Festival fans got hit with an onslaught of lineups in the last couple of weeks, and Brad and Barry from The What podcast discuss and rank their favorites. Spoiler alert, it's New Orleans Jazz Fest at number 1 and then everyone else. (Get your tickets here!)
But what of Coachella (tickets here)? Or less "prestigious" events like Shaky Knees (tickets here) or Boston Calling (tickets here)? And then of course there's the biggest elephant in the room, Bonnaroo? (The What fellas may be lukewarm on Roo's 2022 bill, but loyal Bonnaroovians can still get your tickets here.)
Listen to The What podcast's full ranking of the major 2022 music festival lineups above, or what the entire episode at Consequence.
Make sure you like and subscribe to The What at the links above or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow the Consequence Podcast Network for updates on all our programs, and snag the "Radiate Positivity" T-shirt at the Consequence Shop; a portion of proceeds goes to help those impacted by Hurricane Ida.
Topics: Boston Calling, Bonnaroo, Forecastle, Shaky Knees, Jazz Fest, When We Were Young, Riverbend, Coachella
Lineup season in full swing. The What Podcast goes line by line through each and every festival announced in the last week. Coachella, Boston Calling, When We Were Young, Primavera Sound, Shaking Eats, Jazz Fest, The Good, The Bad, and everything in between. The What Podcast covering every major festival of 2022 now. And on the very corner, Brad Steiner. I think it's safe to say it is officially festival time. I don't know about you, but I was not expecting the onslaught of lineups to come out in the last couple of weeks where we kind of thought it would be a like time, Barry. We thought that we'd have a little bit of a break. No, no, no, no. Lineup after lineup after lineup after lineup comes out, even ones that we were not expecting whatsoever. Barry Courter, Brad Steiner, It's the What Podcast. I don't know where Lord Taco is today. Is everybody okay? Is Lord Taco safe? Is he healthy? Did I kill him when he came to New Orleans? It's a travel day, I guess, right? When's it? I hope I didn't kill him. When he came to town, I decided to make sure that I could really up his PBR game and take him to every dive bar in the city. We might have hit 20 different dive bars. Wow. And he'll tell you that a PBR and one tastes different than a PBR and another. Well, they all they all got four stars on untapped. Every one of them got four stars. He had a myriad of different PBRs. He had a PBR, a draft. He had a 16 ounce. He had a 12 ounce. You know, I think that the man really lived his best PBR life over the weekend. Yeah, he went to New Orleans, went crazy. He did. He went a little nutty. And hey, Barry, you're next. Where you been? I know. You know, it's time to leave the state. I have to do it. I don't know the century. I don't have to do it. Come see Brad. Hey, how are you feeling? Good. Anybody get hit with the covid? Yeah, yeah. A couple of family members, little ones. Yeah. You know, I don't know what it is, but every single person I know has had it literally every single person and to the point where like we haven't still to this day, we have not yet gotten any sort of not even the sniffles. So I say this all the time. I feel like I'm in a circular firing squad and I'm like the matrix just dodging bullets like I'm some sort of rubber man or something. It was I don't know how in the world we've survived it. But yeah, there were the week of Christmas. I mean, the person it was like five days in a row where the person that we hung out the night before the next morning test positive. Oh, you're a carrier. It might be us. We might be patient zero. I think we found out. I mean, it was like wake up in the morning who we got. All right. And then the five day countdown starts with us. You know, like, all right, well, let's see if we're screwed in the next five days. And still nothing, still nothing. We're pretty close to the same. Kelly and I are both convinced we had it way back two years ago at the, you know, this is a different strain. I know. But I know somebody's had all three strains. Oh, wow. Yeah. Since then, we haven't had I mean, little sniffles here and there. We've had like my mother, you know, had a flu kept tested negative. Wow. Yeah. Had a bunch of that. And I'm guessing she's older than you. She's a little bit older. OK, she's 80. She's almost 80. Wow. Yeah. And she did all right. Scary. And then the little ones, like I said, little ones have it have had it. Yeah. My nephew had it for a couple of days. Yeah, it's I don't I don't I mean, good for you. Good for you. Staying staying healthy because I can't have anything happen to my Barry. Well, that's why you're buried. I didn't leave the state, but the house. Let's let's be honest. Your state is probably doing as worse as any of them. That's exactly right. It's amazing. I do love this idea that you now are blaming covid for not leaving the house. It's a state when you have never left the house before. You know, before before that, having children was a great excuse because then if you didn't want to go somewhere, I wish I could. Or now it's somewhere and you want to leave early. You know, it's baby nuts, you know, I think I was exposed. I think I was exposed. I can't I can't do anything today. I mean, yeah, we're not doing it, but you'll see me out somewhere else, but not your thing. Sure. But as long as it before three p.m., that's right. You're in bed by three p.m. Yeah. Get the early bird, get the early bird buffet, turn on the dehumidifier and then you're curled up under a blanket by three. That's right. That's my so. Oh, hey, mom. Oh, hey, girl. Hey. So let's go through some of these lineups that I'm not kidding. I was not expecting so many to come at once. I think the the one that was the easiest one to sort of cross off the list was Coachella because they should have come out before before Bonnaroo. You know, they had so much drama surrounding Coachella. They lose when they kick Travis Scott off, they lose rage against the machine. They've got to, you know, another headliner they've got to fill. So, you know, for all of its purposes, I think Coachella did incredible. I said this on Twitter. If you can just pull Harry Styles out of your back pocket, you know, that's insane. Yeah. I mean, at the last second, Harry Styles comes to say that they know you may not be a pop fan. That's fine. But Harry Styles is a legit a artist. The dude is incredible. And even though you might hate One Direction and you have every right to Harry Styles is a real thing. He's a real massive artist. And frankly, I got like, but either way, I think Billy Eilish, Kanye, Harry Styles as a top line, it may not be for you, but that is a massive, massive get for an operation that was, I think, really in flux. There was going to be a point where if they didn't fill that slot, they were going to move Swedish House Mafia up in the return of, you know, those guys in the reunion there. You know, you can say that, you know, losing rage doesn't give Coachella sort of the lack of a better term, the balls that Coachella usually has. But look in a world where the festival festivals are, they don't know who they can get and how they can get them for Coachella to pick up Harry Styles and Billy Eilish and Kanye on a whim, seemingly out of nowhere. Yeah, that's incredible work. I think several things. You correct me if I'm wrong. We've said it before. You've said it before, probably first years ago that they're announcing earlier and earlier because they're all competing for the same tickets. So you know, you don't want to have a Bonnaroo announce and then you sit on it for weeks and weeks while people decide whether or they're going to spend their money. Number one. Number two, from what I'm hearing, like even our festival here got put together really quickly. It's funny. It's either really quickly or really slowly because it's taken three years in the making. Right. But most of them had lineups for last year, blew those all up and started fresh. But from what I'm hearing is once it got going, it all happened pretty quickly. I think that's because the acts are anxious to get back out and the festivals obviously are anxious to get it done. So you've had this kind of environment where everybody's ready to go to work. I did hear really early on, and this is probably back in October or September, that the Bonnaroo lineup was going to be like 75% the same lineup as 2021. And nothing seemed right about that. And I'm glad I sort of held back from going with that. But I think that that was what they tried. If I could put the pieces together from what he told me, I think that that's where they were working from. They were working from a template that they had already created. And you're right. They just eventually fall apart because look at our girl Lizzo. The reason why she's not doing it, different album cycle. The album's not done yet. She doesn't have a single that really is just sort of mediocre at Top 40 Radio, did okay at Urban Radio. Just didn't have the gas for it. And the realization that this is a really hard thing to do, I give Bonnaroo a little bit of leeway. But also, I don't know how, and we'll talk about this at the end, but I don't know how you can love the Bonnaroo lineup when there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven festivals that all announced after it and seemingly had a little bit more weight to it. Yeah. And it's not fair, as you said over the weekend as we were chatting back and forth, but that Jazz Fest lineup, I mean, it literally looks like you just went to the Live Nation website and hit their roster. I'll take all of these. Thank you. All of them. Thank you very much. Who's missing? And that's not fair because they always do an amazing job. But yeah, it's hard to read them. One thing that it seems to me is that the festivals, whether it's accidental or on purpose, are tightening their brand, if you will. They're focusing on who they're going after. Yeah. I mean, it's a good point. And I think that that brings up the first festival that I want to talk about that was completely out of left field. And I didn't see it coming and nobody whatever. When we were young is the biggest music festival reaction I have ever seen. This thing has exploded. It took over the Internet. It took over conversation. And I think the damn thing sold out in like two hours. It was such a big success. They added a second day of all the same artists. Look, you may not be a 35 year old emo girl, but a lot of I know a lot of them. I know a lot of them. This lineup is so unbelievably one lane. And it got every one of those bands in the same lane. Just another one and another one and another one and another one. And it's all in the same day. On the same day, my chemical romance paramour taking back Sunday, bring me the horizon. It's like girls, Avril Lavigne, Jimmy World. I just I none of these bands do anything for me. Boy, there is a massive audience for this. And it makes me wonder. I had this conversation with someone in the industry the other day, Barry. It makes me wonder if this resets the way that these festivals start getting programmed. Shaking Ease does an incredible job of this, of finding one lane and staying right there over and over and over and maximizing people that they can get in that space and sort of the indie rock space. This when we were young thing, I could see this thing turning into Warped Tour 2022. Take these bands and just take them around the country and do a one day, two day festival around the country. And Live Nation just can be rolling in money after that. Yeah. My guess is it's all cyclical. Probably in two, three, four or five years, whatever. I can't put a number on it, but we'll be talking about how festivals are branched out and realize they can't stay in one lane anymore. Maybe. Yeah. But it certainly feels like right now. And I told you, I wanted to mention it. Our Riverbend Festival, which has gotten not much love on this podcast over the years, applied to be in all things to all fans festival for many, many years and did it somewhat successfully, depending on how you want to define their mission. But they've got a lineup they've redone, reset, and they've got a lineup that to me is looks a whole lot like some of these others. It's very specific. It does away with the old model. And it's interesting to hear the fans reaction. People like you and me seem to really like it. The fans that wanted to get their free wristband and go down there for nothing and just hang out, hate it because they don't know anybody on it. So to be fair, to add some context, that festival that you're talking about in Chattanooga was historically a festival where old people brought lawn chairs. So if you just draw, put it in your mind, an old person bringing their lawn chair and sitting it down and staying there for the next 12 hours. And then think about the artists that they would be watching. And then that was the festival. And then they were the last holdout, other than like the Jazz Fest and the Coachella's of doing a two week nonstop thing. And then not only was it two weeks of really iffy artists, but there's always the gutter salesman walking up and down selling gutters. And in no place in any festival in the world do you have something like this. So it needed a lot of, they needed a wrinkle, iron out some of the wrinkles of this thing. And it sounds like they have, and the lineup is very nice. And it's the first time that we saw Cage Elephant's name on a festival line, which is surprising considering I was told that because they've got a new album out and they'll have, this is their, this is their main cycle this year. They're going to be doing all the festivals, what I was told. Well, I've seen how many festival lineups and the only one I can find is Riverbend. So maybe it's, maybe we're still a year off from seeing Cage Elephant on every festival lineup. But yeah. Just to let people know, Brothers Oz, Cage the Elephant, Jason Isbell, L King, Government Mule, Grace Potter. Those are the top line. Jenny Lewis, Moon Taxi, and Tonya Tucker. And I'm told that one surprised me. And I'm told the reason she's on there is it's the 50th anniversary of Delta Dawn. And the label is going to be doing some, some stuff. So I like Tanya Tucker. I don't think she's a fighter, man. I know, I know, you know, this is not for everybody. There's something about like 60s country artists that if you've listened to this show long enough, I think that Barry and I could nerd out about 60s country's artists more than anything. All right. So anyway, I just want to bring that up. That's an example of, and I've heard people complaining over the weekend that it's too narrow. You know what I mean? They local, they like that broad. And I think that's where we're seeing festivals going, picking lanes and sticking with them. And we'll see how long that ride, you know, how long it goes. Yeah. You know, it does. Unless you've got some amazing backing, unless you've got major money with, excuse me, the ability to draw from a huge swath of people. You know, I do wonder how much time Bonnaroo, especially a Bonnaroo like festival has in it just continuing draw, continually throwing out a wide casting, a wide net and trying to get as much diversity as they can. Although that's what we're wanting. That's the thing that we, we begged for Bonnaroo to do. And we hope to God they keep doing it. I wonder how long they can continue doing that. In an era where it feels like these festivals are getting much more focused and much more coned, if you will. I mean, they're, they're all putting their eggs into a basket of, you know, emo, emo art music. Yeah. Like the, I still can't get over how much reaction this, when we were young festival got. I can't believe it because most of the time you see these things coming, you know, they, they give you some, it's a brand new festival. There were people on the internet who didn't even think this was real. It was like the day that we remember the day that we were talking about a couple, maybe a year ago. And we were like, why don't you just say that you booked everybody? Right. And you're going to cancel anyway. So just say you booked everybody. We got the reunion Led Zeppelin. We've got, you know. Yeah, that's funny. The Rolling Stones. We've got you too. Who cares? Remember that? You say that you have everybody. What's it matter? Yeah. They legitimately bought, they booked everybody. They booked every single person in that genre. And people honestly thought it wasn't real. There were people on the, on the, especially Twitter, the Twitter verse exploded thinking that this was some sort of long con from live nation who was just trying to grab some money to make up for their lost revenue for the last year. And a half. And then they turn around and they, they sell out the first day at a whole second day, which again, talk about an unbelievable. How is it that in this world you take, I don't know what is, what's your 45 bands on this thing and they call every one of them up and say, ah, by the way, we want you to stick around one more day. I need you to stick around. That was, that was pre-planned. They had two days set the whole time. They wanted to see how the first day went. And then if it went well and the reaction was what they thought it would be this at a second day, um, live, live nation absolutely hit a home run with this thing. I, I, I just don't want to stop thinking about it. That's weird to say. I, it's just a feat. It's a feat that doesn't necessarily happen very often. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And we could say, and especially in a world where everybody complains about everything, you can't find somebody to not bitch about insert lineup here. This was the first time I felt that the reaction was so overwhelmingly positive. Um, I don't like any of these bands, but I'm really glad that it's around. I'm really glad it's here. That's there are several of these lists like that. And you said it last time we were on, maybe we're getting old. I don't know. Um, but I also know that not everything is designed for me. Yeah. I agree with that. That's okay. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, the band, let's put it this way. The festivals that are for you, jazz Fest. I I can't tell you how excited I am about jazz Fest. I've never been, and I've been, I've been, I don't know if I told the story on the air, but I've, I've literally, we, we moved to a house that is four blocks from jazz Fest so that we could walk to jazz Fest. And the fact that we still haven't been to jazz Fest is so irritating. Um, you know, you're incredible. If there's anybody left on your bucket list after that, I, I don't, you're being very picky. Yeah. Well, they're dead. I like your boy Lionel Richie is back. Um, food fighters seemingly get to, you know, make the return to New Orleans. They had another show that was canceled. Um, you know, they were supposed to be at, uh, whenever that festival was the who, um, now, Barry, you have to explain to me the who to me is a lot like, you know, you too in that I know that they exist and I don't know if I like them or not. You will. You will. Um, it'll be one of those words, 90 minutes of just song after song that you know, yeah, that you not only know, but you know, grew up with and probably can sing every word, whether you know it or not. Yeah. They are kind of an unusual there. They rank in there with the stones and the Beatles and, um, yeah, but then they never get, they never get the heat. They never get the Beatles. Yeah. They never get, never quite get there. And they had some, some weird years where they, some internal stuff, but, uh, and they, you know, Keith moon dying hurt them, but they're still very good. That would be on my list, but that top line. Yeah. I can't even catch my breath. Barry, I need you to catch your breath. I can't have, I can't have dad be sick. Yeah. No, that's an amazing lineup. It looks like live nations, a roster. Yeah. I mean, it did really well because it hits, it hits a little bit for everybody. And then you get to, you know, CELO and below, and it's just this beautiful celebration of new Orleans music and, um, I love, look, there's a, there's a weird thing about this city. The people here really care about new Orleans music more than they care about the top four lines. You know, the, the reason why jazz vest is so beloved is because you can walk in at a really cheap price at 10 o'clock in the morning and spend all day just listening to all your favorite local artists. And it's just like, it's like nowhere else in the world that I've, I've seen. I almost care more about seeing Nicholas Payton than I do Foo Fighters. I care so much about seeing Kermit Ruffins. Yeah. I'd like Betty LeVette. Give me a break. Betty LeVette. Yeah. I could go this entire, the last 35 lines I could do this. Yeah. That would be strong. Just give me the last. Just give me all of that rebirth. I've become really good friends with those guys. I give me a break. Yeah. Even the tribute stuff looks, I mean, the tribute to Dr. John, the tribute to Bessie Smith. I have always heard that most of the locals end up in bars like you were talking about rather than, you know, at the big stages. Yeah. And then, then there's all the activity around the city of, of, you know, who pops in where, you know, there was always, there's always this idea that it, I think that whenever I see Foo Fighters on the lineup of any lineup that I find, I start looking around the city, wherever they're playing and seeing where Dave might pop up and do something else. Sure. And I, you know, Dave loved this city so much. So there's no chance he doesn't do something with Pres Hall wandering around the quarter. I just, there's no possible way. Yeah. Dave's going to be everywhere in the city. And we're going to have one of these moments where every time I open up Instagram, I'm going to see somebody taking a selfie with Dave Grohl. That's the most exciting part of how I'm excited about feeling the buzz inside the city for those two weeks. Speaking of buzz, I was going to say, I hope you'll have to keep him away from Willie Nelson's buzz or he won't make it anywhere. The other one that came out was a very, very strong showing from Boston Calling, which underground, this festival keeps hitting home run after home runs every year. Every year I always say to myself, man, that Boston Calling lineup is really good. And it's like they've done this without anybody noticing. And I know they've got, they, they always sell out and they always do well, but they're like, they're like shaky knees of the Northeast and neither one of them gets a credit that they deserve because Boston Calling's lineup, Barry is better than Bonnarooz. Yeah, it's good. It's really good. It's incredible. Metallica, the strokes, foos, Rufus de Sol, Run the Jewels, Weezer, Glass Animals, Modest. I can't even read all of these. I mean, this is, it's just major artists after major artists and they, they, they absolutely killed it. I'd like to see, did we decide, is it Haim or Haim? I've always said Haim. Haim, yeah. I'd like to see them again. That's another one of the Bonnarooz shows that I saw and I really liked, but I didn't know a lot about them. Yeah. That I wish I had a do over just cause I've become a huge fan. Yeah. I, and if somebody has actually been to Boston Calling, please email us or tweet us the what underscore podcast. I actually don't know anything about the grounds. I don't know what the festival is like, but you know, they get my attention every year and then I feel like nobody really talks about them. You know, they just secretly just keep hammering out great lineup after great lineups. So I put them up with Shaky Knees and what Shaky Knees did this year with Green Day, Nine Inch Nails, My Morning Jacket, and then the rest of the festival and how full it is after that is, is terrific. And I would argue, Barry, I would argue that aside from Boston Calling, which is just too much into my, like everything in my wheelhouse is there. I think Shaky Knees has the best lineup of the entire group. Like if I go for me, if I go Jazz Fest, Shaky Knees, Primavera, Sound LA, when we were young, Boston Calling, Coachella, Bonnaroo, Hangout, I guess we throw in there too. Shaky Knees, I think, I think Shaky Knees has got it. Yep. I don't disagree. I don't disagree. Yeah. Bonnaroo is down at the, at the bottom for me this year. Well, has that changed since you saw the lineup the first night? You know, you came out of it much more positive, you and Taco much more positive than I did. Do you think that your opinion at sitting on it two weeks has changed? It has changed because of the others. There are still people on it that I will see. And, but top to bottom, it's not as strong as the others for me. But again, I keep hearing, you know, the EDM crowd is thrilled and there's a lot of acts that people are excited to see. It just doesn't, it's not me. Yeah. And again, that's, you know. I hear you. Every year can't be. Yeah, I hear you. I keep going back to Bonnaroo, even when Taco is here, you know, Taco really likes the lineup and you know, so we went right back through it. And you know, I tried to find something, anything on Sunday. I had nothing. I really got nothing. Not even Stevie Nicks? I mean, I guess. Nathaniel? I guess, but like. Herbie? I saw Nathaniel at Tivettina's two weeks ago. You know, I saw, I guess Stevie Nicks coming to Jazz Fest. You know, there's just nothing there that is so overwhelmingly interesting that I gotta, I gotta go only to Bonnaroo. It's back to the point that you were making earlier about the ticket buying public when they have to make their choice as to exactly what they want to put their money behind. You know, you're luckily for Bonnaroo, they have created an entire world where the vibe, the feeling, everything about the festival is almost more important than the lineup itself. Now some years that actually turns out to be true. And some years, you know, they get, you know, 35,000 people there, but for the most part, they've sort of insulated themselves from iffy years. Absolutely. Absolutely. They have, it goes back to what we were, well, I sort of hinted at, I didn't, I didn't specifically with this adaptation, this idea of being around for years. You and I have watched this, this whole industry change for 20 years, basically since 2002. And you know, Bonnaroo early on, especially still get knocked, they still get knocked for not being what they started out as. And as you and I have been told many times on this show, they never were going to be a hippie fest forever. You know, the idea was always to adapt and develop the VIP experiences and the camping experiences because they realize it's a camping experience. You know, it's not a city fest, it's different. And so they've really worked on, on those. Now I guess one could argue, did they do it at the, at the expense of the lineup this year or is this, you know, just not for you and me lineup? I'm probably going to, we'll see what the ticket sales, but they, man, they're competing with some pretty strong lineups out there. Yeah, that's right. And you know what? You just nailed it. I'm so interested to see how they compete. I'm so interested to see how they end up with all of these festivals, where they end up when with ticket sales. And I think that the kicker for me is I feel like I'm going to reserve judgment until they start rolling out the plan for the plazas. You know, those plazas really do end up being, well, that doesn't really help a ticket buyer though. The ticket buyer needs to make a decision. Now the ticket buyer needs to know, you know, where they're spending their vacation time and their, you know, their money. So waiting for a plaza announcement is going to be difficult for a general ticket buyer. But for me, when they start rolling out their plan for the plazas, that then changes a little bit of the way that I view the festival, I think. I hope, I hope, because there is opportunities for them to really do the plaza stuff. Really. I mean, look at what they had Paramore. They had Haley Williams out there for the better part of, you know, two years. And now Paramore is the top line of when we were young. Yeah. Yeah. We don't know what they have planned. We haven't really talked to anybody with inside knowledge in the three years to know what, what they've done. You know, we never got to see it last year. It's a good point. It's a good point. All kinds of speculation and thoughts and wonder. But And then, by the way, they're very good at it. We both know they're very good at creating these experiences. It's never not great. You know, there's a reason Ken Weinstein came up with that, that phrase that we've adopted is every year, you know, we think, oh, they've screwed it up and we get there and there's something really, really cool. Some new thing. And, you know, so I was excited to see what those things were going to be. And I still am. The one that the one that we missed was a forecast. Did you take a look at what forecast? We'll did this year. I did. They did. All right. You know, I think Clara is a good poll. I love that Tame Impala is finding themselves, you know, doing some sort of festival dates and you know, the title of the creator booking was, you know, I think something that a lot of people in the Coachella in the Bonnaroo world wanted to come back. I think they did fine. I think there's only one. How many more festivals are we are we holding out on at this point? Firefly, Firefly, the only one. And then if and I don't think it's going to, but if, you know, the New Orleans festival here, the Halloween weekend comes back, I don't I don't think I'm missing any of the others. I'm wondering if there's any other like major festival that we're still holding out for other than Firefly. I don't think that there is somebody can correct me, though. What can I? Yeah, that's it's good. And I like that festival. You know, you and I went you've been a couple of times. I like Louisville. I like the way that festival is laid out. I'd like to go back. I'm not sure that's the lineup that would get me back. That's true. That's true. But again, I mean, it is a it is a wonderful space, though. They do a very, very nice job with the space. I give them a lot of credit for that. Yep. It's great. That is when, you know, there aren't pieces of the interstate falling on you. That have I told that story on this thing? The year that I went before you, I went with my brother and, you know, where River Waterfront Park is, it's on the other side of an interstate and you have to walk under the interstate and there's even a stage under the interstate. And it was like day one. And I was standing on the interstate, saying, man, this thing is really loud. And I just like, man, I something feels weird about this. And I looked over at my brother. I was like, do you this is feel weird? Yeah, about an hour later, we're walking back under the interstate and we get to the other side of it and bam, bam, bam, giant pieces of the overpass fell to the ground within 50 yards of me. I mean, had I walked there 90 seconds later, I might have gotten hit with a giant piece of interstate. I mean, that thing was scary. I don't really want that. You had to shut down the festival, right? You had to shut down the festival and at the time they got lucky because inclement weather was on the forecast and they saw a lightning bolt. And so they cleared everybody out of the festival for it. And then magically we came back a couple of hours later, I guess, when they evaluated the interstate. But then the next year was the worst torrential storm I've ever been a part of in one of these sort of like vulnerable festival spaces. There have been some big storms at Bonnaroo. Barry, I've never felt. It was awful. Like we felt running from it felt like tornado about to happen. Who was Sam Smith? It was Sam Smith. Yeah. He got two songs in. Hello, forecastle. Three, two, one. Good night forecastle. If you remember is even worse for him because he was on stage about two songs in and somebody had a fireworks display up on the bridge that went off. That was not part of his set that everyone thought it was. And then all of a sudden you and I are standing by the river and it was a 400 degrees. And then I think you said, man, it feels pretty good out here right now. The breeze picked up. And then we see Quay are and all of the AC entertainment people run. And there goes the stage. The stage literally went that way. Yeah. It was one of the scariest moments I've ever. We've never like it's rain. Rain has been prevalent in Bonnaroo for years and it's rain really hard sometimes. And to a point where like, I think I might just float away. This was a damn near tornado. Yeah. It was like a wind shear or a Gusnado, whatever they call it. That came off the river. Yeah, it was bad. So if you were to put them in order one, two, and three from the festivals that we've gone through today, how you ranking them? I think you were right. I mean, New Orleans for sure, obviously. I mean, you don't mean for me personally, because yeah, that when we were young is a great lineup, but it's not me. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. New Orleans, probably the Boston. Yeah, definitely Boston. Coachella does nothing for you. And then Coachella. Okay. And then a boundary would be probably down, down below. Yeah. I can't even believe I'm saying this, but river bends in there too. And it's because it's close, but I really like it. I'm excited. I mean, if you put Barry doesn't go more than 10 miles. So this is that festival is going to be great for him. Uber. Yeah. Yeah. If I can't Uber, if I can't over to the festival, it stinks. Well, I'm just the fact that I'm even talking about. Why don't you go down? Why don't you go down to shaky knees this year? Probably going. Yeah. That's a good one. I forgot about that one. Yeah. Has music midtown announced theirs? And they're usually much more pop leaning. They're the kinds that would give you like Bruno Mars. No, they haven't announced their lineup yet. That's another one we're probably holding out for, but that's going to be very, very pop centric. Oh, and then governance ball. We're still waiting for governance ball. So yeah, those are the three that I probably missed. Anything else this week? Anything else you got? No, no, no, I'm glad to be back doing this. Yeah. Getting excited. Looking forward to the summer. Just stay healthy. We got to make it there first. That'll be my luck. That's when I'll get it. Absolutely over and nobody has it. It's cut down by the covid. It'll be me. It would be like if you got the Spanish flu this year. Like, wait, that was how many decades ago? Yeah, yeah. Barry got polio. You got polio? Yeah. And Spanish flu. Yeah. Like, well, you know, I like shaking knees. That's got my guy in my morning jacket crung bin. Yeah, that's okay. That's probably second for me. Yeah. Yeah. I think shaking knees for me is my favorite. You know, the local the locale, it helps. The only thing too, because I don't know Boston callings, you know, the way that they've got it set up, I don't necessarily, you know, visit Boston all that much. I really don't even know. It's I know it's near Harvard, but I don't really know the part of town. I just I choose shaky just because I'm so familiar with the space. I haven't been to Boston, but I have several people who have. My son went up there with some buddies and were able to get a room. And he was really impressed with the ability to be able to walk and if not walk a short cab ride to a bunch of bars and breweries and and, you know, tourist important things to see. They really enjoyed it. So I can imagine that's probably a really cool fest. I mean, it's the end of May. I'm ready to go to Boston. Let's do it. All right. Alex, Alex, let's go to Boston. We need you. Make it happen. All right. If you don't have anything else, let's let's reconvene, say next week. What do you say? I'm ready. All right. Next week, we'll see you on the podcast, Barry Courter, Brad Steiner. Talk to you next week. Bye!
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