Bonnaroo Music Festival, Manchester, TN - 6/10-13/2010

This is still a work in progress with more photos to be added ...

Ah, back to Bonnaroo (number 5 for me). I know I've used this metaphor before, but this festival is truly the Bloomin' Onion of festivals - it seems so great and delicious yet decadent, then I eat and enjoy it but towards the end think that I'll never, ever do that again, but then time passes and I find that I can't reist its siren song allure.

6/9/2010 - Wednesday

I start this out on Wednesday as my buddy Jason and I headed down from Columbus that day, car fully stocked with supplies and ready to rock. We got down to Nashville with plans to pick up my other buddy (and our third Bonnaroommate - sorry, couldn't resist) at the airport at 7:30. His flight was delayed until around 11 that night, though, so we met up with a lot of my Nashville friends, enjoyed dinner and drinks, rounded up Michael, and got a few hours of sleep before heading in to the mouth of madness.

6/10/2010 - Thursday

Up at 6 AM, feeling good, ready to beat the traffic in this year (unlike last year, where we got detoured into 9 hours of hell off exit 127). Grabbed some grub and coffee just a couple blocks from my house, and were en route. We figured we could just swoop in on I-24 and not have a problem this early. So wrong ... we were stuck in hell traffic going EAST past the festival exit for 4 hours, then got re-routed onto that same terrible detour as last year at exit 127. We sat there for about an hour and then decided to get on the back roads.

I must say that I think we finally cracked the Bonnaroo code when it comes to how to get in easily. I'm sure other folks have known this for a while, but we swept in with no problem going the back way. I-24 - never again. That's all I have to say.

By 4:00, we were set up, shade tents up in Camp Roger Murdock (best campsite we've gotten in years), beers cracked, gearing up for the tunes. We started out with Here We Go Magic, whom I'd seen once opening for the Walkmen. They sounded good - much bigger and fuller than that Walkmen show.

We pretty quickly drifted over to see Local Natives, though, and they sounded pretty great. That album is a good one, and they tore through most of it. Next up was part of the Miike Snow set, which was not totally my bag but sounded pretty good. Jason and I wandered off to see JB Smoove's comedy set. I love him on Curb Your Enthusiasm, and he had a decent enough stand up set. (While we're at it, I just have to embed a couple more great Curb scenes ... Leon as Danny Duberstein and the raunchiest joke ever told.

We then caught the Dodos for a bit (sounded fine, nothing great), took a breather and ended the night with the XX. I only made it through about 5 songs before just petering out and needing some zzz's (get it? XX? ZZZ's?). A strong start ...

6/11/2010 - Friday

I was obviously tired, as I got a solid 8 hours or so of sleep, which was the last I'd see of that this go round. We had an easy morning and made our way in around 12:30 to catch the last half of the Punch Brothers set. I'd seen Chris Thile play a solo set a few years ago at the Basement in Nashville and was excited to see him rock the mandolin again. I'd also played Taboo with the banjo player, Noam, many moons ago (Nashville is a weird place). They sounded good and did some interesting bluegrass versions of the Strokes' "Reptilia" and Radiohead's "Morning Bell."

Next up was most of the set by the Carolina Chocolate Drops, an African American bluegrass/folk band. They sounded pretty great, though I'm not super familiar with their material.

I was then very pumped to see Hot Rize, a great bluegrass band and one I had not seen since 2003 or so. Their guitarist, Bryan Sutton, is one of the best flatpickers in the world. They played about 45 minutes of their bluegrass "hits," including "Blue Night," "Climbing Up A Mountain," "Radio Boogie," and "Just Like You." The sound was a bit off, which plagued their whole set, but I was still loving it. They then did about 30 minutes of their Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers schtick, which involves them playing country and western swing and kind of acting goofy. That did not go over nearly as well. They then closed out with a couple more traditional bluegrass tunes. It was a big treat for me, but I don't think it translated to the Bonnaroo crowd at large as well.

We then headed over and got in position for the National. Excitement was high, I'll be honest. And they delivered a really great set. The older songs of course sounded stronger, but the newer stuff gained a lot of vitality live. Sound was great, energy was great ... it was awesome, a real highlight for the weekend:

Start a War
Mistaken for Strangers
Anyone's Ghost
Bloodbuzz, OH
Brainy
Secret Meeting
Slow Show
Squalor Victoria
Afraid of Everyone
Little Faith
All the Wine
Available (off the Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers album - wow)
Conversation 16
Apartment Story
Abel
England
Fake Empire
Mr. November
Terrible Love

ENCORE

About Today

There was a big night coming up after this, so we took a breather for a few hours, skipping Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers (bummer) as well as the Kings of Leon (meh).  I actually slept another solid 2 hours or so back at the tent (because I'm an old, old man) before we headed back in for the Black Keys.  They got started at midnight and played about 7 songs as the traditional 2-piece band.  And what a start to the set ... "Thickfreakness," "Girl Is On My Mind," "Stack Shot Billy," "10 AM Automatic," "Busted," "The Breaks" ... and then they brought out the other 2 dudes to help them with the new songs.  We stayed for a bit of this and then headed over - with much skepticism, based on past experiences - to see the Flaming Lips.

I'm happy to report here that the Lips were the best I've ever seen them.  We caught about the last half of their "regular" set including the end of "Yoshimi," some new songs and a rousing, closing "Do You Realize?" before they took a break and then came out with their full cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.  I'd heard that they really kill this, but I was pretty blown away at what they did with an album I already loved in the first place.  They put their spin on it yet remained true to the record.  Pretty awesome.

Next up - starting at 2:30 AM - was LCD Soundsystem, a consistently great live band in my experience.  And yup, they were great again.  They opened with "Us Vs. Them" and played all the hits including "Losing My Edge," "Daft Punk is Playing At My House," "Movement," "All My Friends," on and on and on.  It was tight.  The crowd was pretty bananas, too, which was fun.

Actually saw the sun start to rise around 5 AM and maybe slept about an hour before starting all over again ...

6/12/2010 - Saturday

None of us really slept, which can make for a rough day, but we were all still on a relative energy rush from the night before.  We headed into Centeroo around 10:30 that morning out of restlessness, had a couple beers, and then sat in the hot sun and kind of watched (though we could barely see it) the US-England World Cup match.  The 1-1 tie was pretty awesome to experience with a few thousand other folks.  We caught about the first 45 minutes of the Dave Rawlings Machine set next, but I was dragging so much by then that I had to get catch a breather/nap at that point.  I hated to miss the Melvins, but I was pooped.

We got back in and saw a little bit of Jeff Beck, which was interesting but a little more guitar-wonky than I thought it would be, and also saw a few tunes from Weezer from about a half mile away.  Nothing too great.

But then we got a good spot and settled in for our first big stage show to see Stevie Wonder.  He sounded amazing, coming out playing a key-tar and just rocking it.  His catalog is deep and contains so many songs I thought about ("Higher Ground," "Superstitious," "Livin' for the City"), didn't even think about ("Signed, Sealed, Delivered," "My Cherie Amour," "Sir Duke," "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing") and that I expected to hear but didn't get ("Boogie On Reggae Woman").  The newer stuff was a bit schmaltzy and not so great, but man did he sound good.  His band gave him space, too, which was surprising.  It was pretty awesome, really.

Jason and I stuck around for the first bit of Jay-Z's set, which was imposing and sounded great, but we were just spent at this point and headed in for the night.

6/13/2010 - Sunday

Sunday was hot, and we were losing our edge at this point.  We moved slowly around our campsite, trying to muster our reserves.  We packed our stuff up and headed in for Calexico's set.  It was, well, boring, and they were once for me an exciting, interesting band.  They did play "Across the Wire," which at least brought back some nostalgia for me, but it was not that great.  And did I mention that it was hot?

We retreated to some shade and heard some country from Jamey Johnson (not my thing).  We then caught another Bonnaroo first for me, a set at the tiny Sonic Stage, seeing Medeski, Martin and Wood play a crazy good 45 minute set.  His drumming is not to be believed.  In an epic quest for shade and nourishment, we then entered an intimidating line to get tickets for the 5:30 show from Aziz Ansari.  We were all skeptical but ended up getting tickets (while hearing Against Me! - again, not my thing ... not a great musical Sunday so far) and then got in line to actually get in the comedy tent.  We finally made our way in, soaked in the AC (ahhhhhhh ....), and proceeded to laugh our asses off at his 40-minute or so set.  His comedy is pretty silly but really works.

We then headed over for our last set of the weekend with Phoenix.  They sounded great, playing every single song off Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, three tracks from It's Never Been Like That and a few other gems but oddly leaving out "Too Young" to a very large audience.  I think the whole crowd's energy was pretty depleted, though, all things considered.  While it was fun and sounded great, it did not carry the same ooomph was some of the earlier sets we saw.

We got back to the car and were back on I-24 with a shower and Waffle House awaiting us.  I'll be interested to see if I make it back.  Something tells me that I'll have a hard time staying away.  While the music is great, it's really the energy and the intangibles of the Bonnaroo experience that set it apart from other festivals.  If they could just fix the traffic situation ...

The Avett Brothers, LC Pavilion, Columbus, OH - 5/29/2010

As a last minute sort of thing with some friends in town for a quick return trip to the C-bus, we collectively decided that a nice way to spend a warm Saturday evening would be sitting outside at the LC hearing the Avett Brothers, a band loved by many that I know but whom I've never completely gotten.

We pre-partied/ate yummy things at Betty's and then headed over and caught the opening set from Jessica Lea Mayfield. She is very young and has a very strong voice and some great songs. It was major downer country twang (in a good way), and I dug it.

Then the Avetts came out to a pretty solid crowd. I wish - truly - that their music was more up my alley, but something about it just doesn't jibe with me. The lyrics are a bit trite at times, the playing/singing is good but not all that great, the energy is there but comes off for me as more bluster than focus. Based on the many, many good friends whose opinion I respect having a lot of affection for this band, I feel like the problem is me, but at the end of the day, it seems like a kind of goofy bluegrass/folk thing that just doesn't turn my crank.

It was a fun night out, though, with great friends and great weather. We ended the night at Char Bar with some jukebox salvation there. Good times ...