Reader Nick's take on Bonnaroo
The Roo
The Roo was as it usually is, packed full of people darting toward you in every direction all of the time. It is like a live action "Asteroids" game, and everyone else are the asteroids. This year, IMHO, had better talent than last year. Instead of there being maybe two or three bands I wanted to hear, there were like 7 or more. Only being a Bonnaroo sophomore, I don't know what the fashions are from year to year, but this year I noticed a ton of people with folded wicker cowboy hats and chicks in gollashes that seemed to create a utilitarian farmer look.
Food
The food at the Roo looks good. Man, they have alligator, vegan pizza, and all types of off the wall food that actually sounds pretty different and delicious. In the limited experience I have had there, the food is bland trash. It sounds good, but you are usually served like you are at a soup kitchen with food that has been just hanging around in the heat for too long. I need to open a spice shop there so people can season their food! I ended up sticking with the "Spicy Pie" pizza. It is alright grub, and good when it’s late and you get hungry.
On to the bands
M.I.A.
I don’t care about hype. I don’t care about the newest flash in the pan. Just because some movie director likes one of her awful songs, it doesn't make her good. This chick is now rated #1 on my most hated list. Here is some chick, with a computer DJ, dressed like Salt and Peppa in the 80s. She blows these plastic horns the entire time, which sounded like she was summoning Olifants in Lord of The Rings. It was just super loud BOOM BOOM BOOM beats with little else, a cacophony of mismatched noise with a random vocal here and there. Ok, I can handle that. Here is the problem. This chick sucks. She just simply sucks. She can't sing. She can't play an instrument. She could only say, "MIA... MIA... MIA IN MEXICO" over and over and over... I have seen plenty of bands suck if they played too drunk or too high, but this chick could only remember her name! About half way through, she decided to get as many people as she could on stage with her. I imagine she did this for two reasons. 1) To hide her shame for even attempting music and 2) to provide some of the crowd with at least some little crumb to remember her by. If this is what the guitar hero generation has to offer, I am bailing out now. Avoid this chick at all costs!
Nick’s Grade: F-
Chris Rock
I was a little weary of old C.R. I thought maybe the dude had lost some of his chops since I haven't heard from him in a while. Nope. I was wrong. He completely came out there and tore it up with an hour of new material. Every joke was funny. No filler. It was almost worth the whole trip just for him. Jokes about every presidential candidate and slightly more bitter female jokes had me laughing the entire time.
Nick’s Grade: A+
Metallica
Let me say that I am a Metallica fan. This is one of the first bands to really get me into music. They are essentially my heroes. Let’s start with the good. They sounded great. I have been to thousands of shows and tons of arena rock shows. I have to say sound wise, this was the best sound I have ever heard on a stage that big. On the other hand, James Hetfield, my childhood idol, was terrible. He was cheesy, he can't sing and he has ruined all of the good old Metallica songs by trying to "sing" them. That, and they just continued to bug the crowd about how they have never heard of them or they have never heard what album some song was from. It was annoying. They also tried to do that stupid arena rock cheese-ball crap, trying to get the crowd to yell, "Hey Hey Hey Hey!" throughout just about EVERY song. That was just the beginning too, they attempted to get the crowd to sing parts of the songs, which just sounded like huge blank parts in classic metal songs that weren’t being sung well to begin with. I will probably never again see them play because they are so lame now. Even their old songs were just crap. Sometimes, when you start to get old, it might just be time to hang it up and do something else.
Nick’s Grade: D-
Against Me!
Ok, I like these guys. We got in a little late, only catching about half their set. They seemed really pumped to play and the crowd was digging them. I am no veteran with these guys, but for some reason, every song that doesn't have an Irish flare to it, sounds like Faster Pussycat to me. I like Faster Pussycat too, but I never expected Against Me! to sound like them. It was weird, you could almost sing silly old Faster Pussycat songs to their songs. The melodic similarities were striking. I don’t dislike them for this, actually, I like them more because of it.
Nick’s Grade: B+
Mastodon
I dig Mastodon. I didn't like their last album that much because it seemed kind of extra stoner and soft to me, but I like the guys and I like their music. I also like that they don't care about anything. They don't care how they look, or what people think of them. They just care about what they are playing. The hippies at the Roo hated them. It was the smallest crowd by far in one of those huge tents. They played well, and played 3 new songs (only one of which I liked), but they were still in your face and played some good stuff. I was told that they would be playing some older songs off of Remission, but I think they only played one.
Nick’s Grade: A-
Iron and Wine
Ok, I had never heard these guys before. I gave them a listen expecting them to be some 'bug on a dick' hippy crap. I was wrong. While their crowd was mainly made up of Jesus Shoe wearing goofs, this guy was pretty rad! He looked like Crazy E, he sounded like Crazy E, but his slow stuff was really heartfelt! I was shocked. I will have to delve more into these guys. The few slow songs we saw reminded me of Low in a way.
Nick’s Grade: A
Zappa Plays Zappa
I didn’t actually watch these dudes play, but we sat and had dinner basically within earshot of the stage. I was never a Zappa fan, so I might be a bit biased. I never got into music that was a complete joke, or music that relied on “shocking” the crowd by having the word ‘Asshole’ in it. That is reserved for people in 1970 when that was a rarity. What did it sound like? It sounded like a really stupid cartoon with completely dumb lyrics. I will give them this, they can play their instruments… but can’t everyone that sits down with their instruments and practices?
Nick’s Grade: F
Cat Power
I have seen Cat Power a bunch. I own every album she has made, but every time, she/they are boring live. I really love her too, but it isn't something that ever goes over well in person for me. She had a full band and the Olsen Twins were watching her with Eddie Vedder back stage, but that just isn't my thing. The band was quality, but the song selection was kind of an upbeat blues style, not hitting on many of her older and more personal songs. It was so left field for me, it took me two songs to be sure that I was indeed watching Cat Power. I miss the stage frightened girl that had her face covered with her hair and belted out songs out of sadness and frustration, rather than for indy-goddess status.
Nick’s Grade: D+
Pear Jam
We had a long break between Cat Power and Pearl Jam so we hung out in a field and chill for a bit. When Pearl Jam came on at like 10:15, I was expecting a pretty boring set of some old grunge guys that I used to like a lot to just stand up there and begrudgingly grind through their songs. Wrong again. They were awesome. It was by far the best "big show" I have ever seen! These dudes put passion on a stage where there has not been passion before. They played with heart and conviction that seemed to overtake the crowd of I would say 50 or 60 thousand people. It made Metallica look even worse the night before! Huge props!
Nick’s Grade: A+
Sigur Ros
I saw Sigur Ros about 2 years ago at the Ryman Auditorium where they earned a place in my top 10 shows EVER amongst the thousands that I have seen. I mean top of the top! They did it again, this time bringing a live string section and live horn section out almost the whole time. The only thing keeping this particular show out of my top ten was the environment. If you are in the crowd at Bonnaroo, you will undoubtedly be surrounded by douchebags. People bumping in front of you with light up glasses, cowboy hats and Canadian flags draped around them like superman capes. While the band was just as good as before, the environment could never take the place of the intimate Ryman Auditorium.
Nick’s Grade: A++ (Extra credit for doing something special with the extra live horns and strings)
There was much more of course, the naked guy with an elephant painted on his junk, topless girls with nothing but paint on, the funny shoes, people smoking weed like it was bubble gum, people sleeping in the bright sun because they took too many drugs, the super fun burlesque parade and trapeze act, the sewer-esque stench of the grounds, all in all it was a great time. I just hope they can get equally as good talent next year, if not more.
The Roo was as it usually is, packed full of people darting toward you in every direction all of the time. It is like a live action "Asteroids" game, and everyone else are the asteroids. This year, IMHO, had better talent than last year. Instead of there being maybe two or three bands I wanted to hear, there were like 7 or more. Only being a Bonnaroo sophomore, I don't know what the fashions are from year to year, but this year I noticed a ton of people with folded wicker cowboy hats and chicks in gollashes that seemed to create a utilitarian farmer look.
Food
The food at the Roo looks good. Man, they have alligator, vegan pizza, and all types of off the wall food that actually sounds pretty different and delicious. In the limited experience I have had there, the food is bland trash. It sounds good, but you are usually served like you are at a soup kitchen with food that has been just hanging around in the heat for too long. I need to open a spice shop there so people can season their food! I ended up sticking with the "Spicy Pie" pizza. It is alright grub, and good when it’s late and you get hungry.
On to the bands
M.I.A.
I don’t care about hype. I don’t care about the newest flash in the pan. Just because some movie director likes one of her awful songs, it doesn't make her good. This chick is now rated #1 on my most hated list. Here is some chick, with a computer DJ, dressed like Salt and Peppa in the 80s. She blows these plastic horns the entire time, which sounded like she was summoning Olifants in Lord of The Rings. It was just super loud BOOM BOOM BOOM beats with little else, a cacophony of mismatched noise with a random vocal here and there. Ok, I can handle that. Here is the problem. This chick sucks. She just simply sucks. She can't sing. She can't play an instrument. She could only say, "MIA... MIA... MIA IN MEXICO" over and over and over... I have seen plenty of bands suck if they played too drunk or too high, but this chick could only remember her name! About half way through, she decided to get as many people as she could on stage with her. I imagine she did this for two reasons. 1) To hide her shame for even attempting music and 2) to provide some of the crowd with at least some little crumb to remember her by. If this is what the guitar hero generation has to offer, I am bailing out now. Avoid this chick at all costs!
Nick’s Grade: F-
Chris Rock
I was a little weary of old C.R. I thought maybe the dude had lost some of his chops since I haven't heard from him in a while. Nope. I was wrong. He completely came out there and tore it up with an hour of new material. Every joke was funny. No filler. It was almost worth the whole trip just for him. Jokes about every presidential candidate and slightly more bitter female jokes had me laughing the entire time.
Nick’s Grade: A+
Metallica
Let me say that I am a Metallica fan. This is one of the first bands to really get me into music. They are essentially my heroes. Let’s start with the good. They sounded great. I have been to thousands of shows and tons of arena rock shows. I have to say sound wise, this was the best sound I have ever heard on a stage that big. On the other hand, James Hetfield, my childhood idol, was terrible. He was cheesy, he can't sing and he has ruined all of the good old Metallica songs by trying to "sing" them. That, and they just continued to bug the crowd about how they have never heard of them or they have never heard what album some song was from. It was annoying. They also tried to do that stupid arena rock cheese-ball crap, trying to get the crowd to yell, "Hey Hey Hey Hey!" throughout just about EVERY song. That was just the beginning too, they attempted to get the crowd to sing parts of the songs, which just sounded like huge blank parts in classic metal songs that weren’t being sung well to begin with. I will probably never again see them play because they are so lame now. Even their old songs were just crap. Sometimes, when you start to get old, it might just be time to hang it up and do something else.
Nick’s Grade: D-
Against Me!
Ok, I like these guys. We got in a little late, only catching about half their set. They seemed really pumped to play and the crowd was digging them. I am no veteran with these guys, but for some reason, every song that doesn't have an Irish flare to it, sounds like Faster Pussycat to me. I like Faster Pussycat too, but I never expected Against Me! to sound like them. It was weird, you could almost sing silly old Faster Pussycat songs to their songs. The melodic similarities were striking. I don’t dislike them for this, actually, I like them more because of it.
Nick’s Grade: B+
Mastodon
I dig Mastodon. I didn't like their last album that much because it seemed kind of extra stoner and soft to me, but I like the guys and I like their music. I also like that they don't care about anything. They don't care how they look, or what people think of them. They just care about what they are playing. The hippies at the Roo hated them. It was the smallest crowd by far in one of those huge tents. They played well, and played 3 new songs (only one of which I liked), but they were still in your face and played some good stuff. I was told that they would be playing some older songs off of Remission, but I think they only played one.
Nick’s Grade: A-
Iron and Wine
Ok, I had never heard these guys before. I gave them a listen expecting them to be some 'bug on a dick' hippy crap. I was wrong. While their crowd was mainly made up of Jesus Shoe wearing goofs, this guy was pretty rad! He looked like Crazy E, he sounded like Crazy E, but his slow stuff was really heartfelt! I was shocked. I will have to delve more into these guys. The few slow songs we saw reminded me of Low in a way.
Nick’s Grade: A
Zappa Plays Zappa
I didn’t actually watch these dudes play, but we sat and had dinner basically within earshot of the stage. I was never a Zappa fan, so I might be a bit biased. I never got into music that was a complete joke, or music that relied on “shocking” the crowd by having the word ‘Asshole’ in it. That is reserved for people in 1970 when that was a rarity. What did it sound like? It sounded like a really stupid cartoon with completely dumb lyrics. I will give them this, they can play their instruments… but can’t everyone that sits down with their instruments and practices?
Nick’s Grade: F
Cat Power
I have seen Cat Power a bunch. I own every album she has made, but every time, she/they are boring live. I really love her too, but it isn't something that ever goes over well in person for me. She had a full band and the Olsen Twins were watching her with Eddie Vedder back stage, but that just isn't my thing. The band was quality, but the song selection was kind of an upbeat blues style, not hitting on many of her older and more personal songs. It was so left field for me, it took me two songs to be sure that I was indeed watching Cat Power. I miss the stage frightened girl that had her face covered with her hair and belted out songs out of sadness and frustration, rather than for indy-goddess status.
Nick’s Grade: D+
Pear Jam
We had a long break between Cat Power and Pearl Jam so we hung out in a field and chill for a bit. When Pearl Jam came on at like 10:15, I was expecting a pretty boring set of some old grunge guys that I used to like a lot to just stand up there and begrudgingly grind through their songs. Wrong again. They were awesome. It was by far the best "big show" I have ever seen! These dudes put passion on a stage where there has not been passion before. They played with heart and conviction that seemed to overtake the crowd of I would say 50 or 60 thousand people. It made Metallica look even worse the night before! Huge props!
Nick’s Grade: A+
Sigur Ros
I saw Sigur Ros about 2 years ago at the Ryman Auditorium where they earned a place in my top 10 shows EVER amongst the thousands that I have seen. I mean top of the top! They did it again, this time bringing a live string section and live horn section out almost the whole time. The only thing keeping this particular show out of my top ten was the environment. If you are in the crowd at Bonnaroo, you will undoubtedly be surrounded by douchebags. People bumping in front of you with light up glasses, cowboy hats and Canadian flags draped around them like superman capes. While the band was just as good as before, the environment could never take the place of the intimate Ryman Auditorium.
Nick’s Grade: A++ (Extra credit for doing something special with the extra live horns and strings)
There was much more of course, the naked guy with an elephant painted on his junk, topless girls with nothing but paint on, the funny shoes, people smoking weed like it was bubble gum, people sleeping in the bright sun because they took too many drugs, the super fun burlesque parade and trapeze act, the sewer-esque stench of the grounds, all in all it was a great time. I just hope they can get equally as good talent next year, if not more.
posted by Brad at 7:55 AM
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