Bonnaroo 2007

June 14-18, 2007


So I just got back from my first (and probably only) Bonnaroo and I thought I'd share my thoughts and experience with you guys. It gets a little long and rambling since I'm not exactly an expert blogger so feel free to just look at the pics!




We flew into Nashville from O'Hare with no snafus and after getting our rental car toured around Nashville TN. I don't have much to say about Nashville besides the
cheese factor was high. A lot of Elvis memorabilia and touristy souvenir shops. After seeing more than enough of what was probably once a cool city, we headed 30 minutes south to what we would call home for the next few days ... Murfreesboro, TN. (as the guys said all weekend: "Murfreesboro ... spelled just like it sounds.")

After ditching our gear at the lovely Crestwood Suites, we decided to stay in town and check out the local flavor that evening. There were only two acts we were missing that night (The National, which I'd just seen the week before, and the Black Angels) and we decided it wasn't worth the 8 hour wait to get in, as all the campers were also arriving that evening. (FYI - Bonnaroo sold out. That's about 80,000 tickets).

Our first stop was to the Coconut Bay Cafe where we ran into some friendly Miller Lite girls. That was the only "friendly" portion of this joint. My friend Bob & I had more than a few moments throughout the weekend where we were very aware we didn't really look like "everyone else." Tennessee is no doubt, the south, and I don't think they see a lot of Asian folks in those parts.

There is a charm to the town but we all also noted that as the days went by, all three of us got a little dumber each day ... which I attributed to the contact highs and acclimating to our environment. That said, we found "the square" and managed to check out some better local establishments... we ended the evening at Pete’s favorite, the Waffle House. And what better way to springboard into the fest than a conversation with a Lips roadie! The guys were so excited to have a discussion w/Rick from the Flaming Lips. I was just amazed that our cook was smoking a cigarette while cooking our eggs!

Day 2 - Friday

Our first band of the day was the Cold War Kids. They were decent and had a good sound but I couldn’t see a thing. Given that this was our first show (1:15) I was still adjusting to the sights, sounds and dust.

Bonnaroo takes place on a 700 acre expanse of land. It was hot hot hot and that meant the ground was dry and the dust aplenty. Seriously, we were covered in dust and sweat within the hour. Lesson #1 I learned about Bonnaroo: no one cares what they or you look like. Anything and everything went. There were a lot of bikinis and swimwear and it didn’t matter if you were 100 or 300 lbs. This was not a vain festival and I saw more guts (and gunts) than I ever have in one place. That said, tops weren’t even required - male and female. A couple girls went so far as to paint their pleas right onto their bare chests with the words “dose me” and “doses, please.” Which leads me to Lesson #2. Bonnaroo is about the scene. I would say that the median age was early 20’s and the predominant group was young, wannabe hippie mixed in with the old-timer real hippies, a few empty nester couples who probably just pulled the RV in to camp out and listen to some music, and then people like us.

The crowds did vary with each stage, and this was evident in our next show: Gillian Welch and David Rawlings! Ms Welch is a native, and she had a huge welcome and a fantastic show.

She played an hour and a half, and I was positively delighted when she treated us to her Radiohead cover of “Black Star.” And then she surprised DR and asked him to sing…which he paid tribute to a group fav: Ryan Adams’ “To Be Young…” Imagine my excitement!

The guys were even more excited by Ms. Welch’s special guest, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin fame. It was an excellent show and one of my favs of the fest. We rounded out the day with the Black Keys. They really rocked out and it still amazes me that this huge sound is coming from just two guys! They sounded great. I stress sounded, we were so far back, we couldn’t see them. The side stages at ‘roo don’t feature monitors and the stages are fairly low so unless you get close it’s not an easy view. Nevertheless, they were a fun gig and a good way to end the first day. We were back in Murfreesboro in time for a late dinner and a few drinks before calling it a night.

Day 3 - Saturday

This was our big day. Because we knew we were staying late for the midnight Flaming Lips show, and we already had experienced afternoon heat, we weren’t in a hurry to get to the fest. So we took a tour of the Jack Daniels distillery just outside of Manchester. Sammy our tour guide had been giving tours for 26 years and his overalls and anecdotes proved it. Our friend Pete, who is somewhat of a beverage expert working for Miller Brewing Co, loved it! It was an interesting and well-done tour, but the two people in our tour group sporting the t-shirts with the confederate flag and the saying “Lest We Forget” underneath it was making Bob & I a little nervous!

Onto the fest, our first double-show back to back was the best of the fest. The Hold Steady followed immediately by Spoon. Great crowd for both, and we had good vantage points.

The Hold Steady rocked out their entire set and the crowd couldn’t have been happier. Big baseball fans (I believe a good portion off the band hails from Mnpls, and I’m told there are ties to Milwaukee as well), frontman Craig Finn had th quote of the day ""I just want to say that, from where I'm standing, fist pumping is a lot cooler than that dance the hippies do." He got a huge roar of approval when he agreed not to push his baseball on us if we didn’t push our baseball on them …but let’s just all agree, “The Yankees suck!”

Spoon followed them with just as great, if not, better, set. The crowd was digging them, and we were treated to a few new songs from the “yet to be released” new album. We even got them to come out for an unplanned encore! I could have gone home happy after these two sets.

Saturday night’s double feature was the Police (the headliner) and then the Lips at midnight. Watching 80,000 people cram into the main stage was surreal. The amount of dust being kicked up was unreal. People were wearing handkerchiefs over their faces. Between the dust and all the pot smoke I’m pretty sure my lungs will be mad at me the next couple of days yet! The sight of the festival was when we looked behind us and at 10;30 at night saw some hippie mom nursing her 3 year old kid on the ground! There are so many wrong things with that statement, the three of us just shook our heads in disbelief. That set up our feeling for the Police set. I’m glad it was part of my package ticket because if I’d had paid any amount of money to see them alone, I’d be pretty peeved. In two words, they blew. Every song was “Sting-ified” sounding too slow, too changed up, too much like it was just Sting & His Band. The best comment came from some dude who yelled out, “You guys are f*cking old!” I think this was the biggest disappointment of the fest and we left early to get good spots for the Lips. We weren’t the only ones. They were leaving the main stage in droves! Now I’ll admit, I’m not that familiar with the Flaming Lips. That said, it was a fun show, just because it was a late show.

There was confetti thrown out into the crowd, glow sticks being throw everywhere, spaceships descending from the stage, dancing Santa Clauses and yeah, a few songs, too! By now it’s midnight and everywhere around us people are either dancing and grooving … or passed out on the ground. Even though this wasn’t my favorite set, it stands out in my head as somewhat the pinnacle of the fest. Just the fact that we were there so late, it was dark, the sun had gone down, the chill set in yet nothing seemed to shut down. Stages were still going, every vendor still serving, people milling about or else kicking back, like us, for some late night music. It’s cheesy but there was a common bond and that’s always a cool feeling. We capped up the evening with a 3am trip to the IHOP back in Murfreesboro before calling it a night (or morning).

Last day- Sunday.
This was it. We’d survived three days in Hippie USA and it had almost (but not quite) started to feel like home away from home. This was also THE hottest day reaching a scorching 97 degrees plus … we started off slow and chilled out to Elvis Perkins (son of Anthony). Bob said he was a great live act and he was right … it was the perfect way to start the day. Sitting back to a chill crowd and good sound while melting underneath the Tennessee sun. Next up was the Decemberists.

I was really really looking forward to them, and though there were highlights (Mavis Staples and Bobby Bare, Jr guest appearances) we were a little disappointed. It was the middle of the afternoon, a no-tent stage so we were blazing hot, and they started off too sluggishly. There was also too much band-audience participation (a pet peeve, we decided) and no “Yankee Bayonet” for me. I had better hopes for Wilco on the main stage … and they were met. Tweedy and his crew put on a good show, only making us sit through a few Sky Blue Sky numbers before giving us “Handshake Drugs.” They pulled out the oldies but goodies and I believe when “Via Chicago” began, Bob even noted his man-crush on JT had been partially restored! Other notables, “Hummingbird,” “Shot in the Arm,” “Jesus, etc,”, “I’m the Man Who Loves You,” and a war song … we had to leave before the encore in order to secure our spot for the White Stripes … which proved to be near-impossible. The crowd was massive, the dust even more so, we settled for a spot in the micro-brewery tent and glimpses of Jack & Meg. They sounded great and we decided then and there we were better off away from the claustrophobia of the crowd. A couple of beers and we called it a fest opting out of the what would most likely be one big haze of smoke during the Panic closer. Instead we headed back for our last night in Murfreesboro (to steal from the guys, “Murfreesboro: if you’re not from Murfreesboro, you ain’t from around here.”) We found a hoppin’ bar on a Sunday night and toasted our last night in town, while even hearing some Ryan Adams on the jukebox!

The overall sentiment was this: though none of us will probably be going back, we were all really glad to have gone and had what will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, we call Bonnaroo.