Bonnaroo Recap

Of all of the moments that you had for Bonnarooo 2018, you gotta think that the one on the top of the list,

and the one that probably carried from show to show to show, is the Tom Petty Super Jam,

and the memory of Tom Petty was covering the entire festival of 2018.

Yeah, it was a nice lick. Good idea on their part to come up with it.

And you know what I thought about is maybe they don't book Sheryl Crow for anything other than the Super Jam.

Because her coming out to American, that was it. I mean that was the highlight of the entire Super Jam.

And maybe the Sheryl Crow show is not something that you wanted,

but they probably don't get Sheryl Crow at the Super Jam if they don't book her at the What.

I'd say that's a fact.

Yeah, American girl.

She was definitely the highlight of that. It was fun.

And then Boney Vare and Sylvan Esso come out to the Super Jam, one of the great Super Jams in Bonnarooo history.

Welcome to our 2018 recap. It's the What Podcast.

That's Barry Courter from the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

I'm Brad Steiner. Hits 96 WDOD in Chattanooga.

Yeah, you know we were just before we went on, we were trying to figure out what song to start with

and talking about what was the highlight.

And to me there wasn't one like skyrocketing to the moon.

There was just a lot of really good moments.

How was the reentry for you?

Tough.

Oh man.

Never have I ever felt 36 before in my life until Monday morning.

You know, looking back I'm really kind of proud, I guess, if that's the right word.

I mean, I stayed till Monday.

We were there, you and I, from Wednesday at 2 o'clock until Monday morning, 10 or 11.

Man, I drove home, came in hot, started unpacking, and sat down and wasn't quite right until about Friday morning.

It was rough.

This was the roughest reentry into real life that I've ever had.

I'm only 36.

I got out of the car when I got back to Chattanooga and my back felt like it was breaking in half.

I didn't have any of that. I just didn't know where I was most of the time.

I had that same feeling from Wednesday to Monday, honestly.

I wasn't that. We worked, it was one of the best Bonnaroooz I've ever attended personally.

Really?

Yeah, I've told people, I can't think of a time when I wished I was somewhere else.

Like I wished I was at home in my own bed or my own bathroom.

Man, I've had those moments in years past, but you're exactly right.

I never had one.

This year was so comfortable and even in the heat of Friday.

It felt like Friday was much hotter than Saturday.

I don't know if it was just me, but Friday was difficult.

But at no point did I say to myself, this is not working for me.

No, no. The Super Jam started at 1.30 or 1.15 in the morning.

We went round and round. It just felt like every time I turned a corner or came to a stage or did whatever.

You were having a moment.

Having a moment. Somebody to meet, somebody to see. Amazing.

Friday to me was by far the best day.

We can get into that a little bit more when we start talking about music.

That one started at what, 12.30 or with Davey and ended with Sheik for me, Nile Rodgers.

And it just was a perfect afternoon.

So we don't have really a format for this.

I literally walked in this morning and I said, I don't know what to do.

I don't even know how to start. But where to start?

How about this? Let's go your top three shows that you saw the entire weekend.

We started Saturday with Davey and just seeing how happy they were and watching them smile and watch the crowd get bigger.

And their smiles get bigger. And went right from there to The War and Treaty, which was completely unexpected, completely emotional.

One of my favorite Bonnarooo moments I've ever had in my life was that War and Treaty show.

Brad, I never thought I would cry. It was just the first of three shows where actual tears came to my eyes.

You lapped me this year. I'm usually the crier.

Oh, I mean, and I, you know, it was almost tears of joy watching Davey.

And then we go and watch War and Treaty with Michael and Tanya Trotter and watching Michael talk about his PTSD and his Iraqi war experience.

And his friend committed suicide after being raped.

And then just watching those two hugging each other and loving on each other.

All they do is emit love.

And a crowd yelling back and forth, we love you. And then them crying.

And that was a pretty doggone special show. And then you and I got to talk to them.

We'll have that as a next podcast just because they were so great.

And then to see the legend Mavis Staples and to watch her lip quiver singing about, you know, Freedom Highway, which is a song she's been doing since her pops wrote it in 1962.

Wow.

Yeah, it was just like feeling the history and thinking about, you know, where we've come and where we still need to go and all of that.

That was powerful. And then we we went right over to see Sheik with Nile Rodgers.

And he said, I'd like to do some of the number one hit songs that I've written, you know, for people or produced for people.

And that started at six forty five and ended at seven forty five was hit after hit after hit.

Unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah. Madonna, Bowie, Durand, Durand, oh, Daft Punk.

OK. And then he then he started talking about eight years ago, he was diagnosed with cancer, aggressive cancer and was told basically get your affairs in order.

And then he he had everybody hold up their cell phones with their camera, their flashlights.

So, you know, instead of lighters.

So your top shows all happened in a in order almost on Saturday.

It was one cry after another. It was amazing.

And just smiling ear to ear. And while we were sitting watching Nile, the backup singer for Mavis came around the corner and we all stood up and high fived and handshake.

That's what I mean. It was that kind of weekend.

It was just totally unexpected. And she was cool and great.

And it just it just amazing. So that that's my top memory.

Yeah. My top show, Ron Gallo was every bit as good. Sturgill Simpson just.

Yeah. And I didn't even see all of it. Right. But man, that guy came with something to prove.

That's a great way of putting it. That's exactly what he did.

And he did it. So so I'm going to I'm going to rank it three to one.

If I find my top three shows, number three, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, what Paul did, I and I wasn't going to say this before,

I've seen that show so many times that I almost decided not to see it.

I almost went to see Dua Lipa instead because I've seen St. Paul so many times.

But after the podcast, after everything that he gave us, I said, I have to do it for Paul.

I am so glad that I went to see this show because what he did was it was such a Paul thing to do, but such an un-Paul thing to do, if that makes sense.

They took a giant carpet, put it on top of the crowd, and he rode the carpet all the way on his back doing one of the hardest songs that he has to sing in his set all the way to the soundboard,

walked to the soundboard, stood on top of the soundboard, sung Broken Bones and Pocket Change, and then got on the carpet and rode it all the way back.

And at some point during that show, he started to freak out.

Like during that ride, he's like, give it down, give it down now, give it down now.

It was fantastic. And luckily after the show, I ran backstage just to say thank you and hello.

He was on cloud nine. I mean, he was bouncing all over the place. He was he was hugging babies.

It's like a politician at work back there. It was not somebody who had just sweat it the way that he did on a carpet.

That was phenomenal. And the only reason I say that's one of my favorite shows is because of that moment.

I will say the rest of the set I struggled with because the sound for some reason the sound this year in a lot of places was very spotty.

I thought there was some sound issues from 10 to 10. I even had some sound issues on The Witch, which I thought that they had fixed that a few years ago.

There were some spotty sound problems and I've never had a sound problem in a tent ever, ever, ever.

Yeah, we actually for that one were right up front to the left when it started.

And because we couldn't hear at all, couldn't hear vocals, they had the not that they have to do the VIP, but they didn't.

So we went around to the back and then actually because I guess we'd seen the show before, watched half hour of it and then left.

So we missed you missed the big moment, missed the carpet ride, went over to the EDM tent and area and saw a little bit.

Twenty minutes. It was interesting. And then kind of moved around. So I didn't do a lot of that.

Normally, you know, we've talked about in all these podcasts that the walk by didn't do a lot of walk by saw more full shows this year than ever before.

That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So that's my number three.

Number two is war and treaty. I don't like to do this FOMO thing, but if you miss this war and treaty show, I swear to you, you miss one of the great moments in Bonnaroo history.

I love when when people and we've talked about it before, stand on the stage of Bonnaroo and just let it take them over and feel the weight of what they are doing.

I keep going back into my mind in that moment of when they just stopped and when they just let the crowd go crazy and love them as much as they were loving the crowd and just stood there and stared out amongst.

It felt like it lasted an eternity. Yeah. And I couldn't have loved that more.

And the way that he can control telling his story about being an Iraq war veteran, like you said, and talking about the PTSD issue that he has.

And then the story about his the way that he controlled that crowd in total silence.

Boy, that's when you know, you got somebody on the hook and that story is so powerful.

That show is so powerful. And I'm telling you right now, you'll hear this in the interview that we put on later on with the war and treaty.

Every single damn bit of it is real. Yeah. None of it's fake.

They're not they're not faking it up there. They absolutely put all their love and effort and energy into loving you and changing your life.

They want to change your life. That's that's a great way to I didn't think about it till just now, but it almost felt like it quit being a show.

It quit being a musical performance during some of that when he you're right.

He just absolutely stopped talking. We've heard so much before about the audience giving in the act, giving back and forth.

But man, you could see it and you could feel it. I was this pulse that just took over that tent.

And we talk about it in the in the interview, the podcast.

I've never seen a husband and wife stand at a piano like they did together. Right.

Well, honestly, when you first walk up to it's a little Saturday night live. Yeah.

It's sort of like that's going to start live or like the husband's playing piano. Mike.

It's a little like that. It is.

But then they can't stop hugging on each other and touching each other and just looking into each other's eyes.

And it was just unbelievably powerful.

And it is not something I expected at three o'clock on a Saturday. No, nor nor.

And the best part of it is none of it is fake. None of it is is just put on for you as as a as a show.

It's not a show. It is so real.

Well, let's put it this way. When we I had to chase them down, we had set up an interview for five o'clock, say whatever.

And I saw them walk out of a tent. And so I had to kind of chase them down.

So it's me and you and what four of our campmates were with us.

Turn around. Immediate hugs. Oh, my God. For you and me.

And then they hug the other four people as well.

It's like it's like they had just invited us over to their house and like everybody was family.

Everybody's family. Thanksgiving dinner. Amazing.

And so then my number one show, it's the one that I keep coming back to.

It's the one that has cut through all the noise of the weekend that I keep thinking about that I knew was going to be good.

I did not expect it to be as good as it was.

Sturgill Simpson is everything that I thought it would be times a million.

I forgot how good of a guitar player he is. The attitude that he plays with, dude, that band is unbelievably tight.

Yeah. Let's contrast it a little bit because I sat through the entire Muse set. Don't know anything about Muse.

Didn't know anything about them. Was with three, I think, of our campmates.

And we all sat there have been dissecting it ever since.

It was electronically, orally, visually amazing.

I mean, the light show, the sound was it is the best is the second best sound I've ever heard in a concert.

Brian Wilson at the Tivoli here was the first. You could hear everything.

But the best we can think of was that was the show, the technology.

I couldn't hum you a song still. I couldn't tell you what it was about other than stand up and fight.

I think every song was an anthem. Everything's an anthem. Standing up and fighting.

We will not be defeated. We will not be defeated.

So I say that only it was really well done.

But then you contrast that and I'll let you describe it more because you saw the all of it.

But the Sturgill Simpson was the complete opposite. Right. I mean, three guys.

Right. Here's what I loved about the Sturgill Simpson show. And Muse is a great way of putting it.

You can have all the lights you want. You can have all of the pyrotechnics you want.

What Sturgill Simpson did is he had four guys on stage, including himself.

The lights were white. They were pointed in one direction.

There was no there was no pretentiousness about it.

It was a dude and a guitar and the best damn band I have ever heard at Bonnarooo.

He just said, screw you. Watch this.

I honestly know this might irk some people, but it's everything Jack White wants to be.

Everything that Jack White really, really wants to be. Sturgill's already there.

Sturgill is he can't miss a note. He cannot screw up a note.

That's how good of a guitar player he is.

And he just pulverized you with insane guitar solo after insane guitar solo.

And when we talked originally in the very second episode of this podcast about Sturgill Simpson,

I was really wary that, you know, without the horns, it wasn't going to be the show that I wanted

because I love those horns. I love when he starts doing those big brass songs.

Screw it. I don't need it anymore. I don't ever want it again.

I want that four guy, those four guys. And that's all I ever want.

I just I couldn't believe how much I loved that show. Yeah, it was great.

And I know you didn't see it. The the the Sheik was similar in that it sounds like because it was a

he turned that whole what stage crowd into a disco party. Yeah.

I mean, and it was not because of lights and all that. It was the band.

There was the stage setting was very simple.

He had the female, the singers that he had with him.

Oh, man. He at one point, he said he introduced her and I wish I could remember her name, but he said,

show him what you can do. And she did. I didn't know that.

Oh, my goodness. The other things that like some of the highlights for us, some of our picks,

let's go to some of our picks and if they delivered and gave you what you wanted, Anderson Pock show.

Now, me and one of our new campmates, our newly minted campmate, Brad Girl,

she had seen the show too before. And the Anderson Pock show was was always good.

I always liked it. It wasn't that that new show that he has is monster.

It's so big. It's gotten so large. It's gotten so the crowd was enormous.

I couldn't believe how many people actually knew and loved Anderson Pock.

I thought I was still in the minority. I thought I had a little crowd.

No, no, no, no. That show was massive. That's one of those I missed.

That was Saturday. Right. That was Saturday.

You had already had the other guys who had seen all four.

We saw them all together. It's like nothing against Anderson Pock,

nothing against anything that was coming. But after the Sheik, we were like, it can't get any better.

Really? We're done. We need to go decompress.

I honestly I'm not sure I could have cried anymore. Maybe that's what it was.

I guess what I saw when I watched Anderson Pock is that I'm eventually watching a Saturday Night Headliner.

I think that's where his show is going. If he if this new album of his is as big as is what the industry thinks it's going to be,

he's going to be one of your Saturday Headliners in a year or two.

Well, that was the other thing. We all know everyone who's listening, I assume, is a Bonnarooo veteran.

So you guys know about the crowd. You know about the day and the ebb and flow of the day.

So I did the same thing with The Killers on Sunday, ended up back behind the stage listening to it.

So I didn't see it and it was OK. I just didn't feel like fighting. Right. Fighting that crowd.

And you didn't want to do that with Anderson Pock either, huh?

No, not especially having already had such a great day. Yeah.

There's nothing against them. So, yeah, going through, I can't I was not impressed with the Japanese breakfast show.

Well, I want to get to disappointments here in a second. OK.

Oh, yeah, because I have a I have a long list. OK.

So then the Bony Vare. Did you spend any time Bony Vare?

No. OK. So the first set was everything I ever wanted. It's exactly what I wanted. I love 22 a million.

I've said it over and over and over. That set had me slam dancing. And that ain't the set to be slam dancing.

I was I was so I was a giddy child at that first set.

Then, you know, we took we took a break and me and the pals.

Something must have happened in that hour and a half or two hours. We took Eminem. We went to Eminem for a little bit.

I did not go back into the second Bony Vare set with the right mindset.

And I missed so much of what the moments were, so many of the moments that happened.

And I listened to it on. Thank goodness for Sirius XM.

They played the Bony Vare second set on my way back to Chattanooga.

So I got to relive it. But every I'm just going to say, look, I wasn't sleepy and I didn't find it to be boring.

But I just wasn't in the right mindset. And I will admit, I fell asleep standing up three times.

To the point where my buddy, Nick, kept looking over at me.

And I knew I could be able to see this. But, Barry, this is how I was standing. Yeah.

It was ridiculous. Trying to catch rain type of. Yeah.

Like I was thirsty. Right. And so.

But what I saw when I remember of it and what I'm being told is that it was a very, very powerful hour.

And it was almost like a second super jam. Just friend after friend after friend kept coming out.

And the Moses Sumny thing, I will say the Moses Sumny doing shot A was phenomenal.

Yeah. It was phenomenal. Thank God for Moses Sumny.

We're both kind of saying the same thing is that's sort of where I felt like I was going to be.

Had I gone to Anderson Pack or Bony Vare, I was so just not there mentally.

And I didn't want to stand in a crowd with my mouth open. I got you. Sleep staring at the sky.

So another big highlight for me, I thought maybe one of my favorite shows of the weekend.

It's hard to get my top three. I chose my top three because of the moments.

I thought those three moments are my favorite. But, boy, that jungle show was so damn good.

Yeah, they just are. They just get better and better and better.

That new set is as tight as it was that I ever remember it. I was good. God, I loved it.

Well, talk about a dance party. It was good. Dua Lipa was a superstar.

I thought she from last year where I thought that she struggled to figure out what she was doing on stage.

And she was almost acting like a star on stage and acting like what she should be doing this year.

She is. Yeah, she is a superstar. And that new stage show is as big as it can be.

I mean, she is going to be a monster. She's going to be a Lady Gaga level star one day if she's not already.

Favorite moments we didn't have. Having Repeat Repeat come to our camp doing the podcast was a lot of fun.

Those guys are amazing. They are amazing. We've been talking ever since. I just want to be pals.

I just want to hang out with them. We exchanged phone numbers. I kept running into them.

Kristen and Jared, what a great, happy, normal couple. I don't think that they would use the word normal.

I don't know. Maybe not. Yeah, I love the Repeat Repeat kids.

And if you want to go seriously, go back and listen to that episode that we put out while we were on the farm.

They came to our camp for Crying Out Loud. These kids are so dedicated to figuring out this band thing and making this work.

They're willing to go to two dopes' camp backstage and talk to them on a podcast they've never heard of.

I don't know if you talk to them after, but not long after they talked to us, they went and interviewed with Rolling Stone.

Oh yeah. That's all. Repeat Repeat backstage at the Camp Nut Butter if you want to listen back at that.

It's available at the whatpodcast.com.

Let me see what else I really, really loved. Yeah, Ron Gallo was exactly what I thought.

The ending of that was so terrific. We talked about it all weekend.

I forgot. My gosh, I forgot all about it until just now.

Where he's playing his big hit and then he asks a random girl to come on stage. Hands are a guitar and she's like, I don't know how to play guitar.

He said, it doesn't matter. Play whatever.

It all works. It all works. It all works. And it did because she killed.

It was hysterical.

He apparently, we walked up a little bit late, but you remember our friend Evan was there and said he started the show by messing up.

Yeah, sure. On purpose. They kept messing up and he was like, I'm sorry. And then starting over. It was just one of those.

Talk about confidence, man. Yeah, exactly. That kid's got it.

Messing up because I can. That was a great show.

Yeah. Let me see. What else did I love?

We got to see three songs from Lissy in the Hey Bell.

Oh yeah, we went to the Hey Bell session with Lissy. She is adorable.

Boy, that voice is fantastic. That was pretty doggone cool.

And she's got this really great tone. I hate that I missed that show, but she's definitely somebody I want to come back to.

Yeah, she sound what? Little Mary Ann Faithful, Stevie Nicks combination kind of has that raw scratchy, beautiful. It was great.

And then I had a moment that will go down as one of the most interesting moments of my Bonnarooo career.

For the first time in 13 years, Rad Steiner.

You crawled into the tent with me?

Right. Rad Steiner.

That was awkward.

Went to G.A.

Oh yes.

I had a blast.

So me and the friend of ours, we went to G.A. on Thursday night because we got word that there was going to be a Secret Cage the Elephant show.

But unfortunately, the people that told us about the Secret Cage the Elephant show told us the wrong time.

So we show up an hour and a half late. It was supposed to be at 12.30. We were told two.

So at two o'clock, this idiot, we just we walk all the way out to G.A.

I got three percent left on my phone. I'm like, oh, screw it. I don't need it. Who needs it?

It's Thursday night. It's Bonnarooo. What do I need my phone for?

So we get out there and we're waiting. We're waiting.

And there's a karaoke set or something at the yes at the one that Matt Schultz put together.

So it is pod seven Plaza seven.

Right. I am blown away, by the way, with how much G has changed.

G.A. has changed since I have been there.

I keep saying it, but I never actually saw it.

It's really not that far of a walk.

I have always in my mind gone back to the very first year that I went to Bonnarooo

and thought that that G.A. walk was just miles and miles and miles.

No, to Plaza seven from Centaur was really only 15 minutes.

I think it's about attitude and time of day. It's probably more than 15.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, it's a little different than two o'clock in the morning.

Probably. So we get out to Plaza seven and they're doing this karaoke thing.

We think we're watching K.G. Elephant. Never actually happens.

But turns out there is a pop up Cherub DJ set. Right.

And turns out she knows Cherub and has known them forever.

So this became an absolute blast. I mean, it was a dance party for hours.

I did not get back to camp until five thirty in the morning.

About time I was getting up. It was great. Yeah, it was great.

And I was upset that I actually didn't get out to G.A. more because I mean,

every single time he turned around, there was somebody texting us from G.A.

saying, you got to be here. You got to see what's happening right now.

It was moment after moment out there. And it look, they have nailed, nailed

those Plaza experiences. And for being the first year that they've done it

next year. Wow. Well, I went out.

I went out there for work to do more work for the paper Friday morning ish

around noon time. Walked up on a couple that had just gotten married.

They were having their wedding photos taken. Yep.

Hung out in the grove a little bit, all the people in the trees.

And then we wandered over to the Tim Love love shack.

Yeah, doing a cooking demonstration, talked to him for a few minutes

and then a couple of husband and wife and their friend who had done

the cooking demonstration decided they were full and shared their steak

and shrimp and grilled carrots with us. So you met that kind of weekend

all weekend, just a random. So you saw somebody got married at Bonnarooo.

I personally know somebody who got engaged on the Ferris wheel on Thursday

night. Wow. Friday night rather. I mean, those are two.

Yeah. How many others do you think there were? I don't know. I don't know.

I really can't think of. I told you and it sounds crazy, but I can't think of a bad,

you know. Well, I didn't care for the I didn't care for the EDM play until seven in the morning.

Let's go through some of the disappointments. Disappointments.

None of them were bad bad, but disappointments. Some of the places and times

and experiences where you were like, this is just not doing it for me.

Watching Japanese breakfast, do a sound check for a half hour and then just

play for a half hour was disappointing. So you know how much I love her.

Yeah, I love Michelle. She's great. I got to be in the hay bale Friday morning

to watch them do their hay bale session. And look, it was great.

It was so good. I think they sound so good when they're playing.

But for half an hour, they tinkered and tinkered and sound checked.

Look, you don't get a sound check at a festival. And if you need to sound check

for half an hour when you get on stage, it's on you, man. It's on you.

I got the feeling watching some of the stage crew and all that the act before them,

which was a rap hip hop act, might have gone a little long.

But that should not have impacted because you don't get to do sound check.

Now, let me let me tell you what you saw on the Japanese breakfast for half an hour

was exactly, exactly almost almost carbon copy of what I saw in the hay bale session.

They did the exact same tinkering almost to the almost to the T.

Wow. And look, if you have an hour set, you wasted half of it by by sound checking.

I was really disappointed with that. But once they started going, they sounded great.

Sounded great. A little sleepy for me. I'll learn.

I'll learn more because I liked it. It was just a little sleepy.

And maybe that's because we watched the drummer.

Dum dum dum dum dum. Yeah. Yeah. Over and over and over.

Yeah, that was that was a bit disappointed. That was disappointing.

I thought it was a little weird that they dedicated the entire the other stage to EDM

and then ended. Was it Muse that ended or was that Sheik?

I think it was I can't which night was Bass Nectar.

It was a little strange. Whatever day it was that, you know, because they have the EDM.

Bass Nectar was Friday. OK, so after Muse, you have dedicated EDM over on the other stage.

And then Bass Nectar was on the witch stage, which, by the way, was pretty doggone amazing.

Did you like that? I loved it. The light show.

You love them. Well, I knew I was going to be able to hear it, but it literally after Muse,

we wanted to go get refreshed, whatever, get another beer.

And the light show just drew us like literally a moth to a flame.

All of us together went, you did a little zip beeline just because he had lasers going in the trees,

which we need to mention those to the lighting in the trees. Fantastic.

They made a lot of great additions this year. Yeah.

The lasers in the trees and the sky were amazing.

And then it was a half hour, like I told you, you can't do much more than.

But then the and we never did figure out, do we call it Calliope or Calliope stage?

OK, this is a big argument. I don't know.

It's the argument about the hill being moved. It's the same argument.

I don't know. So the Calliope stage went till seven o'clock every morning.

And because of where they moved it, basically everyone in camp could hear it.

So you had EDM on the other and then EDM at midnight with Bass Nectar.

And then that Calliope stage kicked in. I like EDM more than you do, but I don't need 24 hours of it.

And I thought it was strange that it took over the whole space.

All right. Let me ask you this about the Calliope Calliope, you know, Khalid stage.

All right. It of all the things that you saw or that were scheduled on that stage or whatever that thing is.

Over those courses of four hours a night from three to seven in the morning or whenever they schedule it,

how many were actually worth a damn?

Why can't you take those and just put them on the other in the spaces that you already have available?

That stage seems so redundant.

And frankly, I don't like removing the comedy tent and the movie tent and the cinema tent for that.

I don't know what it was. So Friday night, so Thursday night, I do the GA thing.

And then Friday at two thirty in the morning, we all decide to go and experience that and give that a try.

Barry, I don't get it.

And even even if I can get myself into a dance party, it's the same loop over and over and over.

It's three, two, one.

Haaang!

Over and over and over.

And they do the same thing.

I mean, it's a lot of fun if I can get myself into the right mindset.

But I don't know why I need four nights of that.

Three nights, three and a half nights.

I know. And I know we sound, you know, you kids get off my lawn a little bit.

I'm with you. I don't get the I couldn't do it for hours.

You have the other stage. I don't know why you need the caliope.

I don't. It's just bigger. I don't know. I don't know.

We don't if they maybe want to just create a space for those people that don't want to go to bed at four in the morning.

And that'd be why can't you do that? The other? I don't understand.

I don't know. I don't know.

And I didn't hear anybody really say they were happy with the comedy tent changes.

Well, again, I didn't experience any of the comedy because I just I'm not going to experience standup comedy while I'm standing up.

I mean, that's not the way that it's supposed to be done.

And I don't know if Reggie. I heard the Reggie was show is great.

I don't know how Adam DeVine is going to do a divine, however you say his name from workaholics.

I didn't know how anybody went. I don't know.

Somebody's going to have to show me and tell me because I can't imagine that doing well.

Social media people and some of the comedians saying I hope they bring it back.

I hope so, too, because it's a nice it's a nice addition.

It's very different. And it's something that that I never could get in.

It's always so crowded. And you remember those lines would line up from the door all the way to the center road, the middle road.

So maybe that was why maybe it was an option opportunity to get more people a chance to actually see some of the comedians.

That's true. I get that. All right.

The show that I'm most disappointed with and I don't like saying this because I love him.

I didn't get Khalid. I didn't get it. And I I'm telling you, I love this kid.

I think he's an amazing songwriter. He is that album.

I really think is one of the best breakup albums I've heard decades.

But, man, that show was just too cartoony.

The backup dancers were were dressed like, you know, in weird neon colors.

It just felt like a like some sort of puppet show.

And I didn't think his vocal level again, the witch gets very weird with sound.

And I thought that they had gotten that pretty much figured out.

But the sound wasn't there. And part of it is sort of on him because he's a down tempo singer already.

It just didn't work for me. It just never connected the way that I wanted it to connect.

It's interesting to hear when as I'm listening to you talk, I mean, you were so hyped for Bonnie Vare and Anderson back.

And a lot of times, you know, our expectations can be so high that there's no way it was ever going to be met.

Right. But that's not what you're talking about with Khalid. Right.

It just wasn't you just didn't like the show. I didn't like it. Yeah.

And my expectations were were high because I like him.

But I wasn't expecting much. That makes sense. Yeah.

My expectations were high because I was just excited to finally see him.

Because I've missed my opportunity so often in the past.

And I was like, oh, now it is. Now I finally get it. And then once I was there, I was like, oh, this just doesn't work.

Yeah. Doesn't work as well. He's trying to do it.

He's trying to do a big stage presence, a big stage show.

And I just don't think that's who he is. Yeah.

And maybe he being a Monday morning quarterback.

But and maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but it just didn't work at all.

I you know, we talked about it. Earth, Wind and Fire a couple of years ago on the witch stage didn't work.

It just got lost. Right. And they're great.

I mean, there's guys like, gosh, they've amazing.

But that's exactly what happened.

Khalid got lost and they tried to make it work with a whole bunch of stagecraft.

Yeah. And, you know, most of the time you see right through that kind of stuff.

That to me, if there was a theme running through what I liked about all the shows I saw this year was that that honesty.

It was about the song. It didn't need a lot of non-sense.

It's not about lights and everything. Sturgill versus Muse. Which is why you didn't.

OK, so this Muse conversation is very interesting to me because externally,

external from the people that I know, the Muse show was talked about maybe more than any other show.

Eminem was talked about for the wrong reasons. Right.

But this Muse show was just I can't stop hearing people talk about the Muse show.

Everyone that I know that is a fan says it was a great Muse show,

but it's the same Muse show you will see in London or Paris or Bonnarooo or wherever.

It's just what they do. And like I said, technically it was perfect.

It was the you're right. You said it earlier.

It's the best sounding show I've ever heard on that stage.

Somebody described it as cotton candy.

As I did. You did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It was good. That's what it was. Yeah. I don't need a lot of this.

Don't need a lot. Yeah. The reason why it sounds like I his vocal processing is like butter.

It was incredible. How does he like it didn't even seem as though he was singing actually seemed like he was tracked

because it didn't matter where he was. It didn't matter where he was on the mic.

You got the exact same amount of volume out of him. It was incredible.

It was nuts. It was nuts how good that was.

But when it was over, we just looked at each other and said, what we just see.

What am I supposed to take away from this?

So but the other ones, every every other one that I saw was just.

I have another one that I that I need somebody to help me with, and you can comment at the what underscore podcast on Twitter or the what podcast dot com.

What now happened at T pain?

So first off, the crowd was just as massive as I thought it would be.

It probably should have been on a stage, but at some point he got four songs in after buy me a drink, buy you a drink, whatever the hell the song is.

He just stopped and he was gone from the stage for five minutes.

And then out of nowhere, some guy gets on stage and we're all leaving.

And he goes, well, you assholes going, you assholes going, give it up on my boy.

What in the hell happened?

Now, by the by then I was gone and I had no.

But somebody tell me what happens. Maybe you got sick.

Huh? Did he make it to the karaoke? I have no idea.

I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

I forgot about the whole karaoke. I never heard anything.

I need somebody to tell me what in hell a happened at the T pain show and what that was.

Is that was just a bit. Was he just trying to fire up the crowd? Did he come back out?

Maybe you're supposed to beg him back on.

And then I mean, it was four songs in.

And then secondly, did the karaoke thing actually happen?

I don't know the answer to any of these questions. Maybe you can. The what podcast dot com.

All right. So let's see.

Is there anything else that that sticks out of my mind as something that was a little strange?

Oh, well, I want to go back to this argument about the Hill.

Now, if you missed our episode that we did backstage at Camp Nut Butter.

And it's not about them moving the VIP Hill, whether they did or whether they didn't.

But you can tell that every single thing in the festival has been has been reduced.

Now, no matter what they say, now, we talked to Ashley about this on the Wednesday press conference thing.

When they took us around the the site.

It just feels different. And you can't convince me otherwise.

You can't convince me otherwise that they have not either moved the what stage in,

moved the walls in and added so much stuff in the middle of the festival grounds to make it feel so much tighter.

When we walked out Wednesday night, you could not turn around without hitting some sort of like tent experience thing shining lights into your face.

You couldn't move. Let's say this.

What two weeks ago, we were hearing this the crowd estimates in the mid 70s.

I was told by a couple of officials, not with AC, but otherwise, that the actual count was around low to mid 50s.

It felt pretty crowded. It felt packed. It felt packed.

I think and we saw this last year, they do as good a job as any big event like that that I've ever been a part of of adjusting.

So to your point, I don't disagree. I think they brought fences in.

I know they did last year. I know they did three years ago when the numbers were way low.

They put more tents in. They move things around to make it feel like.

And that's not a that sounds like a deceptive. No, I actually like it.

It's genius because there's nothing worse than being in a small crowd in a huge venue.

Even if it's a good sized crowd, it just feels bad. It's no longer a wide open field festival.

And if you have 52,000 people in a wide open field festival, it feels empty. It feels empty.

You don't need that. Why am I here? Right.

So to that, I give them all credit for that because it didn't it ever did.

It never felt uncomfortable, you know, like my cart in a year or whenever when there was so many people you couldn't move.

But it also never felt empty. It never felt like something was missing.

By the way, and to show you that this is not a negative, you know me and as far as my professional career,

I care a lot about the little tiny touches of brands. Right.

I love brand touches that that make the user experience better.

I don't know who is their person that obsesses over teeny tiny little details, but they get every single one of them right.

It is nuts to me. Like every time you turn around, like when we said when they took the giant heads out of out of the which stage field,

we were all like, why did you do this? How dare you? But no, instead of the heads, they planted new trees.

Yep. Right. The way that they strategically place certain tents, not the this or that tent, but just experienced tents.

And where they put the silent disco, the tiny details that they they have to obsess over,

the way that the roads work inside GA, where they put signage inside GA. Man, it is baffling how good it is.

Go to go to some other festivals. And I don't mean to be a dick about this, but go to Sloss Fest and compare how the user experience is there versus what Bonnarooo does.

Somebody has got it nailed at Bonnarooo. I'll be honest with you that early on when I started going.

That's what fascinated me was the logistics of it. And we talked to Ashley Capps about it.

And I asked him that first year to me. Nobody does that kind of thing better than Disney. Right.

And so I thought I said to him, you know, was Disney your model? And he actually said no, it was the European festivals.

But Disney, you know, the masters with painting the cups green and if you drop your, you know, your sandwich wrapper, it's green.

So it doesn't show up on television. Yeah, that's exactly right. That they get. I love that.

Yes, that that is what that was what makes my heart flutter. I love stuff like that. Yeah, me too.

And that honestly that my my daughter who interned with them, that's what she liked was the logistics of how do you get these many people in and out?

It's amazing. How do you get 100 acts to show up at the right place at the right time and all the people?

So that's what they do. And it was interesting when you and I first went in there with Bryan Stone, one of our campmates, we walked around on Wednesday.

It's not something I noticed right away, but you guys both did. The lighting in the trees is phenomenal.

It's just phenomenal. It changes the whole feel of that giant field once it's dark.

And we're not talking about one little white spotlight like, you know, over your back door. It was colored lights. It was beautiful.

No telling what they spent. They dug trenches to run new electricity is a big, big deal.

But just little things like that make you feel this is an ongoing thing. These people care. They've thought about it.

I always I put it this way. I don't I don't like going places where I feel like they have their hand in my wallet, you know, where it's just a money grab.

They get my money. I don't mean to say they don't. I like to feel like they're giving back as much as they're taking.

Yeah. And you get that when you're there. And as far as like the thoughtfulness and how things are operated and the user experience, take a tour through the men's bathroom.

Yeah. That line moves so fast. I was talking to some girls, two friends of ours who were standing in the females line.

And I said, well, you guys don't have two lines like we do. We got the two line and the one line and the one line flies.

Yeah. And I don't know how they figured it out. Yeah. But they've they've gotten the math of all of this down to a science.

And it's just the user experience, at least, has gotten so much better and gets better every single year that at this point I don't really have any complaints anymore.

I have a big deal because you like to come. I have observations like, for instance, they moved the VIP Hill.

I have observations. I don't have complaints about it. One of the things along those lines, just as worth a mention, the metal detectors.

That's the next thing I was going to bring up. Yeah. What do you think about that?

Now, granted, we didn't have to deal with what they had to deal with in GA.

I'd love for somebody to tell me their metal detector detector experience, because I've heard a couple of things here and there.

And most of it has been didn't really matter. Right. That's what I was going to say.

Everything I heard from people was I'm glad it's there. I get it. I understand.

Las Vegas makes it a reality. Florida makes it a rally. All these types of things.

But it was pretty much worthless. Yeah. It was more of an aggravation.

And it's sort of the reason, by the way, if you have a problem with their bag policy, I have a feeling that's why they gave you a fanny pack with your GA pass.

I'm certain of that. Yeah. This is what you get to bring your stuff in. Yeah.

You know, one of those minor, minor nuisance. I felt bad for the poor guys who sat there, those volunteers for 12 hours and listened to that thing beep when you walk by with your phone and your car keys and whatever.

But as far as like it actually affecting my my bond room, no, it didn't do anything.

A sad reality. A lot of, you know, we should probably say this every year.

The week's leading up to it when you start getting all those emails about the bag policy and this and that, you start puckering up. Oh, man.

You and I and everyone starts puckering up. That's going to be bad. You should have seen the Reddit threads. Yeah. It really, really freaked people out.

I wasn't. It was I had a good time. I didn't see anything that was. And again, my experience changed zero because of it.

Exactly. That's my point. It felt like it was going to change an enormous amount to begin with. It never felt that way. No, that like the same relaxed through all the volunteers were smiling.

Have a great time. Actually, they were probably nicer this year on the whole than sometimes you can get them at the, you know, that 10th hour of their shift and you can tell they're a little tired.

But everyone was very nice. All in all, I can't think of anything else. It was just a really good.

How do you feel about Camp Nut Butter? You feel I feel good about Camp Nut Butter? We had a good time. Great time.

Had a great time. We had rain. You know, it rained on Sunday with the lightning hit the transformer. What? A couple hundred yards from us. Oh, yeah. That was a moment.

Yeah. So what happened is the lightning struck within 100 yards of our camp right there on Production Road, which is the first exit that you get to if you're coming north. Right.

Right at the KOA. Right at the KOA. It struck lightning right there. And within two seconds, a guy that is camping with us, the water had accumulated on the top of his tent so heavy.

He had an easy up over his pup tent. It crashed onto his tent and soaked everything that he had. I mean, seconds after the lightning struck. We literally thought at that time lightning had struck his tent.

I think I think he was emerging from that tent expecting to see people in wings. I'm pretty sure he thought he had passed on as he should have because I mean, it was instantaneous.

Honestly, that Sunday morning rainstorm was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun because we were we were all stuck in this tiny space with each other on a day that some of us were struggling more than others.

Yeah. No, it was a great time to relax. We couldn't go anywhere. They closed center. Cooled things off for a bit, then heated it up. The humidity. But yeah, it it just felt like camping at that point.

Yeah. And you became sort of like the the doctor of camp. You were tinkering and toying and fixing.

We put some tarps over and tied them down for the second wave of storms. Yeah. You did very well. You did very nice. Well, the rest of us, the kids, do what you do.

Sat there and watched. Yeah, watch cartoons. Eat your cereal and watch cartoons. Yeah, me and me and Nicky T just sat there and drink Bloody Mary's and watch dad fix the tent.

It was fun. It was great. And it it sort of re-energized for the rest of the day. So the podcasting studio, that was fun. We had our own podcasting studio back there. Repeat, repeat. We talked about that. They came by.

It would be great if if you know we could sucker some more artists to come back there. Probably should thank Bryan Stone for doing that. He brought all of his equipment. I knew you'd say that. But he made it work. That was cool.

He made some things work at camp, if you know what I mean. Yes, he did. He had a busy week. He made some very good friends at one camp over. Yeah, that was. Yeah.

Location being what it is. Yeah, so yeah, the podcasting was great. I think we can we'll definitely continue that. Yes, I guess all the I mean, regrets. Yeah, we talked to Warren treaty. Regrets. Now, if you don't know anything about the regrets, we talked to them backstage. They're a kid band. I mean, these these are really, really young kids.

They're a girl punk band. Yeah. And we also talked to Bozzie again to sort of like check in after his show. We're going to put all those together. And you had one other guy that you talked to. By the way, Colin McLeod, Colin McLeod. You talked to him and you were really excited about this. He came back to camp to to talk to us at Camp Nut Butter. I didn't make it to that. You were there. Yeah, I was five feet away. You were there. And what did I do? Snored. I took a two hour nap. Colin is from Scotland. He's over there.

He's from Scotland. He's a farmer from Scotland. Denson and I went and watched his set, man. And it I don't know how he does it. It's just him and a guitar. But it sounds like the Moors. I mean, it's sound. That would be the moops.

Just it just sounded like the bogs or whatever in Scotland. It was the darndest thing. And especially at that late at night. It was really cool. So but yeah, he came by. Who else did we talk to? Talked to Greg from Pigeons Playing Ping Pong and Greg. I'm sorry. It's my fault that I somehow screwed up the whole recording. I got nothing.

Yeah, we listened back to it the next morning after you talked to the guy from what's his name from Pigeons Playing Ping Pong? Greg. And it sounded like.

Just the total SD card was fried and I apologize. It hasn't learned. Hey, the official Bonnarooo podcast doesn't have these problems. I bet not. I bet not. But that was the only one. By the way, we're doing this with a zero budget and dopey friends and just prayers.

We're just hoping to God that we get something. But we don't have we don't have a major budget. Everyone was so agreeable. That's what I'm saying. It's just the whole weekend was like that. I would ask for something and sure. How can we make it work? Yeah, we had a couple of scheduled podcast meetings and either the message didn't get through or whatever.

And everybody said, give us another time. Let's make it work. Yeah, it wasn't Sir Sly being one of those, by the way. Yeah, I totally blew it on Sir Sly. We were doing something else and the weather screwed up on Sunday and all hell broke loose.

Hopefully there's more to come. And that's what probably the question that we've been asked the most in the last couple. By the way, Bonnarooo stir showing up at our camp. Oh, how could we forget? How could I forget? Bonnarooo stir is great.

What's that Twitter handle? Is it just Bonnarooo stir? Yeah, find him on Twitter. He's a great follow. Great dude. Stop by camp every single day. What a what a great time we had. We had a couple of really good conversations talking about changes and what we liked and didn't like. And he's every bit as passionate about it as we are. It's awesome. Yeah, that was great. He was and we actually had run into him checking in and didn't realize and then so started setting up camp. Yeah. And if we if we missed you a Bonnarooo, I'm very sorry.

We're very, very sorry. Yeah, but please understand that ran into Randy. My body just can't do too. They can't do everything. Randy said it came up and said hello. Oh yeah, we were ready. That was right after we're in treaty. Yep. That's right. Yep. So did run into some folks. That was cool. And so the big question that we've been asked is is what what in the hell do we do next? And we don't know. We don't know. We didn't know idea. I don't know what to do with this. I mean, we could we could do more, but I don't know what we do. I don't know what we talk about.

I'm thinking probably when January when the announcement comes out, we might pick it up from there. Yeah, I don't know about weekly, but like to figure it out. If you guys have suggestions, love to hear an idea. Anything. Anything. What podcast dot com. Had a lot of fun doing it. We'll keep them up. We'll keep them up throughout the year and go back and relive them or catch up on some that you haven't listened to the what podcast dot com or the what underscore podcast. Until until then, we've got more interviews and more in treaty to post.

We've got some Bozzie chats, the regrets and more if we can. Yeah, if we can find it. You know, we could do we could probably do an episode, a really quick episode with our buddy Lord Taco and hear about like a Bonnarooo first timer.

He's never been to Bonnarooo. I'd love to hear like somebody who's never been and their impression of what we said it would be if it actually was. It lived up to it. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, if you have a Bonnarooo first timer that that that you

want to get us in touch with, drop us a note. We'll call them. We'd love to hear your experiences of Bonnarooo. The what podcast or the what underscore podcast. Shoot us a note and we'll talk to we'll talk to some Bonnarooo first timers. I guess. Let's do that, too. Yeah. That's another episode.

I'm up for anything. We can milk another one out of that. It's been fun. All right. There you go. Until next time. We'll see you then.