Bonnaroo 2024 is in the books. You are listening to the What Podcast. I'm Barry. That's Lord

Taco and that's Brian. Lord Taco and I clearly got the memo about t-shirts.

If there was a memo, I didn't get it.

Yeah, we're going to get into that in a little bit for several reasons. Never Not Great has

become a theme, which if you're new, we'll explain here in a little bit. But first of

all, guys, let's play a little word salad or something. Words that come to my mind for

Bonnaroo 2024. Amazing, unexpected, affirming, reaffirming.

Reaffirming is a good one.

Yeah, I'll cut right to it. I'll just say best Bonnaroo ever.

Best Bonnaroo ever. He did it. Taco went right to my favorite thing ever. It's the best one

after all these years.

It was pretty good. It was completely unexpected, though the t-shirt tells it all. It's never

not great. Let's go ahead and I'll recap that real quickly. One of our many guests is Ken

Weinstein. Ken is the he's with Big Hassle Media. He is the guru when it comes to media

at Bonnaroo. He's been with it since the beginning. You can go back to our podcast and find out

his history. I mean, it's such a great story. The founders with Superfly and AC Entertainment

found him, called him and said, Hey, we're doing this festival. We don't even have a

name yet. And it's going to be in the middle of middle Tennessee. Do you want to be involved?

And he has been ever since. And yeah, it's a really good story. Yeah. Yeah. That's how

far back it goes. It didn't even have a name yet. He's not a founder, but he's damn close.

He's next. Yeah. He's the first guy they call. That's right. And during one of our conversations,

we talked about the 2016 festival, which was one of the lowest numbers ever and not that

great a lineup. Most people would agree. But Ken nailed it and said it was still great

because it's never not great. So that's the history of the t-shirt. It comes up in a couple

of other episodes that we'll get into later. But reaffirming Brian, you, me and Russ sitting

in Russ's bus, what Friday night or Saturday morning during one of our conversations about

the event and this show, um, we all agreed that was the word, right? This is reaffirming.

We love it. We're in, I'm already planning next year. I can't wait. Yeah, I'll go first

on it. It's, it's, it's like anything in life. You're not going to do it forever. You know,

you're not going to do everything forever. Everything ends. Um, and so I always, you

know, as I get into middle age, I think about that a lot more. Like sometimes I think, is

this the last time I do insert whatever this, what this is, uh, whether it's a concert or

seeing a fan, you know, a great grandparent or grandparent or whatever it might be in

your life, you, there's always a time when it's going to stop. And I started to think

about that because a lot of different reasons, some that are boring that I won't go into

on a show like this. And some of them are just the, the, the grind of doing stuff like

this. And, and we'd even kind of, but whether we spoke of it out loud, we kind of implied

that, you know, we'll just reevaluate after this year and we'll just kind of rethink of

where things are going to go because why not? I mean, you should always be kind of evaluating

what you're doing. Yeah. I'm glad you called it a grind because it really is. I mean, we

put the show out every week and sometimes we record, we, you know, we love doing it

week to week, but sometimes you put out that episode, it seems like it goes into the void

because you don't get that instant feedback or instant satisfaction of, you know, putting

it out. So yeah, I mean, and it all came flooding in what Friday, Saturday when we were there

just hanging out with so many people would come up and say, Oh, you know, really enjoy

the podcast, your episode helped me with this. I learned that. So it was like, okay, that's

the reaffirming part of all this is okay. Now we actually do see that a lot of people,

a lot of y'all do listen every bit of that is true on top of the fact also of just, do

we keep going to this event every year? And because it is hard, it is hard. It's a, it's

more than just a few days of preparation and everybody who goes, it's the same for everybody.

And it reaffirming, like it was barely a couple of a day and a half in, I'm like, that was

I think I'm not going to do this anymore. It was two hours for me. It was when we, when

Tuba shouted out and we'll get into that. Good call on that. Yeah, absolutely. But that's

a little anecdotal overall. I think a lot of people had the same thoughts of what and

why would I ever not come to this wonderful place? Let's, let's set the scene a little

bit. And I've thought about this for days. We could each do an hour individually. I'm

pretty sure. I already did. I know you did. And it was great. And I recommend go, go to

stone on air.com or podcast stone on air. And Brian does a full recap on, on his, it's

very anecdotal. It's very specific to my exact steps of the farm. It's not exactly what we're

going to get into, but we could each do it, but just to set the scene. So, I mean, Brian

as we've said many times has been every year since 2002, I went to the first one and then

did not go until 2007. I've been to everyone since Russ started in 18, right? Coming. Yeah.

And that makes this one my fifth. Yeah. When we started this podcast. When you subtract

the two that didn't happen. Exactly. So we have history. Our camp, Camp Nut Butter at

one time had as many, I think it's 30 people. It was a big, big thing. We took over an entire

space. We had all kinds of friends, people we didn't know until, you know, us, the three

of us met basically become friends through Bonnaroo. So we have a lot of history this

year. Camp Nut Butter, as we were packing to leave, we all sort of realized was going

to be just the three of us. From 30 to three. 30 to three. That was another part of the

questioning. Like, all right, well, we don't have any campmates. 100%. And, you know, can

I spend, do they want to spend four days with me? You know, I mean, you know, I get it.

We all have those questions. I know. I look, I stare at y'all enough every week. I don't

know if I can do it. You've heard all my jokes and my stories. Yeah. But, and this is a big

part of it. We started randomly camping next to some really cool people from the Nashville

area three years ago. And I've thought about this a lot. I'm sure, you know, Russ, you

met them because they parked next to you in the bus. So you got to know them a lot better

than Brian and I did. Two years ago, I think I came in Thursday night, maybe Friday night.

I don't even remember when I got there. And, you know, didn't know them. Me and Nate Gale,

our friend came in and Nate's a talker or I'm a talker. I don't think those folks from

Nashville ever had a chance to put a word in. I feel bad. So I never really got to know

them. Tell these Chattanooga loud mouths to shut up. No kidding. Came in like, who are

these guys taking over our space? And I apologize to Mike, Brad, Jerry and Beth. But thank you.

They parked, they camped next to us again last year. And I know I came in Saturday morning

and didn't stay long, had long issues. But last year they were close. They were a little

bit down the line from us. But this year we actually made a plan. Okay, they're coming

in. Let's save some spots together. And we actually got saved our camp really. I mean,

it made it really did. Made it worth having. That's my point. That's my 100% point. I think

the three of us realized, you know, the camp nut butter as we know it may be over, but

it's transitioning. And thanks to those very, very cool people. And we all got to spend

a lot more time with them this year. And that made it great. I mean, if our camp, if Camp

Nut Butter was Spartan, we didn't have the fence, we didn't have the, you know, the Bloody

Mary tent, we didn't have, we had the marquee. We didn't have the podcasting tent. Yeah,

we didn't need it anymore. I didn't need the mailbox, you know, all of the kind of things

like that. The mailbox, I forgot about the mailbox. Yeah, we were just sort of, let's

do this. But those guys, man, they bring everything. They had the grill, the hanging shoe thing

that had all the condiments. Oh yeah. It's like a pantry, a traveling pantry. Unbelievable.

Unbelievable. And that really made the space great. And as we traveled around and I've

talked to people, it's amazing to me how many people have those kinds of experiences. Oh

yeah. Beyond us. Yeah, nothing unique, nothing unique there. Correct. Nothing unique at all.

No, but it's, it's such a big part of Bonnaroo, right? Everybody has their travel mates, they

have their people they park next to, the friends that they meet. Everyone has a unique story,

but there's so much commonality. That's absolutely, that's the thing that, man, I just, I kept

thinking about that all weekend, the more we ran into people. And Russ, you mentioned

it and this was such a big part of the weekend. And I know I'm bouncing around because there's

so much to try to get to, but we kept running into people who would come up and say, thank

you for the podcast. You helped me get through the year, you know, by doing it every week.

You kept me energized, but you also, the do's and don'ts and the tips. I mean, how many

people came up and said, I had everything packed and then I heard your show and I unpacked

and redid it, you know, based on the, on the tips and thank you. It wasn't just, I think

Brian, you said this at one point, it wasn't just like people coming up and say, Hey, you

know, I've seen you on YouTube or whatever. It was a genuine thank you for the help. Thank

you for the show and thank you for the information. So that's, yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty

remarkable really. And, and, and so cool beyond cool. Thank you so much for, for that too,

for, for the, you know, you, the listeners, the viewer for doing that. Cause it does,

I mean, selfishly, it does bring validation. It does, but it's also cool. Like it's just

neat. That's, I mean, we're not doing this just to sit around in an echo chamber. We,

we want to put out interesting, uh, uh, information and, and discussion and stories. And that's

what makes, that's what, you know, you can't, I, well, I think you can't, you, you shouldn't

anyway, maybe do a yearly podcast on Lollapalooza. All right. Like it's a great festival in Chicago,

but I mean, come on, it's, it's just not the same thing. It's a legendary brand, but it's,

this is different. This is community. This is friendships. This is, this is stories that,

that can come from every nook and cranny. You don't have to have special access. You

don't have to have a great campsite. You don't have to be important people to have important

times and important stories. And, and most people want to hear them because they're,

they're unlike you'll, you'll hear anywhere else, anywhere else in the world, anywhere

else in the galaxy. And I mean, I'm a crusty old salty guy, but you get me on that farm

and I'm just, I'm just like giggly. Like, come on. And it's just weird. It's transformative

like on the spot, not necessarily, well, for your life too, for my life too, but meaning

transformative in the moment, moment to moment can be transformative by the people you're

around and the, and the things you're engaging in. I'd sound like a dork. No, no. It's just,

it's so wild. It never, the, the, I don't want to call it, um, uh, what am I trying

to say? Like it's not surprising. Right. There's no element of surprise here, but it still

blows me away. Right. And that's goes back to the reaffirming thing. Like it never stops.

That part is always consistently true and real. And it's important and it's strong and

now everybody feels it. Everybody that I talk to feels it. So as part of our, um, job, we'll

call it a job as if going to Bonnaroo is a job, uh, is to interview bands and you will

hear probably next week, I think our first band interview is going to be with Say She

She and, uh, you, all three of us were just blown away by new fan right here. Yeah. A

forever fan. But, but Pia, um, one of the members just went on about a five minute,

um, narrative about how Bonnaroo compares to Glastonbury and the community. I mean, we

all sat there with our mouths open and I think at one point I said, you just wrote the mark

marketing campaign for Bonnaroo for the next 10 years. You know, I mean, she's just nailed

it. Uh, you're going to hear that on the farm here and then, and then she's talking like

that. Yeah. Yeah. She said she figured it out in one, an hour, hour and a half of being

on the site. So you're going to hear that. I, I, it's essentially what we're saying.

Um, and then Romy, uh, the person who works for Bonnaroo, who was kind enough to drive

us out to the beer exchange, echo those sentiments, uh, and you won't hear that for a couple of

weeks. That'll be probably one of our last one, but to your point, Brian, and it's kind

of what I'm saying. We keep hearing that kind of thing from everybody, um, who goes on,

you know, on the regular and in their camp, they all have a, again, a unique experience,

but it's so much commonality, uh, just this feeling of, uh, welcomeness and positivity

and, and, and all of those sorts of things. It's, uh, it's pretty incredible. Yeah. I

didn't spend a lot of time on the social threads. Reddit really is really the kind of the place

to go to get the best, uh, discussion points on social. Not that any of them are that great,

but immediately following, you're going to get a lot of negativity because you always

do in any major event. And there's plenty of that. And those are some small stuff we

can discuss over the course of the off season. Don't need to talk about them a lot today,

but there are, there are, you know, it doesn't, it is a very difficult weekend. Oh, no question.

It is very hard to do well. And even if you do it well, it's still hard. And that heat

did kind of come in and knock some people on their ass, me included. Yeah. I'll go ahead

and, and I mean my weekend, uh, every intention of staying for through through to Monday,

uh, we had such a great Thursday and Friday, which we'll get into here in a minute. I woke

up Saturday morning and thought I've had every, everything that I hope to do, I've done times

a thousand and I really don't want to ruin it. And so I hung around and hugged everybody

and said hi. And then I left probably one o'clock Saturday and I don't regret it at

all. Um, and I kind of figured out, I don't have to do the whole slog. I mean, the one

day thing or the, we've had campmates that would come and stay a couple of days and that

just seems so foreign to me. I'm planning on all the whole time next year. Um, I'm so

excited. I'm reenergized. It wasn't that I left because I was not having fun or anything.

It was just, I did everything I wanted to do. Um, yeah. And that heat, I mean, it was

hot and you know, the story, you know, the story of the frog in the pot of water that

you slowly turn the temp up and use that example many times in my life. Russ, that's what it

was like this, this year. I mean, it was every day. The high was a little bit, a little bit

hotter, a little bit hotter. And I just, yeah, I mean, by the time Sunday came around, I

was, yeah, even you left a little early. Yeah. Even you left a little early. I was planning

to stay till Monday, but not Sunday. Anything before Monday morning is damn early for, uh,

for this guy. Russ, yeah. You know, the joke, but it really was the, I mean, it was a really

mild week before in Tennessee, uh, it's the hottest week in the history of the world right

now. And so it, it, while we all knew it was coming, it kind of snuck up on everybody because

the week started off mild and then it got it as Russ just said, a little hotter, a little

hotter. Holy geez. By Sunday in the chapel show, chapel rung. I mean, I could barely

keep it together to make it through that. It was a, it was an oven. It was a blazer.

And then there's some weather came in. I was gone by Sunday evening by about six o'clock

on Sunday evening and oh boy was Sunday just, I mean, so that's what a lot of the immediate

negativity was is this sun. I mean, this is dangerous and it is, it can be, it can be.

And, um, I think that kind of caught everybody off by surprise because they were so settled

in to cool nights, warm days, cool nights. And then all of a sudden Saturday rolls around.

It's like, phew. Yeah. Yeah. It was bad. This is brutal. Tuesday and Wednesday were perfect

weather. I mean, not too high. I changed into a, you know, jeans and a hoodie, like, you

know, Tuesday, Tuesday, Wednesday night. Had it been five days earlier, it would have been

an unbelievable weekend. But yeah. So pro tip, uh, hydration, a hundred percent do it.

Also start walking weeks and weeks and weeks before Bonnaroo. That's me pointing at me.

Uh, I didn't, I still don't do that. And I know that it's important because I've been

sore since I did better than I should have given the non exercise that I did. Uh, but

that is no joke. Um, so that's sort of the negative. It was hot, nothing you can do about

it. Uh, I thought the organization we commented several times, everything just seemed to go

so smoothly. I know there were glitches. I know there were some security issues. Some

guys were arrested for going through people's luggage and wallets and stealing, you know,

was they were going through security. I saw a little bit of that on some of the reddit

stuff and God, that's just, it sucks to hear. And, but it happens because you have to farm

out so much of this help in so many different ways from volunteer to just secondary companies

that there's so many people's hands in it. I'm shocked they pull it off ever. Yeah. Ever

to me. It's all I always, you know, when I was doing restaurant reviews, you know, restaurants

are going to have a bad day. You're going to have a bad, you know, the stove's not going

to work. The chef's having a bad day. It's how you deal with it and handle it. And I've

always felt like Bonnaroo handles things like that pretty well. Um, I went going back to

the word salad kind of thing. I did want to say, uh, I got a text from our friend, bad

Parker, who actually runs the Bonnaroo festival, um, just randomly the other night. And he's

like, I can't wait to hear your recap. And I'm like, what did you think? And he, he said,

I'm calling it Renaissance Rue. He said, we, we feel like we've, uh, it's a new day. It's

back for real this time. Yeah. And that's, uh, that's kind of what we're saying. And

I meant to say that at the beginning of the show, cause you know, that was unsolicited,

uh, you know, obviously, you know, you can be cynical and say, well, he puts it on. No,

he's a fan. He started as a volunteer. He gets it. He knows. And I don't think he'd

lie to me. There's no benefit. So it's all a couple of that same kind of, uh, uh, sentiment

from others that we were around close involved with the festival too. I didn't think of it

in those terms, but it's just cause I just didn't. And I, but now I, it's, it ran, it

resonates because it is kind of a, I mean, it's just like anything else from the, from

the pandemic shift, things changed and things change a lot. And we're getting settled into

those changes. And, uh, before we get out of here, the census thing, uh, the survey

polling they sent out, we can spend a minute or two on that. Um, if that's right, just

as much reason to understand that there's things are going to continue to shift and

change as they, as they play around with things and try to see what does and doesn't work.

Cause not everything does work perfectly. It never will. And like you said, the response

is what matters the most. But we, but being back is something I heard more than a few

times. And I agree with it.

And let me ask you guys to this point, cause I, I was sincere two weeks ago when I said

for this Bonnaroo, my goal is hugging howdy. This is the hugging howdy. And it's kind of

a funny, you know, sound like I was being facetious, but I wasn't. My goal was to literally

hugging howdy people that we have gotten to know either through this show or online or

whatever. And, and I did that and it wasn't about the music. So when we say, and when

even Brad says Renaissance Rue, how much do you guys think it was music and how much was

it what we're just talking about this whole community thing? I know in my mind what it

was. It's not the music.

Russ, go ahead.

I, yeah, I actually saw less music this year than any other year, I think. And part of

it was the heat. I was trying to be selective in the shows that I go out to see cause it

was damn hot. But also, yeah, we spent so much time just hanging out with people and

talking to people. And it was, yeah, it's kind of weird to say at a music festival that

the music is secondary or background noise, but that's pretty much what it was this year.

So I absolutely.

Yeah, I agree with that. But I, I'd say that many years, I mean, the, the running joke

always was that I didn't ever go see any music at all, which is never true. I always did.

But we, somebody we talked to, which you'll hear down the line in the Rue bus said I would

pay to be here whether there was a band, one single band playing or not. And I, yeah, I

could feel that all day long. I've thought that over the years, many different times,

like no matter what it was, insert what I was doing. I was like, this isn't much fun

as anything else I've ever done and doesn't have anything to do with a band.

So as far as go ahead, Russ, I was just going to say those two years that were canceled,

that's exactly what we did. You know, we got together just as if there was a Bonnaroo.

There wasn't really any music. We might've had a couple of bands play, but you know,

those years to me felt just as much like Bonnaroo as actually being on the real farm. So yeah,

I totally agree. I'd pay to do this even if there was no music, just to hang out with

y'all and them and everybody.

So to that point and my thoughts on it, did it have anything as much to do, what did it

have as much to do with? The cop out answer is it sprinkled around pretty well as far

as what made it great. But I think the music did have a lot to do with it. I was pretty

surprised with how well things sounded, how things flowed. I saw a lot of music this year,

especially for me and my record around there. I think that the music might've had a lot

to do with it. The Post Malone show on Friday was as awesome as a thing. And I mean awesome

in the way it's more defined as anything I've ever seen in a live setting, not the music,

not the, I don't care about, I still don't care about Post Malone today any more than

I did a week and a half ago. But the show, the spectacle was, whoa, look at this. Look

how heavy this hits and we just got here. This feels like this should be the finale.

And it was the opening of the headlining anyway. And so I think that had a lot to do with it

too. I think people are really enjoying the music and I think the chapel story is going

to define a lot of this. Every year you kind of think of what is that moment? I think that's

one of them. So yeah, I think it also-

So to recap that and Brad in our conversation mentioned that. So that's one of those things

where Bonnaroo listens, right? You mentioned the census. We're going to, we'll get into

that here in a second because it's important. But you know, for people just sort of joining

in who kind of don't know the full story, Chapelrone is this year's Noah Khan.

Mumford from 15 years ago.

They signed her whenever, you know, probably a year ago and she's blown up and it was pretty

clear to everybody that one of the tents was not going to be big enough. And so the chatter

was, you know, I'm not going to be able to see, there's safety issues, whatever. And

they moved her to the witch stage, which was, you know, not every festival is nimble enough

to be able to adjust like that.

I thought it was one of the coolest things of big corporate America I've seen in a long

time and I didn't think it was going to happen because I didn't think it was logistically

possible.

Yeah, there's a lot.

Four days, three days.

Right. And it's, we know because we got a little bit of the, you know, sausage making

inside baseball stuff. It's not just a matter of somebody saying mover, you know, there

are contracts, there are agents, there's labels, there's egos.

There's egos. Green Sky Bluegrass. You think Green Sky Bluegrass wanted it with, they're

an old school band, they're old guys, they probably got it better than anybody. I'm just

using the name people might have heard of.

You think they were like, yeah, sure. We'll go play a smaller stage. All good with us.

No, they're set to play the secondary main stage on the Sunday. They're one of the most

well-known names in the Newgrass space. They don't want to do that.

No, but they've also been around well enough to know that there's something coming back

for them on the backend.

Probably the worst example for me to use from the ego standpoint, but they didn't just move

Green Sky. They moved three or four. This was a moving daily grind of a process that

I just didn't think they were going to be able to do and good on them for doing it.

That's the kind of thing, and we've talked about it on here, Russ, you and I especially

remember Moon River, the festival here when it got rained out and they immediately shifted

over and put a concert together in our local municipal theater. Those are the kinds of

things that stick with a fan, right? Those are the kind of things that say, they got

my back.

Yeah. No, that's a good way of putting it. This place, these people, whoever they are,

are looking out for me.

Exactly. As a fan.

Yeah, they're not just refunds, okay, well, cool. That's a good start. But that's just

formality stuff. But then to shift, pivot, and still try to do something for you from

an inner, just not leave you hanging out there, that goes a long way to me.

Well, exactly. It kind of has that feel like if I were a fan, what would I want to happen?

And typically they try to do that.

Now, the cynic would say they had to make the move because of the safety and the logistics.

The cynic would say this was less about the fan and more about practicality. But I think

it was both.

Well, here's the reality. So here it is a week later, and instead of us sitting here

saying, I only went to see Chaperone and I couldn't get close enough to even lay eyes

on her.

And it sucked. I hated it.

It sucked. I hated it. I'm saying that was cool. They did the right thing.

So yeah, you know, good for them. Yeah, you're right. You can look at it all kinds of ways.

But the reality is a week later, we're talking about it was a good thing and not that it

sucked. So good for them. Let's recap real quick. So again, as I said, our work, our

plan was Thursday to do as much work as we could. We had interviews with Happy Landing,

Gwar, Say Shi Shi and Michigander. All very cool. All fell together so well. But the day

started as a as a I don't know, just great for us. We had gotten word that there was

going to be a panel discussion with Ted Heinig, friend of the show, longtime friend for many

reasons. He's the president of AC Entertainment. And I don't know Tim's last name, Tim Tuba,

did you guys remember? My bad. Tuba was all I got. And we'd never we were like that. That

was the first thing that was funny. It was like, oh, guy named Tuba. I know, right. I

was nice. We'll be a guy named Taco. It makes sense. What kind of hell is that? I mean,

we can assume he probably was a tuba player. But I mean, you know, that's an interesting

guy. I was thinking, thank God he didn't play bassoon or something, you know. But anyway,

he's the head of all festivals for C3 presents. And they were talking to the students from

Belmont and Tennessee State and MTSU had a big presence there. I was pretty surprised

to see how much how many kids were there. College kids for their their programs. Tim

Smith, Tim Tuba Smith. So this was like a Bonnaroo University. Yeah, an orientation

of sorts, industry panel kind of thing. Yeah, to Bonnaroo University. They're there for

the weekend learning how to put on a festival type of thing. And but anyway, one of the

questions from one of the kids was tell us about one of your big failures and one of

your big successes. And and Tuba shocked us by saying, well, since I see the guys from

the What Podcast in the back of the room, I'll have to fess up to the squarch to the squarch.

I'm sure I don't I wasn't around on a daily basis during the squarch years on this show.

But I'm sure there was some negativity. Oh, yeah. About that. And if anybody asked me,

I would have shared my negativity about the squarch. Well, he fessed up. It was funny.

But getting a shout out from him was great. And what a great way to start our day. Right.

You know, the fact that he knows who we are was kind of cool. But he we talked to him

after and I've heard from others that he thought it was kind of funny as well. But so for to

recap, the arch, as we know it at Bonnaroo is an iconic part of the festival. It's on

all their posters. It's it's the image. And it rotted. I mean, I what I had heard was

full of bees and rot. And they burned it. And it's just made out of wood. That's it.

It looked like it was more than wood, but it was just wood. And they burned it what?

About three or four weeks before the festival and the Internet blew up. Lost their mind.

What are you doing? I did think like, can't you just tear the damn thing down? Yeah, give

us a piece. Not when it's not when it's infested with murder hornets or whatever it was. And

so Tuba came up with the idea of a square rectangular version with video screens, which

I thought was a good idea, especially at night. It's pretty cool. They could tell who's coming,

show pictures, whatever. But it just didn't go well. It immediately was called the squarch

and lasted about a year and the arch is back. So it actually looked really cool at night.

Yeah, it did. And when we first saw it, it was in the middle of the day and it looks

dumb as anything we've ever seen. And it's I mean, just because it was so primitive to

what they what the vision was. They wanted to do something with the arch to make it more

technologically advanced and more sustainable. Long before they did. It's just one of those

kicking the can down the road things. I mean, you're not going to invest in something that

would it actually had. I've seen the inside of the old wood arch. It had it has electronic

inside that were built in. But that's it. Outside of that, the rest of it's just old

wood. And so it was it was a really cool evolution of it because now it's my god, it's us. It's

it's a sight to see. It is amazing. And real quick, while it's on my mind is back to talking

about a lot of negativity that people are going to have that you just can't get away

from because somebody is going to have a bad weekend is that this festival is so it's got

so many iconic visuals that the pictures and the memories and the moments are so easily

preserved even with bad photography and bad phone pictures and bad one used pictures back

in the day. Even the worst of them preserve the greatness of it could be the worst weekend

of your life. But the best part, you didn't get a picture of the arch when you were having

a bad day. Right. Like, you know, you were having the best part of your day when you

said, hey, take a picture of us at the arch. Right. You don't think like, oh, I hated that

day. It was so hot. You think, no, I love that day. Look at that beautiful arch or that

beautiful fountain or that beautiful what stage. And that's man, that stuff lives on

for decades now. And that arch is so that that was a necessary evolution of that. And

yes, I'm sure this show is like, the hell are y'all doing? Oh, we were. Yeah. Y'all

crazy. Yeah. You did what? Yeah. So it was the good news is the new one is metal. And

he said it has a certificate, which means that it was actually designed and built. Oh,

right. Architecturally and engineering wise. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Up to LED code and all these

things. And it'll live, you know, for a long, long time now. But yeah, that that's a fun

story. And that is it looked great. Beautiful, beautiful as always. So he will hopefully

be a guest on our show coming up. And I guess that's sort of where I want to go. So those

bands that we interviewed, I think we have an order. I won't put them here because things

may change. But in the coming weeks, we'll have our interviews with Happy Landing, Guar,

which was one of the coolest, funniest. That'll be a whole episode. We'll talk more about

that. There ain't much there, but there's plenty to talk about with those guys, what

they are, what they do and the show itself. I look forward to like dissecting that entire

show. Yeah. I mean, the the entire Guar show and experience. And I know they've been there

before, but they really put a lot of effort into publicity this year. They're so and they

did a lot of little videos for online. They did the did you guys see the they took over

the video truck and like killed all the guys in the Bonnaroo video truck they made for

their soldiers. We'll get into all that during the Guar episode. But it was like a never

ending PR weekend for them. And it was great. Yeah. Two things that I will sort of tease.

We have a great story that involves Beth, our campmate and Guar, which we'll detail

when we do the full episode. But just to show you, I thought it was so funny. I didn't know

about the them going into the media thing. But somebody said they saw posters or invitation

to have tea with Guar. I just think that's so hilarious. What could that that got him?

There's got to be some hidden something in there. Well, it's just if you know who Guar

is tea with Guar, I can't think of anything funnier. That ain't gonna be what it's gonna

be. Little pinky up. And then hit you in the face with it. Yeah, cut a cut a limb off and

have a spot of tea. That was really cool, though. Because the first time around, I mean,

I was like, Oh, yeah, that crazy Guar bands here. Yeah. And this year, I paid a lot more

attention because they paid. Oh, they could. They gave so much time. And we'll get into

that. And I went for the whole show that whole set. Yep. Yep. And got what one spec on the

back of your shirt, right? Not even one. So disappointed. He didn't get covered in fake

blood. I was like, Get me away from that madness. 20 feet away was our buddy JB, who wore an

all white suit and shirt and he got covered. And I'm just just 20 feet away. If I did just

been I was up close. I was on the rail. I was on the rail. But I just wasn't quite it

far enough in. Yeah. 20 feet is all it took. It's like a summertime Tennessee southeastern

storm cell. Yeah, get you right here. Yeah. And over here, you don't get a damn drive

over across the streets getting soaked. Yeah. Like I said, we'll get into that in the probably

next episode. Now we're gonna do well, like I said, I don't want to tie us down to to

the schedule, but we're gonna have those in the coming weeks. Hope to have tuba on hope

to have Brad and Corey from C three back on to sort of recap what went well, what didn't.

I know obviously they're excited about next year. And then Friday and this was I said

number one on my to do list. And I meant it and it worked out amazing this year. The beer

exchange. Thanks again to Ken Weinstein and Romy Ken for allowing Romy to drive us in

a golf cart because we had felt like 400 pounds of recording equipment and beer and whatever

else to not to mention beer and mention beer to trade. And it's fun riding on a golf and

it's just cool. I feel yeah, we're big time. We come rolling up like we're somebody. But

Romy is so cool. And we'll have that she's part of our interview podcast and that will

probably do that our last show recapping 2024 will be an interview we did on the rubas with

the guys who sort of help or not sort of they do Mitchell and Kevin who put on the beer

exchange. Daniel from the rubas was kind enough to let us gather in his air conditioned bus

and what we have a dozen people in their Kyle Edm Kyle was in there and it was very cool.

That was my first experience with the ruba rubas and it is it is something to be seen

of while we're talking about iconic things you see at the at the festival. I mean they've

been around long enough. It's starting to fall into that category. Well, so that was

really neat. And the last time I had been to anything that they had done was like five

or six years ago, like the very first time taco. I don't know if you were there that

maybe were but and I was okay. So that that's the first time I went the last time I went

and boy is it exploded in popularity and size and circus tent kind of size thing. And it

was neat man. People were having a big time. So we roll up with Romy just has the best

attitude. I just I like her so much. She's so cool. She's just like whatever. And I she

stayed with us for the whole two hours and got into trading beer and I hope I'm not speaking

out of turn getting her in trouble. But she's just cool and and that whole event. So we

roll up and like you said they've got the circus tent and I didn't look like you could

get another person inside of that tent. When we when we got there and we got there what

eleven fifteen I mean it was yeah it was pretty early and it was it was a bright sunshiny

day. The heat wasn't quite where it got yet but it was starting to build and and but it

was still to me pretty comfortable because I didn't spend any time under the tent didn't

really feel like I needed to. But it was yeah it was it was you. We all went right to the

monkey bar first which was attached to the bus. That's an impressive setup over there.

It's a it's a full on bar in it. It looks yeah. I mean it it's got a feel of you're

right next to the ocean. Like you know like that walk up Tiki bar kind of thing. That's

a good point. It was that's it's got like the big like cylinder things like you're pouring

all the drink. It was really impressive. It's legit and you know. That's Dave and Richard

that do the monkey bar and of course the Rubus they help out to Brooklyn and Charlotte and

all them. But yeah Dave pre mixes he makes special Bonnaroo cocktails. Yeah what was

that for the weekend? Passion Bonnaroo passion or something. Something. It lit you up. Yeah.

It was strong yeah. That was a that was a bit of a struggle day once I got to the to

the cocktails as you said as you said later. Let's bring the recently sober guy to the

beer exchange. Yeah. What a good idea. Which in the beer thing I don't care about but boy

those cocktails are screaming at me. I was like I'll go over here. But so you mentioned

Charlotte we got to see Charlotte and Daniel Chloe Evan Bonnaroo. Skyler. Skyler JB. Yeah

JB. Ben Evan other other Ben and Evan right. Two Evans. No. Yeah I think so and Ben and

Eric Eric. Excuse me Eric and and of course I was so happy the guys from as I called them

the RooHamm bus because you know I'm good at malaprops. RooHamm bus. Parker Jake and Michael

made the walk over and gave me a hams and we got to hang out with them finally. We have

been ships in the night for what four years or so where it's been like hey I'm in Centeroo

where are you. I was just there I'm back at camp and yeah. I felt bad Parker was texting

me almost hourly certain parts of the day because he was like hey where are you at.

I'm in Centeroo I'm here I'm there and I'm like you know we just missed each other but

so we finally got to link up at the beer exchange. Got the hug and howdy and that was that was

number one on my list to do and it was great and had a good yuck with those guys and got

to watch Jake they bought a shotgun gun. Did you get to see this thing Brian. I guess not.

So it looks like a giant squirt gun right but you pop it open you put a 12 ounce can

of beer and you ratchet it pokes a hole in one end and then you pull the trigger and

it pokes a hole in another and then you shotgun. Oh my god. I didn't know I did not see that.

It was so funny. So like super soaker looking kind of thing feeling kind of thing and then

wow okay all right and no I did not see that. Yeah Parker I brought Hutton and Smith and

so he shotgunned a good schist which is a pretty high gravity beer so I can imagine

how that feels like that thing's a bad idea. I kind of wish I'd hit it though I did have

a shot of Malort thanks to Mitchell and it tasted let's see I described it as if you

if you varnished a tabletop and then licked it that's pretty much what Malort tastes like.

Yeah it was horrible. Who the hell were y'all hanging out with where was I. Oh I think you

you had just met Evan Bonnaroo. Yeah you were still inside. So we were talking Pearl Jam

and Grateful Dead and the monkey bar. We were being old men together that's right. And we

were doing shots of Malort. Yeah it was one it was one step above diesel. I mean I used

to joke I would drink you know motor oil if it get me drunk so I guess I at one time would

have been happy to have tried it. And so Russ and I were out there handing out stickers

and meeting people and that's where a lot of people were coming up and thanking us for

the show and everything and I wanted to share I met and I don't remember his name and I

apologize he'll remember he's listening to the show he's been listening for a long time.

I was so stunned by what happened so but we're handing out the What Podcast stickers and

Russ and those stickers of all of our heads and you know we would hand them out and I

handed one to this this guy and he was with a woman who's about my age and I handed her

one and she looked at it like and said what's this and I said that that's me and I could

see this look on her face that was what am I supposed to do with it. Yeah what am I supposed

to do with this and you don't look anything like this and I said that was me 15 years

ago and 100 pounds ago and we were we were young much younger yeah and she's like and

as we were leaving later I walked by and she said thanks for the sticker and I was like

damn that hurt just a little. Well it is an odd promotional item right. It's hugely arrogant

it doesn't say anything on it it doesn't have a web address or a QR scan code it's just

a picture of your damn face. Who walked around handing out pictures of themselves you know

and I get is oh she crushed me it was brutal. Well I had a pocketful of them gave a couple

out too I didn't feel as weird as I probably should have. Nowhere else on earth could you

stand around and hand out stickers of your face of your face and it be acceptable. Here

you go you want this yeah no I think she's just mad you didn't autograph it for her.

I think I joked later we'll probably see that in a urinal somewhere. That's fine you get

a lot of views get a lot of views there just put it right. Yeah some guy some guy said

he's got me on his water bottle somewhere. Whatever works. It was just funny and so yeah

so stickers we were giving out stickers I got several bracelets I got one that says

camp dad that I got from Chloe I got one that says what and I don't remember I'm so sorry

I don't remember who gave me that one and of course Mitchell a friend of the show Mitchell

who's so funny very kindly said can I give you drugs and they gave me a bracelet that

says drugs. I'd like to have that. That is something I have never been gifted or been

around the exchange of the bracelets. It's just one of those it's just happenstance deals

I've never had one I've never been given one I've never worn one and I see him every year

I'm like those look so cool and everybody's gifting and sharing and somehow that's one

I've missed out on every single year I've never had a bracelet and then you see me next

year bring me a bracelet please I feel left out. Brian a bracelet please. I feel left

out. You know the cool thing is they put it in the dark. He'll give you a sticker of his

face. I'll give you a picture of me. They put in the time to make those I mean that's really

really very very cool. I got one that says PBR. Oh nice. Yeah pretty happy with that.

Never gotten one man. Oh to the beer exchange so I brought Hutton and Smith which is a Chattanooga

brewery and delicious and of course Russ you were very diligent in picking out six of your

very best PBRs for that day right. There was a lot of angst over which ones to take. The

freshest ones available. Well I ended up drinking them all. No PBR for you. All for me. But

what a cool event. I guess we should recap if you didn't make it the beer exchange I

think started what 11 14 years ago something like that when one guy said can I bring some

beer to the Mitchell and Kevin and they're like sure we like beer and the guy didn't

show up for 14 hours because apparently he stumbled into a mushroom field or something

and happens happens and then walked up that night. Is it too late. And so anyway it's

gone carrying a huge cooler. Yeah. You know full of beer as Mitchell said walked in like

Atlas right with. Yeah. On his shoulder. What do you say 11 people that first one. Or am

I getting my 11 and my 14. It was it was very not many anyway. Yeah. And this this last

time was packed massive. It was very very very nice turnout very and that just their

overall that's over in group camping. Well I had never seen I'd never seen before. Sorry

Barry I was just gonna say am I not right that it sort of led the group camping. The

fact that maybe I think yeah because I mean group group camping hadn't been around that

long. No I. Yeah. And I think Camp Ritteroo was a thing even really before group. That's

what I'm saying. I think Camp Ritteroo. Self assembled. Yeah. They they organized as a

group and and again the Bonnaroo people saw a cool thing happening and said this is a

good idea. Let's how can we help. And well the what they've got going on over there.

I don't know what the rest of G.A. looks like but that is impressive. Yeah. And the amount

of don't look like that. The amount of organization and the amount of cooperation that go that

must go into something like that. We talk about Camp Nut Butter. Yeah. Camp Nut Butter

ain't nothing. No nothing. We got we've had the worst campsite you've ever seen compared

to what these guys are doing and we've had some pretty damn. Yeah. So this is really

cool stuff. Yeah. Really cool stuff. And that's why it was so high on my list that and to

see everybody and if there. There aren't I don't have too many regrets too many I didn't

get to do. I did. We didn't get the hang. I didn't with repeat repeat. Kristen and Jared

were there for Saturday I think. Yeah. I texted him and could never meet up with him. I looked

for him. I went to the Jive talk show which was a highlight for me. We'll talk about that

later but yeah I wanted to see Jared and Kristen. And Brian you've got a great story on your

podcast about the beaches that was high on your that that went from bad to good. We'll

circle back around on that one eventually but yeah I was borderline stalking them on

the on the on the farm. I had a little intel as to where they might be from a couple different

people. Taco being one of them. That was wild and you're really really thank you and really

really fun. But go ahead Barry. All right. So yeah I'm just you know I'm just trying

to think what else I've missed. I made a bunch of notes. Let me go through here real quick

just because I think it's funny while I was going through the reddit. I was seeing all

these people and again it kind of recaps what what I've been saying this whole time is everybody

has their unique story but there's so much commonality. I saw a great post from a father

and son who've been going every year for 10 years and apparently people call them church

boner. And and I mentioned that just because I grew up Catholic and as soon as I saw that

term I'm like OK but I've never heard it. You know no church boners is there every year.

Their camp is right across from the arch. I don't know how they managed to get that

spot every year but they're always set up there. Church boners are there every year.

So yeah. Yeah. Two things that just you know again another story similar to we've heard

a hundred times but church boner is funny and now I can't unsee it you know kind of

thing. Our friend Ron Aruvian got the did the run which I think is just about the stupidest.

Why do you want to run at Bonnaroo but they do. The more I get to know runners the more

I understand it a little bit because I have a lot of friends that are really crazy running

people and I do somewhat understand it but not really. I'm teasing. I know they do it

every day and it's like a drug to them if they don't do it. It's great. I mean I only

understand it because they tell it to me like that. It's not like I identify. Oh yeah they're

like vegans you know. How do you know somebody's a vegan. Oh my God I haven't run I haven't

run today. Well good right. It's a good day then right. They'll tell you they're a vegan.

But he got he signed up to run and got their first in line and his number was 420 which

is so funny and he was so proud. Only 666. Good for him. For picture purposes. We got

to hang out in a different way this year with the Vlans. Kai and Tara have been on our show

a couple of times. I don't think Joe has actually been on though he might have once or twice

but Joe ain't much into stuff like this. He's kind of like likes to just take care of all

the important stuff and yeah goes sit on the lawn chair. They did they had to camp in GA

though they had guests they didn't have a camping pass so they came and hang out hung

out. Kai has been going since she's 11 I think. She's if she's not 18 she's almost almost

we're going to have her on again because she gives us such a great perspective. Yeah I'm

really looking forward to that because this is her first time in GA. Yeah. And she's been

going I think you're right about that 11 I mean a long time and that's just a perspective

you're not going to find very often just those ages period. That's right. So let's leave

that part out and then also she's had a very you know a very cushy kind of existence on

the farm and she's very used to things being quite simple and this was boy I know her I

mean I know her as much as you can know a teenager who's growing up around you. I know

she'll say the right thing and she'll think about it and craft it as well as she possibly

can but I know she was like this sucks. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. Because it's just a such a

different if just nothing else you know waking up and eating a port of John quickly and that'll

be fun to just see but I know she had fun because I was around them. Oh yeah. And I

know I watched her have fun so yeah you don't have to have VIP or you know whatever you

want to call that to have fun at this matter of fact VIP sometimes. Shout out to her boyfriend

Julie and I think it was his first Bonnaroo. Yeah he's a cool kid. Boyfriend so in that

perspective as well she was a cool kid you know and I don't think I'm telling tales because

I don't know the person's name and I won't say it but she came with a friend last year

who didn't make it past what day two. This year she was with her boyfriend and it was

his first time. My point in saying that is Bonnaroo is not for everyone. Yeah it is not.

They had to drive out and take her take her take her out because it was like I'm just

this isn't working no matter your age 70 or 17 or 27. Right. It doesn't work. I'm looking

forward to getting her her take again. What else. Those are my main things. Yeah I've

just got a few things I jotted down and one of the attendance appeared to be very healthy.

Great point. I'm not good at estimating crowds and I get really irritated when people try

to we know here locally that happens terribly within our media but it was not light. It

was not light. It was very healthy crowd. I mean I would guess 70 plus strong. Well

I was including like everybody on the farm 70 75. Yeah I was good. I was told I don't

know if it's official or not but the source is solid 70 and that was a day of and that's

one of the things we want to talk to Brad and Corey about is again the date the day

passes. There's no question we were told by Brad that you know he was told on our show

said they were not going to do day passes and then rescinded that within a couple of

weeks and I don't again I don't think I'm talking out of turn. Day passes saved him.

Yeah. Regardless of your feelings on whether they should have done it or not it definitely

increased sales and it saved him. It would appear that's true and after reading something

I've heard before in the past recently regarding the Black Keys failed stadium tour here in

the states that for most people's measurements that if you don't sell 20 percent of what

you're wanting for your event so 20 percent to capacity in the first couple of days then

you're kind of messed like you're you've got a failure on your hands if you can't knock

out a good solid 20 to 25 percent of your entire attendance initially and my guess is

they didn't reach whatever that number was they needed to be they didn't get anywhere

near it and quickly going to those one and two days I believe gave a second day or kind

of a second lifeline of right all right well now we get to try again right and they might

have reached that number maybe far surpass that number and then as things go along you

know then the sales turn into whatever they turn into but I felt like it was not a crowd

that was too much and it certainly wasn't too light I've been there when it was 90 90,000

right 90 to 100 were on record that would be like 2006 or five or something like that

early on when they tried to boost the sales and it was noticeable it was like there's

too many damn people here yeah yeah and that was not the coming that was that was not the

case here yeah there's lines you know I've died there yes yes you're gonna deal with

lines but I thought it was very healthy crowd and I think very wonderful for you know the

bottom line yeah what you said you had a couple of notes with that uh attended well I well

prices on on concessions um nothing new we haven't already talked about I thought it

was pretty interesting the five dollar mystery beer line do you guys see this I did I never

I wanted to get in there and try it see well there everybody else did too I know couldn't

even get close it's amazing the line that people will wait in to get a five dollar beer

can you imagine if you didn't sell sixteen dollar coronas disgusting coronas that most

people that was a thing I read this you got to really sell this garbage corona um sorry

if you love corona but imagine if nobody loves corona sold a corona for not fifteen dollars

how many more of those you might sell and this is to every festival this is less industry

talk and more like festival industry talk and more alcohol industry talk which I am

very involved in and know a lot about and I think they are the biggest culprits of the

problem here uh but a five dollar beer boy you thought they were giving them away the

line over there and I think that's all the proof you need to show you that you you're

gonna move product quickly if you drop the damn prices guys you're already making a ton

of money not spicy pie nova all these were up a little bit but as far as I'm concerned

if I can get fed and I'm good for most of the rest of the day for ten eleven twelve

bucks whatever like whatever it is that I just purchased there's no five dollar lunch

anymore all right it's a ten dollar lunch if you can get lunch for ten twelve bucks

then that then that's a that's fine you're not eating ten pieces of pizza you're not

eating three pieces of pizza you might want three coronas though so I really wish festivals

in general would take a look at this alcohol pricing and just realize you're hurting yourself

yeah yeah exactly you're hurting your sales and and because you're charging too much and

you're hurting your your vendors who are trying to you know hey 15% tip uh no right right

you know like come on you know how did you guys think Thursday with pretty lights on

the wet stage for the first time on a Thursday night thought it was great yeah thought it

was great I just did about an hour and a half of it probably from a pretty solid distance

to the left over by the bees we've talked about the bees on here you guys you know what

the official you know yeah the stay away from the left side of this wet stage because the

bees will get you yeah yeah brought that up to us with I was with somebody uh tell a little

bit on the regular podcast I won't go too far into it and she was like we were on that

left side she's like she's on the phone how do I explain to them where we are right now

I was like do they know about the bees yeah the hell are you talking about the bees like

the forget it yeah forget it just tell them they're never gonna find us funny uh but that's

about where I was for for pretty lights on Thursday night and it was just it was basically

exactly what I expected music that I didn't necessarily need a whole lot of but boy did

it look and sound great yeah it looked pretty great also while I'm thinking of it uh she's

okay but another tip I mentioned the hydrate and walking but if you're gonna bring a propane

cooking device be careful I heard y'all talking about this what it was so I got back to camp

Friday or was it Thursday or Friday I think it was I think it was Friday and one of our

campmates was going over to basically gather up what was left in a friend of his daughter's

camp and put it in a car to secure it because a propane cooktop exploded while she was trying

to use it and she was airlifted to Vanderbilt oh wow blew up the tent blew up their chair

burned everything by the next morning she was home so she was okay but oh wow yeah I

miss this one 100 glad to know she's okay but also be careful if you've you know kind

of goes to that our tip of try all your stuff before you get there you know put your tent

up so you know how make sure you know how to turn these things I don't know what happened

I'm just assuming could be something with the heat but those things are built to to

with stain the elements yeah but they you know that probably was some operator error

that's what I'm saying if you've never lit if you've never lit a propane stove before

maybe try to read up on how to do it safely you know and follow all the steps things like

that so but what a nightmare but she's okay so yeah Barry I think you and I saw that well

we did we listened to the Pretty Light Show from camp but I didn't go to it but yeah no

I've sounded great in I just was you know again that Thursday night first time on the

what stage I didn't yeah that Joe that Jolene grabbed my attention I figured it probably

would grab yours Barry that little sample that was in there was was pretty cool but

that's you know that's kind of stuff he does does that you know all that yeah through the

sunrise set tons of that kind of stuff too so that was pretty cool all right right out

Ross what else is on your list that you wanted to get to today a lot of you know we have

so many stories that we'll share when we talk about them these other interviews but anything

specifically today the recap that you wanted to talk about Thursday you know we did see

Michigander a little bit his cut his show since we also interviewed him so we'll talk

about more there I saw a little bit of the Francis Comes Alive show which I thought was

really good do we want to talk about Monrovia I was gonna say yeah two things about that

and I'll let Brian address it Monrovia is a Chattanooga guy played with Carl Caldwell

Summer Drags and Tyler Martelli very very very talented musicians interesting trio but

Brian I'm gonna guess you have a tip for any local musicians who are gonna be playing Bonnaroo

in the future yeah tell us you're gonna be there how about that how about that for a

tip let somebody know I mean my god I mean these are friends of mine one of them in any

way Tyler acquaintances the others and yeah I see on Facebook or wherever it is on Thursday

or whatever morning Friday morning hey I'm playing Bonnaroo today Tyler and I mean this

is kind of like you know focused brain type kind of thing narrow casting you know they're

so focused on what they do you know the last thing he's thinking to do is oh hey Brian

need to make sure and give him a ring yeah yeah yeah but come on maybe a little you know

come on just a little bit it's a and we joked about it and had fun with it but yeah there

that was fun that was neat I mean we I everybody from the city of Chattanooga was at that show

it felt like and it was like attended and while we're there the Who stage is a considerable

upgrade from anything I've ever seen yeah and maybe this isn't brand new what they're

doing there but it is just a like a scaled down temp this or that yeah it's great it's

exactly it's just if you didn't know any better you never seen it take that scale it down

to 80% yeah and it is it's got great it's got video boards it's got great sound now

they're the town guys are struggling on a few of the shows well no reason to dig too

far into that but it was a really nice looking stage like that was nothing to sneeze at like

oh you're on the little tiny stage because we've seen remember the Miller Lite true or

the Bud truce true music village or whatever and you didn't play you didn't play you didn't

play you brought your guitar to the middle of the dusty dirt worth five people like that

to me I would have been disappointed as a performer this stage now this is a really

cool little stage and if you're playing on it you should that's something to be proud

of it was cool good for them and Monrovia is where is he from Liberia yeah that's a

story I still need to get my around better it's cool my head around better but that was

neat and it was a sleepy you know a little slow kind of set but that's what he does it

was fun all right as far as list stuff though this census we want to oh yeah yeah good thank

you for bringing that back the my biggest thing to just start with before when we don't

need to go too far right now but is I just my disdain for polling I just I could go on

for a while on that one and I won't but I just think I mean tainted and slanted polling

tends to be where I most of these go which always just it irritates me because there

are real questions and there are there are there's information to be gathered from polling

that's important clearly but when you like I just took a screenshot it's very short if

you want to take it and I suggest everybody here does but this is just a 10 to 15 question

who do you want to see what do you think here but stuff like this when it comes to main

stage headliners do you prefer more current acts or legacy acts right a or b legacy or

current that's your only choices bro I don't have an answer for that that way we can discuss

this a long time but it's not as simple as that right first of all it's both it's both

legacy and current I think everybody would be that it's just that's a perfect example

of a a just a junk data question like to me you're not going to get any answers that matter

from that and maybe people smarter than me are doing it what's another one just real

quick do you prefer I don't I don't need well one of the things that sort of got me was

and I tend to agree with you Brian is I'll use the example years and years ago a Catholic

high school hired a new principal and he kept hearing from people that they wanted uniforms

they wanted the kids to wear uniforms I mean it's all he could hear and he did a survey

and it turns out it was only like 10% it was just some really really loud parents the rest

of what kid wants uniforms well I mean it wasn't the issue my point is that loud you

know vocal group can sway things like one of the questions on this survey is if it was

two weekends would you go you know and my fear was stuff like that is you can get you

know say 90% say yes that doesn't mean 90% bought tickets or will buy tickets they just

have a strong opinion about that there's so many ways these pollings are just junk data

to me and that's that was the most polarizing question on there was the two weekends thing

let me just stop right there just just stop shut that down just stop don't stop with this

madness when I for when Coachella started doing this or when I first found out about

it anyway I don't remember the history of Coachella I don't study it but I was like

two weekends who can do that who the hell's doing this who wants to do that and we live

an hour away we are the people who could do that but I'm not going to two weekends of

Bonnaroo Bonnaroo don't do it how is it how is Beth you know our Beth who comes from Washington

State she didn't make it to her or staying in Nashville for three days during I mean

I don't truly believe that they have any interest in doing that I think they're just just feeling

it out and that's fine but boy did that get did that get all the socials going and that

that is a quick just harden up like that's just what are you doing yeah you know it's

already Jesus I mean you've already made it upwards of five days which is now people have

settled into nicely and it works pretty well for a lot of people so Ross am I wrong you

if you subscribe to their mailing list you can get this survey they'll they'll except

for Barry except for me well this was not just to people who attended this was to anybody

whether you've been to Bonnaroo not it's the they put this out on social media yeah I mean

they linked it everywhere so if you can go find it and take it and it doesn't matter

if you've you know right well that goes to Barry's point do we want people yeah who don't

go having an opinion on this so I asked Brad about it depends on who you ask it is the

first time they've done it where it's to everybody not just they've done polling in the past

but it's typically that year's attendees yeah ticket this is anybody and everybody number

one and everybody does that if you buy something they're gonna send you additional you know

surveying I mean that just happened and I won't say the number but he had a number that they're

hoping to get and they were already a quarter of the way there by half of the first day

so don't what they do with it I don't know that's something we'll ask him you know yeah

that'd be a fun conversation the idea of asking people their opinion I think is a good one

it's how you do it that's always worrisome and and I even said to Brad you know you always

get I love the people and Brian we've seen it with Riverbend you know every time Riverbend

comes up how many times on the socials would you have somebody say I've never been it sucks

I mean I love those people but you know but they got to offer their opinion it never been

never gonna go they're the loudest yeah the loudest amazing so all right what one other

thing real quick guys on as far as the list goes because I did have a couple people one

in particular who had said I hope you guys talk about this and I didn't get into the

weeds too much was trash collection and just the cleanup of the festival all the way around

it didn't appear to me that clean vibes is any more involved with this festival I don't

know if that's a hundred percent true but it didn't look like it but I just heard a

lot of people talking about just kind of place being a little bit trashed I didn't quite

see that as much but I also wasn't there like I've been early sometimes on a Sunday or Saturday

morning when I can get a real view of right of what the place looks like and then the

amount of trash left after the festival I think was the main point that I was that somebody

was asking me about through direct messaging on social and I just think that's a thing

every year you know this this idea that leave it like you found it stuff that's fun to say

yeah that's not a thing I mean I always try I will say the shower I do too and I think

some do also but also when you've got people who feel like they've been being ripped off

yeah and that's gonna happen and you've been beat up by the Sun and you've had all you

can take in your five six seven hours from home you think you're gonna mess around with

that pop-up that cost you it's $79 no yeah you know that that's not happening and I'm

not gonna blame that person for that because there's somebody paid to come behind you and

clean that up and then we sell it to other people in Chattanooga so it's kind of an whole

ecosystem gear yeah shout out to the gear closet they they always come in and clean

all that up and then they resell it and then the proceeds go to charity to my waterways

which we've talked to them on the show before yep which is yeah she's great so I didn't

see it myself as far as a place not being cleaned up after as much but I some people

were were concerned about that so I figured it was worth mentioning that yeah I can see

it worth mentioning but I did see after leaving the what because I left the what twice after

full sets after chili peppers and after pretty lights I think I stayed till the end of that

and the people out there running around with the bags grabbing garbage they were there

yeah I saw them with my own eyes I can't tell you if they did a good job or not didn't see

the finished product but they were there yeah sometime one of these shows maybe on down

the line when we've got time and no topics I want to talk about technology and how they've

changed over the two decades that we've been going but I have to say the shower situation

was was awesome it was really nice year for us yeah I mean it's always been pretty good

better than this most but it was great this is this is pretty good and then just quickly

I just wanted to throw out without any in-depth like preview or recap or review is I saw

a lot of full sets this year all of Post Malone I was with people who I had just mostly met

and one was a mild acquaintance but never really actually met with so it wasn't like

a total stranger but it was a hey Brian I listen oh yeah oh yeah yeah yeah that kind

of thing and half of them including really pretty girls left and I was just at I was

in such a good spot and enjoying the Post Malone show so much I didn't leave and I couldn't

you know I never thought I would have said that going into it so I saw all the post I

saw all the chili peppers start to finish boy did it pour the hell out of me just like

I knew it would just like I knew it would but it sounded great and if you loved it then

you then it was it was exactly what you were there for all of KG Elephant oh my god what

a great rock and roll band I mean just what a great 21st century rock and roll band all

of that all of the beaches all of J rad and all of Chapel Rhone and the beaches show I

mean you could see it in that they were waiting for chapel just like everybody else they were

just like let's burn through these songs everybody that was at that tent this tent this was just

waiting to just shift and go over to chapel and they even said like all right well on

to chapel they jumped off the stage and I saw them posting on their socials they're

out in the field like everybody else that's funny quickly what popped into my head here

too quickly quickly the platinum seating areas in the tents feel like they gotta go yep they're

not getting used from my experience which is limited which is limited I'm sure there's

a few tents that had big shows that got filled up with platinum members the ones I was at

I was 40 rows out just to get us and I am there early because that damn platinum thing

is taking up space that nobody's using if it's getting used I'm not gonna have much

to say about it that's fine there yeah people paid well yeah this guy he's platinum wherever

he goes some of us aren't that slick taco and it it just I don't know it really took

away from the from the the gathering up front you're gonna have we're gonna have VIPs we're

gonna have exclusivity and that you can purchase and I'm okay with that but if it's not getting

used you need to try something else well and it's not a good look for the band if they

there's a photo of the crowd and the whole front is empty you know that was the beaches

show I was on the rail but the rail was three rails back and I didn't see anybody using

the VIP seating either the chairs oh the bleachers I think we talked about oh the hill no not

the hill out in on the right side to like the witch they had a whole okay platform and

to me I didn't pay attention to me it just looked like a giant skillet it looks so oh

yeah oh you're talking about the bleachers yeah yeah like the witch yeah so I couldn't

even imagine how hot that was aluminum I'm not saying don't sell exclusive ticket tearing

and options I'm not but I think that the way that that is carved into those tents those

are already really small and I forgot this is considerably smaller than that see thank

you the tents thank you I've asked that and Jeff Quayore said no they were the same size

and I'm like no they're not the that is a it's it's they might have been in the past

but I thought they were build them every year I think they build them differently I think

they used to be and this year I was like this is very noticeably smaller smaller making

it either way it's not that big is my point so when you take away so much space in such

premium spot right that's a little annoying I agree those screens didn't do a hell of

a lot of good in some settings either but I'd rather have them than not yeah so I'm

not gonna complain about that but I'm glad you mentioned the platinum thing cuz I I caught

about three shows of post and then went straight to this tent for the Mars Volta I got right

into the platinum area and it wasn't heavily attended and while I was waiting that was

a great show by the way I'll stay for the whole thing and and I I guess it kind of worked

to my favor that you know ThunderCat and T pain were at the same time because you know

it really wasn't heavily attended probably as much as it would be but well sitting there

yeah go no keep going sorry while I was sitting there waiting David Bruce walked up and he

was he actually came in the area and asked a is it okay if I come in and take photos

and they initially said no no photos apparently the Mars Volta management or whatever requested

no photos at all so he he was originally turned away but then she saw his crew chief wristband

I don't know how you got that but she pointed that out was like oh why didn't you tell me

you have a crew chief you can go anywhere you want so he got in and got into the photo

pit to take photos and after about three songs he said he looked up and probably either their

manager somebody off to the side pointed at him and said you know waved no no photos so

he you know kind of okay sorry so he was the only photographer for that show that well

that's the thing I don't want to spend a lot of time on here because a lot of people won't

know what it means but who can go in those little side side sliver things Bonnaroo has

spent 20 years and I ain't figured this out you can be the you know the band's manager

and they won't let you in and then you can just be some jackass who just walks right

in it's no problem but that's you know that's not that big a deal the I'm glad you mentioned

T-Pain boy if that to me that felt like the biggest buzz of the weekend before Sunday

got there is that that T-Pain show was at night and it was really cool and it was huge

attended at the witch I wasn't there but I was ear shot boy people seemed to be crazy

excited for the T-Pain show and it sounded like it delivered but you were off doing your

Thundercats and Mars Voltas right so you I didn't see Thundercat I was there for the

Mars Volta the entire set oh that's right that's right yeah yeah speaking of that Super

Jam did either y'all do that no no another year and another year without a Super Jam

for me I didn't I didn't go because I went to the boot scooting Boogie Nights show but

I think you made the right past I think I did too I did walk past and I did hear them

they were doing a cover of One-Arm Scissor by At the Driving which I thought was cool

yeah the fact that it was emo was the main theme it wasn't gonna do a whole lot for me

I could have had fun with it I certainly could have and somebody could have talked me into

it but yeah I stayed for a couple minutes just because I heard that song but then I

had to I did go on to the who stage for boot scooting Boogie Nights and I'm glad I did

I got right up front I know Cory saw me and that was such a fun show and this was not

you know we talked about it it's it's 90s country covers yeah did they play boot scooting

Boogie the song I hope so they played they played like three sets over the course of

the week yeah this was the only one I caught but yeah it was like something unlocked because

that suddenly I knew all these words I knew all these songs yeah that that 90s country

boom was it's infectious so in our face yeah yeah that was one of my favorites and then

also Jive Talk on the who stage I think that's my new favorite band oh nice seriously they

were great I was told go see Jive Talk oh my god I didn't do it yeah I didn't do it

that's the one our friends repeat repeat what they produced one of the songs they they produced

their latest album the whole album I think yeah and I yeah well I was hoping to actually

I went hoping to see Jared and Kristen but I watched the whole show and it's just I don't

know they're just weird that kind of reminds me of like Devo they came out in these like

weird costumes and sunglasses and it was very theatrical and kind of over the top but I

loved it yeah like a set do they have a 70s disco-ish sound in there during some of it

yeah that's what somebody was telling me I don't remember when where I wasn't even at

Bonnaroo before I got there it's like yeah you got to go see Jive Talk they were fun

the singer he come out to the crowd he like sat down on the ground he was kind of you

know singing with the crowd and you just felt like they were putting a lot into this performance

probably because it was their first Bonnaroo so you spent a lot of time at the who stage

too then so yeah I saw three shows at the who stage yeah nice cool so for people why

I keep talking about repeat repeat they that our theme song that you hear every week there's

Jared and Kristen did for us exclusively and they are and we're going to talk later with

Say She She and Happy Landing and whoever else but repeat repeat are a classic Bonnaroo

type story for us for me anyway they were the first band to come to Camp Nut Butter

to do an interview we followed them ever since become friends and I just I love following

the career arc type of thing and yeah so they came and played Chattanooga one year and they

rode in the bus after the show we went somewhere and so they've been on the bus I love that

kind of stuff so alright guys another long episode we're not even getting to Sunday yet

oh yeah you're going to recap you want to keep going go ahead yeah well you mentioned

the chapel thing which was huge and I didn't stay much for that just because of the heat

and but the the one show I did see on Sunday that I loved was Bad Bad Not Good what's it

where were they playing they were in that tent so it's no that this tent well I can't

remember one of the tents yeah but they had a kind of a 16 millimeter film camera set

up projecting behind them and it had a lot of weird trippy visuals it was it was really

cool and yeah then after that I think I went back to camp and that's about the time that

they had that rain delay during Carly Rae's set and kind of had to pause for a little

bit because there was some lightning in the area and then they finally restarted and Megan

the stallion you know got to go on and that's about the time that I said I think I could

I think I could leave and be good about three hours before that is when I was yeah you had

left a little bit before that but yeah I wasn't too far behind that was a plan all along and

yeah my Sunday went well but the chapel show was not anything special from what she's been

doing so like she didn't do something at Bonnaroo that was so much different than what she's

been doing but that doesn't mean anything other than you know I'm trying to get away

from best show ever guy but it was it was awesome it was awesome and I can't believe

how many songs I knew every song she played I'm like sing along I am a pink pony girl

man I am in this chapel ron universe I watch her now and I'm like the way I'm starting

to understand the Taylor Swift mania because I'm feeling that a little bit with chapel

ron and I mean I'm not saying she's gonna be Taylor Swift but her ascension near the

apex there's a lot more to go here she's just on Fallon the other day she just ended the

her tour the last show was was the Bonnaroo show so they're taking a little bit of time

off I was surprised with how many instruments are on stage like it's a band playing music

as opposed to sometimes a pop star like Taylor Swift where you hardly see any band members

you just see this elaborate dance show well you get a little bit of both of that with

this I am hook line and sinker on the chapel ron stuff I can't believe it but I I can't

wait to see where she goes from here and I hope she's young she's young I hope it doesn't

meet her up I hope the the the massive stardom explosion doesn't somehow become a problem

because we that's a story as old as as civilized time but it was it was really really good

it was really good well you left you left too early Sunday because I got in the pit

for Milky Chance and they brought out one of your girls from one of the beaches I knew

they would I knew they would because they have a song together and the beaches clearly

were making a weekend of it yeah and I I that was tough to pull away from and then is bull

that night is one of my favorites if you saw that set list snooze fest thank God I didn't

stick around for that Jason I thought you were gonna start rocking a little bit now

that you're a single man boy he played a lullaby set and it's fine he's great but I was I was

happy to be at home I was watching it on Hulu we'll talk about this down the road yeah that

Hulu stuff we talked a little bit about somebody had asked us do we think they'll be doing

some streaming doing some more comprehensive coverage that ain't gonna work Bonnaroo that

ain't gonna come that was awful yeah that was a I signed up for Hulu for a month so

I could watch I wanted to watch everything while I was at home and it was like yeah I

watched it it was bad so we'll cut we'll circle back around that that's more of a Hulu thing

that it is a Bonnaroo thing but they do need to get together on that and make that if you're

gonna do it do it better than that that was bad all right yeah a couple other highlights

for me I saw John Baptiste on the what and Brittany Howard on the witch they were both

very good very nice so yeah I caught a little bit of Renee rap as kind of a walk by yeah

I got some walk bys Renee raps she had a big crowd cigarettes after sex talk about sleepy

though yeah they sounded exactly like you expected they were going to and I was like

this is fine but I'm good with just moving making that a walk and nice crowd nice crowd

yeah Teske brothers are really good I missed Interpol that's the one that I'm kind of mad

about that I missed I don't remember why I think I'd either was either too tired or went

to go do something else but that's the other one I wanted to see and I didn't make it all

right what else take that back cover I just put down my full shows and just going on memory

on walk bys there's walk bys I don't remember yeah I can't remember who I saw on Friday

and then we'll go into guava when we do the guar show we will spend some extra time on

on that because that was that's a highlight of the weekend yeah didn't talk about that

yeah we'll get into it when we do the guar show yeah that was great that was good stuff

all right anything else I got everything up Barry keeps trying to kick me off so I guess

we're done well I'm looking at the clock we're an hour and 40 in so yeah I think that covers

just about everything things will come up and you know that this is not something we

can do in one one sleuth no but I mean to to to recap the recap I can't wait till next

year I'm literally already thinking about camp I'm already thinking about how to build

camp a friend of the show correspondent Trevin Bernarding is already reached out can he be

with us next year so yeah come on in yeah come on yeah I think he'd be a perfect fit

and me too we're gonna talk about bath bath is just cool and those guys in their story

Jerry Mike and Brad and and justice I think that Brad's son that was there right it was

his nephew and I think you guys are gone you guys were gone Sunday I had one of the best

dad jokes for Father's Day we were sitting around and justice was there probably about

20 ish wouldn't you say but I we it may be early 20s 21 22 somewhere but I I just turned

at him and I was like can you see and he was like what yeah I can see it was like you can

see just fine and he was like yeah and I said well I always heard that justice is blind

he said he'd never heard that before I was shocked I was like come on you've got to hear

that all the time with a name like justice well that makes a joke even worse he didn't

even get it yeah almost as bad as my hippie why did the lifeguard let the hippie ground

too far out that's that one's a little better it's a little better let's get the hell let's

get out of here guys love you glad we all survived glad we made it glad we're we're

energized and looking forward to next year we've got a lot of shows coming up coming

out of Bonnaroo so thanks everyone for listening seriously and thanks to everybody who came

up and said hello and and yeah we tried to get names and where you from and all that

but there's no way we can remember all over the country it was so many people just so

crazy yeah you know who you are you do you do and we appreciate you yeah the world to

me all right all right thanks guys