Thursday

I will be posting little recaps of my Bonnaroo experience.

A Warm Up

Thursday, June 12, 2008

BonnaROO!

My friends and I arrived at the festival around 4 p.m., and the wait began. This was the first time we used GPS navigation, which led us to a different entrance via Hwy 55 (see map). The line moved sluggishly at times, but we made it past the checkpoint in under two hours. On to the campsite!

As we were herded like cattle to slaughter by hoards of yellow-shirted flag-wavers, I saw the perimeters of the festival area shrink in my rear-view mirror. We ended up roughly a 20 minute's walk from Centeroo. Not too shabby.

Modern art or just one big mess to clean up?

We were in camp zone 8...or as I heard one guy put it: the "chewbacca campgrounds". He was probably talking about our camp's artwork (see above), but could just as well have been referring to endless parade of shirtless cavemen running about!

Some of our neighbors' tents

In a hurry to get into the actual festival, we set up our modest campsite with much difficulty (don't ask). Met some nice girls who go to Harvard and a cool dude named Jeff who said he came down from Jersey by himself to see Metallica & Pearl Jam.

But you don't care about that, you want to hear about the MUSIC:

Let me tell you about Nicole Atkins. I wandered to her stage by accident - MGMT just wasn't doing it for me - in an attempt to meet up with some other friends who came down seperately, and she was playing.
Her music is kind of that post-Michelle Branch, folk-pop, vintage American sound. Martha Wainwright if she kicked more ass. (listen here) Excellent set, definitely one of the more energetic acts I saw Thursday. Maybe some of the performers had opening-night jitters.

You can't blame the weather, a cool breeze fanned our bodies as the hot Tennessee sun set slowly on the horizon. Meanwhile I was rocking out to Nicole's set. Immediately afterwards I ran over to the CD tent and picked up a copy of her debut record, Neptune City (buy).

Left the CD tent and half-sprinted accross the festival grounds to catch the opening notes of:

Vampire Weekend! You've probably heard of them, or sick of hearing about them, if you follow the music biz at all. Those silly Ivy-League kids who sing tunes about New England in the vein of The Strokes, all while drawing on musical influences from 3 continents.

If you haven't heard their debut record, shame on you (listen here). Live, they sounded a whole lot better than I expected, I've heard their live sets can be hit or miss. But the songs sounded extremely fresh. Great energy and vibe. They drew a massive and energetic crowd who came to sing & dance their asses off.

The thing about these big festivals is that where you stand might dictate how much you enjoy a band's set. For instance, when they opened with "Mansard Roof" I was at a horrible angle, and the mix sounded like shit. Fortunately, I found a great spot decently close where the sound came through 1,000 times better.

After being couped up in the car all day, and especially after a few drinks, Vampire Weekend really hit the spot. Their music is sickingly upbeat and happy, like Belle & Sebastian on crack and Red Bull.

They closed their set with "Walcott", one of my favorite cuts from their self-titled debut full-length (buy).

Caught the middle of Lez Zeppelin's show. They were OK, but you know they're just a glorified cover band, so really there's no big deal. I wasn't feeling it at all, so I went back to the campsite around 12:30 and just crashed till I passed out.

Thursday is usually the warm-up day for Bonnaroo, as only 75 percent of the people attending are actually there yet. So the food lines were a little shorter, the stages less crowded, the walkways more walkable. A good start to the weekend.

..Coming soon: Friday the 13th..