Brad, Barry, and Russ draft their Top 5 Bonnaroo artists in the first ever What Podcast Fantasy Draft. And we'd like you to pick the best one! Vote in our poll over at @thewhat_podcast on Twitter. Plus, we talk to Patreon Phil!
Topic: Bonnaroo
Guest: Phil Hanley
It's like I said when we hit June
It was like, yeah, start worrying about next year
Forget the fact that we didn't have it
Speaking of the lineup
You know, I wonder how the
Compilation of the lineup for 2021 is going
Just some byproduct of a conversation I was having with somebody
Who is a fan of the podcast and also has some ties into the thing
When I say the thing, the industry
He is, his opinion
And I'll leave him nameless is that Tool is a complete goner for next year
But for everybody else
It should be pretty stable, the lineup
Now, I will throw this out
Because I know that I've been beaten up because of how much I love Lizzo
If you look at the lineup
If it just carries over from one year to the next
Seeing if we actually have Bonnaroo
But I think that they need to replace Lizzo
And now I don't know if she's going to have a new album
I was told that she was
But nothing's going to carry the zeitgeist like that last album did
And imagine a year and a half after her hit, right?
She's now the Friday headliner
You know, it makes sense
And I would defend it to the hills last year
Lizzo being your Friday headliner
But I don't know if I can defend it in 2021
That's a great point
And it kind of gets to what we've talked about earlier
Especially with Jeff
Was it Jeff Becker?
That whole, and that whole putting things on hold
You know, they, labels, agents, all that
They plan for just like what you're talking about with Lizzo
They plan for that album to hit and be hot
And then do the festivals
And I don't know
Because it's been such a pause
You know, I don't know
Yeah, but see that's the thing that's going to kill a lot of these bands
And we've talked about it before
Lizzo's moment is sort of over
And God love her
I love Melissa
But that moment is over
She's going to have to create another album
That catches the zeitgeist as much as the last one did
With songs like Truth Hurts and Good As Hell and Juice
Can she, does she have it? Yeah, maybe
But you know, we saw the second time around with Macklemore
And how much of a bust that was
Exactly
So I don't know
So you're going to have to replace Tool
And in my opinion you're going to have to replace Lizzo
And so it begs the question, who replaces them?
And my argument is going to be the easiest possible band that you can find
Remember when they had to replace Pearl Jam or whoever
I can't remember who they replaced the last minute
Oh, Mumford & Sons
Mumford & Sons had to cancel
And they replaced last minute with a buddy of the guy that books the festival, Jack Johnson
And that was an easy fit because he's a guitar, he plays the guitar
And he can walk on stage and everybody knows who he is
And if you remember, who was it told us, he answers the phone
He answers the phone, yeah
That's why he got the gig, because I knew he'd answer the phone
So you've got to think about it, okay, so who fills a Saturday night
And it's easy to just slide in if somebody were to call and ask
I go back to what I said on the last podcast, My Morning Jacket
My Morning Jacket, yeah, you know why? Because they answer the phone
And they got a new record
And they're the perfect Bonnaroo band
They're the perfect Bonnaroo band, they have a huge following, they fit perfectly
And nobody is going to complain if My Morning Jacket gets slid in there for a Saturday night
Now, it won't be tool, but it works
I was thinking about this the other day, the one act that I really wanted to see
And really want to be on there next year is Miley
I really want to see her, and I'm not a particular fan of the music
I could probably tell you two or three songs
But I really wanted to see her
You know, that is such an interesting artist that you bring up compared to what I just said about Lizzo
Yeah
Because Miley hasn't had a hit in damn near a decade
But yet, you know the show that you're going to get is going to be fun
It's going to be an absolute rip-roaring hit parade
But yet, that stands the test of time
But we're arguing, or I'm arguing, that Lizzo can't stand a year without a cycle
That's a little strange
You know, you said it yourself though, Lizzo sort of caught lightning in a bottle this past year
Miley's been around forever
Right
That's a good point
And she's been doing a pretty good job with her online videos
She's been doing some covers of Billie Eilish and some other stuff that, you know
Man, you're getting into that stuff, aren't you?
This quarantine thing has gotten you watching the live
I never leave this chair, man, which we should mention
You're not in a chair
You're in Taco's bus
I'm in Taco's bus, which I took my own chair with me all the way to Ringgold just to be in the bus
When did you do that?
Now, is he sitting across from you, Taco?
We're not telling
Does the bus have two back windows?
I can't really figure this out
Exactly, we're not going to tell
Can't really reveal that
So here in a second we've got a Patreon to talk to and get their idea about what their Bonnaroo 2020 would have been
They're coming back to Bonnaroo 2021
But before we do that, I kind of had an idea that we should do on the show and maybe even expand it
As the next lineup comes out, winning if that actually ever happens
What if we fantasy football drafted Bonnaroo bands?
Bands that have played the festival, artists that have played the festival
We'll go around the room and we'll try and see who has the best fantasy football Bonnaroo team
What do you say?
I love it
Now, I got this idea from the world's leading sports expert, Lord Taco
He loves sports
I love sports
Bonnarooian, our friend Kyle, the Bonnarooian, he had a fantasy football draft
He gets me to play in this league every year
God love him, but if you've ever done fantasy football, there's a million different ways you can score
There's a million different ways you can put your team together
His settings are the strangest settings of a fantasy football league I've ever had
While I was doing this fantasy football draft, I said, why don't we just do this for Bonnaroo?
This should be, make a Bonnaroo team
So I've got everybody's cards here and we'll just go around the room, we'll draft a team
And then we'll let the What Podcast listener figure out who has the better team
And of course, they're going to pick me
We'll see
Are they going to use our phone thingy or are they going to email how they want them to vote?
Our phone thingy?
Well, I mean, I guess we can do a Twitter poll
I think we do a poll
I like it
Taka knows how to do polls
I know all about polls
Okay, I see, here's the problem
How do you pick who drafts first?
It should be me
I'm older
That's not how you do it
I'm older
That's not how you're supposed to do it
You're supposed to flip a coin or pull a number out of a hat or something
Yeah, write down three numbers and then hold them up, I don't care
Yeah, but who gets to judge?
Who gets to hold the number in their head?
I'm thinking of a number
All right, we got to rock, paper, scissors it, okay?
We got to rock, paper, scissors it, all three of us
Here we go
All three of us?
All three of us at once
All right?
All right
One, two, three, go
Look at that, what are the chances?
All scissors
One, two, three
Rock
All paper
Rock
All right, so Barry's out because paper covers rock
Now it's me and Taco
Here we go, Taco
One, two, three
I think we did all that wrong
Okay, anyway, Taco goes first
You said on three
Taco goes
I know, I did on three
All right, I'm third
I got the second pick, Taco's got the first pick
Barry's got the third pick of the fantasy football Bonnaroo draft
Here we go, Lord Taco, your number one pick is?
All right, so just to be clear, we're just picking headliners or just any band?
Any band that's going to compile the best team of five
Paul McCartney
Okay, that's pretty easy
Paul McCartney, your first draft pick
See, this is going to be the hard part
The second pick is going to be the hard one because there's two obvious ones
There's two obvious ones right after McCartney for maybe the second greatest artist to ever play the festival
And you really could flip a coin and pick
But I'm going to choose the show that I like the best of the two and I'm going U2
Okay
No, no, no, no, no, Bruce Springsteen, sorry, I misspoke
Bruce Springsteen, I'm taking the boss
Oh, man
Those are the two, I thought it was U2 and Bruce Springsteen, I'm choosing Springsteen
That makes it harder on me
Leaving U2 on the table there
I know
U2's on the table, there's lots still on the table
Is anyone writing this down by the way?
I am writing it down, yes
Okay
I have everybody's draft cards in front of me
So, Taco takes Paul McCartney, this first round pick, I've got the boss for my first round pick, now it's to Barry Courter
I'm going with my morning jacket, it was either them or U2
My morning jacket for a first round pick
They're the perfect final wrap
You are giving Taco maybe the strongest top two that you could ever give
We're going to see
Alright, Lord Taco, your number two pick
I'm basso banking on our listeners
Okay, alright
Yeah, that's like we mentioned, you're not necessarily picking your favorites, you're picking what is going to win
What's going to win, that's true
Who's going to vote?
Taco's going to be strong, no doubt
Yeah, this move's very strong, Taco
I'm kind of at a disadvantage because I've only been to two Bonnaroo's, but if we're just picking from any band in the past
I don't know, there's like a little Irish band that played one year, how about U2?
U2, alright, good pick, I didn't see that one coming
I don't know if you've ever, it's kind of a deep cut
That must have been one of those cafe acts, they were all one year
I think that the best second round pick here for me is going to be a artist that's been there twice
That everybody wants to come back
It was the one show that I might have missed the first time, the second time I didn't appreciate it the way that I should have
That's why I'm begging for them to come back again
We would have seen a version of it this year, I'm going Radiohead with my second round pick, Radiohead
That's a good one, I'm going to go widespread panic
You are hamming this up right now, you are literally just trying to pull
You're like the chilies of Bonnaroo Fantasygrass right now
What can I get just the most people in the building that's non-offensive
I'm going for the win
Alright, your third round pick, Taco
I'm going to pick one that I did see and that's Gambino
Oh man, this is strong
This is a really strong starting lineup so far
It's going to be hard to beat, Taco's going to be very very hard to beat
A third round pick for an artist that can fit what Taco is bringing to the table
Taco's got a very very strong lineup
He's got a good name lineup
And you know what else he did with his third round pick is he switched the game a little bit
He went and took our first almost hip hop headliner
He turned it, Child is not necessarily hip hop but you're getting a little bit out of the rock world
And it makes me want to change my philosophy here to try and get the top hip hop artist that's on the board
I'm going to go Eminem
Interesting
I can't wait for your third round pick to be String Cheese Incident
No, I'm torn between another hip hop rap act, a now dead act
And an act that I didn't see but that still gets so much conversation
Before you pick, I know exactly who you're going to pick
Taco, write down who you think Barry Courter is going to pick
And I'm going to write down what I think Barry Courter is going to pick
And let's see if we are correct
Because I know how his brain works
I'm torn between the three but I'm going to go with Petty
Tom Petty
I thought you said you were going to pick a hip hop act
I was torn between that and the other
I knew it was going to be Petty
I'm surprised honestly you didn't pick him first
I thought about it
I thought that was going to be your number one
I thought about it but I also thought he might be around longer than my morning jacket
Sorry
Start Taco, your fourth round pick
You got Cartney, you got U2, you got Childish Gambino
Very strong top three
Very, very strong
Well I'm surprised Barry didn't pick this one
Fish
Yeah, I was hoping Fish was going to make it next
But that's really good
I just couldn't do it
Why? You already picked two
I like widespread, I'm not a big Fish fan
But it's not who you like, it's who you're making the team
I didn't even go to the Eminem show
I hate it
Yeah, either of the two is good
Taco's got a strong lineup
This one for me, if it wasn't going to be Fish
My backup plan was Tame Impala
Tame Impala for my fourth round pick
Barry Courter, here we go
I can't wait
I'm going to go with, again, the show that I didn't see
That I made more fun of than any in the history
And people still talk about it, Lionel Richie
I know
You know, you have a very different philosophy of doing this
That I could have even crafted my brain to figure out
Lord Taco, round out your team
Your starting five, your front five
My last pick is John Prine
Okay, you know what I like about the fifth round pick
Is it sort of like the one that you hold dear to you
You know, the one that you can
You don't really need a top headliner
You can choose a show that you probably love and remember the most
And that's sort of where I was originally going to go
With my fifth round pick
But I've got a few options here
Although my first inclination is to go with a show that
I absolutely love with all of my heart
And it went so underrated
That Sturgill Simpson show was damn near one of the most unbelievable
Things I've ever seen on the What Stage
It was that in the Black Keys years and years ago
When the Black Keys came out and had two guys on stage
And put out as much sound as Arcade Fire did the night before
With 11 people on stage
Sturgill did it with three guys
Him being one of them
And nothing but white lights
That was unbelievable
And just the sound explosion
It was like he said screw all of this
I'm going to show what I can do
It was an in your face mic drop for 90 minutes
There's no doubt about it
That's right, that's a great way of putting it
The best part was the t-shirt that he wore too
Yeah, who the fuck is that?
Who the fuck is Sturgill Simpson?
You know, so that's my gut
My gut says that but I'm going to go with my favorite show of all time
The greatest experience at Bonnaroo I've ever had
Does anybody want to guess?
Anybody have their guess here?
Fish
Yeah, I was going to say McCartney's off the table
Yeah, I mean it's within two
It's LCD Sound System or it's Alabama Shakes
I'm going to go with LCD Sound System
Yeah, they were definitely among my choices
So that leaves me then with Beastie Boys
Ah, it's good
I totally forgot the Beasties
That is a very, very strong way to finish, Barry
Considering your first four were total duds
We'll see
Very strong finish
I feel good about my picks
You always do
I know
We've done this before on my radio show
I know, I did
And I got thumped because none of your listeners were older than 12
Alright, let's go through everybody's team
Has Paul McCartney, U2, Childish Gambino, Fish and John Prine
Brad Scott, Bruce Springsteen, Radiohead, Eminem, Tame Impala, LCD Sound System, Barry, Starting Five, My Morning Jacket, Panic at the Disco, Tom Petty, Lionel Richie and Beastie Boys
I'm really irritated about myself choosing Eminem over Beasties now that I think about it
Wait, you said Panic at the Disco? Where'd that come from?
Oh, I'm sorry, Widespread Panic
I just wrote down Panic for you
Run a rock station, I only think of Panic at the Disco, I play it five times a day
The other Panic
Alright, that's good, that'll be interesting
I think they're all good
Go to the Twitter poll and see who wins
And maybe, you know what, we do a fantasy draft again for everybody but what stage
Yeah
Mmm, okay
Nothing but no which or what stage acts
We could do several of these
Yeah, we could do a draft with acts that were biggest surprises for you, you know, ones you never knew of
Well, that's gonna be hard because so many artists have gone from tent to what stage and which stage
So we'd have to, I think we'd have to do nothing but which and below
Okay, no
Can't do any what artists
No, I think that's fine, I'm just saying there's lots of different ways we could mix this up
Yeah, that leaves out Alabama Shakes for me, I can never choose Alabama Shakes ever again
Because, you know, they went from tent to what stage
Alright, there you go, vote along, let us hear what you think
And Twitter, the what underscore podcast on Twitter
Now, before we jump in with our Patreon and check in with another Patreon
Why don't you run through some of our fine, fine Patreons
Oh no, I'm not ready for that
It's a great idea but I'm not ready for it
What have you been doing in that bus all day, Perry?
I've been getting ready for our Patreon, I've got so many emails and Skype things with him that we have to make work
Well, I'm so glad that we are prepared
You've got the list too there, mister
I do not
Yeah, you do, I've sent it to you every week so you can't do this to me
Taco, how's your koozie game going, what do you got on your koozie?
This is the what podcast koozie
Oh, how did you get one of those?
You gave me one
Well, how would I get one if I don't get one from Brad?
You know, we just mailed them all out to our Patreons
And they signed up at Patreon.com slash the what podcast
Do you know what else they got for certain levels?
Got a what podcast mixtape from one of us
They sure did
Yeah
But are we going to redo the levels? The levels got to get a little updated, don't we?
We got to change that up?
Yeah, we got to come up with new merch, I guess
We've already done like a t-shirt sticker, koozie
Yeah, speaking of koozies, here's my favorite koozie of all time
From a band called Oozing Wound
And it says, Oozing Wound, get high, fuck, destroy
That is my favorite band of all time
Is that an indie-fuck band?
Yeah, indie-fuck
You want to see mine?
Okay
Alright
Guess where I found it?
I don't know
The bathroom at the Moxie
Okay
Taco, why are you collecting things from public restrooms?
You're kidding
Well, it was before we were all worried about germs and stuff
Oh, before then
Before the before times
You used to just pick up random things from public bathrooms
That's correct
Especially hotel bathrooms, even better
Yeah, pick this up from the hotel bathroom
Favorite koozie
Have you watched it yet?
I didn't want to ask, what was the answer?
Let me read some of these patreons and then we can get Phil on the phone with us
By the way, it reminded me, there's a couple of you guys, if you haven't gotten your swag yet
There's a couple of questions I need answered
I've got them
So go to look in the message boards and I'll send them to you
Barry?
Yes
Barry?
Stop
Karen Sheet, Timothy Proctor
You seem in a bad mood today
No, I'm in a good mood
You seem down
Do I?
He's in the bus, how could he be down?
We're doing a podcast
He's in the happiest place on earth
I just picked the winning five acts in our draft
Okay
I don't know, you just seem a little down
I didn't know if it had to do with your performance
No
Karen Sheet, Timothy Proctor, Aaron Carlson, Liesl Condor, David Grimes, Phil Hanley
That's who we're going to talk to here in a minute
Chloe Hannon, Benjamin Wells, Tori, Musical Antlers, Mary T, Skyler, Melanie, and Jesse Feldman
Parker Reed, Dan Sweeney, Joshua Herndon, Lauren Edholm, Nick Yeatman, Tyrone, Nick's one of those
Please check out the message because I need to get you your stuff
Tyrone Baskett, Evan Brown, Ross McNamara, William Richards, Clay Wilhoite, Sean McCarthy, Ryan Mathewson
Chelsea Davis, Lucy Young, Jason Hazelbaker, DK Linda Doles, Jacob Marty, Andrew T. McBride, Justin Igro
David Saleno, Katherine Riccio, Meredith Ritman, Daniel and Sharla Horton, Sean McCain, David Henson
Brooke Tussie and Ella from Sigma Mountain, and Russ, we have two new ones, right Madison?
Whoa, two new ones
Well, relatively new, yep
They're not on my list, dude
Madison Hudziko and Riley Benson
Yep, thanks guys, welcome to you
Hi guys, hi, welcome to the team
Alright, let's do some Patreon chats
Hey Phil, how are you buddy?
Doing pretty good
Good, well hey thanks for joining us on the What Podcast and being a fellow Bonnarooian
Before we get going here, and I want these two to zip it and not say a word
I want to get your unvarnished opinion of what group of five Bonnaroo artists do you think are the best, okay?
I'm going to read you three different groups of Bonnaroo artists and I want you to tell me which group is best, alright?
Alright
Group one, Paul McCartney, U2, Childish Gambino, Phish and John Prine
Group two, Bruce Springsteen, Radiohead, Eminem, Tame Impala, LCD Soundsystem
Or group three, My Morning Jacket, Widespread Panic, Tom Petty, Lionel Richie, Beastie Boys
For me that's easy, it's number one
See, I knew it
See, this damn first round pick is good
It's Barry, when Barry chose U2, didn't choose U2, that screwed everything up
Everything up, you gave Taco, so we just did a fantasy draft of Bonnaroo bands
And Barry decided to instead of picking U2 with his first round pick, which is a no brainer
He chose My Morning Jacket
And it just gave Taco another golden bullet to shoot us with
That's awesome, y'all, I would have chosen group number one because of McCartney and U2
U2 back in 2017, I was so excited to go see that for the Joshua Tree Tour
So that's the one that really put me over the edge
It's like if you were to have an actual fantasy football team and you got to have Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes on the same team
It should not be fair, it's not fair
Back when I used to do fantasy stuff, I chose all Boston Celtics just because I was a Celtics fan
Good fantasy football strategy
We were terrible, no it was basketball, but we were terrible, we got beat
But I chose favorites, so whatever
Sure you did, of course you did
Whatever, whatever
Welcome to the show, tell us how many Bonnaroo's you've been to
I've been to seven Bonnaroo's now, I started going in 2013 and 2020 was going to be number eight, but of course here we are
Yeah, so you've gotten a good chunk of them
I think that seven is a pretty magical number
What was the first year, what was the moment that it got you?
What was the moment you said, alright, I'm all in every time?
2013, 2013, go back to McCartney that year was awesome
So my friend and I came down from Minneapolis, which is where we live
And we drove the 12, 13 hours it takes to get down
And we had car troubles, we had all sorts of bad things happen to us
But we still had a blast and continue to come back every single year
Like jail, how bad was it?
Not jail, no
No jail in Coffey County?
Good
No, not that bad
Good, good, is it the same, you go with the same guy every year?
Yeah
Or do you have a whole different crew?
He and I have gone every single year since 2013, so seven consecutive years
And in and out we've had friends come, one of my close friends came our second year in 2014
Because he's a big Kanye West fan, so that was entertaining
And then the following years another one of our friends came and then 2017 for U2 year
It's him and I again
Last year was our big expansion though, we had a large group of people come with us last year
Because the lineup was so diverse and growing
And I have a group of friends as well as myself that is into electronic music
So we expanded our group from that
How did that change the dynamic? Was it better, worse, different? What was it like?
It was different, but it was different for a couple different reasons
Just like more people so I could hang out with different people at different stages for different artists
I still went and saw the Lumineers last year and that group of friends wasn't going to go do that
And that was an awesome show
Yeah, that's two different types of music
The reason I say that is because I feel so, and I don't think I'm the only one at camp
But I feel so iffy about bringing new people in
To the point where we have to vote you in to be a part of the group
And when somebody shows up that has not been approved by everyone, I get really pissed
Yeah
A little pissy
Well, we've done it where we're just in such a small group every year too
So like we just had two or three people go
So expanding to that group setting the last year that was just very different
Last year I was also fortunate enough to not have to drive down though
We did do group camping but one of my friends won the VIP meet and greet through Propeller for Odessa
So I was able to get flown down from Milwaukee because my friend invited me to do the VIP package
I don't even know what Propeller is, what is that?
Propeller, you do different social justice and awareness things and artists work with Propeller to get people to register to vote
And they get people to just sign up for clean initiatives and those kinds of things
So they have these different packages that artists put in and it's not just Bonnaroo, they do stuff for other festivals
I know they had one for Electric Forest that a couple of my friends were excited to attempt to do this year
Yeah, he was able to win it and got to do VIP and not doing that drive
Yeah, no kidding
It's hard to go back man, it's hard to go back
I'm telling you, you ain't going to do it again, you're not going to do it again
How did you get your gear there though?
They provided the gear for us, so they had purchased a tent and some sleeping bags and stuff
So that was included in the VIP package
So it was like, here's all your stuff, you'll set it up when you get there, which was reasonable
Set up a tent, gone camping and stuff
Was there somebody meeting you there with all the gear? Did you have to go pick it up?
So we flew in, took the airport shuttle, we were dropped off and we met with somebody
It was a little dicey because the space is so big and you don't know what time we're arriving exactly
So they had to get over there and then they got us through
They shipped our bags over to where our site was so we didn't have to carry everything
And then just dropped us off and we set up our site and we were good to go for the weekend
They also provided a few other things for us upon request
So we asked if we could get one of those reflective tarps for a sunshade
Because we don't have a canopy next to us, they're not going to buy one of those for us
But to have one of those sunshades so we could sleep in a little longer in our tent
So you want a VIP experience and then made off the menu demands
That is bold
That is a Brad Guy move
That is a very good Brad Guy move
That's strong
And it was really cool too because Odessa is my favorite artist
So for my friend to have invited me to go do something like that
That was really special for me at my favorite place in the world
Yeah, that's a good friend
It was surreal
You know I was just sitting here, you were talking about just going with one or two people
I'm almost thinking the other way Brad
I like our larger group because it just that being if one or the other of you isn't having a good day
Or doesn't like the act or you know relying on each other for entertainment
You got to be really good friends
Yeah, I like the bigger the group because it allows for more people to laugh at my jokes about Bryan Stone
I always like the bigger
No, I don't mind the bigger group
I have one problem with the new people that show up
Just one
And it's smoking
I cannot stand smoking at camp
It drives me absolutely bat shit crazy
Smoking what?
My guy, my guy
The cigarettes
And it's always just so gross and it's always just like the grossest like look when you're just sitting around camping
Yeah
My friend group doesn't do that so we're fortunate enough to do that
That's what I mean man, you got to be very selective about who you're going to spend five days with or six if you're traveling and all that
How many people are in your group then?
Because I know you're like we have to control our group size
But like last year we ended up doing group camping and we combined with another group because we couldn't find enough people
Because you have like a minimum of 24 people I think per group
So how many people do you have in your group?
Well, we are not in group camping so it's sort of a malleable number
It's whoever can whoever we can fit in the space that we have police taped off
If I can put it that way
And because we get there so early we are like the total tools that police tape
Yeah we're those guys
This wooded area that you can't
Yeah I mean it's really really shitty of us
But I mean we have so many people that eventually show up
So by the end of the weekend I'm going to say Barry we've got 30
Yeah we've had easily that many
The hard part Phil is like Brad and I get there Wednesday night and we tape this thing off and there's six of us right
And so the cars will drive by and they'll stop and you can see them you know
Like what the heck
And our perimeter is just like you know old busted ass tents that we're not going to use
And we're just like oh this is our campsite for Gary I don't know
Yeah
Literally but it's just the biggest problem is cars you know I have to go I've got the job of going to get everybody and bringing them in because they can't bring the cars
So when somebody does have a car it becomes every it becomes even more difficult because the space is only mapped out for the people who can have their own little space
And then when I got a jam of you know Toyota 4Runner in somewhere it just doesn't it doesn't work
We end up filling it up by Saturday so I mean it's
Oh man yeah but by it's gotten earlier and earlier by Thursday evening we start to worry
We start looking around and seeing if we can we can siphon off somebody else's spot at that point
But luckily we've been we've been in the same literally the exact same spot for probably four years in a row now
But the group just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger
But what are you going to do about it and that's what makes it so great and that's why we we enjoy it so much
You never know who you're going to pop into when you when you get to camp and our group is a lot like yours in that we don't ever see the same show with each other
So I can always count on coming back to camp and hearing what else was happening on the farm no matter what
Because somebody in our fest in our in our spot space was at the Gore show you know somebody was at John Brine
Yeah that makes things a lot a lot easier
What was this year going to be like after doing the VIP like I mean we joked it's hard to go back man once you know it's the hundred dollar bottle of wine right don't ever drink it
Yep it was going to be hard I was planning on just doing general admission and doing the group camping and all that stuff like I was planning on doing originally in 2019
But yeah it's it's going to be a lot more difficult to go back just to be so close and to not have to wait in line just all those little things that the VIP experience offered a lot of it was really great
So you wouldn't you wouldn't get the VIP again
No I like the experience of just being out in camp and I know you guys have talked about like not being out there and that kind of thing but just being out in camp with everyone else and just kind of see what's going on and what you run into
Am I mistaken here do you have a tattoo on your left shoulder of Bonnaroo
Oh nice
Oh yeah nice
On the top of the symbol is the arch from the 2013 year which is the first year I went to so
Barry has it too but it's on his lower back
Yeah and it's it's it's
It's a cross yeah
It's a bit misshapen these days
Yeah it's bigger than it used to be we'll put it that way
His arch has turned into a squarch
No
That's committed man when did you get the tattoo
Two years ago
Right before I said two years ago yeah it was two years ago in 2018 and it was about a month before we went to Bonnaroo as well so had to take good care of it leading up to it and kept it covered during the day still even in the evening I was able to take it off to kind of let it air out but it healed great and everything so
That's fortunate I find this to be so interesting Barry because imagine loving a brand so much that you put it on your body
That's what I'm saying
I mean I find that to be I mean that if I was one of the AC guys I think that would probably send me into panic attack
You know somebody loves this so much they're willing to tattoo it on their body I could really screw this up
That's a lot of pressure
Plus we a guy from Minneapolis which is pretty good music town right so what you know what is it about Bonnaroo I mean 2013 is a pretty good first one to go to obviously
Oh yeah
That was a pretty magical year so was it what let me ask it this way what did you expect and then what was the reality of it and and you've already said you had car trouble you had all kinds of trouble so that's the thing a couple of people we've talked to
You know it's like it's like Brad's t-shirt it's never not great right even with even with problems it's still worth going back so what was what was it what was the deal I have no idea
I we went in 2013 and we had just so much fun despite all the little things that went wrong and especially how hot it was that year I don't know if it was just because it was our first year and the first time being down in the Tennessee heat in June but I just remember that year being extremely hot
And we decided to still come I think the biggest thing was just the live music itself and getting to see this diverse group of artists from around the world come and play like got to see McCartney play.
I got to see Kendrick Lamar play on that Sunday in Macklemore and then follow that up with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes which was one of the coolest shows ever that I've been to especially for that year.
I just think it's I just think it's the journey to get down on the journey to get back and just enjoying myself. It's like my vacation.
That's so animal chin of you. Yeah. It's also kind of my vacation because for my work I'm busy between January and the first Monday in June.
And then from there, the rest of the year we're more free to take vacation and those kinds of things so it's really what you do taxes.
I am an actuary who submits Medicare bids for Part D.
So I get to do. Why is that the most busy time of the year for you?
We have to submit our pricing to the government by the first Monday in June. So there's a lot of there's a lot of iterations and planning and those kinds of things that go into it.
It literally works out perfect. Yeah. Yeah. And then I could never go to Coachella, which I'm fine with. Yeah.
So when that happens, you just get you know how much time do they give you off after all of that?
Because I guarantee you they don't give you a day before you know, right. First Monday in June.
They they give me what I want pretty much from there on out. I mean, I have my limit. I think it's 20 something days.
So if you were to go down to Bonnaroo and you could you could make, you know, a 10 day journey out of it, you could leave.
OK, so we usually we usually leave on Tuesday in the evening and drive overnight to get there Wednesday so we can get a traditionally try to get a better camping spot with group camping.
Last year it helped because we did have our reserved place for everybody.
So we'll probably end up doing that again because less time sensitive, but it's always fun to get there on Wednesday. Yeah.
Yeah, we've discovered it makes for a long week, but it is a good day and it makes Thursday even better.
Yeah. And then I usually take the following Monday and Tuesday off Mondays for driving and Tuesdays for recovery because I will be useless at work.
I tell you, one of the biggest things that I can say, especially for the Tennessee folk, you know, we were in Chattanooga for a long time.
And if you live in Nashville or Chattanooga or anything that's within a short drive home, you need to take that Monday and Tuesday off.
There's nothing about life on Tuesday that makes any lick of sense.
It just it doesn't feel good. It's still like there's still dirt somewhere.
Nothing about it works for me going back to work the two days after Bonnaroo.
But good for you driving all that way for all that time.
What was the what was 2020s? Who was your who is your star? Who are you going to see? What was your lineup like?
I actually broke this down by day in preparation for this.
So Thursday Thursday, I was mostly excited to see an artist called Cursa.
He's an electronic producer. I believe he's from the UK.
And it's just something very different. He plays kind of his own genre of music called Neuro Hop.
So I don't know if it's something.
We can just classify that into EDM for you.
The world is Neuro Hop. I'm just now learning EDM.
Yeah, now start giving me side projects to Neuro Hop.
It sounds like an IPA.
Did it win a blue ribbon?
No, it's not a blue ribbon.
I'd say that's an interesting poll because I don't even I don't even remember that name on the line.
I don't either. I don't either.
Yeah, and I can't remember too much else from Thursday.
There's just I think I was just going to do the same thing I was going to do last year,
which is kind of me and around on Thursday and save myself for the other three days
because the other three days are absolutely stacked for Friday.
I was mostly excited to see Tool and that kind of grew while listening to the lineup.
And my roommate's a huge Tool fan.
So he actually ended up buying a ticket for September because he says June is too hot for him.
So I don't know what logic went in there.
But yeah, it would have been really fun to see that.
Your friend is obviously not from Tennessee.
September is not much better.
He likes the cold. September is probably and we tried to say this on the show earlier.
September is probably going to be hotter than June.
For some reason in Tennessee, the summer has moved back about three weeks.
It is as hot in the middle of September and the late September as it is in first of August.
It is miserable. Yeah. I mean, what is this?
This is the seventh and it's 90 degrees today.
So yeah, it's warm. Yeah.
I mean, look how and imagine how your friend would have felt if he would have chose.
If you had to choose, by the way, a September Bonnaroo or June Bonnaroo,
considering the weather that we had this year for the festival we didn't get to go to,
your friend made a bad choice.
That was just cruel.
By the way, when was the rescheduled date, Barry?
Was it supposed to be next week or this week?
Two weekends, right? Two weekends, yeah.
The 24th. 24th. OK. So end of September.
And I think we can go ahead and I mean, it's not a secret.
They're going to be doing something on that weekend.
So we'll we'll be talking about that on the show soon enough.
I know we'll have we'll have Jeff Quay are back on.
We're already talking about it. I think they're going to make an announcement.
I swear to God, if he doesn't show up in his banana suit, ending the call immediately.
So you said Thursday back for a second on Thursday.
I remember I was almost sort of like you in that Thursday didn't really have the punch
that I remember most Thursdays having.
And, you know, I think I've said it on here. I don't care. Yeah.
I don't care. Friday was so big. I don't need Thursday to be usually on Thursday.
Something that we do that I know has not been talked on the podcast before is we usually do the Bonnaroo dinner
as a group just to kind of start off the weekend, right?
So they do that. They do that big, long, expansive table.
Yeah. Done that before. We've done that the last four years or something like that.
And it's been really fun every year.
We could sit by different people from around the country.
And then one year we were actually sitting across from some of the AC Entertainment guys that book the lineup.
Or at least that's what they told us.
And so we they we got to talk with them and they provided some insight.
We talked a little bit about prints and stuff, too, since we're from Minnesota.
And we're like, was that ever on the table? And this is after its passing.
Was this ever on the table? And kind of indicated yes.
So that's what they told us to begin the season that they had it.
They had it booked. And then he. Wow.
So the the Bonnaroo dinner did did remind me about that.
They do that where they do that in a certain camp.
They do that over by the I think it's called the solar stage.
They do it in center. Yeah, it's in center.
So they do it Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening in center.
I think they have like a long salad table thing and that might be outside of the center grounds.
But boy, I totally forgot about that.
That's so many, so many things, Brad, that we that we just have not done.
Barry, it's that and the five K always seem to say that's something I didn't forget about it.
I think I watched it one year.
I'm not sure three point two miles in the heat in June, even if it's nine o'clock in the morning.
And I'm not going to be up. What was that band that you that are does that EDM?
Mars you said on Friday, Lucid? No.
What was it? Curse Curse Curse Curse Curse.
You are essay on Thursday. Oh, on Thursday. OK, got you.
All right. All right. Sorry. Anyway, I interrupted your your lineup.
Oh, yeah. No problem. Saturday.
I was looking forward to seeing the Nelly show.
I thought that would have been really, really cool.
Yeah. Yeah, he just needed to get, you know,
his boss at Subway to give him the shift off.
But I'm sure he would have been a great show.
No, I really would. I was really excited about that.
That was one of those wow moments that when you get the lineup and you look through
and you see all the headliners and you love every like, oh, my God, this is so great.
It takes the second and third pass to realize that Nelly third and fourth and fifth pass.
I say we went through this. Yeah.
I was going to say, I think it's the nostalgia of that show would have been really, really cool.
I've seen many of the artists that were playing that day anyway.
So I was kind of like, maybe I'll just go see that and make that my one thing that I have to see for that day.
Man, so you would have you actually get Saturday to me was was I mean, just there's nothing to compare Friday with.
But Saturday would have been a light day and your big thing would have been like, oh, sit around and wait for Nelly.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good lineup.
Yeah. We'll see what they can bring back.
We talked about that a little bit earlier.
What are the chances of bringing the same lineup back? And does it make sense?
I'm sorry. I just now noticed it's been so long since I've looked at this lineup because, you know, turns out it didn't happen.
But I looked at the bottom of the Saturday. There's a band named Lick.
It's an EDM artist. Is it really? Yeah. Nice.
All right. I don't. It's not for you, Brad. I promise.
It's barely for me. This was going to be the year that Brad got hooked on EDM.
I could just tell. Brad, we were going to bring you to that Big Wild show and you were going to have a blast.
I like Big Wild. Don't get me wrong. I like Big Wild a lot. I'm a big fan.
Yeah, I like Big Wild because there's instrumentation in it.
Yeah, you know, it's just a one to go into it. Right.
But like I had to like, look at this. I haven't gone through this either.
Jupiter and Aquis. Don't know.
Yeah, I know. I like this is this was the point of the show, Barry. Yeah.
And then all hell broke loose. Yeah.
Well, then they put together a lineup like that.
You know, they literally could just put bullshit at the bottom of these days.
And we know because we never even got there. Jupiter and Aquis, Nullifer, Yanya.
These are just this is Lord Taco's Twitter account.
This is nonsense. Who in the world is Dr. Freck's fresh and slow tie?
Slow tie is a grime rapper from the UK.
I've listened to a few things from him, so I know who he is.
These genre things are getting really annoying to me.
Grime rapper? Grime. Grime. Grime rapper.
This is getting way too much for me. Righty town bread.
Grime rapper. Can't keep up with it.
Grime rapper is literally what you are on Sunday at Bonnaroo.
What did you say Curso was? Neuro Hop.
Can I redo my draft? I've got a few additions.
I'm shocked that Barry didn't take Lick with this.
If we'd have gone one more round, if it had gone six, I would have.
Man, so not only do we thank you for being a patron, thanks for joining us on the show today, man.
Yeah. You know, we're sorry that 2020 didn't happen, but you know, I have a feeling 2021 is going to
have to be one of these days where I hope that some of these bands drop out
and we can have just a headlining slot where it's just us hanging out.
That'd be great. Because that feels like what we all need to do is just to get back together
and just use that for one night.
Along those lines, let me ask you, Phil, how do you see next year going? I assume you'll go.
If it happens, if it happens and it's safe, I'll go.
Well, yeah, that's that if it's safe thing. What are the criteria going to be, do you think,
that will you either pull the trigger or not next year or 2022, whenever it is that we come back?
I think it'll be whether COVID is controlled reasonably, higher risk person.
So try to social distance in most instances as best as possible.
So trying to make that work as best as possible and not have to not have to do it.
I think of other people are going from my friend group, they'll go, but I don't see them doing that
unless there's some reasonable safe amount of level.
Like I can't see like if it's even dicey, I can't see them doing the Bond Roots dinner or something like that.
My question is, yeah, right now today, would you say you're less likely to go or more likely to work hard
to make it happen kind of thing? If that makes sense.
I think I'm more willing to make work hard to make it happen. Yeah. OK. All right.
And it's an interesting question because it's I mean, it's totally improbable.
I mean, it's a question that is not necessary. But I wouldn't I mean, I'm not going if is if the facts on the ground is
you're giving me the option of today, not a chance. Yeah, not today.
But, you know, I can't imagine what good look the the first and the first thing that we got to do is get through, you know, a election season.
And the what's going to happen between now and November 3rd is a fake vaccine.
And then on November 4th, that vaccine won't exist.
So it's going to be the front of the year before we even know if if vaccine is plausible.
And then that vaccine, you know, I have very big doubts depending on who is administering it and who is the, you know, in charge of the government.
I don't necessarily know if I want to put that in my body. Oh, I'm there's no way.
No, I mean, I think back of all the, you know, the things that they used to give pregnant women and all that.
The reactions that they're finding out decades later.
But look at what happened with Gerald Ford.
Gerald Ford rushed a vaccine to the market and all hell broke loose, all hell broke loose.
And he's sitting in the White House taking it and they have no idea what the ramifications of it are.
And, you know, it's it's weird that that there's only one person that we really can trust, or at least me.
I mean, if Tony Fauci says this vaccine is OK, right.
Good to go. I'll take it. I just don't I don't have any confidence in in in these people to make a a non political decision.
Right. Do you think that Bonnaroo is potentially planning on postponing until September of 2021?
That would be my guess, too, based on where we're at right now.
Like, even if even if for whatever reason, a vaccine comes out in November just to get everybody vaccinated and make sure things are working and yada yada.
You can't plan and anticipate for June at this point because it takes years or a year at least.
Yeah. And I'm totally OK with a September 2021.
Yeah, I agree. And mostly because of what we were told last conversation I had with the head of a certain division.
I can't whatever. But they're they're planning on nothing happening in the spring. So I mean, you can very much look with September, the middle of September now.
Coachella's lineup usually comes out around Thanksgiving. Right.
Am I am I wrong about that? I might be a little off, but somewhere at the end of the year, you've got the Coachella lineup coming up.
You are going to see I'm putting my money on Coachella figure out a way to delay it, too. And so the second they delay because they can't they can't put a spring festival together.
And that's what I was told. I was told that you can basically wipe out all of the spring for major events like this.
Now, the thing that is that I think for Barry and I are important is getting these local music venues going. Yeah, we are about to hit phase three.
I don't know what Minnesota is like, but, you know, we have been struggling in Louisiana for, you know, the better part of the last month and a half ever since July 4th with phase two.
We've been in and out, in and out, in and out. And we're finally going to get to phase three sometime next week. And even in phase three, they're limiting the amount of public events that you can do.
Here's what's going to change that in this city. The New Orleans Saints, if no and LSU football, they are not going to this city is going to erupt and riot if they can't go to a large venue and watch LSU football and the New Orleans Saints.
Stupid as that sounds, but that's what's going to happen. And the ramifications of that, we just don't know. We've got to in my I hate saying this, but we've got to let's put it this way.
We don't have to do anything, but it would be beneficial maybe to see if we can start doing some of these. I don't know what the limitations are.
I'm not a lawmaker, but we've got to give some of these a try and see if we can. Yeah, we can at least make it through.
We've been doing a lot of that here. High school football is been going. You know, some of the other high school sports have been going with local promoters.
It's done some concerts and so they're doing this fans in the stands of the high school games there.
Bad. I mean, they're grouping together. You know, the pictures I've seen, they're all other than the masks on some faces or down around their necks, which is just the silly thing.
So my question is how do they hold? How are they holding space for them? You're telling me that they're basically there's no rules whatsoever.
It's not quite that. And it varies from school to school. But some of the pictures that I've seen, you know, like what are you doing?
And now they'll be spacing on the sides and they'll the numbers are down. They're not.
They're somehow keeping it's not like a full stands, but they're still.
So we'll see. And, you know, this weekend Labor Day, the holidays always seem to see a spike.
Yeah, we never bounce back from July 4th. But, you know, the point that I was trying to make is Coachella is a massive entity with 80,000, 100,000 people over two weekends.
We're not we're not ready. Right. You know, we're not ready for that. Totally agree.
But can we get 2500 or 5000 people in an outdoor space to watch a to watch a big screen television of a football game?
Maybe. Yeah, maybe. I just I don't know. I just don't know. I sure as hell would like to give it a try, though.
Here in Minnesota, we have the issue of it's cold. It'll be cold here in two months.
So outdoor stuff is happens, but not to the extent that people like to enjoy the outdoors as much.
So a friend of mine. What part of Minnesota are you in, by the way?
Minneapolis. OK. My friend of mine just moved to Minneapolis, right?
He's running the classic rock station there. Oh, nice. He told me that that I didn't know this about Minneapolis, but everything has like overhead tunnels to get you from building to building.
There are skyways that connects downtown. I had no idea. You get into the parking garage wherever you find space to park and you hop in and you just traverse the whole city.
And another thing I've never because I've never been to Minneapolis. You can walk down the street.
There are heat lamps over the sidewalks. Yep. In certain places in downtown, you got heat lamps there and heat heat that the bus stops as well while you're waiting for the bus.
So my point is, is if Minneapolis can do this, Barry, with heat lamps over the sidewalks and the skyways, why can't Bonnaroo give me some damn air conditioning?
Just giant fan. If they can figure it out in a major city. Come on, guys.
Yeah, well, you know, they probably will one day. A mister. Just a mister. Yeah, well, they have that.
A.C. in the media tent. Again, not everybody gets to go in there. Yeah, it's a lot easier to create heat than it is to remove heat.
Again, Dr. Taco. Man, Taco. Earlier today, we learned that eyeballs are in the head, Phil. I don't know if you knew that.
I nailed it. Man, Bill, thanks so much for listening. Thanks for being a Bonaroovian and hopefully we'll see you very soon on the farm of Manchester come 2021 sometime. Thanks so much.
Thank you, buddy. See you soon. See you. Bye. See you.
All right. Do we need to do outro? Yep.
Outro's next. Where are you getting that hum, Taco? Woodhump. That's the fan of his computer, remember? See, it goes away when you do that.
Yeah, because that's when I mute. Yeah, I tried to mute. Probably can take it out in software.
I bet I could. All right, go ahead.
Phil, wonderful Patreon. If you want to join the Patreon, you can, thewhatpodcast.com or what is the direct link to the Patreon there, LT?
Patreon.com slash the whatpodcast. Hey, that's easy. It's like you've planned that or something.
All right. Vote on who you think the team is, the best Bonaroov starting five that you can on Twitter.
The what underscore podcast, of course, you'll be choosing Brad's team because we cannot let Barry's disaster result in a Lord Taco wipeout.
All right. We're going to have to band together as a as a Bonaroovian thing and fight these two people who obviously schemed this together.
This was a total scheme. I've been working this whole time. This was your idea. You guys scammed me through this. I know it.
By the way, is there a prize for the winner or? Yeah, a mixtape. A mixtape. Yeah. Yeah. Winner gets a mixtape.
Nice. Winner gets a mixtape. Vote now to what podcast, what underscore podcast on Twitter. I guess we can do one on Instagram too there, buddy, right?
Maybe. No, yeah, you can do. But then if you're running two different polls, I mean, who how do you do just I don't know.
We'll figure it out. Yeah. And you just declare me the winner. Oh, OK. It's it's really anything else before we get before we get out of here, guys.
No, just, you know, look for another show next week. We should be having Jeff Cuellar on sometime in the next several days.
Intermined everyone who Jeff Cuellar is. Jeff Cuellar is he has some long title vice president.
He's got a long what? Title. Got it. Whatever. He's with AC Entertainment.
So this will be the first sort of update we've gotten since all of this has happened.
I'm kidding. Since we were at the AC building. So, yeah, I'm sure we'll have lots of questions for Jeff.
And he's, as you remember, one of our favorite guests, very informative about the industry. Two years have we.
It's been a been a long time. Yeah, it's been almost two years.
Do we have one for the Moon River show? We don't know. No, no. OK.
Now we had Brad from AC. We had Brad and Andrew. Yeah. And then Brian and Ted and Steve.
Barry. Barry, I hope your day gets better.
It just did. OK, because it's over. I got to see you guys.
Talk to you next week on the podcast. Love you. Bye.