1:23 AM: Bonnaroo 2004

I'm back.

I've rested up.

Now, time to write about Bonnaroo.

Before I give my whole synopsis of Bonnaroo, let me tell you this:

Bonnaroo will be both the best and worst experience of your life up to this point. You get to see some of the greatest bands in the world, but you also get to sleep in a wet tent, seriously burn up in 90+ degree temperatures during the day, with no shade, and shiver throughout the wet, cold nights. As long as you come prepared (or more prepared then i was), you will do ok. If not, get ready for one of the worst experiences of your life.

Ok, enough logistics, let's discuss the only reason to go to Bonnaroo (besides the atmosphere, of course): The music.

In 3 days, I saw at least half of all of the following bands' sets:

Calexico
The Black Keys
Wilco
Bob Dylan
Dave Matthews and Friends
Kings of Leon
Grandaddy
Ween
Primus
Guster
David Byrne
Material
Trey Anastasio with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra (first set) and his band (second set)

Every band was great, just because they were playing right in front of me, but some were better than others...I might as well review all of the shows for you, I know some of you are interested to see what some of your favorite bands are like live.

Calexico


Calexico was an excellent choice to kick-start the festival. While most people were heading over to the second stage to see Los Lobos and all of the hippies were at the smallest tent to see New Monsoon, the smart bonnaroovians were rocking out to some authentic Tex-Mex rock straight outta Tucson. Calexico isn't a very well known band, and it was obvious that they were thrilled to be performing at a festival as big as Bonnaroo, in front of about a thousand people, no less. Calexico fed off the crowd's energy the entire time and employed some interesting techniques in their music, including two trumpet players, and an accordion/drum solo in a few songs. I was pleasantly surprised by this band, and they got me really pumped for the rest of the weekend. It was easy to get within ten feet of the band, and everyone was friendly and fresh, ready to enjoy the weekend. It was rare seeing everyone this happy over the course of the weekend, especially during/after the rain on Saturday, so, in retrospect, the Calexico show left me with one of the best after show recoveries (sometimes, after an amazing 2 hour set by a great band later in the weekend, your body will over-compensate for all the energy you use during the show, energy that you didn't even know you were using, and give you what I liked to call a post-show hangover). Calexico left me fresh, and ready for the bigger bands I would be seeing the rest of the day.

8 out of 10 Steak Quesadillas

The Black Keys


The Black Keys are some funky white kids. They're basically A two men band made up of mid-20's blues loving hipsters who would love nothing more to be transported back to the 30's as poor black harmonica players. I enjoyed The Black Keys well enough, but the anticipation for Wilco, who played right after TBC, on the main stage, made me leave halfway through the set to stake out a very close spot for Wilco (fifth row!). I enjoyed what I heard, but it wasn't enough to keep me too interested.

6 out of 10 Huey Lewis'

Wilco


This was easily the best show of the entire festival for me. Wilco walked onto the main stage four minutes early looking and acting like the head liners for the entire festival, and despite a less than enthusiastic reaction from the frat boy masses (dave matthews and friends were set to play later in the evening), Wilco rocked Bonnaroo harder then even I thought they could. They opened up with Late Greats, and in the middle of the song, Jeff Tweedy looked at my extremely over-enthusiastic ass singing to all the words, smiled, and nodded at me. It was one of the best moments of my entire life. From then on, I was completely hooked, and rocked out way too much for the rest of the show.

Right before 'A Shot in the Arm,' Tweedy asked the crowd, "Are you high?" and everyone screamed, then he yelled "Well, i'm not!" and everyone screamed louder, and he held up his arms. he's obviously really happy about being sober (he just recently got out of rehab after finally ridding himself of his addiction to prescription pain killers for the migranes he suffers on a regular basis).

Nels Cline, the new guitarist, is an excellent live addition. Spiders, the 10 minute long, criminally underrated song off of "A Ghost Is Born," has to be experienced live to be fully appreciated. At a festival dominated by incredible jams, the breakdown towards the end of Spiders was without a doubt the best jam I heard. They easily spread it out over 15 minutes, and at the end, Tweedy waved goodbye to Nels, and threw down his guitar and stumbled off. No encore. The place went fucking nuts, even the Dave Matthews fans (who were only there because they were staking out a spot for Dave and friends later that night) flipped out over it.

Wilco knew their audience at bonnaroo better than any other band I saw. Over 3/4 of the songs they played came from their breakthrough album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and their new, heavily leaked album, A Ghost Is Born. The new CD might be their best, so the new songs were a welcome addition to their live catalog.

I hope to see Wilco again soon, because they were definitely one of the best live bands I've seen in my entire life.

10 out of 10 crushed Vicodins


Bob Dylan


The man that played Bonnaroo 2004 may still be the same man as the person picture above, circa 1975, but that's where the similarities end nowadays. Bob Dylan is an old, frail man with a voice that's shot beyond belief. He's not capable of playing the guitar on a regular basis anymore, and uses a lyric sheet when singing most of his songs. During the entire Bob Dylan set, I was overcome with a feeling of deep sadness. This is the man that gave us 'Like A Rolling Stone,' 'Hurricane,' 'Tangled Up In Blue,' and 'Ballad of a Thin Man,' now barely able to remember how to play the songs that were so ahead of their time back in the 60's-70's.

Still, seeing Bob Dylan in person, from the fifth row, was a personal thrill. He could have sat on his ass while his band played and never opened his mouth, and I would have stayed for the entire set. The man is probably the greatest musician alive, and he DID play Like A Rolling Stone, so I feel that my 2 hours with Bob Dylan, in the end, were time well spent.

7 out of 10 swarming colonies of locusts

Dave Matthews and Friends


Dave Matthews and Friends were surprisingly awesome, though that had a lot to do with his two "friends," Trey Anastasio of Phish and Tim Reynolds. Everytime Dave would start one of his boring solo songs, all it took is one look at Trey spazzing out to every single note to perk me up and give me a serious fit of the giggles. I was unsure of whether to stay or go at first, but 5 songs and an excellent 'Solsbury Hill' cover later, I was hooked. I ended up staying an hour and a half, and thoroughly enjoyed myself throughout. Seeing three larger than life musicians like that from the fifth row fueled my enthusiasm for Bonnaroo even more. I went back to the camp (which took me 2 hours by the way, I hate trying to remember directions to anywhere) ready to tell anyone who would listen how great Dave and Friends' set ended up being, and ready to change a few peoples' perspective on dave.

8 out of 10 dancing nancies


Kings of Leon


If there was any justice in the world, Kings of Leon would be much bigger than Jet ever was. They are much better representatives for progressive southern rock (since, you know, the mainstream only has a tolerance for one southern rock band at a time), and put on one of the liveliest, grittiest live shows I've ever seen. They were playing at one in the afternoon, but it felt like they were playing at eight of nine at night, with the intensity that only a fresh, up and coming band like Kings of Leon, performing at their first big festival, could have. They played 4 or 5 brand new songs for the Bonnaroo crowd, all of which sounded better than anything off of their current (and only) album. Here's to Kings of Leon, the next big thing.

8 out of 10 Street Survivors

Grandaddy


Of all the bands at Bonnaroo I was blown away by, this was one of the most surprising. I came into the concert expecting a nice, mid-afternoon set to sit down and enjoy, but what I got was an epic, hour long set complete with numerous hilarious pot-shots at the band's extremely tardy sound technician, Nils, a Pavement cover (a sped up, hard rock version of 'Here'), a set consisting almost completely of fan favorites, and one of the best live recreations of a song I've ever heard in 'The Crystal Lake.'

I knew I was going to like Grandaddy when I walked into the tent, but I came out an ardent Grandaddy supporter. If you ever have a chance to buy a Grandaddy album, download a Grandaddy song, or attend a Grandaddy show, I would definitely recommend doing so.

10 out of 10 humanoids.

Ween
?

HOLY CRAP. Ween rocked harder than any band I saw at Bonnaroo. They were one of the few non-head liners I saw there with more than a few fans that were at Bonnaroo solely to see them and only them, and man, did they deliver. For 3 hours. Ween's songs don't really make much sense to me, but damn, if they don't sound incredible when performed in a live setting. Dean Ween plays like a genuine guitar god, and Gene Ween might be the best frontman I've ever seen in person. Every song they played was met with so much enthusiasm by the Ween freaks that everyone in the audience couldn't help but get caught up in the moment. If you never thought you could like Ween, give them a chance live, and you will be converted.

10 out of 10 boognishes


Primus


There is one reason and one reason only to care about Primus: Les Claypool. He's one of the most eccentric frontmen I've ever seen, and has an incredible, quirky stage presence that draws you in more and more until you're hooked. Personally, I liked hearing Les talk between songs and watching him strut around the stage during one of his many bass solos more than I liked hearing him sing the actual songs. Apparently, this is one of their last shows as a band, so I feel priveledged to have seen them in their Prime...us.

8.5 out of 10 seas of cheese


Guster


Guster was great, except for one little thing: their fans. The sing-a-long atmosphere combined with the 'exact same sequence of songs as our new live album' set-list nearly ruined an otherwise solid set. I enjoyed hearing all of their best songs, but midway through, I wanted something different. Guster is a really poppy band, and their sound can get grating after a while, especially with over a thousand people singing along to every word. They did play a Talking Heads song, and the lead singer has one of the dirtiest mouths I've ever heard, so they earn a few cool points in my book. The highlight of the show was definitely the lead singer talking shit about Maroon 5, the next band scheduled to play in their tent, who didn't show up for Bonnaroo. "Well, Maroon 5 couldn't make it, so we're the last band playing in this tent today. It doesn't matter, their album isn't very good anyways. WE'LL play 'This Love' for you, if that's what you're waiting for." *guster proceeds to play half of 'this love,' until they can no longer hold in their laughter* Classic.

6 out of 10 gun barrels

David Byrne


Where did David Byrne come from? I left Guster for David Byrne, the former lead singer of The Talking Heads himself, expecting a mediocre set filled with solo material and opera. What I got was one of the best and most energetic performances at Bonnaroo, filled with Talking Heads classics, solo highlights, and no more than 2 (very good) opera songs. David Byrne busted out every song you wanted to hear him sing, including 'Once In A Lifetime,' 'Burning Down The House,' 'Blind,' 'Psycho Killer,' and 'Like Humans Do.' Byrne has also aged VERY well, and still is just as lively and brilliant as he was in his talking heads hey day (which was actually less than 20 years ago). I was in awe of him throughout his set, and now consider him to be a living rock legend, right up there with dylan, costello, and mccartney.

And he's a funky dancer to boot!

Amazing.

10 out of 10 roads to nowhere


Material


Material was one of the most amazing bands I have ever seen live. Over the course of two hours, the band of more than 10 musicians, including bass guitar legend Bill Laswell, guitar playing, chicken bucket/Michael Myers mask wearing Buckethead, and ex-Primus drummer Brain, crossed the musical spectrum, playing some instrumental metal, soul, a bass guitar solo, a 20 minute drum(s) solo, an african chant, a 20 minute dj set with everything from 'america the beautiful' by ray charles to 'smells like teen spirit' by nirvana, an old negro spiritual, a funk jam, and even a 15 minute keyboard/synthesizer intro. If you want to know what this band was really like, I'll have to try to tell you in person, because there's no way I can describe them in text. Just trust me, they're an amazing, extremely eclectic, arty band.

10 out of 10 chicken buckets

Trey and the orchestra/his band


Trey just sucked. You shouldn't conduct a 30 piece orchestra for 2 hours in front of 80,000 people that are expecting spazzed out jams and a Phish reunion. I didn't even stick around for the second set, which I heard was ok, but by that point nothing could have saved Trey's performance for me.

3 out of 10 megalomaniacs

So, there it is: Bonnaroo 2004 in a nutshell. There are many crazy stories to tell, but that's for another time and place, preferably in real life over a delicious meal that you cook/buy for me. So, make me food, and hear my stories. That's all for now, thankyou for reading all of this, it took a long time to write, and I hope it was worth the effort.

Thankyou again for reading and remaining loyal to my blog.

-Matt