Bonnaroo Prep: Last-Minute Tips, Packing Hacks & Bryan's Festival Picks

Another tip and it's, you know, you can go to the pharmacy and get a urine bottle.

So you don't have to get up at two in the clock in the morning and make that walk to a porta potty.

Oh, oh, they make them for guys and girls like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I knew they did. But yeah, having the yeah, I've used Gatorade bottles.

Yeah, the 32 ounce bottle sitting there. Yeah.

Yeah, you know, the why I always joke got to get the wide mouth.

Make sure you get the wide mouth.

And as a follow up tip, don't ever accept a bottle of Gatorade from Barry.

Boy, ain't that's true. It's not lemon lime.

That's my favorite flavor.

Welcome back to the what podcast.

This is a weekly show dedicated to the Bonnarooo Music and Arts Festival.

I'm Barry. That's Russ. That's Brian.

Guys, we are a week away from the greatest week of our year.

But I have to say this past week has been pretty doggone good, at least for me.

We're going to talk a little bit about that.

We're going to talk a little bit about what you guys should be doing to get ready.

We are going to get Brian's picks. Yeah. Yeah.

You got mine last week. My time for picks.

We had you guys before and I'm looking forward to roadmapping that a little bit.

And yeah, it's almost here. My goodness.

It's almost here. And it'll be two weeks or well at this point.

Ten weeks. No, at this point, my day.

Russ will be there in a week. Yeah.

He will have already been established.

And then we got a winner for our giveaway before we get out of here.

Well, that's what we're going to choose. We'll have that winner next week.

Russ reminded me, Brian, while you were on the phone with Bonnarooy and Kyle,

that we said tomorrow we would actually pick.

So you people. So we're having the pre-show meeting during the show.

Exactly.

But and we're going to talk about that contest because that's been part of why this week has been so special.

And then at the end, we're going to play the interview that we did last week.

It seems like a month ago, guys, that we were at Pelham at Cave Jam when we talked to Haley Jane.

And by the way, she might be my new crush.

I can't even.

Barry was enamored. Yeah, we all were. Yeah, I was too.

So anyway, we have an action packed show.

Where do we start?

First of all, thank you to everyone for your entry in your reviews.

The contest for what? A hydro pack? Yeah.

Yeah, we got a pack from Lunchbox, a hydration pack, a little bag that's Bonnarooo themed, designed, and they wanted to give one away.

So we said, sure, let's to win it to enter.

Let's just have everybody submit a review. Yeah.

Shameless way to get some completely numbers moving.

And damn it, if it didn't work. Oh, my gosh.

I can't even. Russ and I again, we were talking during our pre-show.

You guys have overwhelmed us. I don't know how else to put it.

The the number of reviews and the kind things that people have said about us in this show.

I don't even know where to start. It's like every day there's more and more and more.

And it just proves. Well, a lot of things.

It proves that we're doing something right. That is worth it. Right.

How good we are. How good we are.

The community. That's the big thing.

As I've said many, many, many times, there's 80,000 different stories for everybody who goes.

But there's so many similarities and that comes out in all of these reviews from all over the country.

Right. It sounds like we might have got more participation for this in the damn ticket giveaway.

We did. We're giving away tickets.

And here's a little bag thing. I mean, it's cool. It's cool.

Don't get it wrong. It ain't as cool as two free tickets and camping passes to Bonnarooo, though.

So that's a combination of just it is a cool product to try to win right before.

And and it's clear that that you guys care enough to be involved.

And the interaction is the interactiveness is always, always welcome in my mind.

Yeah. So for us in the real time, the contest ends tomorrow.

But by the time this airs, right, there will be a winner chosen.

So congratulations. Insert name here. We don't know the winner yet.

But now it's up to them. Now it's up to the third party to make sure we get those to you.

And they guaranteed that if we get them the name and time, which we will, they will.

I believe they will. I do believe they will. I think they will.

Yeah. You'll get the bag in time to bring it to Bonnarooo.

So but I've I've been trying to figure out some way that we can do this every week because I have to be honest.

I've enjoyed having all the compliments. It's been kind of cool.

Barry likes to be told he's pretty. I like a little stroke every now and then.

It's been hard to get out of my house just because my head is so big.

I can't fit through the doorway anymore. Yeah.

You guys and you all had a wild week. It's just been and I've been in the inland Yucatan for for most of a week.

So it's getting you want to talk about the ultimate Bonnarooo prep.

I'm ready to go as far as heat and hydration and packing.

Right. Like I'm already basically packed. I could go right now.

So it's it's been a wild week. It's been a fun week.

And it's leading up to the best week of the year.

Well, and on top of that, Tuesday, I had the opportunity to go to WTC, local NPR radio station and

Spend it over an hour with Richard Wynnum, who is retiring.

It won't mean anything to anybody not from around this area.

But been doing radio here for like 30 or 40 years.

Yeah, easily. And gave me an hour.

They wanted all three of us. Brian, you were out of the country.

Russ, I'll let you explain or not why. Maybe not.

I forgot all about it. Well, no, I was.

But also I was working and it's hard to just take a day off and go, you know, take several hours off.

So no, no doubt I have to take a day. But it's funny.

And it's only partly the reason I wanted to go is so I get there and it's it's inside a police station on campus at UTC, the local college.

And so you get all these buzzers and you got to, you know, somebody's got to come let you in.

And ten o'clock, I'm supposed to be there and I'm like, Dexter, Russ, are you there?

Are you here? And he said, oh, I forgot.

So then I call the guy who set it all up and he's like, oh, I forgot I'm down the street.

And then I walk in and Richard looks up and he said, I thought this was tomorrow.

But then he literally gave me seventy five minutes to talk about this podcast.

Yeah, I went back and listen. It was a great interview.

There's nothing surprising that Richard got got his lines crossed to.

Yeah, none of this is a surprising story.

It's a humorous story, but it ain't that surprising.

Yeah. And we'll link to it because we talk a lot about the podcast.

So that's why I'm even even bothering you guys.

Yeah, I haven't heard that. I haven't heard our own show from last week.

I know the the dancing man went went damn near viral.

Like, I think I just got back from essentially it was Cancun,

but I spent as much time not in Cancun as possible.

I just got back last night.

So it's it's it's like, wow, what's going on around here?

Yeah. Well, Russ did a great job with that.

And that was a totally improvised. Yeah.

He called me like, I met this guy, man. We need to get him on.

And he's kind of elusive.

And I said, well, go talk to him now because you won't get him back.

And I did. And it worked out great.

Yeah. He was camped just a few rows down from me, like a few car spaces away.

And, you know, we talked about it in the interview.

He lives out of his van.

It's like a converted E three fifty Ford Transit van.

He's done all this work putting in beds and batteries and equipment

and stuff so he can live out of it.

So not quite the influencer type trend that we're used to, but it is the same thing.

Same concept. In fact, he's the opposite of an influencer.

He has no social media. He doesn't go online.

He had never heard of the podcast, which was surprising to me because we've,

you know, been dealing with all these contest entries talking about how great we are.

And so I mentioned it to him. I'm like, oh, yeah, we do the what podcast?

He's like, I don't know.

So he truly what the hell is that?

Yeah, he truly does not influence or capitalize on his status.

Yeah, he just kind of he doesn't care. Floating through life and doing his thing.

But he said he'll never listen to it, which I said, that's fine.

You don't have to. But there's clearly a lot of people not listening to his data.

Yeah, I'm not listening to your podcast either.

But yeah, I put a clip out there, you know, Tick Tock and Instagram and all that.

We got hundreds of comments from people saying they had seen him at Bonnarooo,

they had seen him at this show or they danced with him or they, you know, he's so cool.

And, you know, he's yeah, prolific.

I mean, that's all he does is just go to music festivals.

Plus, he has one of the great walk offs ever.

That was my favorite part. I know.

We were talking. He said something about, yeah, string cheese is playing again tonight.

That's going to be great. And then he just walked.

He just turned around and walked. No, he didn't say anything.

He didn't say anything.

No, he after he got down the road, he turned back and he yelled.

He was like, did you get all that? And I was like, yeah.

I'm doing it again. Yeah.

It was fun at the caves. It always is.

I don't need to go on and on about that.

The Caverns is one of the better venues in the southeast, maybe in the it's quickly becoming

maybe one of the better venues in the country. So.

All right. And so getting ready for the show today,

it occurred to me that over the years we have and as part of all those reviews,

so many people thanked us for helping get them ready with our tips,

our dos and don'ts and all that.

And it occurred to me that we've never actually put it down in a list form.

So this morning I had some time, so I put it together in a list.

There's probably 15 or 20. These are things you've heard before.

These are things we know to be true.

We're going to post them for those of you who are online looking.

But if you're in the car listening or you're walking or you're doing your laundry or whatever it

else you guys do, as you said, in all the reviews, try to go through them here pretty quickly

and you guys add, you know, jump in and add to them.

But start freezing your water bottles now.

Go buy them in the. Yeah, I put some in the cooler two days ago.

You'll be surprised sometimes how long it takes, especially if you have a lot of them.

But go get a case of water bottle, bottled water, 10 bucks at most. Right.

You can get whatever brand you like.

Freeze them. Use that in your cooler.

Don't buy bags of ice that just melts and it makes everything soggy and nasty.

And these bottled these bottles last a lot longer than you think.

Go to the local big box, whatever.

They have a whole aisle for travel size shampoos, soaps, gold bond, toothpaste, all that stuff.

Don't get the big bottles or just take up space and cost you a lot of money.

Get these. You can leave them. Yeah.

Done that good chance it'll it'll last you a couple of Bonnarooo's.

Yeah, get the you know, the little plastic holder for your bar soap.

That way it's not wrapped up in your towel or whatever.

Yeah, you haven't got to the toilet paper part. If you have that on your list, you can get little plastic things to put those in, too.

I've seen those. I don't know where you can get them. Amazon, I'm sure.

Jump ahead. I carry I keep mine in just a grocery bag.

I keep a roll of toilet paper, wipes, the shampoo and the soap in a bag.

And I take my towel to the bathroom or the shower or whatever.

They have hooks to have the bag has the handles.

You know, sometimes they have toilet paper in the in the units there and sometimes they don't.

So better to be prepared. Yeah. Not that big a deal.

Figure out the off times for showers. Take showers.

There's nothing better than taking a shower at four or five in the morning and then going to bed.

Yeah. Eight o'clock in the morning. You're going to be there a while.

Yeah. Maybe even. Well, I don't know. I'm not sure.

Each area has got its own kind of unique kind of traffic, volume traffic.

But I think it's universal around eight a.m., seven a.m., eight a.m.

If you want to shower, that's a bad time to do it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm jumping around a little bit.

But once you get to Bonnarooo, orientate, orient yourself and do it often,

especially as the day progresses and the sun goes down and more people show up.

We've said we've said all this before, but the landscape, the landmarks that you see at 10 o'clock in the morning when you get there are going to look entirely different at 10 o'clock that night.

Plus, if you're under the influence, going to look a whole lot different.

Forget. Yeah. Yeah. So continue to do that.

Consider getting a locker in Centauru for things like rain gear, medicine, aspirin, water.

I've never done that, but I bet in the.

I know. But well, we do use lockers in certain areas.

But not for the same reason. Yeah, not for the same reason.

That has got to be a hack that many people have not done.

Like, just because it's another thing to pay for.

But I think it's I got to imagine that's a good investment. Yeah.

Consider splitting it with somebody if you both need one.

You can call the costs and both store.

I mean, you can have a roll of toilet paper in there.

You could have extra sunscreen, extra gold bond.

I mean, actually anything.

Dry socks. Yeah.

There's no wrong answers here.

Your bag of weed, whatever it is.

Sorry, whatever it is.

But, you know, yeah, that's a great, great suggestion. Yeah.

Again, jumping back, check all your equipment now.

If you bought something new, a tent, a grill, whatever, take it out of the box, throw the box away.

You don't need that taking up space in your vehicle.

And you're leaving junk on the farm.

And as we learned, we don't talk about it much.

Remember, we had that incident with one of our campmates.

Oh, we're a blue uppers daughter.

Yeah. One of the girls blew up in her face.

We can only assume that's because it was flawed, which propane was connected wrong or something.

Yeah. Who knows?

Now, on the farm is not the time to be experimenting with some stuff.

Plus, you may, you know, a tent pole may have broken or you're missing one or something.

So get it all out now.

Actually put it up.

Make sure it works.

Buy extra stakes.

Bring bungee cords.

Bring zip ties.

Yeah, I've got all that packed.

Yep. Every camp needs a MacGyver.

Yeah. Well, that's I guess that's me this year.

It's turned into you now.

I used to be a guy named Denson back in the day for us.

I was always like, hey, bring a buddy.

What are we bringing?

I'm like, I don't know.

Denson's here.

Denson's got it.

I don't I don't mean anything.

I've always said you need a hammer.

He's like, what do you need a roofing hammer?

You need a ball peen?

What do we talk?

Yeah. Right.

Yeah.

I've got big ones.

Pretty much everything in the bus.

And this time of year before Bonnarooo, I like to do a yearly kind of clean out, clean up inventory, organize, put everything back and then pack.

So I'm starting to get everything cleaned up, cleaned out, prepared.

So we're going to be good to go.

You it's not on my list, but you've mentioned it before.

And it's a good one.

Have your car serviced.

Get that oil change.

Get checked the tires.

Make sure the wipers make sure your windshield wipers are good.

All of the above.

Yeah.

All of the above.

I changed oil last week and I've got to rotate the tires and then that's good on my end for car maintenance.

But yeah, if you've you know, if you need to take it to a shop and just tell them, hey, I've got a big trip coming up.

Can you do an inspection?

Can you check this and that?

Check your spare.

Make sure the spare has air in it.

Yeah.

We don't have to travel as far.

But I've heard other people say pack your car if you can so that you don't block your rear view mirror.

You need to be able to see.

Yeah.

Tennessee, it's actually illegal to drive with anything hanging from your rear view mirror.

That gets a lot of people.

It's a true story.

It's a stupid story.

It's a stupid story, but it's a true story.

They'll use that.

Your air fresheners.

They'll use that to pull you over.

Well, no, you probably won't get pulled over for that.

But if you get pulled over for something else, that's another thing they can they can nail you.

Never know what these state troopers.

It's a little bit of both.

You're easy up.

Stake it again by those extra stakes.

Either take it down or stake it to the ground so that when the storm does come up and it will, your tent doesn't become a killing instrument.

You need to you need to take that thing down.

Yeah.

Put your bedding and your clothes in your car during the day in case it rains.

That way you don't come back and everything is soaking wet.

That's that's one I had never considered before.

But that makes a lot of sense.

Brian, this one this one's a Bryan Stone special.

Bring your meds in the bottle that they were prescribed.

Think about when you travel internationally or or domestically, which I did this past week.

You ain't getting very far if you don't have original bottles of your of your medication.

It's the same concept here.

You might walk right in and the person checking your car doesn't care at all or they might care a lot.

You don't know.

So, yeah, make sure those are in in their original bottles that are here's a secondary tip that I bet nobody would ever look at.

But just in case, if they're expired, that's as bad as not having the right bottle.

Like if somebody really wants to be that person, which you never know who you're going to run into.

So keep that in mind as well.

Wow. OK.

Sleeping tips.

I use the foam earplugs.

Some people are now using their air pods.

I think it helps tremendously.

Another tip and it's you know, you can go to the pharmacy and get a urine bottle so you don't have to get up at two o'clock in the morning and make that walk to a porta potty.

Oh, oh, they make them for guys and girls like that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I knew they did.

But yeah, having the yeah, I've used Gatorade bottles.

The 32 ounce bottle sitting there.

Yeah, you know, the why I always joke, get to get the wide mouth.

Make sure you get the wide mouth.

And as a follow up tip, don't ever accept a bottle of Gatorade from Barry.

Boy, that's not lemon lime.

That's my favorite flavor.

Don't screw in.

You can't.

I won't be intoxicated enough that I will fall for that.

And then, of course, there's other we could go on and on.

We've talked about the shoe rack, like for your closet that our campmate Beth.

Such a great thing.

Got all of the condiments and sugar and tea and, you know, all these kind of things.

I still think that's a new one to a lot of people.

I mentioned it to a few others like, wow, that's a great idea.

It's all you don't.

You don't see that a lot.

Yeah.

Right.

I brought last year battery operated fans.

Russ, you splurged and bought Mr. Fan this year.

So I had to do one better.

Yep. Yep.

Yeah, I brought it to Cave Fest or Cave Jam last week to try it out, but it wasn't it wasn't hot enough.

Didn't need it. But we definitely will need it.

And again, thanks to our Brad Parker.

I've been drinking the coconut water, getting ready, trying to hydrate.

Like I said, there's all kinds of other tips like that.

But I think those are the main.

Those are my definite dos.

Right. Yeah.

Don't don't forget the cooler.

Not an official dos and don'ts this year because we've done those so many times.

But that's that covers like some of the very good.

That covers the list.

And that's right, Russ.

You have some cooler tips.

Yeah, it's time to get if you if you're in the market for a cooler, if you want a new one, you don't have to buy yeti.

They're nice. They're expensive, but there's a lot of brands out there.

Yeah, they're not that big on a good cooler is if it's got a rubber seal around the door, that'll help keep the cold in.

And, you know, wall thickness, you want to stick as possible.

It kind of sacrifices the little interior space.

Yeah, that's the yeti thing. It makes it kind of small, but it's still super great.

I mean, I'm a yeti guy. I love yeti products, but sometimes it's going to be small.

I mine is an Ozark Trail, which is the Walmart brand.

But I've had that cooler year for probably probably 90 percent as good as a yeti.

If not, 90 percent is good.

The night before you pack, you want to take a bag of ice and just throw it in there to pre chill the cooler.

You don't want to load a warm cooler.

Put a sacrificial bag of ice in there that you know you dump out the next day.

The cooler will be already cold.

That makes everything you pack in there is already cold.

That's a good one.

So you've got a case of beer.

Consider you're not only that, you're loading it that morning and then you're putting it in a hot car.

Correct.

So that's a great, that's a good idea.

You want to start out as cold as you can. So if you've got a case of beer that's been left out, you want to chill that in the fridge before you pack it in there.

It'll stay colder because it's already cold. The ice doesn't have to work to bring it down to temperature.

That one seems simple, but it's easy to forget about.

Yeah, if you throw a bunch of warm stuff in the cooler, it's going to get cold.

Your ice is gone before the evening.

Your ice is going to be gone.

And if you can, if you're traveling with somebody, try to figure out separate coolers.

That was my next part is, yeah, if you've got, you really want a cooler for drinks, separate from a cooler for food if you're packing food.

Because your drink cooler, you're going to be opening and closing that lid many times a day.

That's going to let the warm air in.

So yeah, the longer you can keep it sealed without opening it, the colder it'll stay.

And you want to pack it tight. You want to, I would do a layer of water bottles frozen on the bottom, then put some other stuff, just pack it as tight as you can.

Then take your loose ice, your bag of ice and spread it all in the top to fill in all the gaps.

But you want no air in there whatsoever. You want it packed full.

And I mean, as a former regular cocktail drinker and then now still always an on the rocks something drinker,

I mean, having ice to make a drink is any kind of drink is very important to me.

Yeah, bring a separate cooler just for ice, just to keep, like you said, for your drink, drinking ice, drinking water, cocktails, whatever.

Keep that in a separate cooler.

Because then if it melts, you know, you just pour it out. But yeah, and then it's not getting contaminated.

And you can just throw another bag ice in there and it stays clean because that whole cooler has been clean the whole time.

Grubby hands aren't in it, or at least you hope. And so, yeah, that's a great one.

Yeah, maybe a plastic ice scoop if you want to go that far.

But then when you're on the farm, make sure you keep your cooler in the shade.

You don't want it in the heat.

And you'll have to move that around as that thing rotates around the earth.

Keep an eye on it. Make sure it's always in the shade.

If you want to.

Yeah, along those lines and should have mentioned once you get there, figure out where east is.

Figure out where the sun could you're going to want to orient your camp that way so that it's not hitting you all day or first thing or whatever.

Yeah. If you want to get fancy, you can wrap your cooler in some kind of insulating blanket kind of thing.

I don't know if that's super necessary, but it does help.

And then if you can keep it off the ground at all, you know, if you can elevate it, like put it on a table or something, that'll help.

You know, I've never really thought about that either.

It gets it keeps that. Yeah, I mean, I can't talk scientific jargon, but yeah, of course, the heat of the ground is the heat of the ground will absorb in.

And that way, yeah, if it's up, you get some airflow underneath there.

So he is a pro. Yeah, he's a pro.

That's a that's a that's a brand new one kind of thought to me on that one because how many times have I put my cooler anywhere other than the ground?

Zero times. Yeah.

And you know, it might be difficult because once you pack the cooler, it's pretty heavy.

So you might not be able to lift it up onto a table or something like in your case in the bus, you could set it up inside the bus if you had a back.

But if you're closing your car, then you don't want to do that because it turns into an oven.

Yeah, I got I got some like milk crates that I can kind of put on the ground and then put on the cooler on that.

So it gets gets it elevated just a little bit.

You could pack things. I have a couple of milk crates that I throw stuff in, primarily like sunscreen, gold, things that stick straight up that I can just pull right out.

Yeah, you pack in the in the milk crates and then use those.

There you go. As your elevation and then you you more efficiency with your pack.

I didn't think I was going to get anything out of this today.

These are all good.

You do all that. Your ice will last much longer.

You know, you probably still have to get a bag or two.

I would also not drain the water if it does melt because that water is still cold and it will still fill the space.

Yeah, well, that's the other beauty of the frozen water bottles is as they melt, drink them.

Yes. I mean, yeah, it's dual. It's multiple.

Yeah, if you do that right at all, even if like you just stumble your way through the frozen bottle idea, you'll have frozen like half frozen water on Sunday.

Yeah, I promise you, you will. Even if you don't do it, even if you don't do it well.

And a lot of people every year, they say they're going to go get dry ice. Don't do that.

It's expensive. It's expensive.

If you don't know what you're doing, it's dangerous if you don't know exactly how to handle it.

I burn the shit out of myself.

Yeah, I would skip that. You can get by with just regular old ice.

Now, have you been doing the frozen ice? I mean, the dry ice thing over your life in camping?

Then we're not talking to you. But like, yeah, many times over 20 years, someone's like, maybe we should do dry ice.

And I'm always like, yeah, that sounds like a pretty good idea.

And then when you start looking at the price and then the the concern of it, it's like, maybe not. Maybe not.

Yeah, not worth it.

All right. What else? I'm just thinking the MacGyver thing.

Joking about that. But if you it's part of the reason to make sure somebody in your camp is the MacGyver guy is that so you don't bring multiples.

You make sure you have what you need, that somebody has it, but you don't need two hammers.

So you don't clutter things up. And this won't mean much to everybody here, but it will to some of you all around regularly.

The the the villains are back with us this year, Tara V and her daughter, who are the most you've seen the most prolifically through things that we do.

But her husband, Joe, is going to be with them. And he is the other MacGyver.

He is the other MacGyver. So we have two MacGyvers. Yeah, this is great.

Man, I thought we were I thought this was like the Mayan Aztec ruins.

They were just all going away for forever. Our campsite.

And now it's coming back and Tara, too, because she brings like the med the medical kit.

She's like, you know, what do you need? Aloe, you need some aloe, you need some aspirin.

You need some. Right. You need ibuprofen. Yeah.

Do you want regular name brand or you want generic? Yeah.

Yeah, perfect. Perfected.

The mother aspect of her life all the while staying cool.

You can do it. You don't have to turn lame just because you have kids.

You're 100 percent right.

Speaking of kids, they're also bringing Stratton, right?

Their son. 12 year old. How old is he? Awesome. 12. Right.

This will be his first Bonnarooo, right?

He's he's not like his sister and mom. He's more like dad.

Joe, you know, this is true. He goes because the family goes.

If the family wasn't going, Joe probably wouldn't go.

He gets the excitement of just helping everybody get ready and then he falls asleep in a chair.

Yeah. Well, I don't know that Joe has even gone to a show.

He's gone to a show.

Doing the water slide and playing volleyball and all that.

I do family stuff. So they're really, really cool people.

They do it right. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. I think that covers it. Right.

Prepare for the worst. Prepare for rain. Prepare for heat.

How you do that, I really don't know.

I wish I could tell you.

Number one tip for the farm this year.

Come see us live at the Hoosstakes Thursday.

There you go. Yep. Thursday, four o'clock.

There's a big time. We're really excited about it.

Bring some questions. We're going to do some Q&A.

Yeah, there will be. According to Barry, if this is wrong, you can blame him.

But we are doing a there will be some sort of a Q&A.

You can talk to people from Manchester who are officials.

You can talk to Brad Parker, the festival director, or you can talk, you know, to my director.

Talk to me.

Yeah, Brian. Brian will be, you know, fashion tips on where you can find tube socks at a good price.

And the best colors.

Yeah. Brian's got the fit check.

Yeah. No, I don't have the fit check.

I just well, I guess I did enough about the fit check.

But yeah, so we'll be doing that, which I think is a really cool part of it.

So four o'clock on Thursday. I mean, you'll just be getting started.

There won't be anything to do. And then we can all go. Yep.

Well, I don't know about all of us. Come see us.

We're going to take a break and we come back.

We're going to get Brian's picks and a couple of surprise, one surprise for this year.

And and I look back at the last week a little bit all coming up next.

All right. And we're back.

You guys, if you listen to the show regularly, you heard my picks a couple of weeks ago.

Last week, Russ did his.

And this week, we wrap it up with Brian.

We've gotten tons of suggestions from you guys, listeners.

Trust me, I have checked out justice. Spent all morning Friday.

Oh, yeah. Somebody said, how dare you not put justice on there?

Yeah, multiple people. Yeah.

Well, hey, spoiler alert, justice ain't on mine.

It's I'm going to have to go see it.

I liked it, but it didn't blow me away.

I mean, I might do it, but it's not going to be on my official pay.

Yeah, no, I get it.

You know, not everything for everybody.

It's just the way it is. But I did listen.

Thank you. And I will check it out.

But enough about me before we get to the picks, a couple of things real quick.

We weren't able to get we just call him Kyle Bonnarooian.

Bonnarooian on Twitter primarily is where you're where you'll find Kyle.

And he's hung out with us a few times and always enjoyed his company.

And so I reached out to him to jump on the show and we had some technical issues

and it's not going to work.

We might have a few pictures of his run last year.

We'll throw up. But he's done it a few years in a row now.

He just by looking at the call the kid, I don't know how old he is.

He's probably in his 30s. He looks like a runner. Oh, absolutely.

He looks like a triathlete. Yeah.

And he's done it a few different years.

And so I want and so for the first time I'm doing the Bonaru run and I am I'm

conditioned stamina wise like I'm very proud of myself.

I've done very well at this.

First of all, a five K if you didn't know, I didn't know until three months ago.

That's kilometers. That's three point one miles.

That is a baby of a marathon.

Like if you talk to runners and say I'm going to run a marathon at five K, they

get out of here.

I did that before breakfast.

I'm going to go do it again.

Run along, child.

Yeah, it's true.

So it but it's still it's a it's a very easier palatable thing to do for people who

don't want to make running their entire lifestyle, which I don't want to do that.

I couldn't have run three miles six months ago.

That would have I would I would have that would have been dangerous to my health.

Now I can get up to three miles without a problem.

Now on the farm, dusty.

Is it raining?

People like distracting you on purpose, making a big, you know, a big spectacle of

it. We'll see.

I can't wait.

And Kyle wanted me to pass along last year.

If you remember, he had the the four twenty, you know.

Yeah, he was first in line to get his number.

He got to choose.

He took four twenty. Good for him.

I think it's great.

And he, you know, did the run.

Nothing, nothing, nothing much more notable than that from just last year.

Sorry if there was one that I'm missing, Kyle.

And someday we'll have you on down the road.

But this year he wanted to pass along.

He's going to be dressed up as George Washington for this year's run.

Now, it's crazy enough for me to think in any parallel backwards universe world that I

would ever run anything for any reason.

That's a that's not so on its own.

True.

I can't get to wearing costumes.

That's not happening.

I'm not wearing costumes.

I'm wearing the perfectly good cooling kind of clothes that make running less miserable.

So anyway, look for George Washington and you'll.

I mean, is this a Nate Barghazi SNL thing?

I don't know.

I don't know.

He said he's going to send me you guys as you watch this.

If you're on Spotify or YouTube, you will see a rough version of what that'll look like.

Kyle, you're crazy.

You shouldn't do that.

But yeah, is there a powdered wig involved?

They're better.

Like a petticoat.

Yeah.

Don't have this thing, Kyle.

Yeah.

Wooden shoes.

Yeah.

Buckles on his shoe.

Big buckle.

Don't throw on just some like 1775 like coat and.

Yeah, no, we want it all.

Yeah.

No, you got to powder that damn wig.

Full send.

Yeah.

Don't mess around, man.

Don't disappoint me.

Anyway, he's one of the few people, a handful of people, I should say, that I've reached

out to for just overall advice of just how to do things like this, not the Bonnarooo run

itself.

Any run and anywhere.

So I am.

I'm really excited about that.

We'll have them.

We'll have them back on at some point, too, I'm sure.

And then I'll get to the picks in a minute.

I'm going to go through them quick.

And then I spent the weekend in Mexico.

Cancun is where we went, but I spent every second of my life trying to make sure I could

get away from Cancun as far as possible.

This city right here, Puerto Morales, Puerto Morales, whatever it's called.

Man, if you're ever in that area, it's 25, 30 miles away from Cancun.

It is the neatest little fishing town.

It's touristy.

Yes, it is.

It's a little more of a like the fishing.

It's a port town, Porto, and it's just people dumping huge buckets of fit.

I mean, like it's pretty primitive and it's very, very, very neat to see.

So and then made a trip out to the Chichen Itza looking up to find out all the background

and the details of it.

It's one of the wonders of the world.

And it was a thrill and absolutely a great experience.

And I think it's a great experience.

I think it's a great experience.

It's one of the wonders of the world.

And it was a thrill and absolute thrill.

And did you see this taco?

I don't think you're on Twitter a whole lot, Barry, but festival.

Not Brad Parker, I believe.

It's not Brad anymore.

Oh, he replied to you.

Yeah.

He replied to it says, I don't think that tent's going to fit in the 2020 allotment.

20 by 20.

We'll post that tweet up.

And it's behind me and it's from a far distance.

This thing is monstrous.

I thought that was pretty darn funny.

So thank you for the the laugh.

Festival.

That's cool.

Yeah, I saw some of your pictures.

Looks amazing.

It was so much more so much fun and and and hot, hot, hot, hot, hot.

Ninety two to ninety five degrees now that inland away from the coast.

It's a really dry heat.

It's not as you know, you hear that when you go out west here.

It's not you're not sweating through everything because it's it's just not thick air, at least not yet.

So but it was still a nice prep for being in the heat constant.

Oh, I'm sure.

So I did get somebody said something along the lines of only you would go to the Yucatan to get ready for Bonnarooo.

I thought that was kind of a commitment.

Yeah, kind of a little response.

And I appreciate that.

Whoever that came from.

But while just a wild week all the way around for all of us, just fun, fun, fun.

And what a what a great warm up for what is going to be a fabulous festival that I'm I am so excited now that I'm done with all that.

And I can focus for the next week and a half on this.

So without further ado, if you guys are ready, we'll start running through this and you guys chime in on anything.

Let's get to it.

Any comments, commentary you have and I'll try not to ramble.

So Thursday, as you know, is a busy day.

So a lot of this will change except for I have the same thing that you do, Taco and Berry.

I'm not going to hold you to it, but it would be I think it would be cool if we all got to do over on the Dogs in a Pile show.

And I don't mean do over because it was bad.

Just yeah, I know.

Just to get another run through and see what it was.

They said they were going to they told us on this show and that was a month ago.

They're planning out in advance what that set's going to be like.

So I want to see what that's all about.

Yeah, we all I think we'll all go to that.

And I can't wait to see you just crushed when they don't play your song again.

Damn it. If they don't play all the same, I'm going to lose my mind.

I'm going to lose my mind.

I'm still hoping and you'll hear later at the end of the show why.

But I'm hoping they play it and then they look at you and they say, now shut the hell up.

Oh, that's what I'm hoping for.

I forgot about that.

Yeah, you'll sorry for the 20, 30 minute from now tease.

But yes, yes, you'll hear more about that.

So yeah, Dogs in a Pile.

That's a guarantee.

Like I remember when I was 23, 24, 25, I made a list half to maybe we'll see.

Wasn't quite we didn't use terminology like walk by a lot of different kind of terminology we use.

And I would color code them all.

Dogs in a Pile is a must.

The rest of the stuff is a we'll see how it goes.

Marcus King is going to sound great on the what stage.

I mean, it's rocking blazing blues, which I don't love as a driving down the road.

But that's got to be something I look at.

And I've got to go take a look at Luke Combs on the what that evening.

That's pretty much a guarantee, because by that time I'll be you know, I'll be relaxing for the night.

If if my day goes well, insane clown posse will be the way I close it out on Thursday.

And that'll be on the fringe.

Ain't no going to be no no grape soda or whatever.

What is it?

Can I always get it wrong?

They go, they go, they go.

I think they go.

They go and getting on me at this show.

I can assure you of that.

All right.

You heard it.

Come down, spurned, stone with Faygo.

Somebody's going to come behind me.

Somebody's going to do it.

Fair enough.

If you find I'll let you get away with it.

I'll only be pissed for a minute.

That brings us to Friday.

And this as it is for every day.

This is the day.

This is the day.

Flip turn on the what has to happen, has to happen.

I'm feeling good, by the way, guys, that we're going to get to talk to them on site.

I sure hope so.

Yeah, we've got a little a decent little built up history with them.

And I like them.

And it felt like they like us.

I heard from their management and he actually said thank you for the show.

Thank you for 100 percent making them the stars that they are.

So I took credit.

That's very Brad Steiner.

That's right.

Yeah, that's very Brad Steiner.

I have another hold that thought and Brad Steiner thought I'll come back to here in

just a minute.

Well, that gets me thinking, too.

Have we ever we've talked to a lot of artists on this show.

Have we ever talked to a what stage artist?

I'm trying to think when they were actually a what stage when they were actually.

Yeah, we've talked to artists that have played the what stage later or before, but I don't

know.

I mean, I'll have to go back and look.

Not since I've been around back in speaking.

Radio head Ed O'Brien.

Yeah, obviously Krugman.

But they weren't playing the what that year were they?

I don't think they were that year.

I think they were which?

Yeah.

Good question.

We had some big ones, but we'll have to go back and look.

Yeah, this is where my day gets really convoluted.

Like, I don't know what to do here because flip turn and foster the people back to back.

I could sit at the if the weather is not just terribly blistering, even if it is, I could

sit both those shows back to back and watch them.

But I can't because on this and that that are pretty close to overlapping is MJ Lenderman

and Mannequin Pussy.

Those are my discoveries this year of really need to see.

So there's going to be a lot of juggling going on right there.

And then on the witch at nine thirty, by that time, I'm not doing King Gizzard on on Friday.

I've got it circled in not highlight.

So that just means it's on my mind.

But that's about as far as it goes there.

Rainbow Kitten Surprise.

Same deal.

Circled, not highlighted.

That just means remember it's there.

See what happens.

Goose.

I need a redo on goose.

We had them here in Chattanooga at our now defunct festival about two years ago.

And it wasn't just me.

It was dozens of people who said that was goose.

Really?

Yeah.

That was what goose is.

And I made the joke and I but I believed it.

I think they just showed up to Chattanooga to practice.

I think they just practiced.

I don't think they did a show.

And so well, I need to do over on goose and I feel like I'll get my best from them on this which stage at nine thirty.

So that is a that is a front to back hour and a half show.

And if I'm feeling good and days going well, I'll stay for glass animals after that.

I hate that they're on the witch.

Hate it.

Damn you.

Damn you.

Bonnaroo for not putting glass animals on the what?

But hey, can't have everything you want.

Same same with Queens.

That's an hour and a half between though.

You're going to back to camp and then go back out.

Yeah, because there's nothing really.

I'm sorry, everybody.

Tyler, the creator, wouldn't know the guy if he, you know, if he walked in the room.

I just not my scene.

I mean, maybe I'll hover over there to get a look at it, but I probably will take that'll be a break time for me probably because I want to see Tipper late night because we've talked about it from the jump.

First time anything was announced.

It was we were excited to have something to talk about.

And Tipper was announced.

And then I did a dive on him and read his career and his life.

And I was like, pretty interesting dude.

So and he's retiring.

So that is a also not highlighted, but I'd like to think I'd finish Friday at Tipper.

So that's halfway through.

We're to Saturday.

See, and that's one of those because it's on the other.

I don't know if you want to see Megadeth, but I mean, being able to go around those tents is a whole lot easier than to try to get from the what to something else.

And I'm glad you said that.

My bad.

I forgot to circle Megadeth.

Megadeth is an absolute probably at least at least a walk by my bad.

I messed that one up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Megadeth will happen in some capacity.

Megadeth will happen before Tipper does.

Yeah, that's right.

We'll do both.

We'll do both those.

So my bad on that.

Thank you for bringing that up Saturday.

Little lighter.

Dope lemon is getting a lot of push these days.

Our friend Beth was just there shooting a show at the show box.

Legendary, at least from the 90s anyway, legendary club in Seattle.

And so that makes me that's early.

That's an easy one to do.

Mount Joy is something I'd like to get a look at.

And I'm telling you what, I was going to save this for this week on the Super Jam.

We were talking about it last week, Barry, because it's been it's on your list.

I have a feeling that if I mean, you're going to have to get there.

Who's before wave to Earth?

I've never heard of.

You're going to have to be at wave to Earth and wait for that show to end and then get up close.

If you really want to see Hayley Williams and you really want to see whoever else is there that I don't have the list in front of me.

That's very impressive because you're not just showing up 20 minutes before the show starts and going to be anywhere other than 50 rows outside of that.

Very. Yeah, it suddenly is a it's a must for a lot of people.

A great idea is going to turn into a horrible idea real quick.

If you don't plan that out, I mean, I'm not trying to be a hater on it.

I'm just saying it. This is these tents are not that big.

Right. And I hope they got those screens.

I think they're back. Right. The big screen they put on either side.

Yeah. They better. Yeah.

So that's your Brad said they were back. Yeah, I think I think they are.

Yeah. Also, that's head to head with modest mouse.

You talked about this, Barry, between the two.

You were kind of struggling a little bit.

I mean, I'm modest mouse all day long.

I'll do that before I do that.

But also clear over at what is Avril. Yep.

You know, I got to see I got to see some early 20, 2000s emo angst.

You know, that's I got to see that.

It's another one that I won't see anywhere else.

Yeah, same deal. Yep.

Arcade fire that late night intrigues the hell out of me.

I don't know that I'll make it.

And the only X, I want to say Xfinity is a cable package here in Chattanooga.

That's why I keep saying Xfinity.

Infinity stage.

The only one that I really, really want to make sure I get in is Saks Watch.

Yep. I've made some plans with some other people.

You know, you are. Thank you very much.

I hope it all works out that we can go.

But, you know, can I get in?

I don't know. Hoping to talk to him to.

Boy, that would be awesome. I know.

I'm so obsessed with this guy's career.

It's so cool. I have told them anyway, anywhere, anyhow.

You know what? I have a feeling that they're going to say no problem.

I have a feeling it'll work.

I'm hoping it'll be like because his popularity is starting to really pick up.

Yeah, he was playing little 100 cap rooms.

Yeah, dive bars here in Chattanooga just a year ago.

And now he's playing monitor like four times this year.

The only thing I can think of that might is he's going to be in that costume.

You know, I mean, the gore guys did it last year.

God bless them. They were anywhere and everywhere in those costumes.

But man, I can't imagine putting that thing on.

He might have a little more dignity. Yeah.

And be like, I ain't walking around in this goddamn suit everywhere.

We can shoot him behind a screen or something. We'll make it work.

Hey, Sasquatch management, feel free to send them out in street clothes.

Yeah, we'll have an interview with them in shorts and a tank top.

I'm totally fine with that. Be comfortable.

We'll make it work.

And so that pretty much that pretty much does Saturday.

And so that gets us to Sunday and nobody wants to hear this.

I everything I want to see is so late.

It's so late on Sunday.

I don't know how Sunday is going to go except for and it's still later in the day.

And I got to readjust to Eastern time when I'm leaving.

So everything's technically an hour ahead.

Royal Otis, which I've listened to a little bit is on my discovery list.

And I liked it. I think he's Australian.

And our buddy, Brad, good old buddy, Brad Steiner, founder and friend of the shit.

Now just friend of the show pops in whenever went back and forth with me on text

over the week that he discovered this band or this guy, Royal Otis.

And it wasn't it wasn't in his I'm trying to make a joke way.

It was a dead serious conversation ever through text.

And I got confused. And he said, no, dummy.

Here's the deal. He said his dad thanked me for getting him to the States.

All this stuff. And I'm like, you can't discover it.

You can't discover everybody.

He said the same thing about Lizzo.

He might have had a little bit.

There was a little bit of connection there with Lizzo.

And there's a lot of connection. Brad's he's not lying.

Yeah, he's in on it early.

Yeah. But it's kind of like saying you discovered a mountain.

The mountain was there.

Yeah, I discovered the Chichen Itza in Mexico, a continent.

He's the Christopher Columbus.

Yeah. Yeah.

Anywho, it's good stuff.

And I would like to give it a look.

And then if I am around that evening, I'm just going to go ahead and tell you guys.

I might not be. I don't know.

But if I am, then there's a lot of stuff I want.

And they're all on main stages, which makes me happy.

So that's going to be encouraging to keep me there.

King Gizzard on the witch. That's where I want to see him.

I don't want to see him in a tent.

Queen's Stone Age on the witch.

But not the what.

But I want to see that. And then Vampire Weekend on the what.

And those are all together, all clumped together.

No overlaps Sunday night on the main stages.

I'll see how that goes.

But there's the there's the overall look at it.

OK, the only thing missing, Russ, when is your dating?

Because we got to be there for that.

Oh, I've even considered that myself, actually.

There's multiple days I had to look back.

It's at Snake and Jake's, which is in Centauru.

I think it's like two to three.

Did you have to sign up? You have to sign up early for that?

Oh, I don't even know. I hadn't even looked into it that far.

You probably don't. I don't know how this works.

You both need to do it. And then I got to go and I got to watch the competing.

I'll do some speed dating with you.

We can do that together as a tandem.

In the end, we'll end up together and get married again.

I know. Yeah, we'll end up dating each other.

That's how it's going to work.

Also, one more real quick.

If during the run, I am I'm a little nervous about this just because it's, you know,

anything that's brand new, I just it sometimes can be a slight overwhelming kind of nature of anxiety.

If you're out there, if you're if you're if you're one of the ones

because I from what I understand is what I wanted to talk to Kyle about what it looks like.

I think it's like the roads are lined.

People are screwing with you, shooting you with water, giving you water, maybe throwing glitter at you.

Who knows? Like all kind of it's Bonnarooo. Jesus, who knows?

If you're out there and you see me and you get pictures or you throw crap at me, let me know.

I want to see it in it later. I want I want to because I'm going to be just so oh, my God,

I hope I can make it through this depending on how the weather is that morning.

I think I will. But I'm dying to see some of that stuff.

So if you would document that, if that happens to be you, if you don't care and don't want to do it,

get some rest. Don't do it. But if you do, I'd appreciate to see that because I would think that would be pretty silly looking.

And I'd like to see it. Speaking of a reminder again, four o'clock Thursday, the house stage inside Planet Roo Friday, 1030,

the beer exchange. We will be there. Yeah. And Brian and Russ will be doing speed dating, probably Brian and the run.

Please come up and say hello. Yeah, anytime. Anytime. Yeah.

Yeah, we always hear from people that say they want to come up and find us. Those are your best chances.

Yeah. The one thing I didn't I mentioned in the show passed recently, the coffee exchange is at 1230.

That'd be my one outer Roo thing that I would want to do. But guys, it's at 1230. We do our thing at four.

I'd have to go out there. I'm not going to bug them for a golf cart to go get some coffee.

So I'm going to have to get there and back. If I'm the most prepared I've ever been, which I won't be,

and I'm ready more than I've ever been, which I won't be, then I might make it out there.

But I've even emailed the guy. I'm sorry I forgot your name, dude. If you're a listener, I totally apologize.

But I emailed him to say, is there any way I can do this another time? I know the answer is no, but I'm going to ask anyway.

And he said, probably not. But that is a really fun new addition. And that would be one thing I will consider.

Yeah. Yeah. Along again, along those lines, we're only touching on the main stage stuff.

There's so many things happening. Wednesday all day long. Oh yeah. I didn't even touch the eye.

We have things going. There's so much else that we haven't even touched on.

Yeah. I mean, Roo Bus, they've got it on lockdown on Wednesday. Lockdown on Wednesday.

I can't even keep up with everything they've got going. If you want to have a party on Wednesday, look for the Roo Bus.

Yeah. So. Because they're going to have one.

All right. Is that it for schedule? We all good about it?

Yeah. Let's wrap up Cave Jam and talk to your new love of your life. Maybe mine too.

And crush.

Haley Jane. Let's do that next, I guess.

Yeah. Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back.

And we're back. And speaking of, speaking of meetups, Russ wants to get together with anybody in the area.

Next Sunday at Lo Main. That's my nephew's place on Main Street in Chattanooga. Come by, get a smash burger, get a cocktail.

June 8th. Hug and howdy on June 8th.

Yeah, we'll be there. Yeah. I just had an idea I had real quick. We do have a lot of listeners in Chattanooga.

Don't feel like you have to come travel to this.

Yeah, it's a super unofficial thing. We're just hanging out at a bar talking.

We're just going to hang out at a bar and talk monoroo. And yeah, Lo Main is your nephew's place, which we love.

It's not a Chinese place. I hear a lot of people think that it's not getting noodles and stuff.

No, it's Lo Main, M-A-I-N because it's on the lower side of Main Street.

Correct. That's the name. But get a murder burger. That's the best thing on the menu. Might be the best burger in Chattanooga.

It's a classic neighborhood bar that mid Midwestern cities and northeastern cities have everywhere.

Yeah. Grant spent a lot of time at the Matchbox in Chicago. If you know anything about it, one of always voted one of the best bars in the United States.

I didn't know that. Oh, yeah. OK. Yeah, this is something. Yeah. Chattanooga or well, the South doesn't do that neighborhood bar.

The culture didn't didn't come together here the same way it does in the mid like Milwaukee.

Do you go to some of those neighborhoods and there's the best bar you've ever been in every corner? Yeah, there's a church and a bar.

Yeah, it's I mean, Milwaukee is one of my favorite cities in that area.

But anyway, yes, this is a classic neighborhood bar in a neighborhood that's beginning to build.

I mean, they got there on the ground floor of the development of the area and there's a killer record store over there.

Yeah, there's a record store next door. Two other restaurants have popped up there recently.

And it is just a very quaint and charming place. THC drinks, by the way, which is awesome.

And all the alcohol you would want and plunge in the food, the murder burger, all the thing is real.

So we'll just hang out there and do the show there and come by and say hey or don't.

Real quick. First time I went shortly after he opened, I had a board meeting.

And someone asked to be on a new board and they said, where can we meet?

And so I chose obviously, you know, my nephew's place.

We get there and a clockwork orange is playing on the television and the rape scene is going on as I'm meeting all these new people.

I mean, it's a hipster guy. It's a hipster place.

It's where all the industry people go after they get off work.

And then the restaurant people go there and it's a hipster vibe.

And I love a hipster vibe. Yeah.

And we will be there because it's a good way for us to exchange, you know, not only information,

but like I need to give Russ the easy up tent or anything else that he's going to take.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Logistically, I need to get some stuff from you.

Yeah. And then so we got from Barry and me.

I mean, it's five minutes from us. You're the one that has to make the drive.

So it's a drive for me, but I don't mind. It's a it's a cool spot.

So I'm looking forward to that. So come see us.

You know, whatever be twelve thirty one ish probably a little late lunchtime.

Right. I think so. Yeah. OK.

And we mentioned up a cave. Yeah.

Cave Jam. We were there last weekend in Pelham.

Thanks again to Todd and Jeff and Donnie and the lady cop who led us through

who was on the phone and she said, what?

What's the name of your podcast? I said, the what?

And she said, what? I said, yeah, you got it.

Anyway. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Yeah.

It almost turned into an avid and can still. Exactly.

A routine. If you know, you know, big part of it was my fault because they handed us, you know, badges for media.

I left mine at the bus and she was saying, you know, oh, I didn't have mine either.

Yeah. So I was thinking, well, I'm going to have to walk back and get it.

But she got on the phone with with somebody.

I felt like that was a huge fail on my part because that's like, come on, man, don't mess up the simple stuff.

And I messed up. Me too. It was a rookie move.

Oh, you know, and it's a sticker. I should have just stuck it on right away.

But they were super, super couldn't be more accommodating.

I know a lot of people that were there and then you just see the reviews.

I mean, people go there and they're just in awe. Yeah.

I know. I know it sounds like I'm you know, I own half the place and I'm going on and on about it, but I really do love it.

Yeah, no, it's awesome. And we got to interview Haley Jane inside the secondary cave.

Yeah. Up and coming artists from the Northeast.

Yeah, I believe. Yeah, we're not here. Not locally, not.

I think New Hampshire. Yeah. Yeah.

And we'll find out together here soon.

We'll find out. And she.

Well, like I said, she's my new crush.

But there is a Bonnarooo connection, which we stumble across late in the interview.

She actually is recorded, written and recorded what she say, five songs with dogs on a pile.

Yeah, I just thought they played together once. Yeah.

And that's the only reason I brought it up. You know, I'm always just looking for, oh, they play together.

I'll bring it up. And then little did I know, not only they play together, they write that they recorded and released music and toured together.

So then I asked her to make sure that they play my song.

I need to text her and remind her that as you'll hear.

I'm never going to hear the song. It's never going to happen.

She was super cool and gave us a lot of time and doing an interview in that space is amazing.

So much fun. And so it's a bonus on the end of this show for you guys.

We hope you'll enjoy it as much as we did.

And I don't have any clue what we're doing next week.

Do you just hanging out? Going to low main. Yeah. Going to low main.

But we'll record something prior to that. We'll record something and try to.

Got a story to tell. Come down and convince us it's any good and we'll put you on.

Yeah, there you go. Yeah. There you go.

All right. I guess that's it. Thank you, guys. It's another long episode.

Russ, you'll be on the farm in a week. Oh, gosh.

I can't wait. Yeah. I'm like I said, I'm still prepping. I'm packing, getting ready.

And yeah, by the time this airs, what? What? A week away.

I mean, yeah, it's more like five days. Yeah, I know. Five days.

Yeah, I can't keep up anymore with how close we are. So this is awesome.

I mean, we'll eat and drink and record at low main and then you sleep once and you're gone.

Mm hmm. Yeah. Very excited.

The Vlans are going to be in our camp. Excited to see Beth and the dudes, but also David Bruce.

Oh, yeah. I'm glad you mentioned that. Yeah. And the Vlans. Yeah.

Super excited about that. So I'm pumped. I'm ready.

Let's go. Still not hot down here yet, by the way.

I know you guys. I say it every week. It will be long sleeves.

I'm telling you, with all this rain, that farm is going to be moist.

Yeah, I think I said we set a record. I think this is like the most rain in the month of May in like 90 years or something.

April showers brings May flowers. Nothing around here.

May showers, whatever comes after. We've had so much rain.

Boy, we had a great April, but it's going to be moist.

Yeah, I was gone for a week and all I heard back of the only thing I got back was my God, stop raining.

Yeah. Because it rained like two weeks before I left.

Anyway, they're pairing up two by two and all the jokes, all the memes.

All right, guys, see you later. See you.

See you next week. We're back at the Caverns.

Guys, I think this is becoming maybe our second favorite place.

The farmers be number one. This is our second time.

We have a special guest. Haley Jane, how are you? I'm excellent.

How are you, Barry? I'm doing terrific. Thank you.

Thank you for taking some time to do this. Happy to be in a cave with you.

Right. If I had a penny, right? Is this your first time?

It is. How cool is it? Oh, my God. Pretty cool.

It's been a bucket list venue. So this is very exciting.

Let's jump right there. Because when we were here last, we had Todd Mayer, who owns all of this.

And that was one of our questions is, has it become a bucket list for musicians?

Are they starting to hear? Oh, yeah. Because you get out and talk, right?

You hear probably from another one said, you got to go.

And I stumbled upon them online as well. Oh, wow. Like both. You hear about it.

Well, then your friends start you get up in the scene and your friends start playing it.

You start hearing whispers about how cool it is. And then I, you know, milk carton kids.

I'm a big fan of them. They played here. That was I watched that video.

I've been watched Billy Strings, you know, his thing here.

It was I've been watching videos for a while of this place.

And so you've just done soundtrack. Soundtrack is terrific. It's going to be a good show.

It is. Does it meet your expectations and your hopes?

Yes. And it's fun because I have these in-ear monitors and I'm I'm debating because the natural sound of the cave is so intense and magical and very resonant.

And I might just want to sing with it.

Sing with it. Sit with it.

Will you talk about that for a minute? Go a little inside baseball and musicians with the in-ears versus not the in-ears and the playback monitors.

Yeah. Is that a struggle? It is.

It seems like a very distracting practice. And I know it's very industry standard.

Well, no, it's sometimes it's wonderful to have it all in your head and you can really settle in and it's all in there and like they can pump audience sound in.

You know, that was the thing I missed a lot. So they'll get like an audience mic.

I'm still figuring it out. I'm still figuring out what I like.

And because what happens when it doesn't when what you're hearing?

Well, I know what happens as an audience member. Yeah. When what you're hearing isn't what we're hearing with that technical difficulty that can happen.

I've seen it at Bonnarooo many times where you think everybody can hear everything.

Oh, yeah. They can't like that's got to be like an absolutely lost feeling of not.

I don't know. Maybe you haven't had to experience that yet.

I hope I didn't jinx you today. No, no, no. Don't you worry.

I understand what you're saying. There's there can be a lot of stressful moments.

They come. Somebody can something can get unplugged.

Something can dip down. There could just be a ear monitors can get interrupted.

Wireless ones. Yeah. On your belt or something.

You just have to fight through it, you know, and you know, I don't I try not to get too scared when those things happen.

You just keep moving. Fair enough.

Fair enough. I was listening to your stuff all the way up here.

And I usually don't ask this question, but I'm going to love me some of your influences because I heard a little bit.

Brandy Carlisle. I heard a little Loretta Lynn.

I saw her show here or I wasn't here, but I watched you. Yeah. Yeah.

And a little bit of like old kind of do it.

Swing stuff a little bit now. Oh, oh, so you're hearing like the crooner stuff.

Yeah. Like the 1950s. Yeah.

So I grew up watching those movies, musicals.

Really, you'll hear that vibrato. Yeah. Like Doris Day was a really big influence when I was younger.

So you're going to hear her kind of come through. But then I got really into Ella, you know, and then I got into, you know, Alanis.

You know what I mean? So this progression as a kid, I listened to the 50s, 40s, 50s even.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like Ellen and Louis Armstrong's duo.

Okay. Yeah. Nice.

You find that on your own or do you parent? Because parents always are such big influences.

Or my dad was a big record collection, right?

Dads or whatever. No, I've discovered it on my own, I think. Yeah.

Or not on my own. I'm sure friends and people told me my parents were, you know, they listened to my mom like Amy Grant's Christian Elle.

Yep. And my dad likes CCR.

All right. To mix. There you go.

Sounds like my parents. Yeah.

Yeah.

Little Elton John and some Carly Simon in there and we've covered it all.

I love Carly Simon.

Are you here all weekend? You going to hang around?

That's what I think we're trying to stay. Yeah.

Yeah. It's, you've been able to walk around yet?

A little bit. Yeah. It's, Russ is staying all night.

I'm staying. It's worth, yeah, if you're staying, it's worth walking around and just taking it all in because it's such a pretty part of the country and just such an amazing venue.

Who are you looking forward to seeing that's here this weekend?

Oh my goodness.

String cheese, infamous string dusters, Andy Frasco, Space Bacon.

I saw Frasco photobombing some of your social media stuff, right? Like he's...

We did Four Nights with them. Yeah.

In the Midwest. I figured that was what it was.

It was awesome. You know, we did some, Etta James and, no, that was the first time we played with them.

We so much, oh, we did Tina Turner, Simply the Best.

Okay. That was a blast.

Yeah, Andy's a party. Yeah.

I saw him just a couple months ago for the first time and I was like, okay, I get it. Yeah.

I get what this guy does. Oh, and I just love, for me, it's like therapeutic.

Just his messages and the things he sings about real, he just sings about life stuff that kind of everybody goes through.

So his songs just hit in such a relatable way.

He just dropped an album yesterday. Okay. Yeah, his new album.

Yeah, he's super inspiring. I love his lyrics. I'm a big lyric person.

Yeah. So his lyrics really hit for me.

Well, very cool. Yeah.

What else is on your bucket list? You mentioned this place.

Oh, Red Rocks. Yeah.

Bonnarooo. Yeah. Two weeks. We'll be there.

This is like our warm up. Where are you from? Where do you live now? Where do you reside at this point?

I live in New Hampshire.

Okay. So that's a haul if you wanted to run down and just be an attendee at Bonnarooo then.

I've never been. That was my next question. Have you ever been?

No, my base. It's one of those big ones that you're reaching for. You know what I mean?

Hopefully you're invited to play.

I would love to play Bonnarooo. I would love to play Bonnarooo.

It's wild. When you're younger, like in my 20s, the idea of playing Bonnarooo was so my bassist from my first band, Haley Jane and the Primates.

His name was Dabo. And he had these photos from Bonnarooo that we all just loved.

And it looked like such a beautiful time and we all wished we could go.

And so it has like a very, I'm excited to go there because he passed away.

And I think getting to go there and be at this place that meant so much to him.

Do you know what I mean? He talked about it for months afterwards.

Well, the people who are listening and watching this right now understand everything you're saying.

All we do is Bonnarooo talk. It's kind of absurd really.

But we love it too. So I really hope you get to attend it just as a citizen.

Yeah, just to be there.

But to play it would be something else.

Oh yeah. Either. Both.

I want to go with something I wrote down here that off of kind of what Barry said.

It's not your influences, but just somewhere online it mentioned your, I think it was your Facebook page, Indie Folk Jam Rock Funk Salt.

Maybe.

Covers a lot there. But it made me think of these guys.

I used to play in some music, Garage Band stuff. Little bit more than that.

They'd be pissed if they heard me say Garage Band. But not a whole lot more than that.

It was a big garage.

It was a very big garage.

He called the guy who started the band, it's his baby. He referred to it as Rockablu Funkatwang.

I love mixing the words.

I think our sound might have been what you were looking for.

This holds up. How did your sound become what it is?

I mean you started, I noticed you did poetry when you were a young girl and you've done this for your whole life.

Theater.

And theater, how did it turn into what this is now?

Yeah.

Right?

Theater. I started there. And so that gave me this kind of ability.

Confidence maybe? To be in front of people.

Yeah, definitely the confidence thing. But also this ability to tap into emotions and express them with my body and my face from here.

Sure.

And help other people feel and feel okay about feeling and taking it to a dramatic place.

I like the intensity of life and I like to try and put that out there when I'm performing too.

In both, the whole spectrum. Happiness, sadness, fear.

Sure. You're going to get that full spectrum in a theater production, that's for sure.

When did you feel like, not necessarily you wanted to do this, that you could do this?

That you knew that you had at least a fighter's chance at this crazy, difficult, impossible industry?

I think, ooh, interesting. I think when enough people that you trust and admire tell you that you can do it,

and tell you that you've got something and tell you to keep working, you know, those people that are like, hey, it's hard but keep going.

Keep going. I think when you have enough people around you that you respect saying that, you go, alright, I'll keep trucking.

I would usually say my friends are just trying to make me feel better.

Yeah, that podcast.

You weed out those friends.

If you've got friends like Brian, yeah.

That was okay. Keep doing it. How much did, interesting to hear you say the theater,

how much does that influence your songwriting? Because it felt like, again, listening, it's storytelling.

Yeah, 100%.

There's a beginning, a middle, and an end to it.

I think that's why I identify with folk music.

Yeah.

I think the reason I say folk is one of my favorite parts about folk music is people quote each other a lot.

And you take from, you know, like my favorite artists, you can, you know, bring in their lyrics and bring it.

They do that in all genres, but I always feel like folk music is that carrying on of a line that you really like or a message that you think is important.

And sort of that, and I mentioned the country influence, and I don't know that I heard you say that, but sort of the Loretta Lynn is what I heard.

Yeah, okay.

Because I could hear that because it's those stories that, you know, and you, she has that ability, whether it's true or not.

And I think in her case, it probably is true. It happened. You know what I mean?

I remember, this is my name dropping, but I got to interview her and I had just heard Fifth City, and she answered the phone.

And I said, I got to ask what happened to that girl?

She said, oh, she got hers. She got what was a coming to her.

And I don't doubt it for a minute. It was unbelievable.

But you don't, you know what I mean? It's a story that you can tell as part of her life.

Yeah. Is that how much did the theater influence your songwriting is was the question.

Do you feel like that part of it?

Oh, definitely. I think the sing songiness and the storytelling for sure.

And the characters, you'll see different different.

And they I wouldn't go so far to say that they're completely separate from me.

They're just amplified versions of like an amplified secret part of myself, if that makes sense,

or something that you try to minimize in life. But on stage you can go, you can blow it up and make it a whole person.

Yeah. And perform a whole song as that person. Yeah.

Well, this is a trend that's been picking up at festivals and concerts, the concert poster.

Right. I mean, it's been going for the handbills concert posters.

People collect these things for 100 years. Sure.

But these days, it seems to be for me anymore. These days, I love a great handbilled, great concert poster.

Your spring tour poster is amazing looking. Sadie Mae.

By the way, is that the artist? It's beautiful.

And I noticed so you have your spring tours coming to an end pretty soon.

You had all of March, most of May, split half and half, 21 shows.

What do you got? Three or four left after this? Yeah, we have.

What's it? How's the tour? And it's about to end.

What's next for the rest of the year? Those are so many questions.

He is a professional. Let me see if I can remember.

I run them all together. Whoa.

How's tour going? Well, I learned how to put a belt, a serpentine belt on a new tensioner that we put in ourselves.

OK, I don't even know how to do that. I didn't know what any of that was until last.

I don't even know what it is now. I know what you're talking about.

So the band part was sparking and we had to do all that. So that was a wild night last night.

Oh, that was last night. Wow.

Oh, that wasn't over the course of the tour. That was 24 hours ago.

No, that was. Yeah. Yeah. So it was I got to put this serpentine belt on.

I was in rare form. I really was. I was in leopard leggings under the van.

Like and we just had the tension rot. We just went. We were we were determined.

Do you have anxiety in your life? Yes, definitely.

Was it killing you? No. That sounds like that would eat me alive.

No, yes, there were parts where I was. But we weren't in a hurry.

No, it was always in a hurry. It was stressful.

Every one of us.

If my band or my tour manager saw me, he'd be like, no, it wasn't bad.

They'd be like, you were a rock star. You were a piece of rock.

Are you sure? I was calm as a kid.

That's funny. But the rest of the year? Oh, rest of the year.

The rest of the year. Sorry. Yeah. Well, we're playing like four more dates on this run.

And we're playing like D's in Nashville, D's Country Cocktail Lounge,

and then a few other places up to Melwood's Tavern in Louisville and Mousetrap up in Indianapolis.

And then rest and relaxation for a few. No, I fly.

I fly out to California for my nephew Bo's graduation.

Super proud of him. Yeah. And my niece is graduating junior high as well.

So I get to go see family, which is going to be very cool.

And then we fly to Colorado and do a show out there. Nice.

You want my whole schedule or go to HaleyJane.com.

Good plug. What about next year? What do you think about for 26?

Here are our plans.

I hope you'll get out and experience.

I want to go back because you're talking about being able to go to Bonnarooo.

When we were we recorded a show earlier at his VW bus and Brian said, this is very much feels like Bonnarooo.

Yeah. Crowds. The people are similar.

In fact, a lot of people that came by are going to be there in a couple of weeks.

So if you do go out, it's a pretty good way to get that vibe.

You get a feel of the type of people you'll be around.

That's what it felt like to me anyway. Yeah. I like people. Yeah.

I like cool people. And there's a lot of them here. Yeah.

There's a lot of them here. All right.

Well, you're getting ready to perform in just a little while.

You got to go eat. You got to go eat.

Before you do that, before we send you off to grab a bite, I have to ask you about I noticed you'd played some gigs

with a recent band we've come to know and semi friends of the show Dogs in a Pile.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I'm an old school jam band fan, meaning of this century.

Old school. Not as much as I was then, but I still love the genre.

And then I saw my probably top three Grateful Dead song Ramblin' Rose.

You guys played in some place. I love doing that. I was YouTubeing around.

I don't know. I love singing. Yeah. Talk to me about theater.

How the collaborations you've done with Dogs in a Pile.

Well, yeah, we wrote five songs together. I didn't know you were writing songs together.

I thought you wrote five tunes together and we toured January like two or three years ago.

And we we wrote five tunes, kind of wrote with each of them.

And then we toured with them as my backing band and me opening for them.

Oh, like Dylan and Dead. That was the idea.

We wish that you would play more with her. Just people chatting.

And I didn't know what they were referencing exactly. People are saying that on Reddit.

You heard it, Dogs in a Pile. Reunion tour.

I'm going to go ahead and do it for him. You probably have their phone numbers.

I was about to go there. Brian has a request and you can deliver.

Would you text them and say, damn it, play all the same at Bonnarooo?

All the same. All the same.

Yeah. From Haley to Dogs in a Pile.

OK. Brian. From the what? From the what?

Can you keep up with me? I've got this. I've got your phone number.

Send me a text. Send me a text.

This is the many inside jokes that's not really funny.

Yeah. Brian made a big deal of wanting to hear that song when we went to...

They were on the show with us and then we went and saw them that night, actually.

And they made me think they were going to play. But they're a jammer.

They don't give a shit what I want to hear.

Well, I wouldn't say that. They're very caring guys.

Yeah, but I'm just some guy.

But yeah, maybe in the sense of...

Hey, some guy who does a podcast wants to hear a song.

And yet you sent me with a text to ask that exact thing. I love it.

Here's what I want now. At Bonnarooo, I want them to introduce it. This is for you, Stone.

Yeah. Yeah. Shut the hell all up.

Don't ever ask this question again.

Are you happy now? Geez.

Quit sending people like Haley to tell us...

Stop sending in minions.

This insufferable loser from Chattanooga is going to do whatever it takes to hear that one damn song.

It would be funny.

You have five songs with Dogs in a Pile?

They're playing Bonnarooo. They weren't like, hey, come play with us.

Yeah, that's a good point.

There you go. There's your end.

I don't even have their numbers.

All right. Well, Haley, thank you so much.

You've been a real pleasure.

My pleasure, man.

So nice to meet you and to do this for us.

But it's a cool space.

Have a great show.

Yeah, we're looking forward to seeing the show.