Whether it's your first Bonnaroo or you’re a music festival veteran, we welcome you to Inforoo.
Here you'll find info about artists, rumors, camping tips, and the infamous Roo Clues. Have a look around then create an account and join in the fun. See you at Bonnaroo!!
Post by doobiedewey on Mar 6, 2006 19:56:25 GMT -5
Hey all, I figured I'd try to start a favorite bonnaroo moments thread.... music or non-music related...
I've only been to the first roo.. and I must say I remember waking up at 5am and watching the U.S. play Germany in the world cup with a couple hundred other loyal soccer fans willing to start the day incredibly early. The U.S. totally outplayed Germany and the excitement and good vibes in the cinema tent during the game gave me enough energy to last til 5am the next day after the KDTU set. That night's Keller Incident 1st set and the KDTU second set was my favorite music moment as well.
The one thing I definitely plan on doing more off this year is jumping between acts. I remember jumping between robert randolph, ben harper, jack johnson, and cheese that first year... even though my friends went back and drank in between randolph and sci... and i managed to catch some great musical moments... imagine if i caught some particle in there too...
I was just about to say that '02 KDTU set. sick, dont think i caught the keller though. i think i remember hearing bout that game too. i was at the germany vs usa world cup game in 98 when we got our asses kicked. and welcome back to roo, i havent been back for a couple years either till this year.
Post by Lucid Interval on Mar 6, 2006 23:37:05 GMT -5
Last year for sure was the Allman Brothers set. My first time seeing them and they opened with Mountain Jam which is my fav track off of Eat A Peach and then went on to cover the Band's "the night the drove ol dixie down" and "franklins tower" by the dead... I'll never forget that show.... That and hearing dear Prudence by Yonder mt string, ratdog and one other band all last year maybe it was allmans, i dont remember...
One of my best moments was in 2004, Sunday Evening. Getting off my tired butt and on my sore, sore feet I walked the LONG distance to centeroo from my campsite to see a show. Most people were hitting up the SuperJam but I was going with my instinct and went to see Bill Laswell's Material. Man am I glad I did...
Post by deadhead61088 on Mar 7, 2006 16:24:56 GMT -5
Umphrey's Mcgee latenight set at '04. There was the sick moe. switch jam, then Umphrey's were supposed to come winding down, and basically said "fuck it," and played for another hour at least.
Our first Bonnaroo was last years unfortunatly...Oh but it was awesome...Wanted to goto 04 though...But, my favorite nonmusic moment was when this huge black guy came up to us in a raincoat (in the campgrounds) and was wantin to score some tea...He was willin to pay 100 for a j...He was obviously freaked out over somethin...After talkin to him awhile we found out he was "watching" someone sell nitrous and the cops busted em...He ended up gettin in a fight with the cops after gettin arrested and escaped into a tent. He then pulled out a wad of cash with his handcuffed hands and told us to take his money..We just gave him a toke and a beer and sent him on his way (with his money)..Crazy..And my favorite music moment was watchin the rain of glowsticks at trey's set.
Post by crazybengalsfan on Mar 8, 2006 9:02:39 GMT -5
2004 The Dead- standing in a terrential downpour under the beerbooth on wheels' umbrella waiting for the rain to subside and the Dead to come on. The rain stopping and skies clearing. Nothing but millions of stars in the sky. Out of nowhere "Tennessee Jed". Not to mention a sick face melting "Shine on You Crazy Diamond".
Mine, so far, had to have been the late night Trey show in 05. Even though Bo Bice joined the stage for a couple songs ( i had to make sure i wasnt hallucinating .. . lol) then matisyahu ended with Trey. very cool
well, first of all, every freakin' moment i'm there is memorable!!! but prolly a toss up between a few performances tho. -04 the Dead w/ warren haynes sittin in -04 dave and friends -05 allman brothers band set -05 the jack show in the pourin' rain with that crazy kid that climbed that huge ass tree in the middle. all amazing, all would be good additions this year!
For my first Roo initiation last year, wandering into Centeroo Thursday night and catching (and falling in love with) ALO as they were switching up their Barbecue lyrics to "welcome to your Bonnaroo" and from that moment on the whole weekend was amazing- it was the perfect start.
Other moments: - The Frames. Everything about them. - Jack & rain - Meeting Herbie Hancock (and getting him to autograph my Safari Hat) - Meeting Kermit Ruffins again - Falling down on my knees in the game tent, thanking the video game gods for being able to play Marble Madness for an entire hour between sets
Post by famousblueraincoat on Mar 8, 2006 16:40:20 GMT -5
My Morning Jacket in '04 during what appeared to be an oncoming tornado. Jim James' hair made him was blown back like he was in a wind tunnel, but they fought through the show, rain, thunder, lightning, and impending doom passed, and it turned out to be the most incredible show I saw that year. For a minute there, I really felt like Jim James could control the weather. And his voice...still haunts me now.
In 2004 when the heavy rains hit on Saturday, dancing in the rain and mud with a whole bunch of people to Robert Earl Keen. Also that year, wandering away from the Superjam over to Material (with Buckethead) and watching the sky change from black to orange as he played a sick solo
Post by melikecheese on Mar 9, 2006 18:25:34 GMT -5
sammyo said:
-05 the jack show in the pourin' rain with that crazy kid that climbed that huge ass tree in the middle.
that was crazy!! That was a HUGE tree. I was waiting for something bad to happen, thank good he didnt fall. I do recal one guy falling from a little bit up.
I have to say my fav moment was last your 'rollin' into the secret machines late night set for one of the best sets I ever saw.
hey- im new, well new account, but ive been viewing the boards for a few months now.
I too remember remember when that guy climbed up that huge ass tree. I recall him dangling by his arms, but you got to understand- the tree he was in was wa-a-y up there! it was crazy...
At night time, it was complete madness- our camp got so loud and rowdy, security had to come...crazy naked people- cars creeping around ver-r-r-y slowly until they hit porta-johns....so much you cant put into words. Ha ha...
My favorite non music moment was the first time I ever stepped foot (well tire) on the farm. It was in 03. My brother and I were driving down the gravel road to get in and the first thing we see is some chick in a cowboy hat hanging out the driver side door of a truck. She was giving some lucky guy the ride of his life. My brother and I looked at each other and said what the heck have we discovered here. Every bonnaroo moment since then has been amazing.
Music wise, it's a tie between Michael Franti bringing out a guy dressed as SpongeBob in 03 during Stay Human, and Dave Matthews doing All Along The Watchtower with Robert Randolf. I'm not that big of a Dave fan, but that was amazing.
The first year was awesome... I remember riding into the 'roo... we drove past centeroo and the "stadium" stage. We were greated bay by strangers the whole way thru. Moe late night was awesome (jammy show of the year). Trey's closing set was great! The opening Push On was wonderous.
The second year was my least memorable. but i caught STS9 for the first time during their late night set. It was great, and when Gordo sat in for the last song.... the crowd went nuts. Neil's set was fantastic, as well. He never jams like that! Every song seemed to last at least 12 minutes... he brought out the dove of peace.... sounded like fucking dinosaurs were creepin!
The third year was my second favorite. Chris Robinson was great, steve earle, and then JMP after the rain. The dead played a great set after the storm, and then walking to primus thru the mud... wow what a trippy show! Hard rocking! fucking primus sucks!
Last year: the mars volta, the word, sts9, jurassic 5, de la soul.
I must agree with attornaroo that MMJ's 2004 set was absolutely mindblowing. I get goosebumps still when I remember it. I wish that they had the full performance on DVD so that I could watch it repeatedly. However, my very favorite band performance was the Lips late night set the second year. They were freaking incredible and I have been jonesing for them to be there again ever since. But my very fav roo was the first year--it was my first festival and still the most incredible experience of my life. Just the amazing combo of fantastic friendly people and vibes, great music, and,well, just everything. Probably everyone's first experience is like this. I was just overwhelmed in the best way possible.
Dude, I was so sad when I woke up Sunday morning and saw The Purple Octopus lying there limply. That and it became much harder to find my way back to camp.
Last year was my first time and man the whole thing was a blast! The best music moment though was during John Prine a huge lightning bolt struck right at the end of one of his songs. Everyone could feel it. He looked out at the crowd and said something like "Whoa, that was a great one!" Absolutely awesome.
Bonnaroo 2004 Come Together, Right Now Writer: Jay Sweet From www.pastemagazine.com ~~ Issue 11
Im fried. Thats what Bonnaroo does to you. Its like a huge Tennessee deep fryer. It immerses you in a massive vat of sizzling hot music for three days and you come out the other side extra crispy. How else do you explain the madness? You could try to extract some sense of logic from the numbers (3 days, 80 bands, 90,000 people, 700 acres, 7 stages, 1 million pounds of ice, over 6,500,000 watts of electrical power, three scattered hours of torrential thunder and lightning sprinkled with a couple of hail and tornado warnings), but like any good mind blowing, logic is useless. However, here are the tender deep-fried, greasy, morsels that encapsulate the spirit of such a blessed event as ingested by one overfed attendant.
Randomly finding an old college buddys drivers license on a hotel lobby floor and then running into him 10 minutes later amidst 90k people after not having seen him in eons.
A twisted Abbott and Costello routine being played out in a Lewis Carrol-designed theme park, as we navigate around the What Stage, the Which Stage, past This Tent and That Tent and the Other tent to see Papa Mail at Another tent.
Watching Black Keys drummer (and Hanson Brothers doppelganger) Patrick Carney beat and whip his snare with the wingspan of a turkey buzzard while wearing a shirt that reads Keep Your Emotions in Motion.
Seeing Wilcoin all their jean-jacket coolnesscrank, twist, jolt and spank out a War on War that has a sober Tweedy playing over his head, literally. Jaws clank off the aluminum bleachers with a resounding din.
Chris Robinson serenading the merciful sunset with a gut-ripping and salacious send up of Ride, while the audience convulses and contorts like a bunch of boneless chickens in a swirling sauna of backstage dry-ice smoke.
Dylan challenging Madonna as the champ of revamp. Ditching the pencil-thin mustache, swingincowboy, bow-legged crooner from the carnival circuit for Mr. Piano Man on cough syrup, which of course bows to his enigmatic, contemptuous, impervious, poetic, sardonic and (at times) insufferable mystique. I miss the troubadour in the neo-Nudie suits already.
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings pining for beautifully poor souls, like a lost Steinbeck book on tape.
Watching a new friend weep openly at the poignancy and validity of Dave Matthews and Treys Anastasios acoustic version of Waste, just before most of the 90,000 people start softly clapping and humming to Bathtub Gin with intimate fervor, Trey gently rapping his guitar with a single knuckle, like a massive sing-along where no one wants to wake the baby.
Tim Reynolds releasing the parking brake on Sly and The Family Stones Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), savagely accosting his guitar by biting it, slapping it and twisting the tuning pegs until his amp seemingly gives birth to the Death Star. He delivers last rites by ripping off his shirt, throwing it over his convulsing guitar and leaving us and the band to wallow in the waves of screech owl feedback bleeding into our ears like the Emergency Broadcast System on steroids. No one moves; no one knows if its music or if it should simply be put out of its misery. Bravely, the band rides it out and the bad joke comes around again, but this time its dirty. Tony Hall bobs and weaves through its nastiness. Anastasio stands over drummer Brady Blade as both play the same drum kit, like some Hindu deity with countless appendages. Matthews dances as if being attacked by a tickling swarm of millipedes; pure joistless frothing as the bolts on the hinges slowly turn lefty-loosey.
Waking up in a 120-degree tent at 8:00 a.m. the next morning , downing three quarts of water and a stack of blissful blueberry pancakes.
Having a private acoustic show from My Morning Jackets Jim James in the press tent where you can actually see hes human and not Cousin It from The Adams Family.
Gomez, Mindy Smith, Grandaddy, Govt Mule and Del McCoury overlapping, leaving me wanting to speak with the manger of this establishment.
My Morning Jacket preaching high on the mountaintop, conjuring up the souls of Duane, SRV and Ronnie Van Zant, complete with rolling thunderheads, lightening balls and tornado warnings.
Warren Hayes encoring with Princes When Doves Cry.
Chris Robinson mourning the death of Ray Charles in the food line, It should be a catalyst to start recognizing Great American Musicians in their lifetime, before theyre gone.
Doc Watson telling everyone to Keep it quiet or Im out of here.
Watching riggers scale the monolithic What Stage, relieving the roof of the remnants of a two-hour rain delay, which fall in 60-gallon bursts on the patiently waiting people in the front row.
All the people in the front row laughing.
Steve Winwood playing bass for his entire set with his left foot.
A soaking sea of people chanting Rain or Shine as sheets of spitting precipitation lash out. The PA answers them by blasting The BeatlesCome Together, right now and then kills the volume so the audience can answer OVER ME!
Jigging onstage, arm-in-arm with cyber genius, cattle rancher, Grateful Dead lyricist and Cognitive Dissident John Barlow as the Dead unleash the soundtrack for this bewitching primordial hootenanny.
The Master of Ceremonies of the Mardi Gras paradecomplete with beads, buskers and belly dancersis the real American Idol, William Hung, in the flesh, belting out Ricky Martins She Bangs on a monstrous Mr. T float at the stroke of midnight.
Triangulating myself to clearly hear Primus, Ween and Robert Randolph playing simultaneously on different stages depending on which way I cup my ears.
Sunday with Taj Mahal after a long Saturday night.
Robert Randolph and the boys from moe. glued to David Byrne singing a song in Italian, then in Spanish, before breaking into the This Must Be the Place (Nave Melody). Goosebumps and throat lumps abound.
Trey Anastasio conducting a 40-person orchestra through a self-composed fugue and ripping Devil Went Down To Georgia (both within an hour of each otherboth for the first time, both in front of 90,000 deep fried, tender, crispy, happy people).
Having the good fortune of interviewing, Los Lobos, Gomez, My Morning Jacket, Guster and Kings of Leon, but getting the best interview from Laurel Brown, a 10-year-old from Knoxville, Tenn. I saw reggaenot Britney Spears but Burning Spearsand on the stage their music would come up through my feet and shake my whole body. Amen.
But the one defining moment was sharing a beer with the baritone sax player from Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra as he offered, everyone is music; we all listening carefully and dancing wisely, for music can break the chains of violence and bad hatred. Thirty seconds later Femi Kutis baritone sax player comes over with wet eyes and shows us his sax, which has been severely damaged during its trip from Africa. With a few hand gestures and no interpretable words spoken between them, the man from Japan handed the one working baritone sax at the entire festival over to the African with a shy smile. Ten minutes later we stand on the side of the stage watching Femis horn section rip a hole in the sky. You see my friend? Fully converted, I nod bewildered.
Digesting the weekend I realize Bonnaroo is simply music with heart, soul and foresight with some mud wrestling thrown in for good measure.
My favorite memory from the Roo in '05 was during our 11-hour drive we kept looking for other Roogoers. We looked in every car, truck and SUV. No Roo'ers were to be found.
More than halfway through the trip, we came up on a girl driving by herself in her car, which was piled up with camping gear. She look tired and bored. We held up a hand-made sign that said "ROO!!" REAL BIG. She finally looked over and saw the sign ... then the look of pure happiness on her face was priceless. She was laughing, grinning and punching the air with her get-your-party-on fists. It was an awesome moment.
Post by southerntau on Mar 28, 2006 14:11:02 GMT -5
You guys all touched on some crazy moments. The tree incident was crazy as was the dead's show in 04. Two memorable moments for me both took place for Trey's Sunday night show in 04. The first was during his set when someone in front of us tried to let off a fireworks in the crowd and it exploded in the crowd instead of going up. Hope everyone was ok. The last was Trey's Encore to First Tube while Bonnaroo exploded to an awesome fireworks display. Does anyone remember how awesome that was. Even Trey looked like he was having the time of his life.
Post by absentmind86 on Mar 28, 2006 15:14:20 GMT -5
YA! PURPLE OCTAPUSS! Completly escaped my memory untill I read this thread! I camped just down a little ways from it and my brother was pretty much right underneath of it. AW the memories. I will never forget in 02 the dead singing Tennesee. Instant Classic. In 05 my favortie memories would be The Allman Bros show, Perpetual Groove doing the rage song Pocket Full of Shells, J5 "just gonna get on my motorcyle....wait i dont think they saw that....Just gonna get on my motorcyle...", De La Sol rocked the fucking house when they brought all the ladies on stage for OOOh OOOh, Modest mouse and the brave tree climbers, and Trey who i hold close to my heart. AHHH THE GOOD TIMES! Im so ready guys. Lets do this!