I never in my life thought I’d be here: Bonnaroo, the four-day music festival in Middle Tennessee.
The reasons why? Jam bands. Hippies. And did I mention jam bands? My rule of thumb: a song should start and end in four minutes or less. It takes jam bands that long to finish the first chord.
So Bonnaroo never appealed to me. Until this year. For whatever reasons, the producers scaled back the jam-band aspect, adding acts like The Police, Fountains of Wayne, Pete Yorn and Wilco. Sure, the jam bands are still here, and the hippies have followed them, but at least there are other options for music fans.

So we’ve survived the first day of Bonnaroo. Joined by pals Joseph Koury, John Campbell and Matt Lyles, I headed up Wednesday night and parked the rented RV outside the Manchester Wal-Mart. It was a city of hippies. Every available parking spot was taken over. Camp chairs ringed the cars. Some folks sorely in need of rhythm formed a god-awful drum circle. Armed security guards walked the lot, although most of the hippies seemed well-behaved.
The next morning, we awoke early and drove to the site. Despite all the horror stories we heard about traffic snarls, it only took about two hours. Heading up the night before? Best idea we’ve had. We got in, set up camp and immediately went to sleep.
After the nap, we went exploring, walking past acres of tents, campers and RVs. The focal point of the festival is called Centeroo, and it’s where all the stages, tents, booths and whatnot are found. They’re pretty strict about making you buy their beer, though, so they thoroughly inspect everything you bring in to confiscate any alcohol. And, I’m guessing, the numerous drugs being consumed this weekend.
The Thursday lineup was weak, so we went exploring instead. Walked past hippies. Dodged other hippies throwing Frisbees. Stood in line to see comedian David Cross, who was - no surprise here - funny. He took explicit shots at hippies and jingoistic national pride, neither of which won him any new fans.
Which brings up another interesting point: there are lots of, well, rednecks here. A bit unexpected, but I’m guessing it’s the addition of metallists Tool (and has a band ever been more appropriately named?) that brought them out. I don’t see them shaking and swaying to Widespread Panic.
Around midnight Thursday, we saw a bizarrely unique show: The Yard Dogs. Imagine a combination of vaudeville and burlesque, a circus and a carnival, all backed by a fantastic band with horns, two drummers, two guitarists and an accordion player. One member swallowed swords and did magic tricks. Another ate fire. The men and women all sang, danced and entertained. Difficult to describe, but utterly mesmerizing. Check them out if they play near you.
Then the 30-minute walk back to our RV. And air-conditioning.
Lovely.
More later.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2007 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Online. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.