Bonnaroo 2007 : Day 3 (Saturday)

It takes endurance to do Bonnaroo. Younger and fitter people than I have been crushed by the heat and the dust and the hours and the drugs. Another person died at Roo this year. They're 6 for 6. My guess is it was dehydration and a bad cocktail of intoxicants. That's your usual Roo killer. I'm not a marathon man, but this ain't my first rodeo.


I woke up Saturday feeling remarkably well. Two pop tarts and, oddly for breakfast, a giant jaeger bomb later, I'm ready to roll. Actually, I was ready to get uncommonly stoned.


I'm having a hard time with Saturday. I'm pretty sure I was out of bed by about noon. I'm pretty sure I WANTED to go see the "Old Crow Medicine Show". I mean, I'd been looking foreward to that show but for some reason I didn't see it. Hell, I'm not sure what happened on Saturday morning (I'm considering NOON to be morning in this case) but whatever it was it kept me out of Centeroo until about 2.


Now here's the good news : As a fancypants member of the media, I've pulled press credentials for myself and a rare golden "Photo" pass for my lovely wife. At 4PM the Roo folks scheduled a press availability with :


Bob Weir (Grateful Dead), Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips), Charlie 2Na (Rapper playing with Galactic later that night), Nathan Followill (Kings of Leon), Pete Yorn, and Britt Daniel (Spoon).


Naturally, there were just 2 people I was there to see :

Wayne and Bobby (taken with a camera I borrowed from Uncle Ted). That's Charlie 2Na behind Wayne.

Much as the brotherman pissed himself during the Roots, my wife lost bladder function due to her proxemity to "Bobby". I admit, I've met quite a few famous folks, but I'm still pretty starstruck by the Dead. Best exchange of the afternoon :

Wayne : I actually saw Bob, I don't know if he knows this, back in Oklahoma.

Bob (Who likely doesn't know he played in Oklahoma) : Nope, I didn't know that.

That made me laugh. I'm not sure why.

Anyway, after sucking up the air conditioning and meeting some rockstars we headed back to camp long enough to eat some brats and do some drugs. I tracked down another shroom or too and wife and I trekked back to Centeroo.

"Ween" was playing in "This Tent" and playing "Zoloft". I like that song...Zeeeeeeeeeeee-O-L-O-F-TEEEEEEEEE!

We marched past for the following reason : We've both been listening to "Franz Ferdinand" on the iPod while working out at the gym. Two things you should know about Franz on the "Which Stage"...first Franz, like a lot of pop acts, sounds better on my iPod. Second, I don't go to the gym very much.

It did provide a good show or two. The cute 16 or 17 year old girl in front of us who clearly had spent hours putting the fine touches on here "hippie" costume. She missed most of the show trying to decide the exacty angle at which her shirt should hand. Her self-conscious fiddling made me realize how non-hippie these new hippies are.

Plus, to our left, there was some chick dancing on a cluster of trash cans. They had a panel of plywood across them with holes cut in them just large enough for the proper recycleable : a can, a bottle, a syringe etc. Later, she invited some short hippie dude up to the same can covering plywood and they danced like mad. Not long after that, some guy doing his best to dress exactly like Johnny Knoxville, asks if he can climb up too. He does. Wife and I confirm with a glance that this will not end well.

Before long the plywood is sliding back and getting less secure. Their solution? All three will simulaneously jump in the air while kicking the plywood foreward beneath them.

This is how people engineer on drugs.

Wife and I left before the thrilling conclusion. Besides, we'd seen that episode before.

SO OUR GROUP MEETS US...near the spot where we watched String Cheese the night before. We head over to "What Stage" for the Police. As for the Police, I'll give them credit for this, they showed up on time.

There were higlights to the show. Fewer than I'd like. "Walking in your Footsteps" was jammed out a bit. I got to shriek "Rooooooooooxanne" at the top of my lungs, which I always enjoy.

Copeland seemed interested in jamming but Sting, who romoved his shirt and said, "C'Mon

Bonnaroo, Tennessee! Show us what Tennessee is made of!" seemed to want to get the hell out of there.

Plus, while the band seemed intent on jamming, just to show the festival they could, I'm reminded just how much a great rock jam band depends on it's guitar....that's especially true of a three piece outfit like the police. Let's just say nobody's spent the past 20 years chasing around Andy Summer's side projects.

The police stopped playing 45 minutes early. As Random Matt said, "Fuck the Police!".

LATE NIGHT

Here's the biggest mistake all weekend. I had just a few MUST SEE bands this weekend. The "Flaming Lips" were at the top of the list. But instead of hustling over to the "Which Stage" for a great spot, we all dicked around the main stage after the police. Evidently, EVERYONE ELSE at Bonnaroo was planning to see the FLips too, and but the time our group of 7 made it over, the place was PACKED.

I'd say 4 out of 5 people who stuck around late night was crowded around the undersized "Which Stage". Granted, it wasn't as bad for a really tall guy like me, but little folks like Tinysis couldn't see shit.

We stayed for just a song or too before heading out to Gov't Mule at "That Tent".

Here's the totally KICK ASS Mule setlist :

Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival 2007 This Tent, Manchester TN Saturday June 16, 2007

Gov't Mule:

Play With Fire (with Michael Franti)

Thorazine Shuffle

Banks Of The Deep End

A Million Miles From Yesterday Sugaree (with Bob Weir)

Loser (with Bob Weir)

Johnny Bratton Jam (with Lewis Black)

Unring The Bell -> Drums -> Moby Dick Reprise (with John Paul Jones on Bass)

Livin' Lovin' Maid (with John Paul Jones on Bass)

Since I've Been Lovin You (with John Paul Jones on Keys)

No Quarter (with John Paul Jones on Keys)
Come Back Baby (with Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady & Barry Mitterhoff)

Death Don't Have No Mercy (with Kaukonen, Casady & Mitterhoff)

Streamline Woman Brand New Angel That's What Love Will Make You Do (with Luther Dickinson)

32/20 Blues (with Luther Dickinson)
Sweetleaf War Pigs
Soulshine

Here's the problem though. The wife and I saw Mule about 2 weeks before Roo when they came through a local festival with Robert Randolph and the Family Band. We liked Randolph better. In fact, both of us get kinda bored with straight-up Mule. However, we never get bored with old school Dead tunes and when Mule plays backup rock band to some pretty awesome guests it's a pretty damn good time.

This, by the way, is one of the better DLs on the etree right now. I reccomend it. So far the best sounding sets on Bit Torrent are this, String Cheese the night before, Ratdog the next day, Widespread (best one!), and Wilco on Sunday.

Wife and I headed over to "That Stage" for the Galactic hip hop extravaganza. I thought it was FUCKING INCREDIBLE! Wife was less impressed. We walked up to an old Galactic tune, and Charlie 2na took the stage with them after that. As good as Galactic is, they may be the TIGHTEST backup band around. (This one's on etree too...get it if you can!)

Anyway, I blacked out at about 3AM. Sunday is the best music day yet. We started with Mavis Staples. I'll let you know 'bout that next!