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Bonnaroo 2009, Part 2

Posted Sunday, September 6th, 2009 by Josh

Waking up Saturday morning we felt pretty good all in all considering the string of late night and primitive accommodations. We sat enjoying our coffee, plotting our afternoon and evening. Two awesome days down, two more to go! We just hoped that we had the stamina and nice weather to make it a memorable experience.

[The first show that we had the pleasure of catching was Rodrigo y Gabriela. A fierce acoustic duo, known for bringing flamenco flare to metal covers as well as their own eclectic originals. In front of what I thought was an impressive crowd congregated at the main stage they went to town in the hot Tennessee sun they showed all that they had to offer. Rodrigo’s lightning fast licks (think Yngewie on acoustic) and Gabriela’s percussive pounding on the every inch of guitar left me in awe. Playing tracks from their 2006 self titled release, as well as a few new tunes, and a notable cover of Metallica’s “Orion” this set easily climbed to the top of my list of favorites.

After cruising around and grabbing a slice of “Spicy Pie” (and for the record I do in fact LOVE Spicy Pie!) we settled in for another highly anticipated set, Wilco. They greeted the crowd with the self titled track from their new self titled album. Playing tracks ranging from old to new with the precision of musical surgeons. Making every song hang in the air with studio recorded quality. We stuck around to hear a few tunes off of my personal favorite album, “Sky Blue Sky” such as “You Are My Face”, “Side With the Seeds”, and “Impossible Germany”, before making our way to the Which Stage to check in on Warren Haynes and Gov’t Mule.

Now I must admit that I am not exactly a fan of Gov’t Mule, but with Warren’s participation in 75% of all the southern rock bands left around I felt that it was necessity. We hung out for a tune or two, but as I already stated not being a follower I am not sure what they were. Once we had our fill we strolled back to catch the end of Wilco just in time to hear Jeff Tweedy ask if we excited to see the Boss and told everyone that it was ok to boo them that night as they would just pretend we were all chanting “Bruce”. Once Wilco ended we headed back to the Which Stage for The Mars Volta.

Cedric Bixler-Zavala greeted the crowd by proclaiming “It’s good to be at Burning Man”. They got maybe 4 measures into the first song before Cedric stopped everything making what he declared to be a joking jab at guitarist Omar Rodriguez for not knowing how to tune his guitar. After his rues not being that well received by the crowd, he explained that as a band they share everything and they had seen him drunk and naked puking on himself too many times and surely took no offense to his ribbing. This band is apparently not to be seen from way in the back, (which is where we were) because it was hard to see the somewhat Roger Daughtry esque stage antics such as swinging and throwing his microphone all around. Since there wasn’t much to see from where we were at we sat to enjoy the sunset and the hot air balloon that rose over the crowd. While enjoying the music and people watching we noticed that we were but a mere stone’s throw from star of MTV’s Jackass, Raab Himself. I inconspicuously snapped a few photos. I thought about asking him for an autograph but opted not seeing as he was just there to enjoy himself amid the rest of us rock and roll misfits and heathens. As for the wife and I we were by no means done rocking for the evening, but now was as good a time as any to head back to base camp for refueling.

We got back to our “house” and just tried to relax a little knowing that Springsteen was the next show that we were headed and after that the night was mapped out into the wee hours of the morning. Much like Gov’t Mule neither of us had much of a need to hurry back for the Boss, but we did want to try to catch the end. Needless to say we were not only glad that we made it back for the last few songs, once all was said and done we wished that seen more. It was every bit of 2.5+ hours into his set when we sat down and the energy that he was still pouring on the crowd was amazing. We laughed as he told the crowd “You can’t take not more Bonnaroo, You’re all Bonnaroo’d out!” and then continued to crank out hits. Then everyone joined in for a sing along to “Glory Days” to bring his set to a close. Not before he let us all know that we had just seen…”the heart stoppin’, pants droppin’, hard rockin’, booty shakin’, earth quakin’, love makin’, Viagra takin’, legendary E-Street Band!” We stood there for a minute while and let the awesomeness of what we had just sink in for a minute and then headed to NIN!

This is yet another set that was at the top of my favorites list. Planted way in the back again like at The Mars Volta, was not that bad as this showed could have probably been seen and heard from miles away! The song list was amazing, the lights were amazing, the band was amazing. There is really nothing bad that I can imagine any fan of NIN could say about this set. That is except for the fact that Trent announced to the crowd that that night would be the last American stop for the band. Notable tracks included, “March of the Pigs”, “Piggy”, “Terrible Lie”, “Reptile”, David Bowie’s “I am Afraid of Americans”, “Mr. Self Destruct”, “Head Like a Hole”. Trent made reference to how many cool bands were playing the Roo this year and then asked a band that he “thought could use the cool points” (Dilinger Escape Plan) up to help them out on “Wish”.

When it was time to head out from this set we were absolutely wiped out. We tried our best to make it over to catch some of MGMT, but by that point we knew it was in our best interest to just head to bed. We did make our way through the crowd and get to see Triumph the Insult Comic Dog interviewing an astronaut. We strolled to our campsite with the electric eclectic mix as a perfect soundtrack to pull another great night together!

Sunday we took our sweet time waking up and getting moving. Now that I have had time to see clips and check out some of the bands that we missed I am a little sad to have missed some of what we did. Cage the Elephant, Citizen Cope, and Coheed and Cambria, Neko Case. We were pretty wore out and just thankful that we had one more day of incredible things to be a part of. We entered Centeroo to Erykah Badu and roamed around in search of the Budweiser Troo Music Lounge. This is a place venue that focuses on smaller acts trying to leave their mark on the anyone looking for some shade and nice place to sit.

We were on a mission to snap a few shots of a band that we knew very little about for a friend of ours. We found our way good and early to see a cool interview by Spin magazine with the gorgeous Grace Potter who broke down the festival from her point of view and answered some questions from the enthusiastic on lookers. (One of which being will you marry me?) We were standing front and center for Dear and the Headlights as I said earlier to make sure that we could get some could pics, but were floored by the performance from the drop of the first energetic note. These guys are unreal live. Performing tracks from Small Steps Heavy Hooves and their latest release Drunk Like Bible Times, these guys brought it hard. I was blown away and put these second on my list of Bonnaroo 2009 favorites. Right behind the aforementioned Tift Merrit. These indie rockers have a power and ferocity on stage that I think will raise them to the head of their class with honors. I am really a some what loss for words to describe how entertaining this set was to watch. We were sad that we had to leave before we were finished but elated what we were off to next. Snoop.

Snoop was a little late coming on but made up for it with a ‘gangsta-riffic’ late afternoon set of fun and partying. Performing for nearly an hour and a half not one second was was less than a blast. Honestly I wondered how well Snoop would fit into the overall festival scene, but everyone seemed to enjoy the ‘best of set that Snoop and his band laid out for us on the farm. Wrapping up the show we settled into our spots and got ready for our weekend closer. Another set from attendee favorites Phish!

Knowing that Phish is quite used to performing multiple times in a weekend we knew that we were in for a treat. No where near ready for what we got to see. They started the set and powered through a few great tunes before introducing The Boss on stage for a rousing couple of songs. We all joined together in singing “Mustang Sally” and “Glory Days”. Quite a special treat to say the least. We ended our incredible weekend of mischief and mayhem in a shower of glow sticks and musical euphoria. Bringing to an end yet another successful Bonnaroo. Of the two years that we have had the incredible privilege of making this amazing trip, this was far and away the best!

Tags: Bands, Bonnaroo, Festival, Live, Music
Categories: Miscellaneous.

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