So...Bonnaroo: Day 2

Day 0 (Thursday) recap
Day 1 recap
Pictures from Day 1
Pictures from Day 2

Gothamist review of Day 1
Gothamist review of Day 2

Saturday was the least eventful, I think. No travel, lots of time watching bands, a bit more time than the day before recouping in the press area. I was up early again, after really getting no sleep at all the night before. I go outside my tent and I see the two Canadian girls passed out on the grass outside their tents. I tried that but I couldn't get back to sleep so I call it a morning and hit the red bull and monster hard. It's pretty trashy, yes, but it works. We all hang out for a bit outside our tents. Nobody saying much..I think everyone was pretty beat. I remember starting to think that the weekend felt like it was coming to an end already, despite the fact that we had two more full days of music ahead of us. It was weird. Colin and I begin to plan how to get back home. We decide that it'd be real nice to take the shuttle bus back on Sunday night after sonic youth and stay at a hotel near the airport Sunday night. This makes the weekend seem even shorter. It's now only one more night.

At some point, Colin and the girls go get breakfast, but I'm not hungry and stay behind. I am playing with my sidekick and decide to whip up a post about the weekend so far. My Morning Jacket was still very fresh in my mind. That kills a few minutes till the rest get back. I could have just gone back to the press area, gotten my camera battery and hung around for a while, but I was in no rush. There was nothing really on I needed to see that early.

I ended up taking off about 10 till 12 to try and catch the Alec Ownsworth solo set in the press tent. End up missing all by 30 seconds of the 15 minute set. Run into Matt again, who I don't think I mentioned earlier, but he's a great guy. Was always a pleasure to see him around. Just realized all the times we chatted over the course of the weekend, I don't think I mentioned Bishop Allen once.

So Matt went over to the main stage to camp out in the front for Radiohead. Not a bad idea, in hindsight, with Elvis Costello and Beck leading up to them over there. I didn't wanna stay in one place all day tho, as appealing as it sounded, so he takes off and I wander over to Dungen with Scott. The day of music plays out like this. Good stuff all the way through. CYHSY was a bit of a bummer cause Alec's guitar didn't work, and I've always been a bit down on their live show, but everything else was totally top notch. I also was really stoked to see Jim James hippie dancing at the Amadou and Meriam show (pictured above). Non-band highlight of the day.

 

I meet up with Colin right before Beck and we walk over to the main stage for the first time all weekend. It was massive. We see this guy with the tattoo on his leg to the right. It says "Nag Nag...I'll teach you to nag! -- Jim, don't...You're Killing me!" The image is a comic book man strangling a woman with death hovering in the background. Is this a famous panel or something? It went straight over my head and right into creepytown.

Anyway, we were probably a real half mile from the stage, no joke. We meet two girls from upstate NY who went to college near Colin. They were a trip. Really nice people, just like every single person we met this weekend. I swear, it couldn't have been more pleasant. Of all the crazy drug rattled hippies wandering around this place, we never had to deal with a single person who wasn't completely warm and friendly. I could do this weekend a hundred times in a row, and the odds that we wouldn't have to deal with any undesirables is pretty much impossible.

The best part about these girls was that they were so hilariously clueless when it came to drugs. They went to college, too. Colin kept calling people like this squares, and telling people we were squares cause we don't do drugs but I think that's a rather loaded term. For me, a square is someone without any interesting interests, any personality, any defining characteristics. Like Bert from Sesame Street. He sang a great song about being square. Anyway, I didn't like him telling every single person we met that we were Squares. Seemed like a pretty self defeating term. I have interests and personality, damnit! But he didn't mean it like that. Just that I don't do drugs. Whatever...regardless, these two couldn't have cared less. One of them, no joke, and I swear I thought they were fucking with us when they told us, bought a giant purple balloon in the campsite, thinking it would make nice decoration for their tent. Then realized the end wasn't tied, so she thought maybe it was helium to make funny voices. She took down the entire whippet before realizing what was going on. Unreal. Of the 80,000 people at roo, how do we find these people? They were awesome.

One of them was a big Beck fan. We rocked out to them, trying to decide if he was any good (he was) and if he became a scientologist just to piss off people who hate scientologists (unsure, but likely). Following them was Radiohead, then we went to the Comedy Tent to see Aziz. He came by to say hi right before the show started and was talking about how he and Rob Hubel were getting chased around by security backstage during Radiohead. Maybe he will elaborate sometime. I couldn't give the story justice.

Anyway, the girls were excited that I knew a comedian and I was stoked that they got such a big kick out of his set. I was stoked the whole room did, really. Everybody may have been really stoned, but Aziz fucking killed in there. Was great to see.

Anyway, afterwords we head over to sit outside the tent where The Dresden Dolls are gonna play. After a while of waiting, Colin and the rest decide to bounce and I head in to watch the show. They were really great. One of the best of the fest. MMJ, them and A&M were probably my top 3. Anyway, I wished they played longer, but it just a strong hour before done time. I head straight back to camp and go to sleep shortly after.

Comments

[L]

All of your comments about Bonnaroo are so right on, from the band reviews to the people observations. It was truly one of the most bilssful weekends of my life. I hope you got to see the Grace Potter show on Sunday morning. Was truly one of the sleeper hits of festival and everyone in the audience felt it.

[Melody]

Geez, those girls from Upstate New York sound amazing. I bet they're really hot too.

But, really, your blog is a cool take on things. Nice read.

[Jenny]

"Unreal. Of the 80,000 people at roo, how do we find these people? They were awesome."

Honey, we thought the same thing. Your blog is awesome:0)