Entertainment
BONNAROO: ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW
Tue, Jun 17, 2003 12:00 am
Story by Brian Jarvinen
If you went to Bonnaroo, you would do crazy things like run out of gas for the first time in your life, not because you’re a complete stoner, but because your gas gauge broke. Your plan to do this, that, and the other thing with her, him, and another gang of hippies you know would fly right out the window as soon as you finally get to a parking space, hopefully still under your own power. You would immediately make a bunch of new super best friends anyway amongst all your new temporary neighbors.
The first time you go up to the main stage, you would just slowly hone in on the loud, groovy music and pay little attention to where you started because it’s just a show after all—how can you get lost between a parking lot and a concert? Then you would wish you had put in some pre-tour training to prepare yourself for the Bonnaroo shuffle, a pretty much permanent near-stumble amongst 79,999 other kind souls, 50% of whom are trying to sell you every variety of hippie trinkets you can think of while the other 50% are probably more lost than you, wandering around saying things like "yeah man, I think it’s starting to kick in now," and "maybe let’s chill over there on the grass, dudes," or "I’m so losing these sandals." Eventually you would realize that you’re not in Kansas anymore and maybe you should check the map and the street-sign on the corner. Yes, Bonnaroo is so big that the parking lot has it’s own streets laid out, but strangely enough none of them are named Shakedown. If you could just clear your head a bit you can simply use the map to get home, thanks to the highly organized Bonnaroo staff that would’ve even impressed the late Bill Graham.
Once you do finally find your car again you will then realize that you just missed the one band you wanted to see, because after a 20-minute-plus walk back to the stage areas their set will be over anyway. But your personal musical highlight will probably be the new little band you are so psyched to see that you go up and wait an hour before their set with your best head stash and proceed to tune out the rest of your life for awhile. Your other musical highlight will probably be some band you’ve never heard of before and just stumbled across one night on the side stage. For your sake, I hope it was the Flaming Lips’ stunning display of music and visuals more truly psychedelic than anything most jam-bands could ever dream of playing, like titanic covers of Pink Floyd’s ‘Us & Them" and "Breathe," as well as Wayne Coyne’s own gorgeous compositions.
But most likely you would’ve gone to Bonnaroo out of your love for one of the big-time hippie bands, in this year’s case Widespread Panic and the Dead. The beautiful thing about Bonnaroo is the assemblage of all fans of hippie rock (though the String Cheese Incident and Phish tribes were a bit under-represented this year), with no time for arguing about which band is truly the shit and which one puts you to sleep. Both Widespread and the Dead featured relatively new band members. As my own taste runs more towards the red, blue, and lightning bolt, all I can tell you is that Joan Osborne brings a beautiful voice to a band (the Dead) that can use some help on the feminine side of the equation, all of which is forgotten once they rip into old-school jams like "Dark Star" > "St. Stephen" > "The Eleven."
You would also be superstoked to see dealers just standing on the corner hawking those wonderful goodies for your head like peanut vendors at a baseball game. The real deal is back on paper and when people start telling you to "try the tie-dyed ones, dude, they’re triple dipped!!!" you’d jump for joy with the first beginnings of a massive perma-grin.
If there is any down side to Bonnaroo, it will show up soon when Dead tour moves up the East Coast and some of the younger kids have to learn that other places have cops and heavy laws that frown on excessive fun being had right out in public. But, overall, Bonnaroo launched summer tour season with such a bang that probably more than a few folks will be calling home to say, "Uh, well, Mom I’m in Virginia now and, well, uh, I probably will be gone for awhile..."
If you went to Bonnaroo, you would do crazy things like run out of gas for the first time in your life, not because you’re a complete stoner, but because your gas gauge broke. Your plan to do this, that, and the other thing with her, him, and another gang of hippies you know would fly right out the window as soon as you finally get to a parking space, hopefully still under your own power. You would immediately make a bunch of new super best friends anyway amongst all your new temporary neighbors.The first time you go up to the main stage, you would just slowly hone in on the loud, groovy music and pay little attention to where you started because it’s just a show after all—how can you get lost between a parking lot and a concert? Then you would wish you had put in some pre-tour training to prepare yourself for the Bonnaroo shuffle, a pretty much permanent near-stumble amongst 79,999 other kind souls, 50% of whom are trying to sell you every variety of hippie trinkets you can think of while the other 50% are probably more lost than you, wandering around saying things like "yeah man, I think it’s starting to kick in now," and "maybe let’s chill over there on the grass, dudes," or "I’m so losing these sandals." Eventually you would realize that you’re not in Kansas anymore and maybe you should check the map and the street-sign on the corner. Yes, Bonnaroo is so big that the parking lot has it’s own streets laid out, but strangely enough none of them are named Shakedown. If you could just clear your head a bit you can simply use the map to get home, thanks to the highly organized Bonnaroo staff that would’ve even impressed the late Bill Graham.
Once you do finally find your car again you will then realize that you just missed the one band you wanted to see, because after a 20-minute-plus walk back to the stage areas their set will be over anyway. But your personal musical highlight will probably be the new little band you are so psyched to see that you go up and wait an hour before their set with your best head stash and proceed to tune out the rest of your life for awhile. Your other musical highlight will probably be some band you’ve never heard of before and just stumbled across one night on the side stage. For your sake, I hope it was the Flaming Lips’ stunning display of music and visuals more truly psychedelic than anything most jam-bands could ever dream of playing, like titanic covers of Pink Floyd’s ‘Us & Them" and "Breathe," as well as Wayne Coyne’s own gorgeous compositions.
But most likely you would’ve gone to Bonnaroo out of your love for one of the big-time hippie bands, in this year’s case Widespread Panic and the Dead. The beautiful thing about Bonnaroo is the assemblage of all fans of hippie rock (though the String Cheese Incident and Phish tribes were a bit under-represented this year), with no time for arguing about which band is truly the shit and which one puts you to sleep. Both Widespread and the Dead featured relatively new band members. As my own taste runs more towards the red, blue, and lightning bolt, all I can tell you is that Joan Osborne brings a beautiful voice to a band (the Dead) that can use some help on the feminine side of the equation, all of which is forgotten once they rip into old-school jams like "Dark Star" > "St. Stephen" > "The Eleven."
You would also be superstoked to see dealers just standing on the corner hawking those wonderful goodies for your head like peanut vendors at a baseball game. The real deal is back on paper and when people start telling you to "try the tie-dyed ones, dude, they’re triple dipped!!!" you’d jump for joy with the first beginnings of a massive perma-grin.
If there is any down side to Bonnaroo, it will show up soon when Dead tour moves up the East Coast and some of the younger kids have to learn that other places have cops and heavy laws that frown on excessive fun being had right out in public. But, overall, Bonnaroo launched summer tour season with such a bang that probably more than a few folks will be calling home to say, "Uh, well, Mom I’m in Virginia now and, well, uh, I probably will be gone for awhile..."