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How I Learned to Love the Farm – Bonnaroo 2009 – Part FOUR

21.06.2009 (7:45 pm) – Filed under: Bonnaroo,Music,Outdoors ::

Saturday started off much the same as Friday morning. We woke up to the sun on the tent (think oven), made some breakfast/lunch and headed back off to Centeroo to catch our first show.

Somehow in the last three posts I failed to mention what would become the staple of my diet for the weekend. Bearly Edible’s grilled cheese sandwiches. I have a hard time describing these delicious slices (pun intended) of heaven but trust me, they were amazing. I believe I had 12 over the course of the weekend. Almost every time I walked buy I would pick one up. At only a dollar each they were the cheapest/most filling thing to eat at the festival. The bread as perfectly grilled, whatever type of cheese they used was scrumptious, and the special seasoning they put on created what could be the perfect grilled cheese sandwich. If you are ever at a festival and see these guys, do yourself a favor and stop. the staff was all super friendly, and the food was delicious. I did not get a chance to try one but their pesto mozadillas also looked fantastic.

Back to the shows, the original line-up included a “Ilo and the Coral Reefer AllStars”. The “Coral Reefers” being the name of Jimmy Buffett’s backing band. I had no idea who Ilo was. I can’t recall exactly when I heard the news, but at some point I heard Jimmy Buffett would be playing with these guys. I am not a huge Buffett fan, but I had never seen him live and his simple, often whimsical songs have a way of growing on you so we decided to go. I won’t go into all of the details of who Ilo is but the short version is that he was discovered by Buffett and several friends in a bar in Cape Verde and brought back to the states to record/play some music.

Buffett, as most people know, draws a certain kind of crowd. His “parrotheads” all know and love his music. I will go out on a limb and say that 97% of the people at the show were not parrotheads (myself included). The show was enjoyable, although nothing particularly special for me. He played several of his classics including “Margaritaville” and, “Cheeseburger in Paradise”. A couple covers were thrown in “Scarlet Begonias” (Grateful Dead), and “Brown Eyed Girl” (most overplayed song ever?). All of the songs seemed solid enough to me and most of the crowd got into them, dancing and doing the whole landshark thing when appropriate. We didn’t have a great view of the stage because we wanted to stay in the shade but Ilo sounded good when he did his song(s). Overall I am glad we stopped by to hear this set, although I doubt I will ever feel the need to see Buffett again (unless I don’t have to pay for tickets).

After the Buffett/Ilo/Coral Reefer show we decided to go do some more exploring. Did I mention there was a TON of other stuff to do besides see music? We walked around and checked out all of the vendors. The Superfly crew does an awesome job of pulling many different types/styles of vendors together. There was everything you could think of. You could make your own drum, buy jewelry made from guitar parts, buy pet clothes, check out a running store, look at and purchase concert posters and photos, and get a henna tattoo. We spent around two hours just browsing through the different booths. At 3pm we decided to walk by the Booker T and the DBT’s set and head back to camp to eat an early dinner and get back in time for the evening shows. (Didn’t see enough of this show to say anything about it, show is here for streaming/downloading if you are interested.)

One of the other band’s I was most excited about seeing on the trip was the indie pop band from Athens, GA called “Of Montreal“. I don’t have mush exposure to this group other than through their latest album Skeletal Lamping which, to me, is absolutely insane. I still do not know what half the songs on the album even mean, but damn are they catchy. These guys could be categorized as indie pop, or just plain crazy. The show started out with a little sound trouble but quickly picked up speed and turned into about what I was expecting. Great pop music and even better happenings on the stage. The show ended with what is not the most happy song in the world, “The Past Is A Grotesque Animal”. The set ended with one of the scantily clad performers on the stage crowd surfing clear out to the soundboard, various people in animal costumes fighting, guitars being destroyed, and general chaos. Amazing energy, great songs, fun to watch. I really dug this show. I suspect they will be back at Bonnaroo at some point, maybe with late night set?

Crowd for Buffett, bobble heads in background

Drum Circle in Campground

Truck stuck in mud by camp, that’s me in the back.

After “Of Montreal” was done we booked it over to “What Stage” to see Wilco’s set. If you have not seen Wilco live, you should. Great band, and I am not just saying this because they started in Belleville. Amazing guitar work and songs that are guaranteed to get your body moving. If you aren’t familiar with them I suggest starting on either the album Sky Blue Sky or Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, both are excellent albums and worth a listen or twenty. Something pretty cool that happened during the set was the hot air balloon that floated overhead. Having been in one I can say it would be awesome epic to see Bonnaroo from up there.

People still seem confused when I talk about Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band playing Bonnaroo. I sort of agree with them, it doesn’t seem like as natural a fit as Phish or Wilco does but they were there and for the most part, they were great. They were scheduled for a three and a half hour slot on the main stage Saturday night. They were on stage pretty close to on time (from what i remember) and played right up till the end. The Boss is someone else I have never seen in concert but I am glad I finally got the chance. I respect their music although I can’t say I am a huge fan so I don’t know their catalog very deeply. For my money, almost no group of musicians is a talented, comfortable, and charismatic on stage as these guys. There are plenty of reviews of this show out there and they all say the same thing I thought, it started out slow and finished with a bang. If you take a look at the set list there were a couple new songs and a long version of “Outlaw Pete”, or at least it seemed long. One of the coolest parts of the show was the playing of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”, this was based on a request from a sign in the crowd and as soon as Bruce mentioned it the crowd went nuts yelling “Santa”, really cool stuff. Before that point in the show it seemed like people were losing interest (at least around us), after that point the show changed and the crowd was right back in it, dancing, singing, and being merry. It really was an awesome experience.

Setlist:
1. Badlands
2. No Surrender
3. My Lucky Day
4. Outlaw Pete
5. Out In The Street
6. Working On A Dream
7. Seeds
8. Johnny 99
9. Youngstown
10. Raise Your Hand
11. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (sign request)
12. Growin’ Up (sign request)
13. Thunder Road (sign request)
14. Waitin’ On A Sunny Day
15. The Promised Land
16. The River
17. Kingdom of Days
18. Radio Nowhere (w/Jay Weinberg on drums)
19. Lonesome Day
20. The Rising
21. Born To Run

Encores:
22 Hard Times
23. 10th Ave Freeze Out
24. Land Of Hope & Dreams
25. American Land
26. Rosalita
27. Glory Days
28. Dancing In The Dark

After Bruce was done we walked across Centeroo to see Ben Harper and the Relentless7. This is a fairly new band for Ben and I really enjoyed the album. I don’t know if it was where we were listening from but I had major issues getting into this set. I just wasn’t digging it at all. We ended up leaving after the third song.

I am glad we left because it enabled us to go see the band 90% of my friends said we should go see, NIN. As I said before, I am not into really heavy stuff but Trent and the band put on one hell of a show. It was nice to see part of it on what he(Trent Reznor) said would be the band’s last North American show ever. I don’t know if I believe that or not but it doesn’t really matter.

After NIN, we watched a couple songs from MGMT (not enough to comment on) and decided we were exhausted and went back to camp to pass out.

All in all Saturday was pretty awesome. Some great bands, good vibes, and great weather. This is the day I decided I would definitely come back to Bonnaroo again.

Fountain shooting way up in the air	Fans before Bruce	Air balloon during Wilco
Matt and Lauren	At an area called the Art of Such and Such	Guy in crazy mask at Such and Such
Fountain lit up	Guy who was dancing next to us at Bruce passed out at NIN	Other Tent at night

Comments [2]Tags: Bonnaroo, Bruce Springsteen, camping, E Street Band, festival, Manchester, of montreal, Outdoors, Wilco

How I Learned to Love the Farm – Bonnaroo 2009 – Part Two

18.06.2009 (9:39 pm) – Filed under: Bonnaroo,Music,Outdoors ::

Part two of the Bonnaroo experience.

The plan was to park where they told us and haul our stuff to tent only camping. Tent only camping is literally right across from the entrance into Centeroo. @chinacat, Lauren, and I followed Twitter all night on Wednesday looking for status updates on tent only. We were worried it would fill up before we got there, surely enough, on the way in a worker said he heard it was almost full. Needless to say, we were a little bummed. We realized quickly that they were going to put us way out in BFE. Luckily they opened another gate to a camping are and directed us in. We were the fourth car in the area (Camp Rocky Balboa). At that point we decided we were not going to haul everything to tent only to cut five minutes off the walk to Centeroo.

We park the car in our directed spot and kind of mosey to get out. I notice that all of the other cars around us were already out and setting up. I went into panic mode, afraid we weren’t going to get all of the space we needed for our stuff. I pull the shade canopy out and tell Lauren to spread the tent out as quickly as possible. It was complete chaos, by this time the row of cars behind us had pulled in and were doing the same thing. Later on, I would read this is called the "land grab." We spent the next 30 minutes or so setting up camp, introduced ourselves to the neighbors (and helped them set up their tent).

After camp was set up we decided to go for a little walk to get our bearings. There was chaos everywhere, the land grab seemed to be happening everywhere we looked. Cars were coming in from multiple directions, it really was quite a sight to see. We didn’t venture into Centeroo yet, as it didn’t look like it had opened. During the walk, the rain that made the entire place a mud pit for the weekend started. We rushed back to camp to make sure everything was staked down. We saw several tents and canopies blowing around.

Watchtower	Incoming Storm	Setting Up Camp
Back of Storm	Shakedown Street	Mud Road

After the rain we had a pretty nice little set-up, we rushed to put several tarps up to keep everything dry. The tent was against the south side of the canopy with a tarp going over it to keep the rain off (note to self, Coleman tents suck). Another tarp on the west side to keep the rain from blowing in and the afternoon soon at bay (total lifesaver). A piece of outdoor carpet which came in handy for afternoon naps, a couple lawn chairs, and a large Tupperware container for a table.

After the mid-morning storm it was fairly nice for the rest of the afternoon. After the rain let up, we made our way into Centeroo for the first time. On the way in we were searched pretty thoroughly, pockets were emptied, and bodies were patted down. The big no-nos to get into Centeroo were alcohol (because of the sponsors), knives, and glow sticks. Not sure why glow sticks are contraband but we didn’t have any so I wasn’t worried about it.

The first band we decided to check out was Alberta Cross. They are an alt rock/blues rock type band from Brooklyn. Their set started at 5:30PM at "That Tent". We finally got in Centeroo and to the tent partway through their first song. For a band who doesn’t even have a full length album yet (a couple short albums/EPs have been released) , they drew a good sized crowd. They have a good sound we were intriguing enough to stay for a few songs (had to keep exploring). If you like blues rock, I recommend checking them out. They have a very rough quality to their music. Very much an old school type band, think Neil Young-esque vocals.

The next band I really wanted to see was Delta Spirit, unfortunately their flight to Nashville didn’t get off the ground in time for their 7PM set. I didn’t hear that the festival organizers moved them to late in the night so I missed them. I highly recommend their debut album "Ode to Sunshine", it is fantastic.

Since Delta Spirit was postponed we decided to make our way over to "The Other Tent" and check out rapper MURS. MURS has been around since the mid-nineties and I have heard of him but I am not big into rap/hip-hop so I had never really listened. The most fascinating thing about his show was watching all of the "hippies" (I mean that in a loving way) dance to rap. We only stayed for one song so I can’ty provide an accurate review. I can tell you the bass was thumping!

Our last band of the day was Portugal. The Man. They are from Wasilia Alaska, a town recently made famous by Sarah Palin. I hadn’t heard much about these guys before ‘roo, but mark my words, they are going to get big. They play touch many different sounds/styles with their music. While a heart and indie rock band they also draw from blues as well as soul music. They aren’t afraid to use synthesizers or a regular drum set in their music and they do both very well. They had a great stage presence, sounded fantastic, and drew a large crowd. Give them a listen and let me know what you think.

At around 9:30 or so, the weather changed. The rain started back up. There was plenty of thunder and lightning, which I generally enjoy but not when there is no where to go besides a decidedly thin piece of nylon. I overheard several people say we were under a tornado watch. Lauren and I decided it was time to head back to the tent for the night and save some energy for Friday, when all of the "big" shows started.