Wednesday - 6/10/2009
The Bonnaroo adventure (my fourth) began Wednesday night with driving from Columbus around 6 at night and picking up my buddy Matt in Cincinnati at 8 that night. We trucked on down to Nashville to see some old friends and kinda/sorta rest up for the actual show(s). I had some trepidations going in (too old, too tired, etc.), but I could not resist the line-up and the chance to hang out with the guys for a few days.
Thursday - 6/11/2009
We picked up the third in our party, Michael, around 11 that morning, made a grocery store run and then hit I-24 towards Chattanooga. We were quite easily able to meet up with Matt's brother and two of his buddies at the (now infamous) exit 127, where major amounts of traffic were being diverted. So we got in line there (a caravan of 3 cars ... well, my car and their pick-up trucks) and, well, waited for about 6 hours. It was brutal. Basically were on line with small bursts of movement from 2:30 until 8:30. But everyone made merriment, chatting with neighbors and cursing our collective bad luck.
Once we got on the home stretch in (this diversion just filtered us all back to the interstate, where we then got off at the Manchester exit - unreal), it was fast moving but complicated by some torrential downpours. We all stayed together, thankfully, and set up camp in some pouring rain at Camp John Bender (number 61 on the map, miles better than when I ended up in Camp David Wooderson a couple years ago). We headed in that night and saw a bit of some reggae (Midnite) but didn't really stick around that long.
Friday - 6/12/2009
We had a long, slow morning hanging under my shade tent and enjoying the whole crazy scene. And it's a crazy scene alright ... very heavy on the hippie vibe. Not my normal scene but fun nonetheless. We finally got it together and headed in to start with Animal Collective on the Which Stage (2:45 - 4:00). The sound was very muddy, we were a bit far back ... it was not an auspicious debut. We collected ourselves and relaxed by the Other Tent for a bit of Bela Fleck and Toumandi Diabate doing some African/folky music. It was a nice change and a chance to catch our breath.
We proceeded to grab a great spot for Grizzly Bear in This Tent (5:00 - 6:15), as this was a show we were all amped for. I was not a huge fan of them as I was always a bit bored by their records, but my goodness ... live, all these songs made so much more sense and just killed. I was pretty amazed. Highlights included the obvious ("Two Weeks") and the epic ("Fine For Now"). Their performance of "Fine For Now" was true festival highlight for me.
Being old men, we needed a break after this and retreated to the tent for an hour. I saw about one song from Al Green ("Here I Am", which sounded amazing) but didn't have it in me at that point. We made it back in for a bit of Beastie Boys (sounded good, but we were far back) and then headed over for David Byrne. Wow. Really great stuff. He played the whole first half of Remain in Light, "Girlfriend is Better", "Take Me to the River" and a 2-song encore including "Burning Down the House". And he can really play guitar. He recreated some of those Adrian Belew solos in a big way.
We totally blew off Phish that first night, which bums me out a bit as they played some killer tunes that evening (including "The Divided Sky" and "You Enjoy Myself"), but we were dedicated to the rock and headed over to a pretty packed That Tent to see Phoenix (11:30 - 12:15). We had a great spot in front of the soundboard, and they sounded fantastic. Setlist is almost complete on this one (yes, it was short and sweet):
Lisztomania
Long Distance Call
Consolation Prizes
Napolean Says
??
Run Run Run
Love Like a Sunset
Too Young
1901
I had had my fill for day 1. I felt like I could fall asleep standing up during Phoenix by the end. I just can't hang with the kiddies anymore. Again, looking at that Phish setlist makes me kick myself a little, but such is life.
Saturday - 6/13/2009
I felt refreshed and a bit more ready for a long day on Saturday, as there were a ton of bands I was looking forward to see. I was inside and at the Other Tent right at 1:30 to see Cherryholmes, a bluegrass band about whom I'd heard a good deal but wasn't prepared for great they were. Well worth checking out. They are the real deal and just devastatingly talented. (Photo at right.)We grabbed a beer after this and then got in position at This Tent for Bon Iver, one of the big reasons I made it this year. I've been wanting to see him for so long now and just missing him by a hair on multiple occasions. Seeing his brand of ultra-depressing folk at a big, sunny, good vibes festival was a bit off, but he just killed. His band sounded huge, and his vocals/performance in general were actually better live than on the record, if that's possible. Another real highlight.
Creature Fear
Skinny Love
Lump Sum
Blood Bank
Beach Baby
Brackett, WI
Flume
Feel Like Going Home (Yo La Tengo cover !!!)
For Emily, Forever Ago (with the horns from Elvis Perkins in Dearland)
Re: Stacks (completely, mouthdroppingly devastating - saw a very young couple just standing in a sweet embrace for this whole song - could hear a pin drop)
Wolves (with the whole crowd singing the "what might have been lost" part very, very loudly)
We kind of had to recover from this set for a second. It was a big one. We had wanted to run over to catch a bit of Del McCoury, but instead we just slowly, dazedly made our way over to the big, scary What Stage for our first full set there, Wilco. They came out promptly at 6 PM and just laid it down. I was definitely excited by the new songs and some of the classics, but there weren't too many surprises. The usual killer tunes killed.
Wilco (The Song) / I Am Trying to Break Your Heart / Company in My Back / Handshake Drugs / Bull Black Nova / You Are My Face / One Wing / Pot Kettle Black / Side with the Seeds / Shot in the Arm / At Least That’s What You Said / Jesus, Etc. / Impossible Germany / California Stars / Misunderstood (32 “nothings” at the end) / Spiders (Kidsmoke) / Hummingbird / You Never Know / The Late Greats / Hate It Here / Walken / I’m the Man Who Loves You
We then held our position for the long, long wait until Springsteen took the stage an hour and a half later. I was excited to see Springsteen and had seen him kill in Columbus in early 2008. We passed the time talking to a true New Jersey soul, Gino, who was there with his wife and daughter and was smoking a joint and telling us all about the various drugs he was doing over the weekend. It was surreal.
Springsteen comes out 30 minutes late and opens with a wicked "Badlands." I was pumped. And then it just got cheesier and cheesier. None of us were feeling it, and by the time he trotted out "Outlaw Pete" (one of the worst songs of the last few years), we had to exit. Our thought on heading back to camp was to regroup and then head back in for Nine Inch Nails and some MGMT, but instead I fell asleep. Typical.
Sunday - 6/14/2009
As unreal as it seems now, there were still a ton of bands I was just losing it to see on this last day. I was also longing for things like showers and running toilets and a bed, but that's another story.
Got in right at 1:30 again to the Other Tent to see Ted Leo playing a very, very loud set with a ton of new tunes as well as some classics ("Where Have all the Rude Boys Gone?", "Me and Mia," "The High Party," and "Timorous Me" among them). We chilled and had some beers at the Broo'ers' Tent and then got in position for a killer twofer at the Which Stage - Andrew Bird followed by Band of Horses.
Andrew Bird was his usual fantastically talented self. I like how his band has coalesced around him and really seem in tune with his idiosyncratic delivery and pauses. It was great stuff.Masterswarm
Opposite Day
Fitz and Dizzyspells
Nervous Tic
Fiery Crash
Oh No!
Effigy
Anonanimal
Imitosis
???
Tables and Chairs
Fake Palindromes
Skin, Is My
Why
Scared
Then Band of Horses came out to a very big crowd and launched right into some classics off the bat. The sun was setting, the weather was cooing off ... perfect. A truly perfect moment among many from this weekend. Partial setlist for this one included opening with Monsters, The First Song, The Great Salt Lake, Is There a Ghost? and Weed Party. Other tunes included a great cover of "A Song for You" by Gram Parsons and some required tunes (The Funeral, Ode to LRC, No One's Gonna Love You).
We finally made it to see Phish thereafter. It was quite nice, actually - all 6 of us in a very good yet comfortable, far back but not too far back spot. And Phish were pretty great ... very funky. I only made it through part of set 2 before I had to turn in, but it was an awesome time. And Springsteen came out, which was, well, interesting if not musically inspired.
AC/DC Bag
NICU
Gotta Jibboo
Punch You in the Eye
Sparkle
Bathtub Gin
Character Zero
Tweezer
The Horse
Silent in the Morning
Run Like an Antelope
Mustang Sally (w/ the Boss)
Bobbie Jean (w/ the Boss)
Glory Days (w/ the Boss)
- break -
Rock and Roll
Manchester Jam (left at this point)
Light
46 Days
Limb by Limb
Farmhouse
Backwards Down the Number Line
Prince Caspian
First Tube
- encore -
Suzy Greenberg
Tweeprise
By Monday morning, we were just ready to get out, eat some warm/clean food, shower, etc. I was on the road until Monday evening, which was rough, but it was worth it.
The great question remains ... will I ever do this again? Just not sure ...
