A Bonnaroo love story, fresh Farm updates from Manchester, and a Seattle grunge pilgrimage: all this week in The What Podcast! We preview Shaky Knees Festival 2025 in Atlanta and IBMA bluegrass events in Chattanooga, then detour into PBR beer-cheese soup before diving into the 90s revival with Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and Oasis all doing big tours. Not to leave out The Farm though, it looks like new earth-moving and drainage work could mean less flooding Bonnaroo campers next season.
Finally, we dive into Bryan's Seattle grunge pilgrimage via Port Townsend, Washington with stops like the Showbox, Pike Place Market, Andrew Wood's (Mother Love Bone, a precursor to Pearl Jam) gravesite, and the Singles apartment, and of course the post office! All of this can be traced back to the magic of Bonnaroo and how it can lead to unexpected connections.
Listen to this episode about Bryan Stone's trip to Seattle here or watch it on YouTube. And if you'd like to hear more from Bryan Stone, subscribe to the StoneOnAir Podcast. As always, subscribe to The What Podcast wherever you get podcasts for weekly updates on Bonnaroo and festival news!
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From Bonnaroo to Seattle: A 90s Grunge Pilgrimage
We have said on here many, many times that, and we said it at our panel discussion,
and we had people raise their hands.
Bonnarooo has changed our lives.
I joked earlier that the three of us wouldn't be doing this thing on a Sunday
morning if it weren't for Bonnarooo.
It's never lost on me the power that the festival has.
It is a Bonnarooo love story of sorts.
Yeah, we've decided that this is a 3000 mile long distance relationship.
Welcome back to the What Podcast.
Here we are in early September.
Fall is upon us.
It's starting to cool off a little bit.
It's a gorgeous day outside.
My wife is on her way to the Chattanooga Market, which I mentioned just because it
was recently named the ninth best market in the country by Food and Wine magazine.
Also on that list are a couple of markets over on the West Coast, which will come up
again later in our conversation.
So see what I'm doing.
Setting it up.
Foreshadowing is one.
Teasing is another word you could use.
Setting it up.
Yeah.
You're so professional.
I know.
I have about a minute where I actually plan.
Sometimes it works.
And then after that, I just make it all up.
But I'm Barry.
That's Russ.
That's Brian.
How are you guys?
Doing very well.
Yeah.
Very good.
Making us get out of bed early on an early start so you can get to that market there,
Barry.
That's exactly right.
I appreciate it.
Going to be an interesting show.
We're going to talk a little bit about some upcoming festivals in our area.
A couple of, or three of them that we're going to attend.
One that we might attend.
We've been invited to that can sounds kind of interesting, but also we're going to
talk about Brian's trip out West.
And as part of that, I kind of want to talk about Bonnarooo and why it means so much to
us because it all ties together.
There's that foreshadowing thing again.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, it's, it's, it's never lost on me the power that the festival has.
Like, you know, in the moment, you know, you're doing something that's so far out of
your norm, like meaning festival weekend or the week leading up that it's just one,
it seems like it's one after another, like all these things you just, whoa, like even
as many times as you've done it, the newness never seems to really wear off.
But then, you know, you get a little bit removed, you get back into regular life and
it's easy to forget that for me, it's not that easy to forget.
Usually, and especially not now, like it's, it's, it's always resonating with me all
year long.
And I think that's one of the reasons why we, you know, we, we love it.
And you guys who listen to this show and consume Bonnarooo content constantly through
the Reddit of the world and discords and everywhere else, you probably feel the same way.
Well, it's why we get up on a Sunday morning and take a shower and talk to each other.
Oh, I was supposed to take a shower.
Oh, sorry about that.
Yeah.
Didn't mean to give it away.
So seriously, let's see what's coming up.
We've got Shaking Knees and the International Bluegrass Music Association
event in Chattanooga, both happening the same weekend.
We will be attending.
We in some form or another, the three of us will be attending at least the IBMA pretty
sure.
And then I know Russ and I are planning to go down to Atlanta for Shaking Knees.
Brian may join us.
Who knows?
He may change his mind, but never ever be too sure about anything, Barry.
But right now I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, Chattanooga has made me enjoy bluegrass.
Like I have to, or they're just not going to talk to me in my own town.
We have a month's worth of bluegrass.
Speaking of which last night, real fast, I did grab a little video.
Doesn't matter.
It's just some random band here locally.
It was bluegrass night at our minor league baseball team who's, who's having their final
weekend before they move into a new stadium next weekend.
So it was a little bit sentimental there.
So it's just like bluegrass night.
We got the bluegrass festival.
We got two of them coming up.
Like, my goodness, we are bluegrass crazy and Chattanooga I'm here for it.
I'm here for it.
It's funny.
My nephew, who you all know, posted yesterday that bluegrass music is the ultra, the
Michelob ultra.
And it kind of hurt my feelings.
You know, and I was like, I wanted to argue with him and I was like, wait, what am I talking
about?
I don't, I'm, he's not wrong.
In some ways, if he's saying it's the Michelob ultra, that means that it's not good to the
average beer drinker, except lots and lots and lots and lots of people like the ultra.
Yeah, I like the ultra.
Hey, I was a light beer guy.
I get it.
But yeah, that makes sense.
That makes perfect sense.
I thought it was, I kind of like bowed up because we've been talking.
I have been talking about this event so much because Steve Martin is coming.
Alison Brown is coming.
Billy strings is coming.
As you have said many times, Brian, Billy strings is the biggest bluegrass artist in
the world.
In the history of the world.
Ever.
Ever.
He's coming to Chattanooga.
So yeah, and you're exactly right.
Ultra, my nephew is right, but he's also wrong.
And, you know, I think his intention.
Well, it's like, Hey, we got Michelob ultra.
That's it.
Like, well, I'll take it anyway.
As long as it's cold.
And it's the only thing available.
We're not sure.
We talked a little off air.
We won't spend it on the show any length of time, but we don't know what to expect here
as a first time event in Chattanooga.
And we don't, we don't know if, but if you're a big bluegrass guy or gal, like a big time
and it's a part of your identity and you're not here, then I wonder, like, maybe you're
really not.
Chattanooga is where you want to be.
And then, you know, that weekend rush, you're going down for the whole weekend to Atlanta.
I'll be there the whole weekend.
Shaking easy at Piedmont Park, Blink 182, Devo, who I'm excited to see, Weird Al, who else?
My Chemical Romance, Deftones, those are the other big headliners for Friday and Saturday.
There's a ton of bands here.
There's a lot that cross over from Bonnarooo, Born on Blondes.
That was a top one for me.
Oh yeah.
And they just started playing again for the first time in forever.
Nishigander, if I remember correctly.
Nishigander is on there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
My girl's The Beaches on Saturday and The Black Keys on Saturday.
So Jesus Christ, I'm trying not to go to this festival.
What are you doing?
Yeah.
Well, we're, and we're hoping to get some interviews.
We're hoping to do some work as well as see some great music.
So I'm looking forward to it.
Classic rock and roll music festival.
There's not many of them left.
Might be the last dying breed of strictly rock festivals.
It is a good point.
So if Bluegrass is the Michelob Ultra, what does a rock festival do for you?
Oh, it's got to be Bud Light or Maddie Light.
I don't know if that's the point we were trying to make here.
I was going to say a crunchy IPA, but I don't know if that fits the bill here either.
I was hoping you'd say a PBR, but you know.
Okay.
All right.
Yeah, I could go with that.
Gen X, Gen X delights, whatever those are PBRs and
espresso martinis, or is that a millennial thing?
I don't know.
I think that's more millennial.
Yeah, that's a millennial thing.
Gen X would just be vodka on the rocks.
We'll have to see when we get down there, but looking forward to it.
And then one more real quick though.
I just got an email.
I don't know.
It's not a fishing, you know, they're trying to, you know,
rob my identity kind of thing.
Minfo.
Nobody wants your identity.
I know.
You ain't going to get anything but a bunch of debt and like a bad reputation.
It's like, I said, if you want to break into my car and steal anything, you're just
cleaning it out for me.
What are you doing?
Yeah.
You'll get that email back.
Dude, I'm sorry.
Here you go.
You can have it back.
Here's your stuff.
You're gonna have it back.
Would you come pick it up actually?
Yeah.
This festival in Memphis that's been going on since 2017, I get a little bit of a jam
flare here and there kind of set up like a boutique thing.
They, they sent me an email saying, basically you want to go.
And I was like, well, I mean, I'm in Tennessee, but for those that don't know for sure, I
know you can just look with your eyes and have an idea of this long state and think
of how long that is.
It's a hall to get to Memphis from Chattanooga.
Yeah.
We've laughed about it.
I always love when tourists come and say, we're going to go to Graceland and then Pigeon
Forge in Dollywood.
Yeah.
I'm like, no, you're not.
You're not.
You're not doing, you're not doing that at all.
By the time you get to Graceland, you'll be done with Tennessee at that point, just
from all the drives.
Yeah.
West Tennessee might as well be another state because it just seems so removed.
Geographically, it is nothing like East Tennessee.
Culturally, it is nothing like East Tennessee.
It's, it's like, it's, there's a huge divide.
Brian, you may know this because you've worked with Jeff Stiles, but I've heard him say it.
I never knew this.
The reason there are three stars on the state flag is for that reason.
Tennessee is three different, completely different regions.
regions, almost?
Yep.
Yeah.
There's East Tennessee with the Appalachians.
There's Nashville and then Memphis, which is flat.
Three completely different geographical areas.
And that's why there are three stars on our flag.
Well, I mean, two things there.
Why have I never wondered why there's three stars on the flag?
I've lived here.
Russ never brought it up before.
Didn't bring up the important questions.
I've never thought of that before.
And I guess it tracks.
Yeah.
I mean, the mid south as they call the Nashville, greater Nashville area, and then
whatever Memphis is over there.
And then us awesome, you know, I'll sit here in the East to live in the best part of it.
Yep.
Get on the other side of Montaigle and it's all flat and then it gets even flatter and uglier.
So, well, being tempted by a good festival, this is what set up more like the boutique ones,
like the smaller fat, the smaller lineups compacted into a smaller area.
And widespread is playing for a couple of nights.
And maybe that's where the connection somewhere where it got sent to me.
And maybe they haven't sold all their tickets or whatever the,
whatever the situation might be.
I don't know.
And I'm not going to drive any amount of time to go see widespread panic anymore.
I've done this more times than I care to admit, but on that Friday, the Kevin Kinney band.
Now that's, that's driving and crying.
And it's main songwriter and band leader for 40 years.
And you really got to be a certain regional age to even know who driving and crying is.
Sure.
But the Kevin Kinney band is different and it's very rarely ever a thing.
And I don't even know who the members are, but it is a different show.
I'd be very interested in that.
Also not going to Memphis for that, but then there's also blood Ken,
which is one of those kind of stray bands from the Athens scene in the eighties and nineties,
the B 52s, REM, the panic explosion out of that timeframe.
And widespread has played five or six or maybe more blood Ken songs over the last 30 years.
They're just in the catalog.
And so with blood Ken, Kevin Kinney, who's played with panic many times
and then panic that night, you know, for us old types of love, all this stuff,
it's going to be a big jam session.
Boy, I want to go to Memphis now.
That's right.
It sounds like it was made for Bryan Stone.
Exactly.
It's your wheelhouse, man.
It was.
So whoever sent me that, thank you.
They must know me.
The only missing there is what is Isbell.
Yeah.
Isbell was there.
The truckers of any capacity showed up or cracker or some just random ass,
camper van, Beethoven, some random ass band.
Yeah.
Pylon.
So yeah, I'm it's October 3rd and I am really considering it though.
I think that drive will scare me off, but man here in the off season, plenty of little,
not so little and little things to do here in the Southeast.
So can't say you're bored with college football and little festivals all over the Southeast.
And if you go hit that cracker barrel in Jackson, it's always, it's a good stop.
Spray paint the walls if you're mad about the sign.
Here's another trivia.
Why is that different than any other cracker barrel?
It's not because it's Jackson and it's on the way to Memphis.
So Jackson, this is such a random thing.
I always wondered the Johnny Cash and Johnny Cash song Jackson.
I always wondered, was it Mississippi or Tennessee?
And for some reason I got to interview his son about three years ago and I thought I
was being very clever and I was like, which is it?
And he said, people ask me that all the time and I don't know.
I couldn't believe people ask him that.
I thought I was the only one that ever wondered.
That you were clever.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, Jackson, Mississippi, is that the capital of Mississippi?
I don't think that I don't know.
For those real quickly insight, we sat around and did capitals at Bonnarooo while we're getting
rain down on Friday.
Half the place was drunk, half the place was stoned and we were doing, what's the capital of
Maine, which was so funny because that was, I forgot.
I'm glad you mentioned that because you actually said, I don't want to do this.
This sounds like something you do when you don't have anything else to do.
And I was like, like now?
I mean, I was in a mood all day.
I just looked it up.
Jackson is the capital of Mississippi.
Okay.
I'm about to say, I think I know that because of our trivia quiz pop quiz show at Bonnarooo
about capitals.
And you kept giving me shit, Barry, because I would say what it wasn't.
Like what's Illinois?
I was like, well, it's not Chicago.
We're not asking what it's not.
We're asking what it is.
That's so funny.
And then you were like, yeah, this sounds like a bar.
You know, I'm like, yeah, like now.
Anyway, that was a hard day to process information, Barry.
That was funny.
Wow.
What a bunch of callbacks today.
This is all about the callbacks today.
A little bit.
And then, oh, this is way off subject for, I forget.
So I'm at Walmart.
Terrible decision.
Terrible decision.
I don't know what's wrong with me on a Saturday to get one specific thing.
Of course they're out.
So then I'm already stuck there and I could buy a couple of things.
And I thought I'd seen everything.
I'm a, I'm a old school beer, advertisement logo, you know, a licensed material guy.
And, and I see PBR Campbell's chunky soup.
Have you all seen this stuff?
I think, didn't you send us a picture?
Yeah, you sent a picture.
It actually looks pretty good.
Okay.
Yeah.
I mean, I sent it to taco.
I think it's, I wrote it down.
Campbell's P perhaps blue ribbon or no, perhaps beer, cheese salads,
worded on the, on the ribbon logo, potatoes and chorizo.
So if you need, if you need a bite, Campbell's has PBR soup now.
That's a windy dinner right there.
Yeah.
I've just, I've always thought from the jump that the Campbell's chunky line was a weird branding
idea 20 some odd years ago.
It sure has stuck.
So what do I know?
I didn't get a can of it though.
A taco you're on your own.
If you want to try it, I guess I got to go to Walmart.
Yeah, I go to Walmart.
Beer, cheese, potatoes, and chorizo soup.
Especially coming up where, you know, getting some cooler weather.
It's soup season.
Yeah, that's a big soup guy and Campbell's still, you know, there's still the Coca-Cola
of mass produced soups.
So absolutely.
They're the Michelob ultra of soup.
There you go.
Good call.
Speaking of call backs.
So all right.
What other news before we get into Bonnarooo memories and how they have, how it's impacted us here?
One comment, one thing here I wanted to mention on Radiohead and then taco.
Don't forget about whatever I told you not to forget about.
So the nineties nostalgia boom is, I just think just getting started probably like this stuff,
like from Oasis to my chemical romance and nine inch nails right now are wowing people
the last week or two.
And I'm looking at it.
Yeah, they just played Chicago.
I think.
Yeah, they were in New York.
Our buddy Brad was there and it's getting a little bit of buzz.
And so all things nineties and early 2000 rock is absolutely just on fire right now.
Good for, you know, everybody involved on that, even though it annoys me a little bit,
because I've been telling you about this for 35 years, but Radiohead is getting in on the action
and they have five, five cities in Europe in a couple of months.
And I wonder how, I wonder how strong that'll be to get them to, to the U S I'm,
I'm not a big Radiohead guy.
I like them.
Okay.
Enough.
So yeah, I like them.
So I like them a lot.
And they just got too weird for me later in their years.
I grew up with those first two, three albums up to okay.
Computer boy.
I love that stuff.
And then it just kind of, I don't know.
I grew, I grew apart from it, but I wonder, you know, they're going to, if this is just,
Hey, everybody else is making 20 times.
They ever dreamt dreamt of a tour guys.
Maybe we should too.
Yeah.
There was an Oasis thinking why not us?
Yeah.
I mean, I could, I could see them being that Thursday night opening ceremony band.
I'd be happy with it.
I'd be happy if they're there at all.
They could fit in to, you know, back at we all, we know they could fit in.
They've done it now two times, at least maybe a third, I think two for sure.
Two for sure.
Oh six.
And then whatever other year, 10 or 11.
Yeah.
But yeah, well, it'll be interesting to see if they get on some, some
festival lineups for next year.
Cause don't leave money on the table.
If you're a rock and roll band from the nineties and early two thousands,
cause people will pay and go watch.
This is the time.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The nineties thing makes sense.
Again, it's right in your wheelhouse.
So I'm here for it.
So you're speaking of Bonnarooo the other day on Reddit, somebody posted some pictures that
they drove by the farm and there's some activity.
There's some earth moving equipment, excavators, stuff like that.
Somebody posted in the comments saying they supposedly were one of the ones operating
the equipment and said, yeah, that's what they're doing.
They're grading certain areas.
They're redirecting drains and triches and stuff like that.
So, you know, work is being done that they promised on doing some of this earth moving
stuff that hopefully will alleviate some of the flooding.
I don't think it'll prevent it of course, but it certainly can't hurt.
And he says they're going to be doing more later on into the year.
Now that our guy, Brad has gone, who knows where the power structure is.
All the follow the decision making is falling, but our guy, Justin, which you guys have not
met, I have not actually met either, but I've talked to him on the phone a few times.
He is head of the grounds crew and he's not going to mind being mentioned at all.
He loves the festival.
He's not just a guy that they hired to work grounds.
He's been doing this for 20 years and he's got every Bonnarooo story in the book,
but C3 won't let him come on the show unless he goes through it.
It's not like this.
I'm not trying to be a jerk about it.
He's got to go through the channels.
Yeah.
I got to follow channels.
He can't just jump on with us because he feels like it, which at one time he could have,
but not anymore.
So we'll try to get him on one of these days to talk about how, what, what they're doing
is they're working pretty much year round in some form or fashion.
Oh yeah.
So there's no telling what they're actually working on, but I would love to.
I remember when he talked to us, to me, I'd be a text right before the festival this year
and he's, and it was just in response to, sorry, man, we, I just can't come on right now.
And he's like, but I'll tell you what, it's a field of dreams out here, man.
I was like, this is why I wanted you on.
Sounded beautiful.
Well, in the field of dreams went to a field of,
underwater real quick, but
all right.
So we'll talk to him eventually, but all right.
So we're going to take a little travel log here.
I take a break real quick and then we'll take a break.
Yeah, let's do that.
Let's take a break and we'll come back and we're going to take a little trip out west and
see where that takes us.
All right.
And we're back as promised.
We're going to hear from Brian.
Brian took a trip out west to visit a friend of the show, a friend of ours,
a campmate of ours for what?
The last four years or three, three at least, three for sure.
At least three.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it kind of, it made me think this morning as I was getting ready for the show,
we have sat on here many, many times that, and we said it at our panel discussion and
we had people raise their hands.
Bonnarooo has changed our lives.
I joked earlier that the three of us wouldn't be doing this thing on a Sunday morning if
it weren't for Bonnarooo.
I knew Brian, knew of Brian because of radio.
I never, never heard of a Lord Taco until he, Brad Steiner asked him to put together
a website and a podcast show for us.
So we're friends because of Bonnarooo, friends with a lot of other people because of Bonnarooo.
It certainly changed my life as far as my work.
I was, you know, what, 37 years at the paper covering music, did all kinds of, all the
concerts, all the music, all the entertainment stuff, but nothing like Bonnarooo.
And it just re-energized me.
I've said that many, many times.
You thought you saw all the cool bands.
Yeah.
Up until that point.
Right.
Little did you know, you hadn't even come close to seeing all the cool bands and now
you kind of have.
Yes.
You saw plenty of the cool bands, but not all of them.
Yeah.
And they were, and to be quite honest, they were becoming very stale because it was the
same show no matter which genre.
You know, a country show looked just like a heavy metal show, just with tighter spandex
type of thing.
But the show itself was very cookie cutter.
And then all of a sudden now you're in a field in Bonnarooo and you're seeing a hundred acts
and they're, you know, they're as excited to be there as you are.
And it just, and then plus all the other things that we all love about it.
So it really just changed.
And then, you know, it became obsessive.
It's all I talked about for 12 months out of the year.
And that's why we're all here.
And I think, you know, Rush, you'd agree.
You're the same.
You've talked about, you know, you love to camp.
You love music.
You got a cool bus.
Well, it's not a lot.
Why is it not?
Why are you not at Bonnarooo?
That's yeah.
Why have I not been going since it started?
But no, thanks to Brad for roping me into this thing.
Never imagined, you know, seven years later, I'm still doing it.
So yeah, I mean, sometimes you don't.
Sometimes you just don't know until you know about things in life.
And in this case for you, it was Bonnarooo in the late teens of the 21st century.
And, you know, it was for me, the minute I heard about it.
Well, not the minute I heard about it, because I was skeptical.
Imagine that I've not changed a whole lot in a lot of ways.
I was like, what is this idiot stuff going on up in Manchester?
What? What? Panic?
They're not going to carry the weekend.
You're crazy.
No, no, you're wrong again.
So I mean, I don't even remember when I heard about it,
but I knew I did not want to go to see fish or, you know, a hippie jam band in a field
in middle Tennessee.
I went that first day because of my job.
The traffic had backed up and the boss said, take a photographer and go work.
You know, it's just a news of the day story.
Yeah.
And then, and I will tell this and Brian's going to be mad because he denies it.
But the first time you and I really interacted was the red hot chili peppers.
We were in that tent watching the show on the screen.
Brian was well into his cups.
That part I don't deny.
No, no.
Many, many cups, one cup after another.
The real point of this for me is we all, you, me, Mike Dewar, Denson,
and whoever else went to see Alice Cooper right after.
You and I were standing next to each other and you said some very, very nice things about me
and my wife and a cooking thing that we used to do for the paper.
On the Wednesday edition.
Yes.
Yeah.
And I just really appreciated, I was like, wait, this dude is talking to me about cooking
at Alice Cooper.
I probably said it five times.
You did.
But it was really, really nice.
Hey, I love that Wednesday.
Yeah.
That Wednesday with your wife.
It's like something's not jiving with this.
Hey, did I tell you about that?
I love your cooking.
I read that.
Yeah, that was really cool.
Anyway, that's how Bonnarooo brings people together, which leads me to,
you made a trip a couple of weeks ago out west.
And for those who've been listening, you know, Brian is kind of a curmudgeon.
He will admit it.
But you met someone special because of Bonnarooo and because of Camp Nut Butter.
Yeah.
And it led to a pretty cool trip.
Yeah.
Tell us about it.
Well, Camp Nut Butter, that's kind of dissolved into the new, the camp super group really is kind
of the new look.
Hopefully it sticks going forward.
We'll see.
But because of just the additions of just people over the last few years.
But yeah, Beth Thorpe from originally from Maine with Via Philadelphia, now
Port Townsend, Washington, which is right there at the tip of the Olympic Peninsula.
She's been on the show a couple of times, credentialed through, not that this matters,
but Nashville.com with other guys, the dudes, as we all refer to them as, it's affectionately
and guided from her actually.
They run this website in Nashville and she shoots for them and as well as other smaller
festivals around regionally up there and anywhere else she can back in Philadelphia at times and
others.
And so yeah, we meet people all the time and it's just, hey, there's another person.
Hey, there's another person.
I don't quickly make like good friends with people, especially not in my not drinking
days anymore.
Like that would happen more just because of that culture would just stumble into that more.
Now you kind of like, hey, meet these five people.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, you know, off to go do my own thing.
And so we met a little while ago and a year and a half, well, maybe two years ago, technically
a year ago where we officially got to know each other.
And then this year with the cancellation, kind of there's a whole thing there, the way
that came together.
It's, and the stop with the long-winded description of all this, it is a Bonnarooo love story of
sorts.
You know, I know there's entire Facebook groups put together these kinds of discussions.
It would fall right in there very, very well.
And so, yeah, we've, we've decided that this is a 3000 mile long distance relationship.
And I remember when she, we first started kind of joking about this idea.
I thought, yeah, let me tell you about everybody who's told me about their long distance
relationship and my response to those.
Okay.
Sure thing, buddy.
Tell me how that one works out.
Yeah.
Good luck.
Yeah.
I just, just don't.
And then that's sometimes when I'm talking about like when they're from Nashville to
St. Louis.
Yeah.
Hour away.
Or, or, or Louisville to Chattanooga or say Kentucky does.
We're talking about what feels like on the other side of the galaxy, up in the, the tip
of the peninsula in, in Washington state, but went to see her for a week and boy, was it a,
what a, what an amazing state.
Have you guys been up that direction in any way in any of those states, any of that area?
Not even close.
I never have.
No, but I want to, I want to jump back a little and not tell your story, but I've heard you
tell this before.
You guys spent a couple of hours till the sunrise right outside my tent when I was snoring,
right? Talking about two years ago.
Yeah, two years ago.
And I remember you telling, cause you discovered that you had both gone to like your first
concert was the same tour.
Yeah.
You had a lot, you had a lot more similarities than most people.
That's what I remember.
And I remember thinking, okay, these two probably this could, you know,
I wasn't going to say anything.
You were both staying up till three in the morning talking.
It was like five in the morning.
Excuse me. Five in the morning.
It was pretty lights.
I think I went to bed when I rolled out.
Yeah. It was, it was late night set.
And you mind this is, this is not drugs and alcohol versions of me.
This was pretty nights, late night set, sunset set night.
So whatever the last year, whatever year was it, that was Saturday night.
And so we could hear it from where we were at.
So that was, that was neat too.
But yeah, we went to our very first show was cracker, spin, spin doctors and Jim blossoms
on the 94 tour.
Completely different parts of the country.
Yeah. She was in somewhere in the Northeast going to it.
And I was in Atlanta going to it.
So we both went, we both went to Woodstock 99.
We both gone to, to Bonnarooo by ourselves in a lot of ways over the years to just,
to just do it in different capacities.
Very, very, very similar trajectories on a lot of this music stuff.
And then also being a grungers and just almost like historians of the early,
like the grunge part, not, not once it kind of gets diluted later into the eight nineties,
I lose track and care, but like the late eighties into the early two thousands,
that whole 2019, that whole, all the bands you've never heard of, right?
Like the people you can't even talk to people who are like love Nirvana or something.
And like, Oh, what about Tad?
And I was a f***** Tad.
Like, you know, like these, this is, this is further than that.
So it really did.
There were a lot of dots to be connected,
but being still my normal, just kind of dismissive self.
I'm like, okay, she seems pretty neat when, you know, lives on the other side of the world.
So what do you want me to do about it?
You know, and then it took about another year from that.
And then now we're, you know, we are where we're at and what happens from here.
We'll find out, you know, I'll talk about it here and there if you want to know,
let's follow along.
But so, so throw together quickly on the year I was supposed to be done after Bonnarooo,
like I had a bunch early this year, Mexico, Pearl Jam for multiple nights,
Bonnarooo all crammed together.
So I was ready to just feed up, you know, chores and a few local things and be done with it.
Next thing you know, I'm having planned a trip to Washington state.
So you never know where life's going to go, but we need to start somewhere guys.
I know where I want to start.
I know where I want to start.
Post office.
Okay.
We're all in the same.
We're all in the same spot.
Now here's the deal with the post office.
There's a couple of things I had to print out.
Here it is.
The Wikipedia of the post office, the post office itself has it own.
What do you just meet me?
Of course I printed.
This post office, just the quickest background was built because it was
designed to be like the federal building in the late 1800s because as settlement of that area,
there was no big port yet.
And so there was a lot of competition to see who would start to get the more trade
and become what Seattle was.
I'm going back 150 years here.
So this was built as a way, almost how we build sometimes, at least in the older portions of this
decade or this century where build a stadium with the hopes of bringing the events kind of thing,
or we're going to do like the Olympics a lot of times do those kinds of things.
This is what this was in primitive settlement and it didn't work.
And then the city never really became what it was.
So this post office is ridiculous.
There's no reason for it to be this beautiful and this huge and this exaggerated on design and style
and architecture.
So that's the first part of it.
The other, what brings it up and the reason I just kind of threw it away and they got a cool post
office and then it may get made fun of ever since is think about it.
They, the reason this came up, they sell things in Washington state.
That's legal that I can't purchase here back in Tennessee.
And I needed to mail myself some things, not that I put a quote from one of your shows when I was
gone, what's he going to mail himself a postcard?
I think that was you taco.
No, not a postcard, a backup in my, yeah.
So that's, that's where that came from.
So that's why you visited the post office.
That was the main reason for visiting the post office.
And after, after having that discussion of, well, you know, I don't know, never mailed myself
things I can't buy in Tennessee.
I'm not sure how this works.
It's simple, put it in an envelope and send it to yourself.
Now it makes perfect sense.
And so as I mentioned that, I was like, oh, this post office is amazing.
I'm like, okay, I look it up.
It really is pretty awesome.
I like old architecture or whatever.
So that's, you should have sent Ross a postcard from the post office just so he'd have it.
I would appreciate it.
Yeah.
Next time.
That would have been a really good idea.
And I, and a really smart ass response on the back of it would have been even better.
My bad on that one.
From me.
Hi from the post office.
But no, it's beautiful.
It's beautiful.
But yes, I wanted to get a few things back home and it worked by the way.
The old Mitch Hedberg joke.
I like the FedEx driver because he's a drug dealer and he don't even know it.
And he's always on time.
That's good.
Anyway, I don't know what the federal laws are on any of that, but it all worked out just fine.
The main thing-
Seattle too, right?
Yeah, I was going to say.
So you went obviously to see Bath who again, you know through Bonnarooo, but also
that's kind of talking about wheelhouse that part of the country created a lot of,
has a special meaning to you, right?
Music.
Yeah.
I mean, just from my youth, you know, the most formative years of coming together of music and
really, you know, deciding who or not deciding, but being formed of what I was going to be and
what I'd be into and the way my brain would function in a lot of ways.
I mean, that's why formative years are quite important in the youth.
At the time people thought I was going to hell, right?
Like, you know, a little bit down in the, you know, Baptist filled Bible belt, you know,
rock and roll was still kind of the bad guy.
So I joke with my mom.
If you took away my favorite music when I was a kid, you would have destroyed my entire identity
for the rest of my life.
So when I hear like, oh, they shouldn't listen to that.
Are you sure?
Yeah.
You sure they shouldn't?
Cause maybe they should, you know, I know it can get a little sideways on some of that stuff,
but yeah, a couple of things before we get to that, because it was only the end of the trip
because it was, it was, it's such an amazing state, just visually, landscape wise, weather wise.
Fascinating.
The fascination was like childlike.
It was just like, whoa, like from riding a ferry to, to going over to all these different
islands that are all in the, what they call Puget Sound, that waterway that spills over
the peninsula that goes down in that creates the Seattle Bay.
I was just thought Seattle was just hanging off the edge of the state in the Pacific ocean.
Yeah.
I looked it up because I wasn't sure.
You know, I just looked up a map of the state and port Townsend, like you said, is on that peninsula.
The very tip.
It's not that far in a straight line from Seattle, but there's a whole body of water in between.
So you've either got to drive all the way down and around, or you said you took a ferry to Seattle?
Well, no, to another one of the islands that are just everywhere throughout all those waterways,
you can get a ferry to Seattle.
It's like 35 miles.
If you just get on a, on a map and you get the, you know, the little ruler out and you do the
actual mileage, it's nothing, but it's almost like a Panama Canal thing here.
So if we don't do something different, you're going to drive all the way around.
And it's, and which it actually turns out that that might be the best way to do it.
Still only talking about a couple hours.
Probably on your trip into Seattle.
But once I got into this, to this peninsula, it didn't matter.
Seattle's this big town over here.
We'll get over there when we get there.
This is like, I mean, the backdrop of port Townsend, I mean, this is a view here, just
a best front porch here.
I'm just kind of setting up some of the slides you'll see on YouTube.
If you get a chance, if you're audio only, YouTube might be a good place to get a look
at some of these, this, this show in particular, but that's just our front yard.
The foothills of all the, I mean, these are tiny foothills and they're massive.
I mean, we come from an area where we call things mountains that are just little hills.
Right, right, right.
These are still just little hills, but they're far bigger than I'm normally seeing.
And it really keeps the temperature.
It's a, it's a very comfortable place to live.
It's not hot.
It's not cold.
It's, it's right in between both.
It doesn't even really get a whole lot of rain.
It stays wet a lot of the year, but it doesn't get a whole lot of rain.
And so, yeah, we took the ferry and this is the drive on ferry over to the one state park we
went to in this area.
It's called deception park.
Just as it's mostly just beautiful views in this, this really cool bridge.
I'm an old guy who likes bridges and dams these days.
You know, it's, it, it, it captures my attention quickly.
I know Barry's rolling his eyes at me.
Oh, I'm just, no, the image that people have of Brian just keeps crumbling.
Well, when you get stuck without cable TV, and all I got is 90s documentaries on the,
you know, the, the things that powered America.
I love those.
I love those too.
I know.
The food they built, the beer they built.
Oh, yeah.
All of them.
And so, yeah, the bridges that connected America.
I watched them all.
And so we went to do that big, big time, but I'm telling you, getting on a, I've been on a ferry
in New York city with Brad Steiner to go across one of the rivers, East Hudson, whatever it is.
That's just like getting on a speedboat and just flying across.
Like that to me, that was just getting on a boat.
I've been on a boat.
It's this nice day.
I'm having fun driving onto a ferry and then taking a 30 minute trip across to an island
in this, in its own little docking kind of, you know, infrastructure that's,
that's its own transit system built by and paid for and taken care of by the state
within the transit system.
I was like a child.
I was like, we drive on the boat and then we get to look out the window.
This is insane.
Like I thought it was one of the coolest things ever.
And then Barry, you'll love this.
They have a still people answer the phone and all the, all the things you would hope
to come out of a journalistic, at least on a very small level, newspaper in that town,
the leader it's once a month, once a week.
So, you know, we'd all rather be a little more than that, but it's good coverage, good writing,
thoughtful coverage.
I mean, it's not just like the Jubilee is this weekend, bring your pot of chili.
Like it's, it's a right actual news stories and they have a radio station, KPTZ.
And they, they just, I was just like, uh, Hey, can I have a sticker?
You know, normally you show up to a radio.
Hey, I'm in radio.
I'd like to see your station.
Like, you know, Howard Stern, uh, and I miss on the private parts thing.
Right.
Fuck it.
I hear like people aren't too interested in that guy was like, come on in, show me the whole
place. It was very cool. Very throwback town. I mean, time stands still at this place.
Think kind of the backdrop of sorta, but not as exaggerated like the goonies.
Okay.
You can think the way that that's in May that's up in the Northeast, but it's got that same,
the lighthouses and you're on these, these icy cold, uh, uh, uh, shores and, and these just
Victorian beautiful houses everywhere. So it stands still in that way, except you got high
speed internet. You got all the, you got grocery, you got high. I mean, you got everything you need.
It's a very, very, very, very cool town. Plus weed and all the weed at the post office.
And you can go to the post office, not telling you what to do once you get to the post office,
but you can't do that. And so I spent most of the week doing that and some other stuff that
I won't bore you with here if I haven't already. And then the final little run here that I think
more on the show will be interested in is just the music component to this. So yeah,
there was a level of I'm going to Seattle and I've wanted to do it for 35 years. And then I get here.
I'm like, yeah, right. If we make it, we make it, you know? Um, and, but mostly joking, we did on
the final day do a whole day there. And it started off at, um, the grave site, which is in Bremerton,
about halfway from where she is to Seattle of Andrew Wood. And that name doesn't mean anything
to anybody unless I quickly tell you why. So I'll do it as fast as I can. The, the, the tentacles
of the grunge movement, mother love bone is the name of the band that Andrew Wood was a singer for.
And they were the band before Nirvana had a bleach was out. The sub pop record bleach from Nirvana was,
was released, but it had not, it bleach wasn't popular until nevermind made bleach popular.
And so nevermind was not released yet. And mother love bone was the first band out of all these
sound garden was a band at that time. Alison change was barely a band at that time. They were
the first ones to get signed to a major label Capricorn records. And they were about to release
these, these records and where they worked, would they become big? No telling chance. Maybe not.
Cause the music was a very different style, but that was what was happening. And then he,
Andrew would died of a heroin overdose in 1990. And the core band members, basically the, the
guitar player and the bass player went on to create Pearl Jam like six months later, any better, just
through a friend of a friend says, Hey, these guys just lost their lead singer. You want to go hang
out with them six to eight months later, they're on Sony Epic records. A year later, they're the
biggest band in the world. I mean, from nobody's to international superstars in a year and a half.
So that story in alone just fascinates me enough as to what could have possibly happened with all
of these bands. If this one that was already destined to success, the mother love bone band,
if they make it, he doesn't die. Whatever happens with Eddie, whatever happens with these other guys
that were all working in different, the bands changed hands a lot, you know, mud honey, another
one in there, just a, I can get lost in fascination on that. So seeing his grave site was, was a,
a bigger deal than most people would think. And then all in the same vein, the next stop was the
singles, the movie singles, the camera crow movie that came out in 1992. That was a, a cheesier kind
of film. It's not that great, but it's a, for those of us that loved it when we were young,
when it at the, in the, in the moment in 1992, it was a very good depiction of what Seattle was like.
And so the apartment complex that they have so many iconic scenes, we went to that apartment
and took some pictures and boy, to me, that was as good as going to a museum.
I mean, it was just as, as cool as it could be well kept and not many people around.
And it's hard to explain how neat that was. I mean, Barry, I don't want to do
Abbey road stuff on you here. No, I was just sitting here thinking it'd be like me going
to Liverpool or, or even Athens, Georgia. You know, I mean, we talked about Devo a couple of
weeks ago that Athens was, was the place for, yeah, like the automatic, the automatic for the people
diner, right? That RM named their album for, I can imagine people going to that diner and just
being like, for almond brothers, fans going down, I get it making completely. And so like, I could,
I could see that being the same kind of response. And it kind of was, I was traveling that day. So
it was kind of an emotional day all the way around. It's kind of hard to get your head around
everything. And it was the only real hot day there. So it didn't bother me none, but, but it's,
it can't people get hot quickly around there. So it was kind of aftermath where I was like this,
boy, this is about as cool as it gets being able, you know, with this, this apartment complex is in
the middle of downtown Seattle. Like there could have been cars everywhere. There could have been
people hanging out the balconies. They could have had a party going on. They could have been having
a picnic or whatever, no one around. It's almost like they said, Brian and Beth are coming. Everybody
scatter so they can get pictures and walk around and trespass. It really, it was really set up that
nicely. And so after that though, the main thing, and we were running out of time quick cause my
flight was at seven 30 that night, which was a Saturday night. So about two weeks ago,
then we did go to the, you, you, you insinuated this, that we would be headed as far as markets
go. Farmer's markets to the Pike place market, which was pretty cool. We went, we went though on
a 90 degree Saturday, a beautiful, and it's saying 90 like around here, guys. I mean, it's not, it's
not much different, but it's, I had long sleeves on, I just pulled them up. It was not a big deal.
Crowded as it could be. Holy geez was every person in the world going to Pike place market that day.
You think they think the fish throwing stuff, right? You've seen that somewhere on a
Nat Geo or something. Let's show you the weirdest place to buy fish, you know? And then they
sling it around. I didn't quite make it to that. They have the bubble gum wall. Have you heard of
this? The post alley bubble gum wall or I don't know for 40 years, people just put gum on the wall.
And now it's just walls of filth. So it's number two on the food and wine list. And they'd also
is the inspiration for the Chattanooga market. Nick Jessen, who started the Chattanooga market
in 2002, spent a lot of time in 2000, 2001 out there in Portland and that one. Those two markets
were the inspirations. I remember Nick Jensen back in the day. Yeah. And our guy, Chris Thomas is the
head of things now. And he travels the country going to markets and they've done, we have a
great one here in Chattanooga, by the way, if you ever, I mean, it's not Pike place market,
but it's still pretty darn cool for our city. Number nine, it's the best in the South,
according to the list by far. It's really, really good. And so, and I'm a big farmers market guy.
I love them. I love the concept, but I did walk around thinking who's coming here to buy produce.
My God, this is the most, I mean, $40 to park. I mean, this is still monster big city. Like this
is in the heart of monster big city. So that was another reason why I was like, okay, well, we did
a little bit of Seattle here. I kind of want to go back to sleepy, sleepy town over here.
But yeah, it was, it was pretty darn cool to see and some, and some cool pictures and all that.
And right down the street from there, just a couple of these slides, which will just pop in here and
there, but the show box, the old theater that's been in danger of being torn down and turned into
a condos countless times that many of the local Pearl Jam's, Allison Chains, Duff McKagan from
Guns N' Roses is a Seattle guy and a loud activist Seattle guy. And a handful of others all came in
to get the show box saved. So all the bands you've ever heard of in the nineties played shows at the
show box. So that was neat to see. And then of course the space needle on the way out there,
their arena, and I'll wrap this up here shortly as I'm, yeah, we're basically done on that, but
their arena, the climate pledge arena is the old one that's supersonics, the basketball team used
to play in. And they've rent the, rather than, I guess, with a name like climate pledge arena,
you better do something different. Rather than tear it down, rather than tear it down and build
a new one. They did a massive eco-friendly, supposedly refurbished and renovation.
And it's right down by the space needle. It looks really, really cool. And it doesn't have a ton of
historical relevance to me, but it looked cool. And right next to that is the MoPOP museum, which
is my next stop next time I'm out there. It's the pop culture, but focusing on a lot of that stuff
from the nineties, they got the monorail going through there, like in and out of the museum
itself. It's very, very, very cool looking, but that was just drive-by stuff. It was like,
we got a little bit of time. Let's see, try to take a look as many things as possible.
But by that time it was pretty much over. And then it took me 17 hours to get home.
All right. Well, cool. And it was, it's a really nice story. I mean, you guys know Beth,
you know, I try to tell my friend, I try to tell my friends that don't know any better
and who just going to roll their eyes when I'm like, this one's different guys. Like, okay.
Now I'll tell you how she is. She is different. And I'll tell you my, my, the, when I think of
she's a grownup, she's a grown ass grownup. She's a grownup. And I mean that with all respect.
Yeah. That's a great, that's a great way to put it, Barry. She is a grownup.
I have never been one of those. That's why it comes. It came to me. I was like,
what's different? Oh, she's a grownup. I'm getting better. I'm getting better at being a grownup.
Still struggling with it, but also, Hey, let's not lose focus on the, look at the hat. More trees,
less assholes. How about that? There it is. There's Brian.
Of course, with Beth being a, a professionally trained wordsmith, it's grammatically should be
more trees, fewer assholes. So she's hung up. She's hung up on that. She's hung up on that.
All right. So you still got your dig in. You still,
Listen, us dummies here in Chad and in the South ain't going to know any difference with grammar.
I already got one. My biggest, my big thing like that is the Dylan song,
Lay, Lady, Lay. It should be Lie, Lady, Lie. And that just doesn't work. It doesn't work.
No, no, that doesn't work. Don't let grammar get in the way of a good song lyric.
If you guys are interested in hearing more about Brian's trip, including his discovery of the
classic movie, an officer and a gentleman, which I was stunned to learn you had no clue about
until your trip. Go to Stone On Air. I don't want anymore. You cover it.
Ad nauseum on Stone On Air. Well, that shows, you know, I got a lot of time to build. It's just me.
Right. So quickly though, an officer and a gentleman at 1982, Richard Gere movie was,
was filmed in the city that I was at that she's from. You, you, you hated that movie,
liked it. I liked it. Okay. I was just stunned. You'd never heard of it until your trip.
That was a huge movie. So I only heard, I recognize like the VHS box cover, right? Like Richard
gear on it. And my, and my mom was a Richard gear fan. So I, I was familiar, but it was in,
it was 1982, Barry. It wasn't such a classic that by 92 or 95, I had to make sure and watch it.
You know, it didn't probably come around when you're 14, 15 year, I gotta watch this movie.
So I get it. It's just funny. But, uh,
Wayne's world spoofed it in 95. I think it was, there wasn't a big callback to be like,
Oh, we gotta, you gotta make sure and go watch that two and a half hour love story montage from
1982. That cheesy, I watched it. I'm gonna watch it again. I loved it. Cause it's,
I shouldn't have brought it up. Well, I wonder how much, and if you want to know all about the
tax code of the state of Washington, man, this is riveting stuff. Hey, hey, gotta fill the time
somehow, but boy, all seriousness to wrap it up as, as fun of a trip as I've done in a long time.
And I do a lot of fun stuff. And, um, that state is a wondrous state is wonder risk Washington
state. Bring your wallet, bring your wallet, but it is a, it is a one, I mean, volcanoes,
glaciers, rainforests, uh, post office, post office, ferries, ferries that I didn't know.
I don't know. I feel like, yeah, a fairy bro. All right. Well, see, this is what Bonnarooo can bring
you. Take a trip and never leave the farm. It's a, it's a, it's a classic story. And, and Beth is,
is great. And, and you guys already know, and she's been on the show a few times. She'll be on again.
So yeah, we would love to have her back on. She's a great guest and we love talking to her. She's
part of our camp and, um, and you alluded to it. I'm sorry, Russ, go ahead. I'm speaking of,
I think she's coming back on this side of the planet for a cave fest here next month, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Cave Fest, which, uh, quickly before Barry hold that thought you had, uh, just, they
released their lineup for cave fest and I wish it was flip-flops. Sam Bush is going to be the
headliner on the amphitheater stage on Saturday. And then leftover salmon will be the headliner
on the amphitheater stage on Sunday for cave fest at the caverns, October 11th and 12th wish it was
the other way around for my preference, but nobody cares or asked what I thought. So it should be a
fun time and Beth will be here for it. I was just going to first of all say the caverns is our
second favorite place. Uh, we got to hear from, uh, Parker last week about red rocks. Uh, so, um,
if you guys are at all interested in a great music venue and good music, uh, try to come down and
see a show, come to caverns. Uh, but what I was also going to say just to, just to pick on Brian
a little more, and you've probably thought about this, but how you've complicated your life. You
live in Chattanooga. She lives in Portland. What's it called? Port Townsend. She's from Maine. So
she's from Maine. Let's just draw that triangle on the map sometime. Just from Maine and spends
a lot of time in Philadelphia. Oh man. So it's like, ain't on the way. Say no. No, and I'm just a small
town boy. Right. I'm just a small town kid. I'm a John Mellencamp song, man. I'm just
born in a small town. I can't, I just, I just got overwhelmed by New York a couple of times.
I can't go to Philadelphia. I'll lose it. You better start getting those Delta sky miles.
Oh my God. Way too poor for stuff like that, but we'll see where it goes from here. You know, it's,
that's the story that's just coming together. And it was, it was going to be a good fodder for us.
That's all I know. Hey, let's do it. That's something to talk about. Yeah. All right. What
else? More trees, less assholes guys. Anything else guys? I think that's got it for me this week.
Thank you for listening to all that guys. I appreciate it. All right. Yeah. Not a lot of
Bonnarooo news, but we appreciate you sticking with us in the off season. We've got a lot of stuff
coming up. We've mentioned Shaking Knees, Cave Fest, IBMA here in Chattanooga and the post office.
So what more could you want? It's jam packed. Let's get on the other side of Cave Fest and then we
will hit Bonnarooo. We'll start talking to Bonnarooo people hot and heavy. So it's coming. All right.
Thanks guys for listening.
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