The Bonnaroo 2020 lineup is finally here! Brad and Barry (with special guest Bryan Stone) go line by line with you and share their thoughts. There's lots to go over here and even some stuff we missed, which will be coming out in future episodes.
Topic: Bonnaroo
Hey, hey, hey, hey. How y'all feeling? Journey through the stories that define the artists playing Bungaroo. Who are they? What are they? What will you see? The what? Which bands? This year? That Matter? With Brad Steiner and Barry Courter. Summertime and the livin' is easy. Oh, can you feel it? Can you smell it? Can you breathe it? Is it in your blood yet? Bonnaroo's lineup is out. It is the glory. It's the most glorious day of the year. It is the most amazing feeling in the world to look at it on your computer screen, to hold it in your hand, to see it on your phone, and then be able to talk about it with your best friends and lose your mind on Twitter about it, which is what I'm doing right now. You said earlier it's the first time that we've done this, that we all kind of... In the last like four years, I think we've done this together and at least one of us thought, I'm not sure. Yeah, that was okay. Immediately it was OMG, bro. Right. Are you kidding me? There is not a second line of this lineup that is not as good as any first line of any other lineup. That's how strong... Where we lose our minds is you look at the reddits and you see time after time after time, everybody gets the headliners. We get the headliners, but then we never know what's happening on the second line and we always take that second line and we're like, you know what, I don't know if this is for me. Yeah. I just don't think that this is okay. There's one or two in there. No, but I just don't know this year. This is just, I don't know how you look at these second lines. If you take out the first line of every day and just do second lines, you have got a festival that is good as any in the country. Well, we've been sitting here waiting on it for several hours. Thank you to the guys at AC and Big Hassle for getting it to us early as they always do. But we've been waiting, you know, and then when we got it, we've had it, what, 20, 25 minutes? Barely, yeah. And we had to take a break. Had to kind of gather our senses. I had to gather myself. That's why I'm still trying to digest it as we speak. And it just, it's deep. It hits on so many different genre levels, so many different age demographics. I mean, this is really gold. Can you tell that we are excited? I'm Brad Steiner, that's Barry Courter, and we're joined by Camp Nut Butter Regular, Brian Stone, host of the Least Listened To podcast in the history of podcasting. I don't really do it anymore, actually. A podcast not about Bonnaroo, not for Bonnaroovians. That is us, the podcast for Bonnaroovians, by Bonnaroovians, Barry Courter and Brad Steiner. Now, welcome to Line Up Day, by the way. Welcome to Line Up Day. I'm very excited and happy to be here. This is fun. This is great. Yeah, thanks for joining us. We've done this, the three of us, four years, maybe even five, tacos helping, we're videoing now. It's great. And the best part is, is Brian dressed up. You're wearing a hoodie. You're wearing a hat outdoors. You're 9-12. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. You are a grown man wearing a hat. Nobody cares. A grown ass man. I've had to listen to this all night. Well, it's been a lot. It's been a lot. June 11th through 14th, Campsite. All right, so I don't even know where to start. I'm going to start at the, to me, the thing that cuts through the noise. And I don't care how much you want to argue with me about Lizzo. I've had this argument how many times on this show. I don't understand it exactly. You will. I'll deal with you later. You will. Fine. You will understand. I'll deal with the Lizzo stuff later. We've all had the argument. If you've been following any of this, we'll talk about the Lizzo thing here in a second. Tame Impala, Tool, Lizzo, the rumored headliners, all true. Where's kept secret? All the thing that cuts through the noise for me. Miley Cyrus. Wow. And Bonnaroo is the most stroke of Coachella that I have ever seen Bonnaroo make. That's terrific. And I'm not a fan. I said this in our live Instagram video. I'm not a fan of Miley Cyrus. Here's what I love about her. I love the fact that she doesn't give a shit. Yeah. I love that she doesn't care. And I love that she's always willing to do something that challenges you. I understand that it's very uncomfortable that we have seen her naked as many times that we have seen her. But that is as big of a risk as Bonnaroo has ever put as the... You do the lineup, right? You go Tool, Tame Impala, Lizzo. I don't know what it's for. It might be Flume and it might be Lana Del Rey. But if it's Miley Cyrus, that is as big of a risk as Bonnaroo has ever taken. Yeah. No, I agree. And I can't wait to see it. I can't wait to see the show. I'm like you. I like her. I respect her. It's not somebody I listen to a lot of the music. But she's done it her way. And good for her. What do you think about on that Friday night on stage wise? Do you see her being the headliner on The Witch? Like around maybe 10? Or something like that with Tool being the late night, later night, midnight or 11 o'clock on The What? Or do you see Miley before Tool on The... I don't see that crossover being there. It's a good question. Let's get to scheduling. I'll get to scheduling here in a little bit. But I find I just want to hammer home the idea that I have a feeling this is going to get a lot of blowback, right? I think people are going to look at... Especially the Bonnaroo fan, the hardcore Bonnaroo fan is going to look at Miley Cyrus and say, what are you doing? Why are you doing this to me? This has turned into a pop festival. Live Nation's killed it. Why are they doing this? What a sellout. That sounds like me 10 years ago. I don't know if you're going to get that now as much. I disagree. I'm with Brian. I think you're going to look at it and you're like, man, that's just one more great thing in the basket. I tell you the one that's blowing me and it's way down. We talked about it earlier. Turquoise with Jerry Harrison and Adrian Blue. Oh, God. Here goes Brad being himself. Whatever. Me and Taco and Barry, we're talking about this. Whatever. I love this. I love this so much. I love the fact that Barry Courter is sitting in front of the Bonnaroo line. I was like, you know, I'm looking at Miley Cyrus, Flume, Winsterhead, Lana Del Rey. You know what really surprises me? 12 lines down at Alton Gunn. Adrian Blue. All right, Brad. Come on. It's Ken Crimson and Talking Heads. I understand. You are the youngest person here, by the way. I find that to be just so hysterical. That's just one. That's just one. Oysterhead, Jason Isbell. I think it's a testament to how deep and how great this lineup initially looks. Leon Bridges, who I love. Get back with me in a week and I'll have a little bit more of a... Yeah, we just got this. I understand. I understand. So when I look at the thing that cuts through the entire conversation that will be on consequence of sound on stereo gum, the minute you open your computer today, it is going to say, Tool Lizzo Tame Impala Miley Cyrus, Headline Bonnaroo 2020. I just don't recall a time where something like Miley Cyrus has been in that conversation. I don't remember. Now, this is to me, and I said this to a friend of mine a second ago as they walked by, it feels to me like Cardi B last year, but with so much more weight. Miley Cyrus is not going to screw around. Miley Cyrus is going to bring a show. And no matter what I like about it or think about it, it is going to be phenomenal and enormous amount of fun. Pardon my ignorance, but I would put Miley Cyrus at a much higher overall international superstardom than Cardi B, right? I mean, whether you like her or hate her. I mean, I'm not going to rank them, but that's... I don't mean that you are, but that's still what... It's one of those love or hate. I agree. Can you believe this is... I didn't believe... Cardi B was like, what the hell is this? Fine, whatever. I agree. I'm trying to identify the conversation. I got you. And I really think that the conversation is going to be Miley Cyrus playing Bonnaroo. And it didn't... Not one sniff, not one little tiny leak, not one little rumor. Not once. I ever saw Miley on it. I know you guys and especially everybody out there listening to your show follow this religiously. I never saw... Not even like, hey, what do you all think about this crazy idea? Right. That's amazing they were to keep that secret. That's just impressive all the way around in itself. Right. And I'm wondering if you had any of the other Nashville people that could have filled that slot that would have been as surprising. Well, that's where I was going to go with it. I wonder how much of it is the fact that they haven't had a female headliner before. I'm wondering how much that conversation played into the booking room. And maybe it was trying to double down and have a couple... And the Nashville thing. You know, everybody wanted Dolly. So, I have to think in their head, the guys who booked this, Nashville and female. So Miley would come up and they went and got her. And good for that. I think the conversation too is going to be just what we've been doing for the last 20 minutes is how strong the whole thing is. Yeah, okay. All right. Let's go to the weight of the entire festival. Okay? Now, I understand that this is not a show that is built for the EDM crowd. We are not EDM people, although Barry... That's a good point. I didn't even think about that. Although Barry loves EDM. There he is. Well, Bass Nectar is the king of them all. You might as well call him Barry Nectar because he is the biggest Bass Nectar fan you've ever seen in your life. All right. So, I just want to... If we were to create the poster, somebody on Infa-Roo or Red is going to create the poster, right? And it's going to put it in traditional Bonnaroo style. It's not going to be like it is... By the way, two years in a row, they built it by day. And how great is that to have more talking points too, though? That's fun to be able to look at each individual day. Well, last year we said they built it by day because we felt it was so weak. Boy, oh boy. If you put this on a poster... You said that. I was just trying to create an argument. I was creating content. I know you were. Barry, we got a lot of shows to film. Radio guy. Radio guy. So, if you were to put this on an actual poster, I mean, the first four lines are unbelievable. It'd be crowded. It'd be full. I mean, there are going to be times where you read this lineup and you're going to pass Run the Jewels maybe five times. And not even notice it. Run the Jewels is going to be as fun of a show on the witch stage as you are going to find at Bonnaroo. But you are going to pass that how many times? 1975 has a massive, massive audience. Glass Animals is what everybody wanted. Everybody. Everybody did want Glass Animals. Young the... Megan the Stallion could not be a big... You talk about these lanes. We have talked about lanes so many times on this show. Megan the Stallion, DaBaby, Lizzo, you can see it all feeding. We have it left Friday. I know. We have it left Friday. I know. So then you go to Saturday. Lizzo, Flume, Oysterhead, Tenacious D, Jason Isbell, King Gizzard, DaBaby, Seven Lions. I'm just on the first two lines. Tame Impala on Sunday, Lana Del Rey, Vampire Weekend, Leon Bridges, Young Thug, Grace Potter, Flogging Molly, Rez. I'm only on the first two lines. This is... You made fun of me. I don't remember a lineup where I felt like the weight was all in the first part of the conversation. I look back on the Bruce Springsteen year or the Snoop Dogg year and I say, man, look at all that. The artists that were there and we didn't even talk about it. This is all up front ready for us to look at. It's flip-flop from last year. Remember last year we were like the top was... It was down in the middle. Then the surprises in the lower. Now it's just like you're saying. I'm like... If you are somebody that is calling or complaining about Lizzo, I don't know what you're going to worry about. Go see it and then talk about it. All right. Marcus King. I just saw that. I know. Hargey Har, Durkadurk event. Marcus King is great. Stop it, Brad. I don't have any problem with it. Apparently he does. A couple things. I want to reset because there's so much to get to. There's so much to dig into in this lineup. My eyes can't peel off of it. I want to keep looking at it because I keep finding things that I never expected to see. Isn't that one of yours? The struts? The struts? Is that something you turned me on to at one point? Brian, I would try to introduce you to oxygen if I felt like it would help your life, but you don't care about anything that I say. I don't want it. I don't need oxygen. So let's go through some of the things that we actually knew were going to happen and it turned out all of it to be true. Now, I want to go through some of the things that we said and then we'll go through some of the things that M4Wu said and the blogs and the websites said. When I said that there was going to be somebody that I absolutely knew was going to be there and it was Brittany Howard. Brittany Howard is my favorite artist on the planet. It makes all the sense in the world that she's going to be on Friday night. I want to make this clear. It is stunning to me. Stunning to me. Brittany Howard is the front woman. She's been on SNL. She's the front woman of one of the biggest bands on the planet and she is on the third line on a Friday. That is stunning to me. I don't think it's going to be a 10 show. I would imagine that would be a witch stage sometime around 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon. So that was that. We also knew that there was no chance in the world that the Black Keys were playing. We got that information early. And yes, we were pretty privy to the Lizzo information. You know, it's my girl. You made her career. I didn't make anybody. No, I did not make anyone. The first one ever to play her, he made her. That is true, but the other part is not. I made nobody. I was the first one to play her. It really sort of falls into what we already knew. And something hit me when I opened this up and I looked at it for the first time when we both also both saw Tool, Lizzo and Tame Impala. And I went right by it. Right. I just sort of knew it. Just keep moving along. It's crazy that I am spending every waking second that I have right now on everybody but Tool, Lizzo and Tame Impala. I'm doing the exact same thing. And it's because I think it doesn't, I don't think it matters. It's part of the argument that we have been making forever. Headliners not really necessarily what we need to worry about. And I think that Bonnaroo doesn't have a problem with the headliners leaking, which is why sort of Coachella did this a few weeks ago. Coachella lets their headliners out. What do they care? The headliners are not going to be the ones that sell the tickets. It doesn't change anything. They're not going to sell the tickets. They're not going to change the conversation. I think we need to drive the narrative starting right now at 9 15 in the morning. If you're listening to this right now is Miley Cyrus, Bass Nectar, Run the Jewels, Glass Animals, Flume, Oyster Head, Tenacious D, Lana Del Rey, Vampire Weekend, Leon Bridges, Grace Potter, on and on and on. Yep. I think Lana Del Rey has almost got a kind of a big female presence on the top on each night. Miley and Lizzo, of course, obviously on Saturday, Lana Del Rey, Grace Potter. It's just diverse. It's so diverse and so solid. By the way, it just hit me. Somebody with more information than I, when's the last time Grace Potter was there? Grace Potter puts together great set after great set when she's at Bonnaroo. It's always during the day and it's always really... She's a perfect which stage or early what stage. And it's always so hot and you just like struggle to get there. But boy, that Grace Potter set is so much fun when you're actually experiencing. You question whether you should go because you're tired. You got something else to do. She's going because a girl wants you to go. That's true. And when you get there, you're happy that you got there. You're having a blast because she's amazing. Okay. I want to go back to Friday because the first two lines... It's stacked. So what we have talked about before in festival lineup world is that Fridays and Sundays are usually the days that they stack the most, right? And they let Saturdays sort of be a little lighter for lack of a better term. You're already there on a Saturday, right? Yeah, because you're going to be there. If they can get you on a Friday and a Sunday or even a Thursday, they know they've got an extra probably thousand dollars a ticket on a Saturday because you're going to be there anyway. It doesn't really matter. They can push all of their things on a Friday and Sunday and make the crowd go where they really want to, where they need them to go to keep everything sort of in order, right? Right. So with that being said, I am stunned as to how light Thursday is. Yeah, I said before we started taping that I know one act. Well, I'm... Which, as we've said many, many times, I'm fine with that because Thursday is discovery day. Yeah, I don't think that matters. I don't think whether you know anything on Thursday matters all that much, but I actually do know a couple names. By light, do you mean you don't know them or you think it's just a light lineup or both? I had to admit you don't know something, but... Okay. Good catch. Damn it, Brian, you're not supposed to be here today. You see how he hesitated. Because I'll admit straight up, I don't know any of them. It could be a great lineup. I'm excited about learning what Thursday holds. I love the regrets. The regrets have been really good to us as a radio station, as a radio group. I like the regrets a lot. Larkin Poe has been really good to the city of Chattanooga. They've been here a couple of times. I guess that I'm just... Big Something, by the way. He's really good. Devin Gaffillion's a national guy. Oh, Devin Gaffillion, that's right. Devin Gaffillion's been an amazing singer-songwriter. You're going to like him a lot because the voice is terrific. But I don't know, man. I think I might... There's not that one big name you think might be that big third. There's no Courtney Barnett. There's no Shakespeare five, six years ago. Courtney Barnett was three or four years ago. Maybe. Maybe. I think that I'm more a little bit sort of over the grand old operating. No, I'm totally over the grand old operating. I want to see what comes back. Yeah, you said it. You've said it many times. I also think the preservation hall brass... Or the New Orleans Bay, I think that had run its course, too. So I like the idea of continuing with this maybe, I don't know if we'll call it new tradition, but at least new annual thing. I hope it doesn't take it. It needs some tweaking. So as somebody... This is what's ironic and uncomfortable. As two people that are doing a radio show in front of you right now, I really hate the idea of going to the WIT stage and watching a radio show. I think that's very uncomfortable. Going to that tent and watching what happened last year, it just... It didn't work. It did not work. And I hope to God... And I hope they tweaked it. How much do we love Catch? But this just didn't work. I hope to God... You're not sure we love Catch or we don't get it? No, we absolutely... Yeah, yeah, okay. We love Catch, but... Catch is the Catch. We love the Catch. Catch, Echor. But featuring special guests, oh my God, I hope those special guests... It wasn't that so much. It was just like the commercial breaks. There was just too much time in between. It just was slow. It was slow moving. I enjoyed the music. I enjoyed seeing those guys. I get your point though. It was slow and you could see people leaving. And that's what I mean. I hope they tweak it. I think the idea... We pumped it up beforehand. It's a great idea. Oh man, we were so excited. Yeah, we were excited. We're so excited. We'll see where it goes. All right, so here's the other thing that I was thinking about. As we were watching the tweets come in and the reddits come in as you get excited for lineup day, boy, that was a Governor's Ball. What lineup dropped as we were sitting here? I'll let it go. You're going to pick on me. I'm not going to pick on you. I swear to God, I'm not going to pick on you. It was Governor's Ball. It was three. I was saying, you've got to pick on somebody other than me there, Barry. Wait a second. Governor's Ball booked Stevie Nicks? Did they? That makes no sense for what the Governor's Ball is doing. They're a top 40 sort of crossover alternative pop festival. That doesn't make any sense if Stevie Nicks was there. By the way, Stevie Nicks, not going to be a Bonnaroo, but what I don't see on here is the Legacy Act. Well, it seems like the Legacy Act has been less and less over the years. Except... Except... Aaron Harrison and Adrian Ballerin. Adrian Ballerin. I know. But I was going to say Primus. Primus, yeah. But I don't see a Kenny Rogers. I don't see a... See the Turquoise. They're going to be doing the Remainin' Light. It's 40 years old. Barry. Barry on my Brad's side on this one. I'm a huge Talking Hits fan. Barry? That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about... They don't care. No, there's no Lionel. Give me the Lionel, Richie. Give me the Kenny Rogers. They're not pulling for that 55 to 65 plus-ish year old male or female that wants to have that getaway weekend because so-and-so is playing, right? Like Lionel or like Elton or whatever. Or certainly Paul would go far generations outside of that. But there's not one of those. And a couple years ago, I said the same thing when Eminem was having his second headline and you said, that was the Legacy Act. I was like, damn. Eminem was the Legacy Act this year. I don't know if that's important anymore. How much of that, though, is us trying to guess how they build their lineups? Because you guys have talked to the people who do it. So you probably do. But I mean, how much of it is it a formula like that versus, let's go get the best 100 acts that we can get? Your Legacy Act? Tool. That's your Legacy Act. You know what I'm saying? They're almost 30 years old. Yeah. I mean, these are all fine points. I just wonder, I think, Barry, you might be right about this the more that I think about it. We always keep, especially the lineup nerds, and I consider myself one of them, we all just keep trying to find the band that fits the slot that a previous band had actually created. That's what I mean. Yeah, that we're used to. And yeah, Lionel Richie created a slot. Kenny Rogers created a slot. John Prine created a slot. That's not how they're building a lineup. They're building a lineup mainly because they see shows that they think are really, really good. That's my point. And then they add some things that they know they need to do to sell some tickets. And then they add some things that their partners need them to put on to get some other artists. That's how they build a lineup. And I hope to God that they can put enough levels in there and lanes in there for you to, so they can manage an entire crowd of people from one spot to the next. As we've heard and talked about, the lanes are the most important thing. You get a Miley Cyrus, it kind of blows up what you've done in the past maybe. But you go with it. All right, let's go back to Brian's original point and his original question is where these things fit on the stage. Now I have a feeling, I'm about to do exactly what I just said I shouldn't do, which is find slots for people where they don't belong because someone existed in that slot before. I love, and God, I know I'm not supposed to talk about his name or say his name, but I'm going to use him just as a proxy. I love that R. Kelly slot. After the Tame Impala slot, better yet. The original R. Kelly slot, now the Tame Impala slot. After LCD sound system, a few years ago Tame Impala gets that late night witch slot. On the witch. Boy, how great would it be if that was Miley Cyrus? I have a feeling it's not going to be, I have a feeling it's going to be base nectar, but how fun would it be? This is where I was about to go, I've been wanting to ask this when you said hold on, we'll come back to schedule. Base nectar on the other late night, because the other has become the same size and same crowd size as the witch. Maybe a Miley on the witch around 10-ish or so. You make a great point. You make a great point because. Tool later and then base nectar to close down on the other at like 1.30 or 2. Which you know they're moving the Calliope stage so. Because they're making the other the point of the late night. You might be exactly right about that. Nobody's sleeping in GA that night. Nobody's sleeping anywhere that night. Which by the way, I want to explain to you why they moved Calliope, it's because the VIPs and the platinum members are sleeping right on the other side of the wall. They're not going to keep Calliope stage right there when all the people paying the money. Alright, so back to, so if base nectar goes on the other, does Miley Cyrus take that late night slot on the witch or does she play right before Tool? I would love her to be on, I get why you're laughing and why we have a question worth asking, but that damn what stage is just so incredible. I want to see Miley on that stage. I don't know if you cross it up and have base nectar play in between the two. I don't think that makes any sense because you want base nectar to be later than Tool. I would think, right? I don't know, because the witch is just, it gets better and better and better, but it's still disappointing at times. Man, that's they're putting a lot of effort into it. They are. We've heard that better and better and better, but it's not the what? There's not a stage in this country that sounds better than that. What stage at any given time? It's pretty good day. And I would hate to waste like a why am I blanking on Neil Young and Richie Ferre and Steven Steele's Buffalo Springfield in 11. That was so just so disappointing. I hate to interrupt, but I just now saw another thing on the lineup that I'm stunned by. Adrian Ballew is on it. I am. I wonder where this was because I knew you didn't hate to interrupt. I was like, hold on. You can't make fun of me. Whatever. We're going to talk about that. One six more and more and more. I hate to interrupt, but I'm going to make fun of somebody. I find I think that this year is trying to this is going to be so much fun to watch on in for and schedule nerds like myself. It's going to be so much fun to watch them try and create this schedule. This schedule is going to be a show to try and figure out how in the world you make Friday work. You're right, Brian. You said this. We have not left Friday. This is amazing to me. So I'm trying to figure out how you could possibly put you know that if we're creating lanes, right? So if you're going to create lanes, anybody that's going to be a schedule person, try and create a mock schedule. They're going to create lanes and they're going to try and get you to where they need to get you. Glass Animal seems like a very, very possible afternoon. What stage slot? That would be so good. If you went into 1975, that would make a lot of sense that then got you to tool, right? On which you've got Megan the stallion going in to run the jewels going into Miley Cyrus, right? Those things start to make sense. I don't know if I'm right about this, but I just I've got to assume that I'm close as to how this is going to work. I just don't see Miley Cyrus playing into tool. I don't see that happening. That's the lead in that lead in doesn't work as well. When you talk to your guy about the way things plan, the way things flow, that lead in flow doesn't make a lot of sense. Let's finally move to Saturday. So we talked about Thursday. It's sort of like it's there. We're going to be there anyway. Let's go play and let's go explore. I don't care. I don't give a I really don't give a damn what you give to me on Thursday. I'm going to be love every second. Right. You're on house money this entire week. That's a great point. Friday. By the way, boy, I just want to keep going on Friday, by the way. I want to talk about Lin and Stella. I'm not even going to talk about Brittany Howard because everybody knows how much I love her. I love Brittany. Lin and Stella is a superstar. I want to tell you a story about Lin and Stella. This girl tackled me at Lollapalooza. We were in this weird. I don't want to get to name dropy here. I'm so sorry. I really don't because I know for the context on this. We're at this very strange party for like chain smokers. And it doesn't make I don't know why we were there. We just happened to be there. I didn't want to be there, but she was on the same label as the chain smokers. And I was there with the label people. But this girl runs and attacks us and tackles me and starts talking about Bonnaroo because Barry, she knew the podcast. So I thought you were going to say she knew Bishop Briggs or something. You had to so Lin and so heard about the table. You broke so Lennon starts talking to us about Bonnaroo and how much she loves Bonnaroo because she's from Nashville. She's on the TV show Nashville and she's obsessed with Bonnaroo and all she can talk about and Lollapalooza is a few days long. Right. All she can talk about every time I see her after that is how much she can't wait to be at Camp Nut Butter. Awesome. And I'm not saying I love her because of that, but this girl is going to be a superstar. She is a superstar. Her show is damn good. She reminds me a lot of Dua Lipa really early on. Dua didn't really know what to do on stage. It was very uncomfortable. Just needed a few songs to get her over the hump. Dude, Lin and Stella is a star, a complete star. And we can talk about Tones and I, which, by the way, Dance Monkey might be one of the most, the biggest crossover hits of the entire year last year. Dance Monkey from Tones and I. That's going to be a fun show. That's going to be on the other because they're a DJ set. There's a lot to talk about in the upcoming weeks. Be a Patreon. We'll dig into all of this. The what? Podcast.com. All right. Saturday. I'm not going to talk about Lizzo. Let's talk about Oysterhead and how this is going to bring Trey and Asajio back to the farm again, which if you believe anything about the way that Bonnaroo makes their money or believes that they want to keep going back to their roots, Oysterhead is the only thing on this lineup to me that takes them back to their original roots. It is. I don't know how much you guys know about the band Oysterhead. They are really on the cult fringe of Fish and Primus. Now, you are one of these guys, by the way. When they were first a thing, I listened to a lot of this. It's really it's a novelty act. It's where they are versus like string cheese incident and like a widespread panel. Well, where they don't come in with that is they don't have the longevity, they don't have the catalog. They don't have they don't have the fan base for that specific band itself. Now, their tentacles go far and wide. I'm assuming Stuart Copeland from the police is still their drummer. That's what made it the super group. So it's less from Primus and Trey from Fish and Stuart Copeland. Primus is on the line. And then, of course, well, I mean, Les Claypool, he used to be at this festival every single year, the first seven, eight, nine years. But really from I think for like the four twenty festival in Atlanta, this was a big first get because it was one of their first shows. And they really they were the first southern festivals anyway to release a lineup. And that was really big for them because they cater to that four twenty, you know, ish that kind of crowd. We I don't think that's a big hitter there. I really don't. We need a guy like him for EDM. You see what I'm saying? We need a guy like him who can talk about the har har hardy har har stuff. And yeah, you don't have an EDM correspondent. No, no, we don't even scare. I mean, I even think third on that list up there is too high. I mean, is it tenacious D or far bigger acts than oyster? I know. But let's get you're not going to put Trey and Stuart Copeland. Exactly. Of course not. Of course not. Let's get out of this. Let's get out of this. This world where we talk about how something's bigger or, you know, sure. OK, I think bigger than the other. They've got to figure out a way to connect to their original mission. But I guess my mission is not even a mission. I hate to say that because I'm putting words in their mouth. But their mission is to sell tickets. No kidding. But my point is, I'm not sure how many people who are there to see Oyster Head are there just for that for Bonnar. I just don't know how many. Well, it's a great question. Take that oyster head and create a lane. And here's where you go. There's where there's your conversation. Brian, here's you on Friday. You have glass animals on Saturday. You get Oyster Head on Sunday. You got Tame Impala. You know, this is where the math of this and then and the the beauty of it is where we. Thrive. This is where you and I start our blood starts boiling. Our hearts start bracing. We love that kind of stuff. There was a reason why. And by the way, if you ever wonder what Barry and I might do in the future, it's going to like curate a music festival. It's going to be terrible, but I think it's going to be really good. But like that's exactly what they did. They went they created a lane where you you're going to see tool. You're going to see glass animals. You're going to see Oyster Head. You're going to see Tame Impala. And that's going to be a pretty good weekend. I'm going to give you a lane just for this day without having any expertise into doing this, regardless how they're stacked. Oyster Head fans are going to be tenacious defense. I would say that's that's not stretching it too far at all. And then I think a lot of these same people are going to be the growlers fans. There's your small lane for that day. No one's seeing more than three, four, five shows a day. If you're a super if you're like a super festival goer, don't you think there's a little bit of a you sit in the car most days. Don't tell me you don't see. I'm just being your strategist right now. I didn't say I was going to do it. Barry, what's absurd? Barry is twice your agency's twice more shows than you. What's absurd is my analysis from Oyster Head to Tenacious Dean is the growlers. You said you would see five shows a day. No, I said most people don't see that. Check the tape. It's rolling. Check the tape. See, I think you throw a Jason Isbell in there too, though, just because he's just good. Well, and he's he knows Jason Isbell better than anybody on the planet. I mean, because they were best friends when they grew up. But you said his phone number, but but drunk at the pickle barrel. But but there's a much different world when Jason Isbell has 400 unit than it's just Jason is. I know for sure what you're going to get. Sometimes it's a rock show, sometimes it's a lullaby. I would guess at a setting like this, if it was on the witch, I'd love to see him on the what early, early on a Saturday. I was Isbell on the what at like three. Brian with a decent if you got lucky and didn't have 100 degree weather. That's a great point here. You know, that time, you know, that conversation you and I have all the time about we wish that there that Sunday morning church service that we used to go. We used to go to it with the staples with Mavis Staples and Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley. We wish we had that back. Jason is without without 400 unit. Jason Isbell could do that every Sunday morning, every year, no matter what he's just got to. Sure. He's got that just heartbreaking. I just want to feel something this morning. I want to feel something at one o'clock in the heat. I don't know if that's going to be that's going to be no. But so when I go to when I go through Saturday, I'm just going to start from the bottom and go up. Marcus King Band. You've talked about Mountain Joy has been here before. They're crap. The Growlers. I feel like I'm going to have to go back and look at this, but I feel like the Growlers have done like a who stage thing. There are a lot of return artists that are like moving up the ranks in this this year. And then there's going to be a lot of conversation about Nelly and Country Grammar. Of course, that was a real clue. And everybody sort of like hoped that was happening. That's going to be a ton of fun. I hope it's better than that. God forsaken. What was that show on the other that we saw that was just the worst that rap show on the other? You were so excited about it. Oh, God, I was just the worst. I probably told you I thought it was going to be awful. No, it was hip hop shows have such a hard time at Bonnaroo. It just doesn't translate. Well, it doesn't work. I hope that Nelly show works. Kevin Gates is another hip hop artist. I don't I look I don't like it. I don't like it. It's not for me, but it's all leading you to Lizzo. And there is not a and I've said this once. I will say a hundred times for anybody that is new on this show. There is not somebody that identifies and is more indicative of what this festival is than what Lizzo portrays on the stage. You don't know her. That's fine. That's what she portrays on the stage. But that is exactly who she is. She is positivity. She is body positive. She is love. She is everything that this festival is supposed to be. And so when you're sitting in that room saying, is Lizzo a headliner, you go around the table and every one of them that have seen the show will say, oh, my God, it was the most heart wrenching, opened heart, love fest I have ever been to. And I haven't seen it. I know you've seen it a couple of times. But what I have seen is it's everything you just said with a ton of fun. Oh, my God. I mean, it's not just, you know, stand there and tell you love everybody. I want to mark. I want to mark the time. I have a great it is ten o'clock on a January 6th, Monday. Cool, crisp Chattanooga evening. I am predicting that on Saturday, June 13th, Barry Courter will be twerking at Lizzo. Your twerk game will be so strong. I don't know if I'm going to go that far, but I'll go to the show with you. I thought we were trying to sell this thing. I want to see that booty work. All right. We haven't been in touch Sunday. No, seriously, the Lizzo show is that fun. So so don't. And that's what I love about this. Going back and reading in my mind all of the posts and all of the conversation about who, what, when, where on these headliners. Is this good enough? Oh, my God. Coachella came out. Frank Ocean was on it. Oh, that's such a boring show. You go through all of these things. You're like, oh, but is Lizzo good? They don't care. Look at what they had in their back pocket. They were able to do that, whether for whether you think it's going to work or not, because of how much money they had to play with here. But seriously, though, an artist that was this less well known that long ago being a headliner at Bonnaroo on Saturday, that is completely unprecedented. I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm not saying it's right. That is think of something in 18, 19 years. This is happening in any festival, not just several factors in play there. One month ago, nobody's barely heard of this person. I don't disagree. But I really think the them never having a female artist, they were going to get one that makes. She's what? Eight Grammy nominations. More than me. Eight. It's had more. She's got more than me. So, you know, I'm not even question saying out loud that how unprecedented of a move this is. But I do believe that without such a strong weekend, that would have been a pretty big gamble. And right now I don't care who headlines Saturday. Doesn't matter if she were the if she were the Saturday headliner, what, four years ago when we started this, probably a different conversation to your point. Yeah, I think they can put her on this lineup, given every the timing of everything. I you're hearing more pushback than I am. I think most people are going to be excited to see her. Well, that's a shoe after the Grammy Awards in the next few couple of months. I bet the is just going to get hotter. The name is just going to get hot. I think the pushback is not about Lizzo. I think the pushback is is mostly at the changing nature of what Bonnaroo is to the people that feel that Bonnaroo has been ripped out from under them. You know, every half decade, we have that same argument. I was getting to say it's time to get over that. It's not a jam festival. It hasn't been since year three. I was getting over it. Radiohead in 2006. That was the only way to get over that. It's 20 years old or 19 years old. It's it's not it has not been a single thing for multiple years ever. I mean, the closest we can point to is it's become an EDM festival in the last four or five years. And just that's probably going to cycle through as well. I'm just I'm just amazed and at all at what this festival has done. Forget as Jeff Cuir has told us what 60 percent of people who come every year are brand new. You know what I mean? So it's not like 100 percent are coming and saying, man, this isn't the same festival. But you got to maintain you got to maintain both those. You got to maintain a core that this is this is. So I can't miss. That's right. That's the way. And there's a hold on. Wait a second. The FOMO thing, right? I can't not go. Lizzo or Tool or Vampire Weekend. Let me put it this way. Let me put it this way. There is a and you guys will know it. So let's just start there. There's a guy in this city who does radio that is going to look at this and loathe it. He is going to wonder where his Bonnaroo went. And this is going to be this is going to be. Yeah, that's completely true. And I understand that there is a conversation that is so expired and the milk has ran its course in the refrigerator. Take it out and throw the conversation is old and stale and we get it. But at some point, even guys like me and you are going to look at this at some point and be like, this has gotten so pop music. Is this even what I remember it to be when I even went and not even being the the the Jam Band Festival fan? The reason we started this podcast is we didn't know anybody on that line up that year. That's why we started the podcast. I mean, 2017, we needed something to do. We're like, I love this festival. Let's talk about something like 2017. I don't have that list in front of me. But with with Lord in the weekend and those only two that pop into my head immediately, I thought this thing's gone really pop. And that was the bounce back from the 16 year, which was more old guyish with Pearl Jam and Dead. And I think tame. Yeah. Tame was that Friday night, I think, in 16. Guys. And they made that pop. But I think pop music is where it's at. I understand. But you could you could take Lizzo completely off the lineup. This would be the most pop centric festival lineup they have ever put together. I think I might be wrong. You could take Lizzo off this lineup and they wouldn't lose a ticket sale. I agree with that. I didn't. Oh, this line up. That's right. Yeah, I took that the wrong way. You said it. No, no, I don't mean to be. Yeah, I hear this is strong. All right. So let's go to. By the way, this is great. By the way, to go back to. Oh, sorry. I was just going to say that as we've done this, we've learned from talking to Jeff and Ashley Caps and Ken Weinstein. It's not exact science. You know, it changes for them every year. They don't. And I would say the same for Hangout. I would say the same for Governor's Ball. They don't sit down with a hard, fast formula and plug it in and make it work. They have to react to who's available, what's popular. And you can't please everybody. Other festivals, they got to compete against the other festivals. I think that's what you said to be sort of interesting just then, because there is there are certain there's it's not often. Wait, did I say that? No, that's what I said. I got a little tingly. There are there are certain line up. There are certain festivals in this country that you can absolutely right now. Right. With the lineup is going to. Sure. Sure. And you can travel probably 600 miles down south and find one. You know what the lineup is going to be? Probably 95 percent. And I think what keeps people like me in the in the dorky, you know, lineup nerds going is that you really don't ever know what this thing is going to be. And we both and I think that we lose track of how much that's actually great. And what keeps this sort of conversation going? It is great. There is like, yes, there are going to be years that is going to irritate me. But boy, there are so many years that I feel so phenomenal about not knowing at all what's about to be thrown my way. We do lose sort of sight. The ability of like living in the moment. It's always sat here for three and a half hours twiddling our thumbs waiting on this damn thing. You know, I mean, how many times have we heard people say, I don't care about the lineup anymore. It's they're going to go see their friends. They're going to go to the camp. They're going to go with the lineup this year. They're going to. Well, I've said that before. I have a different experience. But you're this this is I want to go to I want to go back. I want to go one more thing before we leave Saturday is the super jam. Oh, boy. All right. Pardon my ignorance. Who are we looking at here? What is this? It's not a it's a man called Sylvan Esso. Brian, have you ever heard of Sylvan Esso? No. OK, well, you need to unplug your microphone and leave. This is all my stuff. I got to go. I'm tired, by the way. Sylvan Esso hosting a super jam. I'm sorry, Brad. So Sylvan Esso hosting a super jam confuses me beyond belief. That is unique. It's it's challenging. I'm confused. I don't even know what presents with means. Yeah, I know. This super jam is going to be an EDM super jam because we've got a DJ. It's Sylvan Esso's two people. So it's a band or it's a performer. Brian, I am not doing the Wikipedia for you for Sylvan Esso. I'm not going to do it. Just like let's talk somewhere else about Sylvan Esso. One day I am still going to go see Adrian Ballou. I am. I am stunned. What? Who's that? First off, first off, by the way, this is the only this is the only super jam on the lineup outside of Grand Ole Opry. Yeah, we were pretty sure Brittany Howard was going to be part of some sort of super jam. That is a great point. I thought Brittany would be hosting the super jam because she's just got so many connections and she lived in Nashville for so long. But Sylvan Esso hosting a super jam, right? That is going to be a DJ centric super jam. I can't imagine. So I don't know. Maybe I'm totally wrong. I don't know. But there's got to be a alternative reality where Sylvan Esso is playing all of their songs with a band. I've never seen it. It's not as far afield as you might think. You get, you know, a girl talk like a few years ago. Right. It does a whole different thing. I thought it was going to be an EDM centric super jam makes sense to me. What doesn't make sense to me is not having another one. Yeah. Not having another one where it like you've got. Look, OK, I go to Sunday and Bill Frazell with Harmony featuring Petra Hayden, Hank Roberts, Luke Bergman, for sell, Brad. You know, I'm not just the cutting edge of I'm just saying there's there's not there's not there's not. It's the guy that I'm thinking of. It's kind. There's not another super jam. There's not a super jam. OK, some of the super jam is fun. But I mean, I don't know. You don't have to have a legendary one every year. Not not if you've got a bunch of other stuff working. Well, that's all I had to say about Saturday. So we're going to come back to the super jam and Sylvan Esso, I bet plenty of times when it comes to what we do. Allow me to continue to be ignorant here. It presents with. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. All right. Sunday. Oh, God, I'm just I'm just sort of a little wiped away. The Vampire Weekend, not higher on this overall top to bottom lineup, not the day by day, but top to bottom line. I'm stunned. The Vampire Weekend, not higher. Vampire Weekend had just an amazing set on the what stage in the afternoon two years ago. They've got a new album. It's a great new album. They'll be the right before Tame Impala on the what that Sunday, wouldn't you think? No, what do you? I just don't. I think Lana Del Rey is it. And maybe I'm wrong. I think all three of those in a row would be incredible. I said I sat on one stage. I mean, look, I don't again. I'm oh, my God, I'm not do it again. I hate that I'm not do this. I do not mean to be patting myself on a back or name dropping here. I said I sat in Dan Arbok's studio at the table where he made the Lana Del Rey album. We literally sat there and we had whiskey, tequila and whiskey. Tequila sounds terrible. And he looked at me and he said, he said, Lana Del Rey is the most amazing artist I've ever worked with in my life. It will never. I don't. She is on a level that you could have taken Lizzo's name out and put Lana Del Rey's there and it would have been totally fine by most people. I don't see Lana Del Rey doing that on the which stage. Maybe I'm wrong. Aligning the witch. I don't know, man. Maybe you don't you see you don't you not see Vampire Weekend headlining the witch. I don't know. I don't know how many times in history somebody in a better modern historian's got to tell me how you've gone from a what stage afternoon to a few years. Evening. Yeah, I don't know. And this I mean, this new album from Vampire Weekend is great. And a couple of the first singles are charting like crazy. So they're not just like, oh, hey, they were good. They still are. No, they've they're charting Lana Del Rey outside of the sublime cover. What where is her new her new music isn't released yet, right? I haven't. Well, she doesn't need one. She just had a new album. I mean, the new album is is is her new music. I mean, this is her off cycle. So of course, she's going to a festival, by the way. I'm just I'm looking at I'm looking at Instagram. We have seventy five notifications sitting here. OK, going back to Sunday, Leon Bridges coming back to the farm. That will be that will sound a lot like what I'm guessing. Leon Bridges sounds exactly the same thing. I'm curious to see if it's changed. But that show, Barry, three or four years ago was very I know. I'm going to I'm going to spoiler alert here. Not going to change. It hasn't changed. Yeah, I will say he's got a new song out that is phenomenal. Doesn't sound anything like he's done before. And what I have been told is that he has adapted and changed his sound a lot. I mean, it's great. Is it me, though, the more I look at this for the last 53 minutes, Sunday does seem to be the weakest of overall. I mean, it just depends. Hillary says no, it depends. Pine Grove, Pine Grove is a massive, massive indie alternative band. I have seen the show. I'm not going to I'm not going to talk too crazy about it and how confused I was. But Pine Grove is a is a darling of the indie alternative circuit. So they're going to have a big crowd there. I would almost bet that they're going to be on the witch stage as crazy as that is. It may be a it might be a this, but whatever. I might be wrong. Pine Grove is a massive, massive thing. The rest of them, the struts are great. We talked about that. The struts are great. The rest of it. You're right. I don't really know much about it, but that's why we do the show. Camp with two A's. We play them on the station here in Chattanooga. I got a decent sound, the alt Americana kind of sound. So look, the point is logging Molly. So I'll drop by that one for sure. Sure. If you love Boston. Yeah. So if you get a little fight, a little mosh pit, it's it's it's somebody with a dog. Martin's my dog. Martin's 45 minutes of fist flying. Yeah. You know, where else are you going to wear your dog? Martin's look, there is not going to be a better way of closing the festival than a giant light show of what will be the biggest rock band of 2020. And that's Tame Impala. They are going to own the stop it. Stop it. Stop it. I'm not going to argue. Yes, I am sure about it. Tame Impala is going to own the rock space for 2020. Unless they're fine. I'm not a hater, but I just don't. I don't know. I don't. I mean, we're going to projections here. It's like Tame Impala, the show that they put on after LCD sound system two years ago was absolutely boring. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. The light show was incredible. They could not sound better. You could I would have I have made this argument before on the show and I've gotten beaten up about it a little bit. I do feel as though they have taken a little bit of the jam band space. Now, I get it. No, they've definitely taken. I don't feel as I know that they don't improvise like a lot of people want them to. I know that they don't have the let's just go with it and see what happens sort of mentality. But they still service somewhat of the same audience. And that show is as God, it is so good. And that is going to be as good of a way and as soul and soul enriching way as you can find on a hot, hot Sunday. On a smaller level, never really did Primus or Les Claypool never really did the Black Crows, but they could identify and kind of cross pollinate with that jam band scene. And I think Tame Impala absolutely has done that. And I don't know if I thought about it till you said it. That brings oyster head people to maybe stick around for Sunday night. Yes, I told you that now that I think about it that way. It's like you haven't been here and I wish you weren't. Oh, no, no, no. Six points. Boy, how many days we got every day? Six months and I get to live with this for six days. You feeling OK, Dad? I'm feeling pretty good. I'm excited. No, this is great. I'm really excited. Yeah. When you when you first got it in your hands, what did you what was the first thing that came to your mind? Strong, solid. I mean, I think we three of us were out there printing it out. Oh, yeah, we were wondering where the hell you were there for a few minutes. We were waiting on we were waiting on this to come to us and then print it out so we could do this. I felt then the way I do now, it's it's a really good lineup. There's a lot of acts that I've never seen, which, you know, to your name dropping point, that's good. I hate that there are too many name dropping opportunities in this line of for me. I mean, we were having this show. Look, I'm going to I don't want to do this, but this could not set up worse for me to be murdered at camp. Camp Nut Butter is going to my pal, my pal, Tame Impala, my pal, because Brittany, Lenin and Lizzo are all there and they're I mean, I could walk them back to our camp and you guys are just going to still beat me up. I'm going to go to the top if your boy, Dan shows up, your boy, Dan Arbaugh. My my close personal friend, Dan Arbaugh, my prediction, it'll go more like, you know, Lenin's going to come by later and he'll be sitting at camp by himself all day long. She is worth waiting for. You're by yourself the whole time. She is never made it. She never made it. I think she's still coming. Yeah, she's coming. I'm at exit 111 Fest still. Is she here yet? It's cold as hell out here. No, I think it's really, really good. I think we're going to pick it apart. You know, Sunday and Thursday, there are still a lot of names I've never heard of. Well, you know what? I'm looking forward to that. You know what, Barry Courter? That's why the What Podcast exists for you, because that's what we do. We dive into as much as we can to every artist that we can. For the Patreons, we thank you so much because we're about to do a show just for you. I don't know how much left we have, but it's going to be just for you, which is exciting. And for those Patreons that have joined us before January 1, I'm really excited that you're part of this. There's been a ton of them have come since January 1, but since then, we've sold out of the $20 level a month. Wow, that's amazing. Patreon level, which means... It was the shirt thing, right? Me taking my shirt off. You taking your shirt off. That was way low on the thing. So a lot of people are getting that. It was the $20, if he leaves it on, that did it. That would be great. I want to mention too... But we sold out of the $20, so we opened up for two more. There's two more $20 a month possibilities, and that gets you on the show. So we're going to start interviewing Patreons literally starting in a couple of weeks. Nice. I wanted to say when we were talking about the discovery phase of it, today, while you're listening to this, we're going to put together a Spotify playlist too. Are you really? Yeah, I'm going to. So it should be active right now. You're going to do this. I'm going to do this so you can look for it. How early are you waking up to do this? Early enough. Okay. All right. I got to write a story, and then I'm going to do that. David Grimes, Liza Kandor, Frank Swanson, Phil Hanley, Dustin Garrig, Chloe Howe, Dan Sweeney, Lucy Young, Linda Doles, Chelsea Marie Davis, Jason Hazelbaker, and Elle Watson. Thank you for being Patreons. For those, did I say Elle? I said Elle? Elle. Elle. I'm so sorry. Elle. Thank you. Thank you so much. For those of you who have joined since January 1, we will get you on the next show, which will be very soon. We have got every week set up from now, maybe not now, very soon, up until the lineup is literally in fruition on the farm in June for the What Podcast. That's Barry Courter. Happy lineup day. What an exhilarating day. We'll see you. We'll see you soon. Bye.
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