Bonnaroo 2023 is in the books, and according to the recap from Brad, Barry, and Lord Taco of The What Podcast, it was another rousing success on The Farm. The three hosts are back from the festival grounds and ready to talk about all the highs and lows, best and worst, and most and least surprising moments from the weekend in Tennessee.
Elsewhere in the episode, we tease some upcoming guests and interviews as we continue our Bonnaroo 2023 coverage, including David Bruce of the I Am Bonnaroo film project. If you missed our first interview with David, you can check it out here.
What were your highlights? Which artists knocked you out? Agree with The What crew's takes on the performances from Korn, My Morning Jacket, and Tyler Childers? Listen to Brad, Barry, and Lord Taco, recap their time at Bonnaroo 2023 above or watch it via YouTube, and then share your own thoughts.
While you're at it, go ahead and like, review, and subscribe to The What Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Photo: Evan Brown
Topic: Bonnaroo
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Hi guys, welcome back.
Hey, how are the Bona Blues setting in right now?
I'm glad to be back. Glad it's behind me. Had a great time.
Definitely one of the more unusual ones for me.
Just because of circumstances, but that's part of it.
What'd we learn? Russ Weinstein, Ken Weinstein, who gave us the Never Not Great,
he had a new phrase for this year, right?
Oh, we've got a new one.
He said, that's not weird, that's Bonnaroo.
Yep. He's gold, man. He's gold.
That's good.
It's like he does PR for a living.
He should look into that.
He may consider it.
We got to hang out with him and a whole lot of people.
I think that's the theme for Russ last week, is hanging out with people.
The guy, Brad, is a freaking rock star.
I know. He loves it. He walks through and it's like, Joe Biden just showed up.
What is the Bonnaroo Blues set in, Taco?
We've had about a week to sit on this and process it.
I'm feeling a little better now.
Definitely when you first walk in the front door and you just go...
Just tough to accept it's time to go back to reality.
Time to wait a whole other year before you can do this again.
Did you get enough?
I don't know. I look at Russ's timeline and it tired me out. I was exhausted.
It was almost a full week.
He hit a wall on Sunday.
I was worried about him for a little while. Sure was.
I had to get him some water and get him back to camp so he could recuperate, I guess.
I sure rebounded pretty hard, though. I ended up having a great Sunday night.
Really? What was the wall like? What happened?
Just getting tired and sore from walking so much.
Dehydrated.
Dehydrated. Because by Sunday it's about out of steam.
I know, but Taco, here's the thing. I've been meaning to tell you this for how long? 10 years.
PBR is not water. Although we joke about it.
I've been told it is.
You still need to consume water.
You need to drink a lot of water.
You don't really do that, do you?
I do.
I didn't say anything.
How much water did you see him drink?
There might have been a little on the top of the PBR can that accidentally fell from the ice.
The only water he drinks is when it rains on him.
I wasn't dehydrated. It was just sore from walking so much.
How do you say that?
We were walking into Centauru to get lunch, Brad, and we didn't make it to the gate.
He said, I'm starting to rethink this.
We went into Artist to get something to eat, and he went right to a chair.
I was like, are you okay? He was like, no.
Then we go back to camp.
When you have the horde of humans screaming for you when you walk out into the crowd,
I can see why you wanted to say no.
Let me take a break. I'm not ready for this crowd.
Not at my best.
Don't want them to see me this way.
That's right.
I'm so happy for you guys.
I tell you, I spent a lot of time with the stream this year.
I'll talk about that here in a second.
I'm very excited that we're all, for the first time, wearing Bonnaroo gear.
Actually, it's just me and Taco. You're wearing the Never Not Great shirt.
How about this? I will say, just right off the top, the gear this year was next level.
It was A+.
They really upped the game on the gear, and the fact that they made their own overalls was maybe my favorite part.
Haley Williams came out and played with the Foo Fighters in those overalls. It was fantastic.
I know we're going to talk about it, but we've always done it together.
This year was different. We all have different ways that we experience Bonnaroo.
It's going to be interesting to talk about that.
Taco, as we just said, got there on Tuesday. They had to run you off on Monday, right?
Yeah. I thought about doing that one year, just staying put and seeing how long it takes before they just come out and say, you've got to go.
I figure you should just tell them you're the farm's caretaker, and you're there to lock up when everybody leaves.
If anybody can do it.
I've got the keys, guys.
I've got the keys.
If anybody can pull that off, it'd be Taco. Please do that next year. I'm begging you.
Let me see that shirt. I haven't seen this shirt, Taco. Which one is this?
This is the Bonnaroo 2023.
Nice.
Okay. Cute.
It's got the lineup on the back.
Okay. I haven't seen that one yet.
I got the I'm a Gina Willey Nashville shirt that costs only a cool $80.
Wow.
A t-shirt that costs, it's Jesus, but I love it. It's great. I'm really happy with their gear selection this year.
Did it come with anything from somebody's basement?
No. Okay.
No.
See?
For $80, you didn't get a DVD.
I didn't get any basement. No. I got no Charles Krauthammer novel from 1987 about Ronald Reagan. No, I didn't get that.
No VHS copies of Dances with Wolves or anything?
I didn't get Babe too.
Exactly.
I hate it. But yeah, this Bonnaroo shirt, very expensive, a much more inexpensive Bonnaroo shirt, available on the whatpodcast.com, plus items from Barry's basement that you can purchase today.
Yeah.
You still got more of those shirts, Barry?
I still have some shirts and some koozies and a couple of stickers.
Yep.
Okay. Get all that for a low, low price of some $25 or something.
Yeah.
Make me an offer.
Speaking of items from the basement.
Make me an offer.
You know, remember last year you mailed off a shirt and a DVD to Madison in Canada.
Have you heard this story yet, Brad? This is crazy.
No, actually this was two years ago, wasn't it? At this point?
I guess so.
Maybe. It was the basement clean out, sure.
The impetus of this was we thought Barry was getting kicked out of his house.
And he needed to get everything out or it was going to be him.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, you know, you sent her that copy of Rush DVD Chronicles.
Madison in Canada, right?
Madison. Yeah, in Canada. Because you had that long story about going to the post office and filling out the form.
Yeah, with the bowl haircut.
Yeah.
Yeah, I remember.
Well, I said, oh man, that's a cool DVD. And she said, oh, well, I'll bring it to you at Bonnaroo.
And you know, this was two or three years ago and I didn't think much of it.
Well, guess who saw me at Bonnaroo this year and gave me that DVD.
Day one.
She has been carrying this DVD.
She's been carrying it around for two years.
Everywhere on the objects that she would see you.
So all that effort to mail it to Canada and she brought it right back.
Barry, how much is that shipping?
Like $53.
Oh my God.
Yeah, it was a bunch.
Jesus.
I hope that she bought you some spicy pie to make up for that $50 taco.
Well, I mean, no, she just got, I just wanted the DVD.
What are the chances though? It was first day, right?
Wasn't it Wednesday or first day?
That was Tuesday.
First day.
Walks into Centeroo and runs into Madison from Canada who happens to have the...
No, that was about a group camp.
Okay. So she wasn't carrying it around.
So that makes it a little more believable.
But she brought it all the way from Canada to Bonnaroo.
Yeah, no doubt. That's funny.
I just love the idea is like when you start to pack everything.
Oh, let me get the thing for Barry and Tato.
Yeah.
Hey, Tato keeps threatening to send it back to me, which isn't going to happen.
Please do. It needs to.
It'll be turned back to the basement.
Please bring full circle.
What would you like out of Barry's basement that we can send right back to Barry's basement?
Send us a note now.
Once it leaves, it's out of here.
I'm sad that I didn't get to meet you guys.
There's two reasons I didn't make it this year.
One, we will talk about at another date because there was some drama.
But I got deathly sick.
I have no idea what happened, but I literally did not leave bed for seven days.
And I didn't even emerge from my bed puddle until Tuesday.
And I mean, Barry, you talked to me.
I couldn't talk. I couldn't move.
Yeah, you sent it off.
I was miserable. So even if it wasn't even if there wasn't drama and everything worked out perfectly,
there's no way I mean, I couldn't have gotten it wasn't even covid.
I don't know what it was. We test we tested and tested and tested and nothing came back positive.
I don't know what the hell happened. But every day it was a new problem.
You know, one day I completely lost my voice, lost the national radio show.
The next day I had body aches.
The next day I was I was, you know, stomach.
The next day was a headache. It was never ending.
And I'm still dealing with I'm still coughing like a maniac.
I mean, this is two weeks out and I'm still I still am not right.
I don't know what the hell is going on.
Yeah. You would not have been happy on the farm with that.
See, they are still still coughing.
No, it's miserable.
But I hate that I missed it because I'll tell you, watching the first few days on Wednesday, man, I had so much Bonnaroo Fomo.
It was really rough watching tacos stories come through.
I was like, man, I really I could just risk it if I'm just laying in bed.
I could risk it. Get on a plane, infect everybody and come down.
I was so, so hard in Fomo.
And then, you know, the live streams are great.
It's it's fun to watch it that way.
I wish that there was like a way to go back and rewatch it so that you guys could see how we experience it on the the live stream.
But I will say and I and I'm going to say this to whoever runs this live stream.
I've got two things. One, it's a phenomenal product.
I don't know if it's Hulu or Bonnaroo, but if they're listening, the product is fantastic.
You know, your your drone shots, the video footage that you put together, your bumpers in and out of segments.
Fantastic. It is such an A plus level product.
Except your host, who is dreadful.
Well, like every sentence, Barry, is Bonnaroo 2023 down here on the farm.
Every sentence is is this she just keeps repeating the same things over and over and over.
Oh, it was maddening. Yeah, I watched Friday night.
In fact, I got a text Sunday, I think, from our friend Jonathan Sussman, who is a Camp Nut Butter veteran, who said he watched also online and was enjoying it very much.
So that's a that's another level, another item.
And you talk about repeating things. That was something else I heard from several people sort of unsolicited.
I don't know when all of a sudden it became a thing for bands to constantly shout out.
And Bonnaroo motherfuckers over and over and over.
I had some girl say, I'm not a motherfucker. I wish they would people would quit calling me that, you know.
Well, there goes my next T-shirt. Damn it.
Yeah. But it's just funny to hear that.
I tell you, the fun part about the stream is that when I watch when I watch like tacos stories or like Evan Bonnaroo would like post a story on Instagram and I'll know where you guys are in the crowd.
And then I see you on the live stream because I know where you are in relation to the stage is so fun.
You saw me on the stream? Oh, it was so fun.
It was where you wait. No, no, I didn't. I saw I saw Evan on the stream. I saw Parker on the stream. I saw Rue Ham too on the stream.
I saw Ham too. Ham too was was crowd surfing during the Knock Loose Pit.
And all I see is like they cut to the crowd and all I see is this face going like crowd surfing.
It was so ridiculous. I got a great photo screen capture of it.
That was fantastic. And then I don't remember what show it was.
I saw Evan Bonnaroo like way, way, way up there. Yeah, it was it was so fun.
It was so fun. That stream is just such a well done product. Yeah.
No, but it's no it's no it's no farm life. So Bonnaroo.
Well, you didn't have to walk as far to get to the show. So there's that. Yeah.
I couldn't even if I wanted to. I couldn't walk. There's no walking.
Taco some of the highlights. What is a you want to start on Monday afternoon when you got there or?
Well, I got there Tuesday and OK. All right.
We did go to the Roobus party Tuesday because there wasn't much else going on.
You know, sure. I was once again one of the first people into camp.
Which, by the way, the the Vanigan did great. You had a new van.
Yes. New Vanigan. OK. OK. No problems with that.
And speak. How many strays? How many strays did you bring back home?
Be honest. We're still cleaning. We are. Be honest. We're still cleaning those out.
We're still checking.
We're still cleaning those out. Maybe maybe one or two.
So you did that on Tuesday because there's nothing else to do.
Then how did the rest of the weekend go? The rest of the weekend went great.
And I rode Jam Track for the first time.
And the the driver of the Jam Track shuttle or whatever it's called,
recognized me and gave me a T-shirt. Oh, is that the shirt you're wearing right now?
I bought this one. He gave me an icy T-shirt. OK. Oh, wow.
I promise you, if you ever want something to really if you ever want to give a gift
that will last a lifetime, give TACO a T-shirt.
This man will wear it for the rest of time. It was my size.
That's honestly the most random thing I've been given. Just here you go.
Here's an icy T-shirt. But that's how your week started, too, right?
I mean, you got in. That's how it started. No issues getting in. Got your credentials.
Everything was fine. Weren't supposed to get in until Thursday, but got in Tuesday.
So that was everything was great, Brad, like that. You know, last year was kind of a struggle.
Yes. This year, I don't I never had an issue. Did you, Russ?
No, no, no issues. No issues getting in. No issues. I saved spots for, you know, campmates.
I mean, they just they just very I think this is the first year
not a single person had a single complaint from the moment they got there until they left.
They're not a single complaint. I don't remember a year that was this. Yeah.
And you know, even going back, usually when we start applying for credentials,
you know, there's a little bit of angst, you know, are we going to get it or going to struggle?
Who's going to go through what? They were great.
Everybody we dealt with, even to the point of them reaching out and saying, hey, you know,
Bryan Stone was in your group last year. Is he not coming back?
You know, I know he helped with the podcast. I was like, wow, you know, thank you for remembering.
And yes, he is. And love for him to be part of our group and done, you know, just amazing.
I mean, like but but but there's not I mean, there hasn't been I haven't seen at least
and somebody can correct me if I'm wrong. I haven't seen a complaint about GA showers like you normally do.
I haven't seen, you know, long lines and because they closed down one of the entrances like I just haven't seen a year that it
it almost feels as though there was not a single issue.
And I know a lot of people give and us included on occasion give Live Nation and C3 a lot of shit.
But man, how about a huge like, I mean, thank you to them for getting it so.
Yeah. Right. And because it's just this is an incredibly hard thing to do.
And one problem cascades into a million problems.
And it seems as though they hit it out of the park on every level.
Yeah. I mean, I heard of one person who paid extra for the shower pass and stand stood in line for two and a half hours out in GA to get a shower.
But, you know, it depends on when you go. I took a shower Saturday afternoon at five thirty and there was no one around, you know, not even in line.
There was no one around in the shower bathroom area at five thirty on Sunday afternoon.
So, yeah, I agree. And I'm glad you said that. And we're doing it because they deserve it.
Last year, if you remember, was half the crowd.
Forty thousand this year was supposedly right at the eighty thousand sold out mark.
And I think last year was they also had issues getting enough volunteers and workers because of that number.
So that was probably why some of the you know, some of the issues this year with a full house.
Everything was great. I mean, it was we even commented several times.
Are you sure there's that many people here because it doesn't feel like it?
Yeah, that's what I was going to ask. Did it ever feel packed? No.
Because that McCartney year felt always felt crammed everywhere you went.
Like when you when you went to get a spicy pie, how long was the wait?
Ten minutes. But that was because I mean, it was a decent crowd of eight or ten people.
And, you know, they warm up the pie. So it's not like they just turn around and serve it.
So you were waiting for the pie to get heated up. Not bad.
They ever have to wait to ever have to wait too long for a beer? Nope.
How about about about bathrooms? No, they were dirty. How clean are the bathrooms?
Yeah. Yeah. I just I haven't heard.
And again, everybody's experience is different.
But from all the people that I've talked to about this, it just it could not have gone smooth.
Even getting close enough for the shows I wanted to see. Not a problem.
And I think some of that the Tuesday entrance, Tuesday and Wednesday helped with traffic.
I think having so many things for people to do spread the crowd out.
You know, just as we thought, some people hung around back in the plazas that thin things out.
Moving the who stage, which, by the way, gets a gets a lot of kudos.
I heard a lot of people talk about how great it was this year because it was over where the comedy tent area was.
Brad, if you remember, and they made it a legitimate stage, you know, even. Yeah, I saw the pictures.
It looks great. We talked to and I like the fake shed that they have had for years, like it's makeshift.
You know, it's almost like a truck bed. Exactly.
We were playing on for years. We talked to Becca and Maddie from Angel St. Queen and they they commented how great it was for their first experience to be on this.
You know, they're both veterans of it. So they knew about the old who stage. And so they commented how great that was.
And, you know, so just yeah, everything, everything from start to finish just seemed to go very, very well.
And I, you know, I couldn't tell you why exactly, but it just did. Yeah.
Even I mean, rush back there where we were camping never felt crowded ever.
No, I mean, it filled up, but it was not. It wasn't like people were on top of each other. We had plenty of room. Yeah.
Walking in and out again. Yeah.
Say even saving space for you guys was easy. You know, he asked me why, you know, I had an extra spot set up and I told him, well, we got more people coming in.
OK, well, give me their names and their car descriptions and I'll make sure they get back here with you. Yep. Wow. What? Yeah.
It was. Yeah, it was easy, man. I'm telling you the level of customer service.
I've never heard somebody do that every time you drive in. There's somebody different. I know.
Well, no, he was like, yeah, my wow. That's a Dakota. He was kind of taking the lead.
But of course, his name is Dakota. Well, he hooked us up.
Speaking of, we were talking before about our upcoming shows. I think we have about five or six scheduled out with the band interviews and we want to talk to David Bruce from I am Bonnaroo.
But we need to add Mitch, our ticket winner. We need to get him on. He reached out. He had a great time.
He had a great time. So I can't wait to hear his experience. For those of you listening to the show. Yeah. So he was from Montana.
He was he was our winner and he's never been to I don't think a show before. Yeah.
He's been stuck on in Montana for his entire life and hasn't been left as like some sort of like prisoner of the state and not allowed to get out.
But he finally did. And his one choice was Bonnaroo. And I can't wait to hear from here. Yeah. I'd love to hear his experience.
We'll get him. But yeah, everything. Everything was great. I mean, I got cold at night, hot during the day, but not miserable like last year.
Oh, the weather was so much better this year. Yeah. Was it? Yeah. How hot did it get? What was the what was the Sunday?
80s. Yeah, mid 80s. It was humid and dry and hot. I can deal with the heat, man. I just I just can't.
I can't with the stickiness. The stickiness is what makes me feel so miserable. It's gotten sticky here.
I took three showers yesterday. I just can't. Oh, it crawls all over me. So. All right.
So what about what about shows? Taco. Top show of the week. Probably Portugal the Man.
Oh, really? I just saw them here in the city on Monday. All right. OK. Why? What'd you like about?
I don't know. It was just it was just a lot of fun. They played a lot of covers. They played, you know, just a lot of hits.
Just a great time. I love I'm glad to hear that. I love Portugal.
I've seen this band so many times. They're so fun live. I will tell you, though, I'll tell you, it did not translate as well on the Hulu's live stream as it did probably on site.
It kind of fell flat on the live stream for me because, you know, I just I take them as one of these bands that needs to be inside.
You know, there's certain bands that when you open up into like an open air show, open air stage, especially the wet stage, you kind of get lost.
I like them in a tent. I like them in small spaces. And I think that's because I've experienced them so many times inside like in a small space.
That's sort of my preferred method of delivery when it comes to Portugal, man.
So that the what stage live stream seemed a little. Little little let's say light, but I'm glad it worked on the on site.
I'm really happy about that. Barry, what's your top show?
No, no, no, no, no. We'll talk about that. Tyler Childers was the surprise for me.
That was I'm a huge fan. That was a great live show.
Yeah. OK. No a con the night before on Hulu was a great show.
And people were talking about that all day. That was a great show in person and huge crowd.
I've never seen those tents so full of people. I mean, you couldn't get close.
Yeah, I tried to warn you. I thought that that was going to be one of the bigger shows of the weekend.
Yeah, it was huge. And you know, you get a lot of this conversation like why don't they move them to a bigger stage like corn?
I kind of I like the tent shows to be full and it's part of the experience.
I like being part of a thing that is just way I don't know why.
When a tent is like overly crowded, it kind of like yeah, exactly.
I agree. Part of something. Curiously, they you know, I don't I don't want that.
I don't want that to be every show, but I want it to be every every now and then.
It's curious that they had so many shows that were packed because they didn't have the screens on the side.
Yeah, like they don't. That was a complaint I did here.
And I don't know why that was because Noah Noah could have benefited from having.
Wait, so they just put those screens in a couple of years ago.
Now they've taken them out. There were no screens, not on the tents.
Yeah, they had it on the witch and the what?
So well, I mean, do you remember for years the witch never had anything?
They just now put screens on the witch like five, six years ago.
And it was like, oh, my God, finally. And it sounded great.
And then they started adding then they started adding screens to the tents, but they weren't in the tent.
They were like outside of the tent, which is where you'd want. Right. Exactly.
So Tyler was great.
Grizz was another surprise for me. I really like that.
Cheryl Crowe was a good show.
You're you're thinking I was going to say my morning jacket.
It was a good show. It was a three hour show. Of course, I enjoyed it.
But, you know, we have said I have said they are the perfect Bonnaroo band.
Their time may have come and gone. And I don't know what it is.
I I thought about it a lot. I don't know if it's because shows have changed and people's expectations have changed
or they just haven't had, you know, a massive hit in a while.
But you had what was the Odessa Odessa? I didn't see.
I heard from just hearing it was kind of my pretty much 60 minutes or whatever of the same song.
But I understand the visual component was amazing.
So sound wise, my morning jacket, I thought was great because I know and love the songs visually.
There's not a lot happening. And I'm, you know, kind of juxtapositioning the two shows.
So, you know, you had that not lose show, which nothing whatever I say, I'm going to sound like you kids get off my lawn about that show.
So I'm not I'm going to go ahead and say that it looked to me like the crowd was having a great time.
But if not for that drummer keeping things together, that was one of the not good shows I've ever seen.
I don't know. I'm not sure they were all playing the same song if not for that drummer.
So, well, I think everybody on site looked like a blast.
I will say that one thing that I took exception to it, they said this was the hardest show that Bonnaroo's ever had.
That's not true. But I appreciate their their excitement to bring their sound and that type of music to Bonnaroo.
But we've I mean, Gore was one of the craziest shows that Bonnaroo's ever had because they were still exploding blood onto the farm and the whole place for days was covered in war blood.
Can I tell you, it reminded me we got to hang out with our friend Ken Weinstein a couple of times and and with the Bonnaroo and Kyle between interviews.
And Ken told a great story about James Brown, I guess from what first or second year.
I don't remember which one. But apparently Ken was in charge of bringing him to a press conference with what, spin and CNN.
And what did he say? He made the heavy hitters.
There was yeah, there was like the top three news organizations.
They each had one question and he first of all, he went up to introduce himself to James and he says, I don't do that.
I don't do that. Wouldn't wouldn't shake his hand. So he's like, OK, walk either.
Walk him in and they each got their question and James was not having it. Attitude, attitude and all the guy.
All the reporters looked at Ken like never again. I'm not, you know, so then later he does his show.
And at the end, as he always does, the guy brings the cape out, you know, and James knocks it off and continues to play.
And then all of a sudden the guy brings out a birthday cake and says, ladies and gentlemen, it's James Brown's birthday.
And Ken's looking at the reporter next to him. I can you believe this? What good timing.
It's Bonnaroo and he's birthday. And I said, yeah, he did the same thing two weeks ago in New York.
Exactly. The one show, though, that I have heard more about
from anybody that I talk to is corn. Yes.
I think I think we sort of all anticipate as being, you know, a good one, because I mean, it's ridiculous.
I love I love the ridiculous poll from Bonnaroo every year, you know, whether it's Lionel Richie, one year, Kenny Rogers or corn.
But the one that pops out on the screen when you look at the lineup, that was it. And it held up.
And I mean, people loved it. Yeah, I'm glad I went to that show. Yeah, we'll have our campmate Bryan Stone on probably the next episode.
And he can go on and on about that. I started to head over there while my morning jacket was playing and ended up getting a text from somebody who said, I'm coming to see you.
So I didn't see any of the corn, but you're 100 percent right. The next day, that's that's what everyone was talking about.
How much fun it was. Perfect set list. I think you forget how many hits that they have. I mean, you know, every song.
And they did them and they did them. They did what you wanted to hear, basically, is what everyone said.
And even the ones who weren't huge fans were like, I it was more fun than I expected it to be. And it was just great.
So, yeah, that's probably the one that's the one I regret missing. There were, you know, some others are always are.
As we've said, and I thought about this this morning, everything we said in our dos and don'ts right on.
You got to start training weeks and weeks beforehand. You got to start hydrating your head.
Had that back. It was fine. It was fine. That hit. I was out till 430 watching my morning jacket.
Now, I paid for it on Tuesday and even into Wednesday. I was exhausted. But it was good.
But all of that, you know, and the idea that you're never going to you're never going to see and do everything you think you're going to.
Well, Taco tried. I tried. He gets as close as anybody that I know.
But like I kept trying to hook up with Parker and just.
And read or no read. He dumped read. It was just going to be Parker.
OK. But every time it was, you know, he was in a plaza and I was in center or he was in center and I was at camp or or the the Internet would go.
You know, the phone service would go bad and I wouldn't get a text until too late.
So all those things that we talked about all come true. But for the most part, it was everything was great.
I don't know about you, Russ, but I kept running into the people that I wanted to run into.
Oh, me too. And that's the thing. You just about can't make plans to meet up.
Right. But you almost don't have to because you know you're going to run into them.
You don't have to. Yeah, exactly.
That's why like like, you know, I love these ideas of the people with the with the what are they called?
The walkie talkies and like, who cares? You'll find them eventually.
Yeah, I promise you will. And there was a period universal bring everybody.
Yeah, there was a period during that Molly Tuttle show. It was like 10 minutes.
I kept running into people and which was great.
But like all I wanted to do was like walk over and grab a beer.
But so like I started and then, you know, I get stopped.
Yeah. And then I would start again and get stopped and then I get stopped again.
And I might as well just stand here because, you know, I watched some Hulu live stream.
Cheryl Crow played the accordion on roller skates through center singing, soaking up the sun.
Nobody stopped her. But yet when Russ Jackson walks through the whole place stops.
Yeah. Yeah. Rocks.
It's my birthday. OK. Yeah.
Yeah. Happy birthday. Everybody gave me a cake.
We got a cake.
What what I want to talk about this with an actual Foo Fighters fan.
Evan Bonnaroo who can come on and talk about it if he wants to because that was the greatest moment of his life.
But your thoughts on the Foo Fighters show. I enjoyed it.
Well, I should explain and probably should have before.
So I have a new job. So I couldn't leave.
Couldn't get there till Saturday morning and had every intention because of my new job.
I had got Monday off Juneteenth. So everything was fine.
But reached out to my wife, you know, Saturday and Sunday.
And our cat, our 18 year old cat was on death's door.
And so when I called Kelly Sunday morning, she was like, I'm just sitting here, you know, cuddling the cat, trying to ease her.
And I was like, I can't leave her with that. So I went home probably midday Sunday and then had the cat put down on Monday.
I didn't think she would make it. Yeah.
Oh, poor kitty.
It was rough. But because of that, I didn't see the Foo Fighters show.
So that's what I mean. This year was different for all three of us in unique ways.
So, yeah, I'll be honest.
You know, I thought after I saw the Atlanta show in D.C., I tempered my expectations of what I was going to see because, you know, they're just not doing four hour shows.
I think you nailed it. And so but what I was surprised about is that the Bonnaroo show that they brought was the exact same show they did two nights before and the exact same show that they did four nights before and the exact same.
Now, aside from Hayley Williams coming out, the jokes were the same.
The the introducing of the band and going through all of those different the medley of songs exactly the same.
And if I got to go back and look at the set list, but it might have been the shortest show that they have had on the entire tour.
They played for just around two hours.
I was kind of underwhelmed, to be totally honest with you.
I had so much anticipation for that Foo Fighters show to be special, and I don't even think that Dave Grohl said a single thing about it being the first ever Foo Fighters Bonnaroo show.
It did.
I hesitate to talk about it this way because I know that certain fans will say that they loved it and that's great.
I just think that it man it just didn't feel like it met the moment.
It felt great. It felt like it was a good good Foo Fighters show, but it felt like the same show that I could see in Birmingham, Alabama, which is a little disappointing because that to me would have been the play the show that I'd circle and wait for the entire weekend.
And it just kind of.
Yeah, kind of going back again, you know we sort of wondered about that and the My Morning Jacket Saturday night starting at 1230. How long would it go and it went three hours so it could have.
Yeah, as it should by the way that makes a lot of sense.
Perfectly, you know, very good My Morning Jacket set.
So yeah, you're not the only person who I've heard sort of say that about the Foo Fighters. It was good, but it was, you know, and it's, we've talked about that I, we need to find get some either artists on or something to talk about that sort of thing.
Do you treat something like a Banh Ru any differently or not, or is it, or is the machine too big to, you know, the ship too big to try to turn.
Once it gets going.
Well look, I mean, I think that I think the days, I am. I think it's unfair, because, you know, the Foo Fighters show that I think of immediately whenever I hear the term Foo Fighters and hear the name Dave Grohl is, I think about the Metro show in Chicago for a Lollapaloo's after party that went four hours and they played an hour of Rolling Stone covers, and it just felt like this organic thing.
But you go back and remember, it wasn't that organic. They had just done the same thing in the city before that. So, you know, there is this sort of cycle to everything that I sort of forget that because I get lost in the moment and I think that, you know, and so I punished the Foo Fighters now for not giving me that.
But in reality, they have a new drummer. Everybody's gotten a little older. They're just not pouring out four hour sets anymore. And the idea to, I think my expectations.
On the other hand, I just saw I think the other morning where the pretenders at Glastonbury had Johnny Maher come out and play with them and and Paul McCartney kind of walked out and did a wave I don't think he performed with them but he was in the wings watching so it can be done.
You know, I see what you did there.
Yeah, in the way I also I also kept thinking about what Jim James said to us on the show right before Bonnaroo and that, you know, the the magic of the artists just popping on and hanging out just doesn't happen anymore.
You know, like Hayley Williams joining Foo Fighters is a great headline for, you know, every publication. But in reality she was there for a chorus and then left. Those things don't even happen anymore.
How many how many other how many other times did that even happen this weekend, other than, you know, Hayley Williams poppy and it was there another moment that I'm missing that, you know, had an impromptu somebody jumping on stage aside from the super jam question.
I don't know that I heard.
I don't think there was you know one thing we heard last year.
When Moon River got rained out and they shifted everybody on that Sunday night over to Memorial Auditorium here in Chattanooga. One of the things Drew Holcomb told us was, it's just, it's a scary thing for the artists to do an impromptu thing like that because if it sucks.
That's what your fans are going to remember. You know they're not going to give you a pass because, oh, the sound guy wasn't your regular sound guy or the guitar players not using his regular guitar it's borrowed.
You know, so for that to have been pulled off but that's the kind of thing they have to think about I guess.
It's risky risky yeah there's as much chance of failure and and being remembered for that as it for it being a great moment so.
Yeah, yeah and and talking about sides of my mouth I wonder if anybody even cares anymore.
Like do those moments are great. I just is anybody is anybody have an appetite for that anymore.
I love it.
We keep bringing it up maybe that's not fair.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Any other highlights what else what else.
Big Freedia.
Oh yeah.
Big Freedia is great.
Yeah, and.
Big Freedia is a great show.
Yeah, well I caught the Pride Parade first time ever seeing that and of course, she was the, I guess the headliner for that you know because she was on back of the truck or whatever.
Going from the house of yes to center room so we followed the Pride Parade all the way through all the way through camp.
And then that show that night, which night was that that was Thursday.
Thursday night she had that late night, you know, big and of course that that to it was packed again.
Big Freedia.
I love Big Freedia.
I love Big Freedia.
Just say just say wacky dance party.
Yeah, go go see Big Freedia I mean, you can't not tours all over the place.
You cannot have fun.
That's right.
We, she, Freedia just played a thing here in town and randomly all of the people that went from New York to New Orleans for Mardi Gras this year, all went to the Big Freedia show to relive their New Orleans.
Mardi Gras experience.
It's just a absolute blowout.
Yep.
Also that, that baby came.
That's a full grown man.
Very disappointed.
Not a baby?
Yeah.
Damn it.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
That reminds me, I didn't see it but it was the other thing that I heard people talk about was the diesel set.
Yes.
Shaft.
Don't make me come down there.
That's what he kept saying apparently.
Don't make me come down there.
He was, he was, I mean, yeah, he was shouting out to the crowd and it was fun but it was almost threatening.
Like, you felt, you know.
I wish they had like a mosh pit going right?
Which, from what, or campmates at the V-Lens, Tara and Joe said apparently he didn't, he's not used to having a mosh pit so he was like, are you, somebody's gonna get hurt, don't make me come down there.
I know.
Sounded pretty funny.
And he was almost ordering you to have fun or, you know, yell or put your hands up or, yeah, that was, that was quite an experience.
But did anyone see like Shaq in the wild?
Not that I heard.
That's the part that I would be more interested in.
Not that I heard.
Yeah.
Everybody was too busy finding me.
Yeah, sure.
Yeah.
It's still kind of cool that Shaq was on the farm.
I think that's great.
If he's, if he's diesel, if he's diesel, Lord Tocco is unregulated.
But, but, un-let it, I'm sorry, un-let it.
Unregulated.
Yeah.
I don't remember.
Do you know what the last time I put gas in my car?
I don't even know what the prices are.
Have you ever done it?
Yeah.
Stay in your lane.
Yeah, no kidding.
I'm not the car guy.
Man, I, I, I'm so happy to hear that it went well.
I think it's high marks all around.
The weather cooperated.
Up until Sunday night.
How bad was that storm on Sunday night?
It really wasn't that bad.
I managed to make it back to camp kind of right before it started storming.
But, I mean, it just rained and by, by the time the sun came up, it was, you know, back to normal.
So I, I wasn't caught in it or anything.
Other people might have been.
But, and then they, they did have a weather event.
What day was that?
Like Wednesday, was it?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wednesday or Thursday.
But they had to close Centauru down, you know, just for a little bit.
But that pretty much broke up right before it hit us.
I mean, we got a little rain, a little wind, but it was pretty much just a little break.
So we survived the big Bonnaroo 2023 storm.
Yeah.
All right.
What about, you got any guesses for next year's headliner?
You got any, you want to throw in a guess right now?
Way too early to guess headliner, Taka?
I have no idea.
No, I hadn't even given it a thought.
I'm putting, I'm putting my money on cold play.
It was a good lineup.
It was, it was, I thought it was a well structured lineup.
It sounded like there was, other than the corn, my morning jacket, and I know some other people had some conflicts.
Yeah, not a lot of conflicts.
Everything seemed to work.
Like I said, they spread things out well, so it never felt overwhelming.
The crowd.
I think people seem to shift pretty easily from Centauroo to the what?
You know, that seemed to flow well.
They did flip flop, Brad, just for your information, because the, the VIP areas in the woods where we used to be, they flipped the, the entry points there.
Coming out of, well.
What do you mean?
We, coming out of artist and media area into Centauroo was now the more difficult gate to get in and out of. They checked bags and all that.
And the other one, the other side of the witch where, you know, used to be, they checked everything.
Apparently they weren't checking anything because that's where the VIP.
I don't remember what that.
Area 931.
Which I did, I did get back there and checked it out.
That was the other thing we were kind of wondering about.
It was pretty easy to wander around.
Right.
Oh, and they also have a new entrance into the what area by the hill.
Right. So you could go in through artist or media, or you could go in the other side of the stage.
Yeah, there's so the what stage.
That was new.
Wow. Is that, is that to get into where in the woods a lot easier?
Yeah, I'm guessing.
Just to make it easier.
Because you also had some, you know, a lot of more guest camping on that side.
So, okay. Yeah.
And I think that's previously where VIP camping was. Is that right? Correct. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And since they don't really have VIP camping.
Yeah. So, smart. Smart. And I want to do.
Just checking real quick. The hills in the same space.
They moved it 200 yards. It's completely different.
Years ago. Well, yeah, they moved that years ago. Yeah.
They moved the hill.
Just to let folks know, like I said, coming up, we'll probably have Evan Bonnaroo and Bryan Stone.
Probably.
Probably next week to get sort of their recaps and maybe even Mitch if we want then their ticket winner.
I'd love to. I'd love to.
And we want, we have the interviews with Angel St. Queen, Becca and Maddie.
That was a lot of fun.
You know, she talks a little bit about being your intern at the radio station, Brad.
That was fun. Becca. Oh, good.
And the Sacred Souls, Alex, Sal and Josh. We talked to them as well. That was a lot of fun.
But I'm really excited. We need to have David Bruce on I Am Bonnaroo.
We've had him on before and Russ, I'm sure you can link to it.
Yeah, that project looked great. What a cool thing, man. I'm so happy for that guy. Yeah.
He's such a nice guy. He's been coming to Bonnaroo and taking black and white photos since what, 2011.
And the folks at Bonnaroo reached. Yeah, 10 years. It's been a 10 year anniversary.
Wow. They finally reached out and wanted to do a little collaboration.
Yeah, I won't give away too much because it's, he came back to camp and was telling some people who didn't know his story.
And I didn't know some of the details. And just say that Bonnaroo, man, they did right by him.
You're really, really cool. You sure did. And I can't wait to hear that.
So I think that's good. That's five or six shows or four or five coming up.
So yeah, still plenty to talk about and can't wait. Yeah. Yeah, it was a good year. A good year.
All right. It was great. Yeah. I'm so I'm so glad you guys had a good time.
I'm glad that I at least got a shirt out of the operator. That shirt. I love this shirt.
Anything else before we go? Let's wrap it up.
Well, just make sure you're subscribed if you're not already. Yes. Thank you.
Content coming out. Thank you to those of you that have.
We hit it. We hit it. Whatever that magic number is on some of the platforms.
We had a big milestone. We had a thousand subscribers on YouTube.
And hello to everybody. Here comes the sexting.
Hello to everybody that I know a lot of you were teasing Russ about being a rock star.
But I had so many people stop and say hello and introduced themselves to fans of the show.
And a lot of people who I know and respect who said, man, thank you for those dues and dotes.
So I think Bill Kissling even said I unpacked my RV and repacked it based on what you guys suggested.
So and that was that meant a lot.
Did he pack it full? I don't know. I need to reach back out and say, what do you have in there?
You know, chicken steak and a grill. I don't know what he unpacked, you know.
He he did. He didn't bring the farm animals. He did not bring.
Yeah, but it was really cool to run into so many people who it was.
And I got a lot of compliments on that Jim James interview. They loved it.
Yeah, that was one of the best shows we've done. Yeah. Well, for sure. Yeah, I love that.
I love that chat. Yeah, I love that chat. Yeah. Well, man, that's that's nice to hear.
I love the I love the interaction part of this because, you know, I talk to these two dopes in a box, you know, once a week.
It's very rare that we actually get to interact with the people that listen to it.
I mean, even when it's been random on the streets of New Orleans and all of a sudden, you know,
that dude James and I just like all of a sudden now we're going to be here.
So that's the part that I love the most because we we very so rarely get to interact with you guys.
So, yeah, when we do, it's just iterates or illustrates what a community it all is.
We're all going through the same thing and love it for the same reasons.
And that that was the part for me.
That's great. All right, guys, talk to you next week. Happy birthday, Taco. Peace.
