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
Line up season in full swing.
The What Podcast goes line by line through each and every festival announced in the last
week's Coachella, Boston Calling, When We Were Young, Primavera Sound, Shaking Eve, Jazz
Fest, The Good, The Bad, and everything in between.
The What Podcast covering every major festival of 2022 now.
Barry Courter Brad Steiner, The What Podcast starts right now.
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 Signer, it's the What Podcast.
I don't know where Lord Taco is today.
Is everybody OK?
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?
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.
And he'll tell you that a PBR in one tastes different than a PBR in 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.
Uh huh.
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'm going to have to do it.
I don't know, this century.
I don't.
I'm going to have to do it.
Come see Brad.
Hey, how are you feeling?
Everything 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.
Yeah.
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, you know, 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 has 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.
Stay in a stay unhealthy because I can't have anything happen to my Barry.
Well, that's why you're Barry doesn't leave the state, but it's 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 day 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, wish I could work out somewhere and you want to leave early.
Got to know it's baby.
Now it's you know, I think I was exposed.
I think I was exposed.
I can't I can't do anything today.
I know.
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., as long as you're in bed by three p.m., you get the
early bird, get the early bird buffet, turn on the dehumidifier and then you're curled
up under a blanket by three thirty.
That's right.
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 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.
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 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 Billie 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, how
they can get them for Coachella to pick up Harry Styles and Billie 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 they had already created.
And you're right.
They just eventually fall apart because you 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.
Boys 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 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 and I told you, I want 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 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.
Right.
So if you just draw, just put it in your mind, an old person bringing their lawn chair and
sit down and stay in there for the next 12 hours and then think about that they know
of and then think about the artists that they would be watching.
And then that was the festival.
And then, you know, 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, you know, two weeks of like really iffy artists, but there's always
the gutter salesman walking up and down selling gutters, you know, in no place in any festival
in the world do you have something like this?
So you know, it needed a lot of, they needed a wrinkle iron out some of the wrinkles of
this thing.
So 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, you
know, this is their, you know, this is their main cycle this year.
They they're going to be doing all the festivals.
What I was told.
I've seen how many festival lineups and the only one I can find is is Riverbend.
So maybe it's maybe we're still, you know, a year off from seeing Cage Elephant on every
festival lineup, but yeah, just let people know it.
Brothers Osborne, Cage the Elephant, Jason Isbell, L King, Gov.
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 know.
She's a fighter man.
She is.
So 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.
It's an example of and I've heard people complaining over the weekend that it's too narrow.
You know what I mean?
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 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 beg 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 their eggs into a basket of, you know, emo
emo art music 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
give you some it's a brand new festival.
There are people on the internet who didn't even think this is 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 to who cares?
Remember 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 are people on the on the especially Twitter.
The Twitterverse 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 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 forty five bands
on this thing and they call every one of them up and say, oh, by the way, yeah, we'll just
stick around one more day.
I need you to stick around.
That was that was preplanned.
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, live, live nation absolutely hit a home run with this thing.
I just don't want to stop thinking about it.
That's weird to say.
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, you know, and especially in a world where everybody complains about
everything.
You can't find somebody to not bitch about insert line up here.
This was the first time I felt that the reaction was so overwhelmingly positive.
Well, 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.
But I also know that not everything is designed for me.
Yeah.
I agree with that.
That's OK.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the band, let's put it this way, the festivals that are for you, Jazz Fest.
I can't tell you how excited I am about Jazz Fest.
I've never been and I've been.
I don't know if I told the story on the air, but I've literally 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.
You know, you're credible.
If there's anybody left on your bucket list after that, I don't.
You're being very picky.
Yeah.
Well, they're dead.
I like your boy Lionel Richie's back.
Foo Fighters seemingly get to make the return to New Orleans.
They had another show that was canceled.
You know, they were supposed to be at whenever that festival was, the Who.
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.
It'll be one of those words.
Ninety 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 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 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.
No, not a breath.
Yeah.
Now, it's an amazing lineup.
It is really it looks like Live Nation's roster.
I mean, it did really well because it hits it hits a little bit for everybody.
And then you get to, you know, CeeLo and below.
And it's just this beautiful celebration of New Orleans music.
And 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 Fest 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 and like Betty LeVette.
Give me a break.
Betty LeVette.
Oh, yeah, I could go this entire the last 35 lines I could do this.
That would be strong.
Just give me the give me all of that rebirth.
I've become really good friends with those guys.
I give me a break.
Yeah, even though 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 there's all the activity around the city of, you know, who pops in where, you
know, there is always there's always this idea that 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.
I was going to say, I hope you'll have to keep him away from Willie Nelson's bus or
he won't make it anywhere.
The other one that came out was a very, very strong showing from Boston Calling, which
is underground, this festival keeps hitting home run after home run every year.
Every year I always say to myself, man, Boston Calling lineups really good.
And it's like they've done this without anybody noticing.
And I know they've got they always sell out.
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 Bonnaroo's.
Yeah, it's good.
It's really good.
Incredible.
Yeah, metallic strokes, foos, Rufus de Sol, run the jewels, Weezer, glass animals, modest.
I'm not I can't even read all of these.
I mean, this is it's just major artists after major artists.
And they they absolutely killed it.
I'd like to see.
Did we decide is it Haim or Haim?
I always said Haim.
Yeah, I'd like to see them again.
That's another one of the Bonnaroo shows that I saw and I really like, but I didn't know
a lot about them.
Yeah.
And I wish I had a do over just because I've become a huge fan.
Yeah, I am.
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 line up after great lineups.
So that's a good one.
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 Shaking knees has the best line up the entire group.
Like if I go for me, if I go jazz, best Shaking knees, primavera sound L.A. when we were
young, Boston Calling Coachella, Bonnaroo hang out, I guess we throw in there to shaking
knees.
I think I think Shaking knees has got it.
Yeah, 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.
And again, I keep hearing, you know, the EDM crowd is thrilled.
And there's a lot of acts that that people are excited to see.
It just doesn't.
It's not me.
Yeah.
And again, that's, you know, I hear you.
I hear can't be.
Yeah, I hear you.
I keep going back to Bonnaroo, even when tacos here, you know, Tucker 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 not even Stevie Nicks.
I mean, I guess.
Daniel, I guess.
But like Herbie, I saw Nathaniel at Tepetina'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 got
a I got to go only to bottom.
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 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, thirty five thousand people there.
But for the most part, they've sort of insulated themselves from.
If he 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.
But 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 not 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 with the ticket sales, but they man, they're competing with
some pretty strong lineups out there.
Yeah, that's right.
And 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 their their, you know, their money.
So waiting for a plaza announcement is 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 paramour.
They had Haley Williams out there for the better part of, you know, two years.
And now paramour 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.
All kinds of speculation and thoughts and wonder.
But and then, by the way, they're very good.
We both know they're very good at creating these experiences.
It's never not great.
You know, there's a reason Ken Weinstein 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 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 the title of the crater booking was, you know, I think something that a lot of people
in the Coachella in the boundary 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.
Looking at it.
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 light is laid out.
I'd like to go back.
I'm not sure that's the lineup that would get me back.
That's right.
That's true.
But again, 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?
And he was, you know, 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 Quayar 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 rained 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 gustnado, 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 are you ranking them?
I think you were right.
I mean, New Orleans for sure, obviously.
I mean, you're talking about me for me personally.
Yeah.
Because yeah, that when we were young is a great lineup, but it's not me.
Sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
New Orleans, probably the Boston.
Yeah, definitely Boston.
Coachella does nothing for you, huh?
And then Coachella.
Okay.
And then, uh, Bonnarooy would be probably down, down below.
Yeah.
I can't even believe I'm saying this, but Riverbend's 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.
If I can't Uber, if I can't Uber to the festival, it stinks.
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm just the fact that I'm even talking about it.
Why don't you go down?
Why don't you go down to shaky knees this year?
Probably going.
Yeah.
There's a, that's a good one.
I forgot about that one.
Yeah.
Has music midtown announced theirs and they're usually much more pop leaning.
Um, they're the kinds that, that would give you like Bruno Mars.
No, they haven't announced their lineup yet.
Um, that's another one we're probably holding out for, but that's going to be very, very
pop centric.
Um, oh, and then governance ball.
We're still waiting for governance ball.
So yeah, those are the three that I probably missed.
Uh, anything else this week?
Anything else you got?
Uh, no.
Okay.
No, I'm glad to be back doing this.
Yeah.
Getting excited.
I'm 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.
Barry is 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.
Yeah.
I'm looking at Barry got polio.
You got polio?
Yeah.
And, and Spanish flu.
Yeah.
Like, well, you know, I like shaking knees.
That's got my guy in my morning jacket crumb in.
Yeah.
That's okay.
That's probably second for me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think shaking knees for me is, is my favorite.
Um, you know, the low cut, the locale, it helps.
I, the only thing too, because I don't know Boston callings, you know, the way that they've
got it set up, I, I don't necessarily, you know, visit Boston all that much.
I really don't even, it's, I know it's near Harvard, um, 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, uh, several people I know who have, uh, my son went up
there with some buddies and were able to get a, uh, 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, uh, you know, uh, tourist important things to see.
They really enjoyed it.
So I can imagine that's probably a really cool festival.
I mean, it's the end of May.
I'm ready to go to Boston.
Let's do it.
All right.
Good Alex, Alex, let's go to Boston.
We need you make it happen.
Uh, all right.
If you don't have anything else, let's, uh, let's reconvene, uh, say next week.
What do you say?
I'm ready.
All right.
What podcasts?
Signer talk to you next week.
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