This year, it felt like a little bit of a departure,

but I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

Are you excited about The Where?

I love everything happening with The Where.

I know people are mad about it's moving from the woods

and everything.

They hear about Bonnaroo and they think,

oh, you're going to sleep on the ground.

They don't understand what music at four in the morning,

five in the morning, sunrise is like.

I was feeling a little down on the direction Bonnaroo

was going this year.

That Saturday Where Stage lineup is enough

to just bring me right back in.

Welcome back to the What Podcast.

It is a rainy, socked in, as they say, day here in Chattanooga.

Did not realize that our special guest today, John,

is also from Chattanooga.

I'm Barry, that's Russ, and this is John, also from Chattanooga.

What part?

North Shore.

So right when you come off the Signal Mountain exit on 27,

right over there.

It's also hat day, unintentionally.

Could be because of the weather, right?

Could be, but also because I'm falling in.

Russ always has a hat, but I've fallen in love with this hat

because it fits my ginormous melon, which is rare.

So any hat that fits my head suddenly becomes a favorite hat.

But for you guys that are just quickly joining in,

our discussion today is going to be about The Where lineup that

came out, and specifically about EDM.

Russ reached out on our Discord and said, hey, anybody

want to come on and talk about EDM and The Where lineup?

And John, he may regret it.

We'll see.

But reached out and said, I will.

It's going to be a blast.

No regrets.

This will be fantastic.

No, I'm excited.

As we have said before, that is not our lane typically.

So we like to always reach out to people

who do drive in that lane, so to speak.

And so you reached out.

Bryan took the weekend off.

He's in Las Vegas.

So that's why you don't see him here.

Pointing that out.

Definitely not his lane, so I'm not surprised

he's not joining in on this one.

Yeah.

I was thinking about that before we got on here, Russ.

When you think Las Vegas, what comes to your mind first?

Slot machines.

I know I asked both of you.

Slot machines.

OK.

For me, it's the sphere.

OK.

Sphere, yeah.

If you all get a chance to go see a show there, do it.

I would love to.

It's everything you can imagine and so much more.

It's amazing.

So this is how old I am, and this is why I ask.

Because my first thought is Elvis and then Sinatra.

And that probably doesn't even enter your brains, does it?

It does not.

So I go to Vegas probably once a year

for different conferences and things like that.

And so it's the newer memories that are sticking in there.

I know.

I know.

Again, tell me about that hat, man,

because I have to have that hat.

Yeah, so this was one that I got at Bonnaroo 2019.

I was there that year and forgot any.

It was a fantastic year.

Fantastic year.

They're all great.

Never not.

That Friday night of Gambino into Beach House,

into Girl Talk and R.O. Grime, like, man, that was a night.

But yeah, I got there that year and like an idiot,

forgot any kind of hat, any kind of shade,

mobile shade structure for my head.

And I was like, well, I got to go to the merch tent,

see what's up, and got this hat.

And man, I have been to probably 40 festivals since that one.

This hat comes to every single one of them.

You scored.

That's a great hat.

I need it.

Got to get it.

All right, so let's talk about The Where lineup

came out this week.

That's the new news, right?

And I think that's going to be our jumping off point

to talk about.

And we'll visit again more because EDM is such a huge part

of the Bonnaroo lineup.

But what do you think, John?

What do you think of the lineup overall?

And then specifically, let's deep dive.

Yeah, so I may go a little off script here,

which is I kind of want to start with the broad spectrum

of the full lineup, the EDM of it all,

and then what The Where does for me.

So the full lineup when it came out, I got to tell you,

it didn't hit right for me.

And I think it was Bryan that said it best, where he said

a lot of these were the yes and type acts.

It really, to me, knocked the alternative and indie

out of the park.

I thought it did great on that.

I think hip hop is a little stronger this year

than maybe I've seen in recent years.

There's some exciting acts on there, Freddie Gibbs and Clips.

The electronic side of it is where it threw me off.

And what I saw on there is Bonnaroo, at least

in my opinion, has always done a really good job embracing

the electronic acts in recent years.

They bumped out the other tent to the other stage in 2017

and really started building up from there.

There was always a certain vibe that came with it.

And certain sections of the internet

may call it Wookie vibes, right?

It's very kind of that sort of feeling to it.

It really blends well with a lot of the indie

and kind of psychedelia of the rest of the lineups.

This year, it felt like a little bit of a departure.

But I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

So what I see on there, Skrillex, of course,

being the big one on Thursday.

I have a good number of friends in my group.

They're going to Bonnaroo just for Skrillex.

I said, we want to see Skrillex throw down on the what stage

and see what that is going to be.

People are very, very, very excited for that.

I think also that same day,

you have something interesting brewing potentially with Fortet.

He and Skrillex do a lot of collaborations together.

I think the one-two punch there,

you're going to see some interesting things

of certain people coming out on the stage together

and doing a little fun stuff. So that's exciting.

I think Friday with Grizz, you know,

Grizz played the farm who knows how many times at this point.

His 2023 show was amazing, loved it.

And he's back from hiatus.

And I think that'll be a really good show.

Yeah, he also covered when Rainbow Kitten Surprise dropped out.

I think, was that 23? He jumped in with an extra set

that was pretty great.

Probably my favorite set of 2023.

Surprising enough, it was,

I think a lot of people have that same sentiment,

everybody in my friend group,

but we were blown away by his Chasing the Golden Hour

set that he came in and filled in for.

And it set up once again, those legendary Bonnaroo runs of Grizz

into, you know, who do we see after that?

I think it was like Sophie Tucker into Big Wild

and all the way through My Morning Jacket and STS-9 that night.

That was a really, really good night.

It was a good night.

So, yeah, I think where it starts to get funky for me,

and this is a choice,

and I know a lot of people have opinions about this,

Major Lazer on Friday.

So, that is for you guys, if you know Diplo,

that's one of his projects.

And I've seen Major Lazer a couple different times.

Man, it does not land for me. It really doesn't.

And I know that there are a lot of opinions

about Major Lazer or Diplo being on the lineup.

You know, we had that in 24 as well.

It doesn't land for me.

And this is where you start to see a divergence, right?

Like, a lot of these EDM-focused festivals,

they go really heavy into base.

Bonnaroo has done that in the past.

Major Lazer is kind of an outlier there

where it's something different.

And that theme kind of continues on through the rest of this.

You see a lot of house-type music with Clooney.

Clooney is one that a lot of house fans

are really, really excited for.

I think that's a late, what do they call it, after hours,

an after hours act for Friday night.

You keep going down, Sidepiece,

another really big house artist.

And it just, it starts to get interesting

where you don't see the typical, like last year,

the Tipper or the R.L. Grimes of the Trees

where it's really bassy kind of psychedelic,

late night type music.

It's a lot more dancey across the whole lineup.

And I noticed this when I was listening through a lot of things

where it seemed like Bonnaroo was booking acts

that are kind of bridge artists, if you will.

Where it's dancey, it's electronic,

but it also kind of has that alt bend to it.

So I think a good example of that is you look at,

I know this artist, I genuinely don't know how to pronounce it,

so forgive me, I think it's Laz-lo? Laz-wo?

I'm no help.

Yeah, it's tough. The L also has a funny mark on it.

I couldn't even tell you how to pronounce it.

But that's one where it's very dancey

and it's definitely electronic,

but it has that kind of alt electronica bend to it.

And so this is really fascinating to me,

what you're saying, because that's one of the things

we've talked about is the fact that we've been covering Bonnaroo

since the beginning and this whole introduction of EDM

and the explosion of it and the subgenres

and the subgenres and the subgenres.

So what we thought was that Bonnaroo was hitting it right by expanding,

but I'm hearing from you,

I don't want to put words in your mouth, but maybe too far?

They're expanding too much? Is that what I'm hearing?

I think it is, maybe I wouldn't say too much,

maybe it's reach for some of the newer fans,

some of the newer things that people are really interested in.

For example, Sarah Landry is on this lineup.

She is the pinnacle of techno music right now.

Incredibly popular, headlined Electric Forest,

I think it was last year.

A lot of my friends went to that set and had just amazing things to say.

She had a huge show at the Caverns too, right?

Yeah, I think it was recently played the Caverns,

she tends to do that every year and that show looked amazing.

It looked great, but it's not something

that you would typically see on the Bonnaroo lineup.

Bonnaroo tends to really embrace the weird, the strange,

the funky 3am type things.

Sarah Landry is something you wouldn't normally see there.

And so to me, that signals a, hey, we're reaching out to some of the things

that maybe that target demographic we want to bring in is looking for.

It's a really interesting kind of shift there.

That is so crazy, because this is the same conversation

that happened in 2004 and five.

Man, you're getting away from the jam bands.

You lost your identity.

Now you're saying you've lost your identity

because you're going too far into the electronic world.

And again, I don't mean to put words in your mouth,

but that's kind of what I'm hearing a little bit.

That's just so crazy.

Well, and it's, you know, you see this with any kind of sub genre

obsessed groups, right?

Like any Bible festival.

It's what I, that's what I've always said.

If it's your favorite band, it's the best festival ever.

If it's not, it sucks.

Yeah, right.

It's it.

And so I've I've been very negative on this and that, you know,

I don't want it to sound like this.

It it's not a negativity thing.

It was just a differentiation that I noticed this year.

I love I love.

Thank you. I love it.

I love the discussion.

Where you start to see things converge again, in my opinion,

is when you get towards the Sunday of it all.

There's there's certain acts on here.

Daily Bread, he's he's played Bonnaroo at least once,

maybe a couple other times.

Son Holo, I think also has a big gigantic.

Who knows how many times they've played the farm over the years.

We love to see them. Yeah.

And then towards the bottom of it, a hundred drums.

She's been around playing a lot of a lot of shows

over the past couple of years.

I've noticed her a lot more since since the pandemic kind of wrapped up.

And then Motive there at the very bottom of Sunday.

For those that don't know, he is Pretty Lights' brother.

And I didn't know that.

Yeah, he's it's not it's not super big out there

because he he wants to do his own thing, I think.

But his shows are great.

It's very kind of soulful, bassy, hip hop inspired.

It's it's a really good time.

Daily Bread, you know, people people love Daily Bread.

I've seen him. I don't even know how many times I saw him in in 2017

playing the Basement East in Nashville.

Oh, yeah. As familiar with that venue.

I am. And Son Holo.

Perfect Sunday act, very in your feels, kind of bright, melodic,

little bassy music.

It's it's really good.

So Sunday is where I start to to get that feeling of the typical

Bonnaroo EDMs coming out to play.

The rest of it, like I said, not not bad.

I don't want anyone to think that it's just it it feels like a little bit of a

of a right turn, maybe.

When did the other become a stage and not a tent?

Was it 19? 2017.

OK, so every year that you've been going,

yeah, describe your typical Bonnaroo experience,

because this always fascinates me,

do you especially because of the other,

do you just hang out at that stage or do you wander around?

And what because to me, I can't imagine 24 hours of EDM.

I can't know no more than I can imagine 24 hours of anything.

Yeah, yeah, no, I'm the same way.

It's the music festivals.

And even even if you want to go all the way down to the the individual artist set,

I need highs and lows.

I need I need it to to to do things like that.

I can't spend my whole time at the other.

I have before.

I think Thursday 2018 was one where I was just planted at the other

all the way until pigeons playing ping pong that late, late that night.

Typically, I'm bouncing around.

So I'll I'll start somewhere.

Other can be a good place to start just because it's high energy

kind of gets you going for the day after you run through the the the fountain

and then head on head on through bouncing back and forth between.

I'll give you a good example.

Twenty twenty three.

Like we just talked about Grizz chase the golden hour that ended.

We moved over to which for Sophie Tucker, another

electronic artist, headed over to the other stage for Bob Moses.

Incredible show over there.

Then moved over to Big Wild at a tent.

Then Odessa at the what my morning jacket and then make the loop

all the way back for STS nine.

I can't I can't sit at a at a single genre type stage for a whole day.

It it starts to start to need to move.

Nice enough. Nice enough.

Are you excited about the where?

Yes. So let's where it is and all of that.

Let's pivot to that.

I love everything happening with the where.

Yeah, I know people are mad about it's moving from the woods and everything.

I'm sorry, but an artist that I really want to see playing over

over in the woods and somebody that I really want to see right

after playing on the witch.

That's a long walk.

It's a long walk, man.

And the whole security checkpoint of it all,

you know, leap coming out and coming back in like that's

that was a tough sell for me every time. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's it's very much a safety and logistics issue as well.

I mean, packing all those people in where in the woods just isn't made,

you know, for big artists to play and have all those people in there.

I mean, we saw that with the was it Alice in Wonderland that that close it out?

Yep. Yep.

One of my favorite, favorite, favorite moments at Bonnaroo

was watching Gucci Mane basically in that same area.

I don't know if you were with us, Russ, with

I mean, it was like five in the morning that that little.

And I definitely wasn't with you now. OK. Yeah.

That what year was that? Oh, man.

Jim Burris was with us.

That was so great.

But it was the Kaleidoscope, Kaleipi stage at that time.

But that little corner, just being able to get there, being in Centauru

that time of the morning, it was just the perfect vibe type of thing.

And that's what I keep thinking of when I'm thinking about this.

Yep. That's I I have the same same thought is those those late, late nights at Kaleipi.

Yeah. I got nothing left. But let's go.

Yeah. Where the sun the sun starts coming up, the fog is is just all through Centauru.

Man, that is a magical time. Cascade in 2018.

He played until sunrise on Kaleipi.

And that was one of one of my all time Bonnaroo

moments was was seeing the sun come up and just the feeling of everything there.

So I'm I'm very excited for the where moving into that little back corner of of Centauru.

And it's it it I've been listening to the artist all morning.

It's a very curated list, isn't it?

I mean, you know more than me, but what I've been listening to,

for sure, I'm into it, right.

I can I did the vibe was all about it.

And this is where Bonnaroo comes back to what I feel like is is normal for them,

if you will, the the normal they they're they're aiming for.

Maybe some of that splash with the the electronic on the regular lineup.

And then this is, hey, where we we know what y'all are about.

Let's bring you back in to start to just run through it.

I mean, easy baked. Yeah, there's I saw I saw a couple of comments

that when this dropped, they said that's worth the price of a mission right there.

Nice people. People are very excited for easy baked.

Yeah, very. I like what I heard.

This kind of slow, wubby just I again, this is not.

I was there in that corner.

I have my spot.

I know where I am when I was listening to it.

This is this is not a bad thing that I'm saying.

I've fallen asleep at an easy baked show before you go.

And that was that that's not a that's not an indictment on him.

That was an amazing, you know, just just a relaxation and digging in late.

Late at night that you can feel that comfortable and that relaxed.

That's funny. I know exactly what you mean.

Yeah, very late at night.

I'm going to do it right now.

Yeah. Propofol.

Best sleep ever.

The other on the other ones on Friday that I'm really excited for,

Lumaase is is really excited.

That's that's a little heavier, a little more

meat on the bone, if you will.

Is that Mountain Dew?

Is that him? Do I think I was just listening?

Go ahead. Keep talking.

I'm a little bit.

It's a it's a little more.

It's got a little more to it, I think, than Mary Dropin's

or Richard Finger do, which are kind of in the same

bucket of of wubby kind of slow stuff.

And then the other one that.

I haven't been able to see him do a solo set before

and am very excited for is Prop Cause.

So he is the hip hop artist that is typically on stage with Grizz

and raps along to his music.

And so he does solo work, which is oftentimes a lot of collaborating

with other kind of dubstep DJs and and doing hip hop to it.

I'm very curious to see what that that set looks like.

Ross, you're going to probably edit.

I don't know. You make fun of me if you want to.

Morning Dub, not Mountain Dew.

Morning Dub is the name of the song.

Morning just heard it like an hour ago.

I love it.

Yeah, I was wondering where you were coming up with Mountain Dew.

And I know what the real answer is, but yeah, it's a classic bearing.

Morning Dub. Morning Dub.

I love I love that song.

That's a great vibe.

Yeah, it's a it's a really cool song.

You can you can imagine sun coming up during that, right?

And and the owls in the background.

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. Again, put me right there in that spot.

Exactly. You can you can feel the vibe that they're they're curating from that.

And I think it's it's going to it's it's a major return to

what what typical Bonnaroo fans are used to feeling on the farm.

And it's it's really, really great to see. Yeah.

And then people don't not that I don't want to depart from this a little bit,

but but people don't understand they they hear about Bonnaroo

and they think, oh, you're going to sleep on the ground.

They don't understand what music at four in the morning,

five in the morning sunrise is like.

It's an it's a different world.

It's a different universe, isn't it?

Yeah, I used to I used to tell people all the time.

They're like, OK, so you're just out there listening to music.

I go, no, no, no, you show up and music starts.

It doesn't stop until Sunday night.

Like you, you're just you're enveloped in it this whole time.

And it's it's if you are a music lover

and you want to see the most amount of acts possible

on some of the best stages, I've always told people,

you you can't beat Bonnaroo for that.

And but again, it's not just the show.

I mean, you can see a show anywhere.

You can go to a venue and you can see a great you can see the same act.

But when you see them, you know, at four in the afternoon

or four in the morning on a farm, it's a completely different event.

Yeah. And it it makes it tough when some of these years.

I want to say it was.

Might have been 2019 as well, where there was acts that I was so excited

to to see playing at noon in a tent.

And it's acts that I was really, really excited to see

playing the night before until 4am.

Yeah. All right.

Something's going to have to give here.

I'm excited about it.

All right. I interrupted you.

So go back to.

Yeah, you've got your your your playlist.

Yeah. So Friday, I think, is is a really interesting

mix of things there and the vibe that they're curating.

But I got to tell you, man, I got to tell you, I was

I was feeling a little down on on the direction

Bonnaroo is going this year.

That Saturday, where stage lineup

is enough to just bring me right back in.

That is my jam right there.

So Big G love them was crushed.

I couldn't see their their Infinity stage set last year,

hoping that this is a little bit of redemption for them with,

you know, maybe a logistically superior stage.

So DJ set from them.

I'm going to skip I'm going to skip the big name there and go Costa.

Costa is a lot of fun, a lot of fun.

If you like dubstep remixes of popular songs,

you're in for a blast.

He is so fun.

I'm really, really excited for that.

FN, I've seen a good number of times.

That's that's a real throwdown time.

Go ahead. Go back.

I was going to say, because, again, this is not our lane.

But I because of my kids, I do know what you're talking about.

And I love that sort of the listening to the the EDM.

And I to me, EDM is the umbrella.

If I keep saying it, that's electronic music is probably just a better.

I love hearing some of the songs and some and pulling out

I know that one. I know that one.

I know that loop. I know that. Yeah.

That's part of the fun. Right. Yeah.

And it's it's one of one of my favorite things that

all these bass DJs love to do is throw in just like the gnarliest

2000s hip hop on top of all of it.

You know, just like what was what was what was banging in 2005?

Let's throw that acapella on top of just like some some filthy stuff here.

Oh, it gets me every time.

It gets me every time.

It makes you feel smart when you're like, oh, I know that I know where that's from.

I know. And you spend the whole day doing, oh, I got it.

Yeah, I know. I know this one. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Then and I think Kostas really they

Bonnaroo reposted a flip that they did, I think, the other day

of Tovlo Tovlo.

However, I can't remember how to say her name of the talking bodies.

Song and he does, you know, the dubstep remix of it and it made it so good.

It's so good.

Hey, I already know that thing. Let's go.

Oh, there's this surprise element to it.

OK, here we go. So fun.

So next up, Effin Effin is

very much a head banging kind of throwdown experience.

Very, very heavy, very.

You know, there's a lot to sink your teeth in on.

And then right after Smokeland, Smokeland was probably

one of my most listened to bass artists in

twenty twenty two, I want to say they put out

a couple of really good mixes around that time and another kind of local

festival in the area, Sound Haven,

went to went to that around the time and Smokeland just blew me away

at that event, so very excited for them.

And then.

My queen, Closie, I love Closie.

I don't I've seen her 15 times at this point.

I do not care.

I love every time I get to see her.

She is fantastic.

I was a little disappointed that the main lineup got LSD.

I know that that's a big gift for a lot of people.

They're, you know, Closie and LSDream are coming back for one more

one more show just because they love Bonnaroo and they want to do that together.

But I saw that a couple of times on the tour and was, you know,

ready to see me some just regular Closie again.

That that is a massive, massive, massive

get for for Bonnaroo to to do on The Where.

Nice, nice.

A little surprised that she's going to do that at the at the hours

that this stage goes and then the next day be on one of the main stages with with LSD.

So hope hope she's got some good coffee with her.

Man, I'm so I'm so glad we did this and thank you for joining us because this.

The fact that The Where moving over into that corner

and it being such a hit with you.

I think is kind of not not because of you in particular,

but my point is this is one of those changes that Bonnaroo is doing.

And it seems to be a good idea, I guess, is what I'm getting at.

Yeah, I think that's the if I could distill everything down,

I'm saying from from this whole episode, it's that Bonnaroo is trying new

and different things this year.

And my general reaction to some of them is kind of eyebrow raise.

And for some of them like this, like moving The Where into that corner,

making it a late, late night experience and booking the acts that they did.

Two big, big thumbs up. Yeah, that's what I mean.

I don't mean this negatively, but you say, you know, some of the

the decisions they made make you raise your eyebrow.

Does that mean maybe you're getting old?

I mean, not oh, I absolutely am.

Don't get me wrong.

Do not get me wrong at all.

I get it.

Because I think of Rick from a few episodes ago with the church bonus,

he made the point that, you know, Bonnaroo is forever young

and it's us who get old and change.

And so there's probably a younger generation of people

that look at what you're looking at and they're really excited.

So maybe that's where Bonnaroo is trying to go.

That's an excellent point.

100 percent. And Brad and Brad and Corey a couple of years ago

on on y'all's podcast said something very similar.

They said, you know, hey, book in widespread panic to headline one night.

It's it's it's not going to bring the people that, you know,

we may need to bring.

We need that next generation to come up and love Bonnaroo.

My jacket. Yeah.

You know, I'm who you know, I love.

Yeah, they're not everybody there.

I mean, yeah, the 20 year old like who?

Yeah. Well, and it's I get it.

It's very telling.

Like it was it was very.

I felt it in 2023 right after seeing the spectacle of Odessa

and then My Morning Jacket right afterwards, just a very kind of

much more muted, yeah, musically focused show.

I could see how, you know, it was not the same for me.

Even for me, it was not the same My Morning Jacket

that I remembered from whatever it was. Eight, I guess.

Yeah, so cool.

Yeah, I bet I bet people are are going to hear some of the things I said

and say, well, this old man get off the lawn, man.

Get off the lawn, dude.

But it welcome.

It's. I

I look at it through what has Bonnaroo always always felt to me.

And, you know, it's it's a departure, whether that's good or bad.

That's up for for everybody out there to decide.

Well, but what I'm hearing is we all three agree and brush.

I don't I'm putting words in your mouth, but I know, John, you and I,

I can see me at three o'clock in the morning listening to whoever's

playing at the where and just digging it.

Yeah, I felt that this morning, you know, seven when I was

doing my research, listening to these guys.

Yeah, I could see it. I could feel it.

And what's what's interesting to me with that Saturday lineup, especially is

that's the I don't think it's been officially communicated yet,

but pretty unofficially is that the other is going to go to sunrise that night.

And how are those conflicts going to shake out?

And and what does that look like?

Who's going to spend their time in which place?

Talk about and then we'll we'll wrap this up.

But what do you think about how this this year is going to go

with the changes in the days, the Thursday

being the what stage only and then Friday, Saturday?

What's it feel like to you?

I. Get it.

I'll start with that. I get it. Yeah.

I understand.

And I think that these some of these

the changes with Thursday and everything makes sense.

I've kind of been bemoaning it a little over the last couple of years of like.

Man, so if you really want to do Bonnaroo, you have to get there on Tuesday.

I have to take a full week off to do this thing.

It felt like it was getting a bit much. Yeah.

I mean, I know Russ, Russ would be out there right now if he could.

It doesn't bother me. Yeah, I'll go.

I'll do a week for sure.

But it felt a bit much to me.

I think scaling it back made sense.

I think the Thursday only thing is a bummer.

I I always liked to kind of get in my sea legs under me.

Type feel of of Thursday. Right.

But shifting the that tent into the field

and making it kind of a self-contained entity all on Thursday,

I think they said the rest of center who may be open, but not not quite the stages.

Right. I I get it.

And I think it may still work out the the the way we've been looking for.

You know, what's interesting is we're veterans.

So we have that it's not like it was attitude.

And it's it's maybe sometimes we forget there are people

this is going to be their first time.

They will have no idea what we're talking about.

Yeah. Nor will they care.

Right. 50 percent of ticket sales every year are first timers.

And they don't know what it used to be to them.

This is it. So they'll have no idea what we're talking about.

And they don't care.

No, they're they're going to have a blast with with.

I mean, you're you're going to be hard pressed to be in that

what field on Thursday and not have.

Yeah, it's never not great.

That was I mean, we you know, that was, you know, because you

you listen to us enough.

That was the whole point of the 2016 was the, you know,

40,000, 45,000 people smallest ever.

And it was great for a lot of us.

That was the best year ever.

So I mean, that that lineup is unreal.

Yeah. People people that probably poo pooed it back then.

Go back and look at it now.

And there's the there's the other part.

That's awesome.

I will say once again.

In terms of Indy and maybe all rock, if you want to label it that way.

Corey and team, y'all, y'all crushed it this year.

That is that is some good, good stuff.

Yeah. Oh, and we didn't we didn't even talk about the biggest one.

Rufus do soul.

Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's a that's a huge.

Come on, man. I'm I'm so excited for that.

My first time I saw Rufus was actually Bonnaroo 2018.

I met my fiance at Rufus show in 2020 right before the pandemic.

Wow. Love Rufus. Yeah.

That's that's going to be a, you know, Odessa level like

face melting type type show that Saturday night.

Overall, from electronic music fan, good lineup, mid great.

What what?

Whatever I would have rated it before.

Just bumped up to two out of ten

with that where stage, in my opinion.

So I would have said, at least for my taste, maybe a five.

We're up to a seven now.

And if you guys are reading the tea leaves out there,

your your favorite festive owl said that there's there's more to come.

I was just going to mention that, yeah, that he teased.

There's maybe some more announcements coming.

And there was a certain artist used in in the post

that I think some people are going to be very excited for.

If you all want to do a little homework after ganja white night,

go go check them out.

Nice, nice, nice. Nice. Yeah.

All right, man. John, thank you so much for your time.

Thanks for doing this, especially a long time caller

or a long time listener, first time caller.

This is this is a fun time.

Go vols. We appreciate it.

And, you know, like I said, you're on our Discord.

So the what that CEO slash Discord, if you want to join.

We occasionally talk Bonnaroo in there.

We put early episodes out sometimes just for people to to listen

before they're released.

And sometimes we get people to come on the show.

So, you know, feel free to join any time.

Nice. And if you just heard me say go vols,

you have to know how sarcastic that was because I can't stand the vols.

But, John, man, thank you so much.

Me neither, Barry. Thanks, guys.

What do you think, Russ?

I mean, on Thursday when we were talking and the where lineup came out,

did you think anybody care?

Do you think it would be this interesting?

Yeah, I mean, I feel a lot better now.

I looked at that lineup and thought,

yeah, OK, but no, after hearing John describe some of these artists,

I'm sound a little more familiar now and just the way he describes,

you know, it's it's the it's the time and the place.

And like you said, being there even four and five in the morning,

it puts you in a certain place that you can't get anywhere else.

And yeah, it's going to be exciting.

I totally agree.

Yeah, when it came out, it was, you know, like, OK, another side stage type of thing.

But you and I spent this morning or maybe you did yesterday

or this weekend listening to some of these bands.

That was exciting enough.

But then to hear him talk about the fact that this bumps up the whole lineup for him.

And like you said, the more we talked about the feeling,

that vibe late night being there.

One, two, three, four in the morning.

Yeah, over there in that corner.

That's pretty I was suddenly wanting to be there right now.

I mean, I can't wait. Yeah, absolutely.

All right. Well, cool. Great episode.

Bryan, as we said, is in Las Vegas doing God knows what.

Good for him.

I think he's visiting the Hoover Dam for the 17th time.

I know he's out there with Beth, which is awesome.

Yeah, it's cool. I'm glad they're having a good time.

And yeah, so and you know, we remember we'd always love to hear from you.

Four, two, three, six, six, seven, seven, eight, seven, seven is our voicemail line.

We use it for the contest, but it's open year round.

If you want to call and leave a comment, ask a question.

You know, we'd love to play it on the show.

Comments at the what podcast dot com is our email line.

If you want to drop us a line, Discord, like I mentioned earlier,

you can join, you know, like I said, might end up on the show.

So lots of ways to get in touch and we and we do love to hear from everybody.

Let us know what you think about the where stage being over there in this lineup.

But yeah, leave a comment for sure.

There's there's a lot to talk about, it seems.

And I'm glad we got John on to make us not sound like idiots talking about this stuff.

So absolutely, absolutely.

Good show. Good episode.

Thanks, John. Man.

You contributed so much.

I really, really appreciate it.

All right.

Hit that like, subscribe, do all that.

Give us a review.

Tell us why you love us.

That's what I want to hear.

That's what Barry wants to hear.

Yeah.

All right.

Thanks, guys.

Bye.