She Don’t Use Jelly) and sure it would have been cool if they played “Be My Head” at some point in the show but really…who cares? They were incredible. They ended and i didn’t even care that i had missed most of Gov’t Mule; what i had anticipated as one of the prime sets of the weekend. But i just couldn’t leave the Lips.
Gov’t Mule: Luckily, Warren and the boys were still juiced when the Lips left the stage. I knew i had to see them. There’s no way i’m going 2 straight Bonnaroos without Warren Haynes. This festival was full o stuff i would never otherwise put together (SCI after Tool, Mule after Lips) but man i didn’t care once i got over there. Mule was kicking ass! Looking at the setlist Will just posted i’m bummed i missed all those guests (with the exception of Luther Dickenson). I knew that would be the case in choosing to watch the Lips with all my friends and stuff but luckily…i regret nothing. I stayed down there for the whole set and it was a good thing i did. I was ready to go to sleep after the Lips and was questionable about making it back to the camp without passing out somewhere on Shakedown Street. But Mule woke me the fuck up, that’s for sure. I even got up pretty close to Warren. And they closed with Soulshine. Awesome, didn’t see that one coming!
Saturday night has always proved to be the defining moment of every Bonnaroo i’ve been to and this one was no different.
Sunday we all went down early again but split up as soon as we got inside and dunked into the fountain once. I don’t know where everybody esle went but i went to see…
Mavis Staples: There’s no way i was missing once of the sweetest singers this world has ever heard. How else could i have started my Sunday than with some Staples singers goodness. I only caught the last few songs but man did i feel great about what i saw. She hasn’t lost a step since the Staples Singers heyday. I even ran into my brother and his girlfriend down there and we went back to the fountain and chilled out before our Grateful Ambassodor was to take the stage.
Bob Weir & Ratdog: I like Bob Weir but i’ve never really dug too hard on Ratdog. I don’t know, they just seem a little empty to me, especially i’m used to the fire that Phil brings to the table. Still, he’s Bob Weir; an original member and if we didn’t go see his whole set, it would have been disrespectful to all we hold as true in the ideas of live music and festivals. Started with a soft jam that went into Hel>Slip>Minglewood. I was really excited because finally i was watching somebody play and i actually knew all the songs. But that wasn’t the case for long when they dove into what i understand as Ratdog originals that sounded cool before launching back into Dead songs. Sure, they aren’t as good as Phil & Friends but Ratdog is definately an interesting take on all that old material. They even played “Hell In A Bucket”; a song that i used to hate but now i love, especially when he squeals like a pig at the end. And then they satisfied the duty of diving back into Franklin’s Tower! This was most pleasing to me as it carried the torch. I have heard Franklin’s Tower at every Bonnaroo i’ve attended. The Dead played it in '04, the Allman Brothers played it in '05, Phil played it in '06 and Bobby in '07. I hope i hear it at every Bonnaroo i ever go to. Its the perfect song. Go Bobby! Samson closer!
The Decembrists: This is a real cool band that a lot of my friends are into and they make great albums but at Bonnaroo they proved to be not much more than an opportunity to get off our feets for a whiles.
Wilco: This was the first band i ever saw at Bonanroo back in 2004 and i enjoyed seeing them come back to full cirlce and play some of the songs i remember specifically from that day way back when. I really liked watching them but they made some weird setlist calls. I can’t really go into that much detail about it. My brother can though as he is the one that’s really into Wilco though. I just wanted to hear something from Mermaid Avenue but that didn’t happen. Sitll, i liked them that day. And i have a definate like/dislike relationship with them.
It was far too dusty and i don’t give a shit about the White Stripes and neither do my brother or his girlfriend so we seperated from the pack in search of shelter which we found in the mostly empty comedy tent with Dave Attell. That was some funny shit right there; mostly improv.
We walked out to Sunday night at Bonnaroo which as always, resembled the end of the world. All the stages were dark and the dust was everywhere, people were walking around trying to kill off the rest of their drug/alcohol supllies, fireworks are going off everywhere and we followed the sounds of Widespread Panic coming from the main stage. Same as it ever was and i wouldn’t trade it for anything (except Phil and/or Trey).
Widespread Panic: I was also skeptical about them closing since they catch a lot of shit for some reason but when i realized what was happening i realized that they are always a great call for Bonnaroo closer. Because not everybody’s paying full attention by Sunday night and they just like to hang out. And Panic is the perfect background groove to the Sunday night madness. They drew a much bigger crowd than i thought they would draw, and not even a predominantly Spreadneck crowd. People from all over were watching them. Their crowd looked about as big as Tool’s and that made me feel good. Bonnaroo still is Bonnaroo after all. They played great by the way. We watched them straight up for probably an hour and a half or so before enjoying the rest of the set form Shakedown Street. I don’t know a lot of their songs but a know some and i recall a great segue in the middle of the set while we were down there that was something like “From the Cradle > Chilly Water > Drums > Jam > some song > Chilly Water” that i remember as particualarly sweet and we grooved and shookdown like we hadn’t aged since our first year and maybe so, Bonnaroo is where we are forever young after all.
I don’t think it will ever top the nostalgia or significance of my first year (2004) or the lineup of 2006 but i’m convinced that Bonnaroo is always going to be worth the trip, especially if there are good friends and good music involved. Its becoming the difining annual even of what’s great in our generation and i’m not ashamed to embrace it. I just hope MTV never gets its dirty hands on it and as long as i see a solid population of Steal Your Face flags flying over the sounds of distant N2O tanks, we have nothing to worry about. There’s nothing wrong with the groove spreading to the masses.
Great stories and pictures, Jaw!! I love the one about the whole ear cupping extravaganza. Ive seen Apollo Sunshine before and they are definitly awesome, a little hipstery though. And the Flaming Lips were my defining moment set at Wakarusa last year. Wayne Coyne kicks ass and makes everyone feel like its the place to be wherever they are, I love that. Anyway I’m glad you had such a rockin time, and I really enjoyed your writing…
“as i see a solid population of Steal Your Face flags flying over the sounds of distant N2O tanks, we have nothing to worry about.”
word to the motherfuckin streets!
Once again, Great review Jaw!
Awesome write-up Jaw. I kind of regret not making my fourth Roo-in-a-row. But my bank account doesn’t! Sounds like you did it up right and had a blast despite having a large crew, which can be difficult at times. Love the ear-cupping, the pic really sealed the deal.
Jaw, of course, I’m not gonna slam you as an ignorant prick, (even though you are bwahahahahahahahah) but I have to disagree with about half of the Tool review. I think they are very musical. Dark, yes, but still very talented. The whole thing about their silhouettes is unique too, and I really think it adds to their weirdness. I think one of my buddies (who is so obsessed with tool he goes on tour with them and can point out the same setlist that they are playing with another date they played) said that they used to not even let themselves be seen. Which, could be a little egotistical, but still weird.
The jumbotron thing, well, that goes with it. That’s just tool. The drummer, i think, makes those crazy ass little videos, and I would do the same thing if someone in my band made crazy shit like that. I really dug the alex gray (check him out if you don’t know who he is!) backdrop that would be a dark blue, until lights would hit it and it would shine all kinds of crazy 3D colors. I was just drunk, and I felt like I was tripping my nuts off. Seriously. I do agree that they would be better indoors.
I’m really glad you enjoyed Cheese so much. It was really nice to go from Tool to that. That was the most glowsticks I’ve ever seen. I wanted to see the other shows that night, but I just couldn’t leave.
I hate that I missed the jazz club. I tried but it was too hard to get in. Wilbur and Suzanne (some of my old bonnaroo buds, Will’s been at every B-Roo) went and told me about it, and me being so into jazz, it made me really interested, but I still didn’t get to go. I also didn’t get to ride the fucking ferris wheel. Some cute girl was asking randomly on Saturday for a date on the wheel, but I was just too fucking tired. I felt like an ass when I got back to camp, but whatever, I couldn’t walk anymore. Other bad things that happened- I gave my friend some acid that kinda hit him a little hard, so he left centeroo and went to shakedown. He saw a kid running around and around, and then noticed four dready kids following him. All of a sudden he ran behind the vendors and started yelling, “HELP!!” My friend then saw the dreadies take the dude into a car and beat the shit out of him, saying “don’t ever fucking call us liars!” Now this is the crazy part, my friend is a very small dude, and he was on strong acid (stuff I’ve been sitting on since New Years, because it was the best I’ve ever eaten) and he opened the fucking door and started throwing these dudes off of him. Geez, I couldn’t imagine… Also, our cooler got stolen, with all our water and whiskey. Bastards. My neighbors weren’t very cool, and didn’t keep watch very well. They were always real asshole-ish towards us. But it was kinda fun yelling about it all night and blaming random folks all in good fun. “hey, give me my fuckin’ cooler back, asshole!” “Where’s my cooler” “I’ll steal your fuckin’ cooler, man!” I mean, bad shit always happens, you gotta keep a cool head about it. I was also VERY disappointed with the arch this year. It was crappy!! It didn’t even light up until Saturday. That, and the little spinny thing (John Bonham’s symbol) on top was gone. The paintjob was horrible too. I think that’s all of the bad shit I can remember, besides the dust sickness, and me almost passing out two nights in a row. Everything else was gooooooooood.
HAHA, I enjoyed the ear-cupping story!
Mule with JPJ was something I would have regretted missing. John Paul Jones is one of my oldest idols, so it made my weekend complete. Closest thing to Zeppelin I have ever and will ever get. No Quarter bitches!
Ratdog was the shit! Boy, those guys sure can jam. I think they went back into the very end of Slipknot! right before the Tower, which I thought was damn clever to say the least.
Panic was the absolute shit! Jimmy Herring…damn.
I think the lineup this year was FAR better than '06. Actually, '06 had the weakest lineup that I’ve ever been to, besides all of the Phish related acts (GRAB, Oysterhead, and Ramble Dove). I was disappointed with none 'o dem phish boys being there this year, but I have a feeling were not gonna be in a phish drought for tooooo much longer…
Don’t worry about MTV, Brady, that will NEVER happen. That’s the worst rumour I’ve ever heard, yet it goes on every year. Ashley Capps owns the property now, there’s nothing to worry about (as if there ever was).
You know, I noticed in '04, my first year, along with my friend Wilbur, that every year has a certain theme. I dunno if the artists all get together and plan it or what, but it happens every year. Now without looking at setlists, I’m gonna try to remember some of the themes.
'04- Zeppelin Theme Mule-No Quarter and In My Time of Dying tease, Trey-Black Dog, (and more that I can’t think of…)
'05- Beatles Theme Yonder-Dear Prudence, Bob-Dear Prudence, Panic- Come Together, Mule- the paul mccartney song that goes something like “The way you love me all the time”, and of course Trey doing half of Abbey Road.
'06- I can’t remember the theme last year for the life of me, but I know there definitely was one.
'07- Black Sabbath Theme Mule- Sweet Leaf and War Pigs, Flaming Lips-War Pigs, Panic- Faeries Wear Boots, someone else covered Sabbath, too.
I think it’s very interesting.
Was it me or were there fewer people there this year. We were real close to Centeroo, and had PLENTY of room in our campground
Regrets about not seeing (due to exhaustion/heat [I was kind of a puss this year for once]):
Hot Tuna
Keller (really pissed about that!)
North Mississippi Allstars
Ornette Coleman (I heard he collapsed onstage)
Ravi Coltrane
Ziggy Marley
Stephon Harris
Old Crow
Railroad Earth (I had been up all night friday night due to acid, didn’t actually sleep until about 6 PM on Saturday, and was just too tired to go, unfortunately)
Shows I caught:
-Tea Leaf Green (about 30 minutes, their sound SUCKED! WAY too much bass. I guess that wasnt’ their fault though. I like TLG but that bass was tooooo loud!)
-Manu Chao (about half an hour, it was very sweet)
-Tool (about an hour, very sweet)
-String Cheese Incident (full four hours, favorite show, rocked my socks, got real spun)
-Flaming Lips (about 15 minutes)
-Gov’t Mule (all of first set besides first song or two)
-Ratdog (full show, spun in the sun, very hot)
-Widespread (full show, spun again, awesome time)
Damn, that was probably the least amount of shows I’ve ever caught at Bonnaroo, and I was really close. One year I was in the very back and caught 14 shows. Hmmm.
Nice review and pics, JB.
^damn man, you really didn’t see all that much. But you did catch some important stuff. Kind of like the first year i went, i didn’t see much at all due to not knowing what the hell i was doing.
I do remember all the Beatles fare in '05. I think i caught all those covers. And one of my neighbors this year pointed out all the Sabbath stuff so it was cool that other people picked up on it too. I only saw the Lips one i think but then again i can only think of a couple of Sabbath songs that i would actually recognize.
Yeah, I didn’t recognize the one Panic played. I don’t know much about Sabbath.
Holy Shit Jaw. My camp site is in your pics!!!
The pic with the girl standing on the FL van, ya the left side of the pic with the green sunshade and the orange tent… THAT’S MY TENT.
Look at my pics, there’s a view from the street.
are you fucking kidding me we parked right next to each other and didn’t know it??? You were part of that FL crew huh??
When is Phish coming back. I’m so tired of bland chicken!
^^That’s nuts!
damn man, are you for real?
are you the guy that asked me about Dante Culpepper because of my Dolphins hat?
And the world gets smaller and smaller…
So did the Lips soundcheck War Pigs and then Mule played it during their show?
I just looked at the picture, and if that tree on the right side of the picture is the tree I’m thinking of…we were very close to you as well! I was right beneath one of the power line poles.