This year I had the privilege of attending Bonnaroo, a huge music and art festival held just outside of Manchester, TN. I've been aware of Bonnaroo for quite some time, but never really took interest in going. This year was different though. I saw the lineup and knew immediately I had to be there. Nine Inch Nails, The Mars Volta, Tobacco (of Black Moth Super Rainbow), Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Andrew Bird, and The Protomen? All in one place? Sign me up.
So it's about a 7 hour drive from where I live to Manchester. My friend and I pack up our stuff and head out to hook up with some other friends who were caravaning down. The trip to was pretty uneventful until we got to Tennessee, where we found some kids from Nebraska at a gas station playing a bongo, who were also headed to Bonnaroo, so they jumped on the end of our caravan.
We pull into the venue at about 2 a.m. and start setting up camp. I'm not really one for camping, so I was kind of dreading camping for five nights, but whatever, I'll endure for this lineup (I should mention that our campsite was a good half an hour walk to the venue). The kids we found at the gas station pull in two spots down from us, set up and immediately bust out the bongos again. This time one of them had a guitar, and they started jamming out, before long, a crowd of maybe 25 people had gathered around, adding two more guitars, another bongo, a handful of tambourines, and a chorus of strangely melodic nonsensical sounds. That was my first impression of Bonnaroo, and it was good. If the whole trip continued on with this kind of bizarre companionship, I would be more than happy.
I knew beforehand that Bonnaroo was a meeting grounds for any and all drugs, but I didn't realize just how true that was. Within half an hour of setting up our tents, we were offered acid, ecstasy, weed, and something that I'd never heard of. After buying some bunk doses, we hung out with our new friends until the sun came up, at which point in time we thought we should get some sleep for the rest of the day.
Day 1: You can't help but wake up at 8:30 every morning when you're in a bright, hot tent, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people, so up we got. The main body of Bonnaroo, affectionately called Centeroo, didn't open until 11:00, so we bummed around, did some people watching, and got in line for the opening of the gates after an intense 12 minute thunderstorm. An enormous group of people harassed the guards when they took to long to search everyone, which was usually a gentle pat on the pockets and a "Yeah, go on." Once inside, things started getting strange. Food vendors lined the paths, shouting catchy slogans at you, strange attractions beckoned you in, an enormous neon ferris wheel slowly spun in the background, over sized bobble heads and fireflies called you over to take a sit-down under them, offering much sought-after shade. Strange teardrop shaped wooden infrastructures hung from trees, and a fountain in the shape of a huge mushroom spewed water for anyone who happened to want to get wet. There were five main stages, designed to confuse the concert goes who happened to be on drugs, by having the names What Stage, Which Stage, This Tent, That Tent, and The Other Tent. Musically the first day was pretty uneventful for me. We saw MURS, a rapper, at That Tent. I'd never listened to him before, but I knew the name. He put on a great energetic show, getting everyone in the crowd to sing along with him for few songs. After that we bummed around some more, saw the sights, and waited for Tobacco to start up his first set for the night. He played in a small little dance club building, which I thought was unfortunate, as I didn't really want to rave dance with everyone. I hung back and listened, and was impressed by how well he pulled off the deep dirty synths that his music contains. After that we headed to the tent where he would be playing again in an hour. As soon as his set started, it started to pour. Not wanting to be caught in the monsoon, we hung our heads and left after 5 minutes. A shame. We got back to our camp 45 minutes later, soaked, muddy, and ready for sleep.
Day 2: I wake up excited. Day two really kicked off the roller coaster of fantastic live shows that carried on through the festival. We started the day with Animal Collective, who I was very interested in seeing. I wanted to know how these three guys pulled off this bizarre electronic cacophony on stage. They played brilliantly. One had a synth pad, one had a guitar, and the other manned a second synth as well as drums. They played mostly songs off of their new album, which was fine, it's a great album, as well as a song from Panda Bears solo album. A very impressive performance even though we were back so far we couldn't really see them all too well. After that we headed over towards Grizzly Bears set and somehow snuck into the 2nd row, to the right of the stage. I just recently picked up on Grizzly Bear after picking up and falling in love with their new album, Veckatimest. All the songs they played were brilliantly done. Most of them involved complex vocal harmonies, which were performed flawlessly by all four members of the band. Also, they all took turns singing, which I didn't notice on the album, but I thought was really cool that they mesh so well musically that they could do that without throwing everyone off. Leaving that tent happy, we swung by TV on the Radio for a few minutes, which was cool, but I don't really know any TV on the Radio, so we headed over to the main stage to wait it out for the Beastie Boys. I'm not a huge Beastie Boys fan, but they put on a pretty good show. They had a little trouble keeping the audiences attention until the brought Nas on for a few numbers. By this time I was about to flip a shit. Everything had been great so far, and now it was time for the band I was most excited about, The Protomen. A band based solely around the story of Megaman and his brother, Protoman, The Protomen play a video game rock opera of the most epic proportions. I should mention that Phish played their first show at the same time that The Protomen played, so I was in an audience of maybe 30 people, which was great, because they were all there to specifically see The Protomen. No one waiting to see someone else, or passing by. They started setting up their equipment, and I was surprised to see that they had 11 people playing with them. The show started and we all went crazy. Their stage presence was out of this world. They had a female choir of 3, two drummers, two guitarists, a handful of synths, a 5 foot drum stacked on top of some amps, a trumpet, and a couple keyboards. They played some tracks from their new album (which I won't shut up about until I have it in my hands), but mostly tracks off their first album, which is fucking amazing. Go listen to it right now actually. But I digress. They put on probably one of the most fun shows I've ever been to, and they hung out afterwards to thank everyone for coming out and watching them play. All of them are really sweet guys and gals, they kept on saying that they didn't play very well and that they were sorry, which was crazy. I got to talk to the singer for a bit, and he mentioned that the new album would be out sometime in September. They all signed a poster for me, and I went on my jolly way, still buzzing off the exhilaration of watching a Megaman rock opera played out in front of me, props and all. Before we headed back to camp, we caught a few minutes of Public Enemy, which I had no real interest in seeing, besides so I could say that I'd seen them. We waited for Crystal Castles to finish their set (terrible) to see a bit of Girl Talk, which turned out to be really boring, as all he does is stand behind his laptop. Sleep soon followed.
Day 3: I might have only seen 3 bands on the third day, but damn, what a day. We got a late start and saw the beginning of Of Montreal's set before heading to get in line for The Mars Volta, which we ended up in the 2nd row for. They came out on stage and broke out into... Omar tuning his guitar a bit while Cedric joked "This is what happens when you learn to play guitar at guitar center...". Funny guy. I guess they don't play much from De-Loused anymore, but we were treated to Roulette Dares and Drunkship. Lucky us. Their set was killer except that Cedrics mic was turned way down. After that was Bruce Springsteen, and only Bruce Springsteen, who I was not really thrilled about seeing. So I, along with about thirty other people, started to wait for Nine Inch Nails, who would come on four and a half hours later. Longest four and a half hours of my life, but I was in the 3rd row, so all was good. The wait was well worth it, NIN owned every other show I've seen them play. It was two hours of angry Reznor at the pinnacle of what NIN now is. Near the end of the show Trent commented that this would be the last NIN show in the US ever, and that if he were to continue to tour, he would lose his mind. The Day the World Went Away into Hurt closed the last NIN show for America, and was followed by the chant of "Thank you Trent!". For a NIN fan, this is as close to a religious experience as you can get, and I am proud to say that I was there in the 3rd row for it. I met up with my friend and we headed back to camp. As if the days events weren't enough, we come back to find some guy tripping balls on something, screaming and walking around. The medics finally decided that he probably shouldn't be allowed to roam free and do what he wanted to, so five of them held him down while security and a car were called for. The guy was having a bad enough time before being forcefully pinned to the ground. Who knows what he actually saw or thought was happening, but whatever it was must have been terrifying, because it sounded like he was being stabbed repeatedly at the slowest speed possible. They took him to a nearby hospital, but shit, the guy will probably never view life the same way again.
Day 4: Not a whole lot going on on the last day. We saw Andrew Bird, who had Martin Dosh drumming, which I was happy about, as Dosh is a great drummer. The whole band played really well, and Bird was pretty funny. The sound quality of it was outrageous, and I will say this, the man is a powerful whistler. All in all really cool. Following that was Snoop Dog, who I really didn't know what to expect from. Turns out it was a really funny show, even though you spent half the time saying his name. He really got everyone into it, having his DJ turn everything down because "the cops were coming", but then decided "Yo, fuck tha po-liece!" and turned it back up. Phinishing (I'm sorry.) the night was Phish, playing a 4 hour split set. I'd never really listened to Phish before. I knew they're a jam band, but that's about it. I don't think I'll ever listen to Phish again. Not that they're bad musicians, but my god, 4 hours of very similar jams start to eventually put one to sleep. But whatever, I'm not going to to miss the closing act for this strange and wonderful festival. Springsteen came out and played a few songs with them, which was neat I guess. Phish finally stopped playing and everyone headed back to their camps.
When we left the next morning, the place was already pretty empty. It was a bizarre thing to attend. Inside Bonnaroo is some other place entirely, set apart from the rest of the world, where everyone's your friend, everything is legal, and medical care is readily available whenever you need a band aid or a shaded place to come down. A place where people are lined with glows sticks at night, and during the day, those same people can be seen napping in the shade of a seven foot long felt lightning bug. A place where you learn to respond to Bonnaroo as the collective name for you and the countless people around you. And then it's over. Just as jarringly as you're tossed into it, you're spit back out, left wondering if it really happened at all.
Well I have the wristband, so I know it did.
If anyone who happened to be there finds this, thank you! I had a great time.
-Ben
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