Paper Thin Walls

Bonnaroo — Late but Never Stale

Over 150 acts played Bonnaroo. Some pretty big, some not as much. Needless to say it was impossible to catch every one. Much of the weekend turned into an internal debate over whether it was better to catch full sets of a few bands, or spread myself out to see as many as possible. I settled on the few approach, for the most part and am fairly pleased with the results.

But I’m new to festivals — Bonnaroo being only the second I’ve attended. I have a lot to learn, as you’ll see below.

THURSDAY
We left Parkersburg much later than originally planned, hoping to avoid waiting in the car for much of the day as traffic snaked around and through Tennessee hills on the way to the campground. You know, the inevitable wait three hours to go three miles thing?

We thought this approach would mean we could take the trip at a nice, leisurely pace, and not miss the one band I really wanted to see Thursday night — Vampire Weekend.

For the most part, this worked to our advantage. We got to Manchester around 9, got in, set up our site and was done by 11. It was a pain to get tents and canopies assembled at dusk, but the number of taillights and flashlights helped tremendously.

We headed over to Centeroo, the main festival area at Bonnaroo, and looked around, waiting for Vampire Weekend to take the stage. Apparently we changed time zones, which we didn’t know until the next morning. So, we missed Vampire Weekend, the first band I really wanted to see.

FRIDAY
We woke up early, as expected, and hung around the campsite, talking to our new neighbors — one group from Chicago and the other from Texas. The smell of pot wafted in and around our tents as someone in nearly every direction started lighting up for a wake and bake. Pearl Jam was being blasted from a stereo nearby. Dozens of people stumbled out of their tents, hazy-eyed and foggy-brained.

A good portion of the first half of the day was spent crowd-gazing, vendor tent shopping and walking — oh and eating, too.

The food selections were fantastic. I was able to easily eat vegan all weekend and a few times found some items that were downright delicious for any time, let alone at a festival.

The vendors were diverse, but consistent with what you’d expect to find at a festival — tie-dyes, hemp jewelry, hand-blown glass pieces (read as jewelry, paper weights, garden art, not pipes), artwork, etc.

The crowd seemed to be mostly middle-class yuppy white kids (an oxymoron?), all wearing Teva sandals, khaki cargos, camelbacks, and driving VWs. This is rather unfair, I’m sure, but this was my impression from those around me most of the weekend. This is as opposed to the Bob Gnarleys (grungy, ie dirty/gross, hippies) I often ran into at All Good.

The artwork was fantastic, too. Giant bobblehead statues gathered in one area lawn area. Graffiti artists tagged the walls leading into Centeroo with stencils of iconic music giants like David Bowie and Jim Morrison. One more amateurish spray job featured someone claiming Charleston, W.Va. as home. Little eco-friendly huts were built near the green zone, along with other green sculptures that dotted the landscape, reminding festival goers to recycle.

Now, on to the music. We played it straight edge Thursday night, hoping to shake off the travel fatigue in the process. As a result we caught many of the bands we had planned on seeing Friday: Minus the Bear, The Ranconteurs, Willie Nelson, M.I.A., Chris Rock and My Morning Jacket.

However, we slept through Metallica and had to miss the Swell Season, Rilo Kiley, !!! and Stephen Marley because of schedule conflicts.

Minus the Bear sounded at times a little more Pink Floyd than I expected, the Ranconteurs a little bluesier, and Willie Nelson much more awesome.

SATURDAY
Our day started out with Donavon Frankenreiter, a buddy of Jack Johnson’s, I’m told. I wasn’t really familiar with him, but my girlfriend loves him. So we went. It was a smaller stage, but enjoyable nonetheless. Because of Donavon, I missed Two Gallants, but I had to make some concessions somewhere. Score one for the girl.

From there we proceeded to listen, not watch in most cases, as the stage was too far away and the crowd too great, about 10 hours straight of music. Starting with Against Me!, moving on to the Avett Brothers, Ben Folds, Iron & Wine, Jack Johnson — with special guests Money Mark and Eddie Veder — and Pearl Jam.

An exhausting day and we didn’t even stay up for Sigur Ros, Lupe Fiasco or Talib Kweli.

Jack Johnson pleasantly surprised me. I’m not a fan, but I enjoyed his show. I think, looking back, it had more to do with being in a crowd of 50,000 people, all singing along to nearly every song, than any word or chord Jack sung or played.

Pearl Jam was fantastic, as expected. Not enough to make me crazy obsessed, as a friend wished would happen, but more than solid nonetheless.

Truth be told, the highlight for me was the Avett Brothers. I know we harp on them a lot, but this show took them to another level. Fantastic performance.

SUNDAY
We actually skipped out on Sunday. The only act I really, really cared to see was Death Cab, so we bailed, originally planning to hit up the beach on the way home (OK, way out of the way, but it sounded fun).

My second festival experience was over just like that. So as I prepare for All Good, please send your tips my way. What do you guys do? How do you avoid exhaustion and catch every band?