Music festival season has officially begun, and The What Podcast is here to soak it all in. On this episode, the hosts run through their experience at Shaky Knees 2024 and look ahead to their time on The Farm for Bonnaroo 2024.
The What crew kick off by giving the floor to Bryan, who charts out his ideal itinerary for Bonnaroo 2024. Then, Bryan and Barry check in with Lord Taco in Atlanta to hear about Shaky Knees before chatting with friend-of-the-show Trevin Bernarding about the Charlotte music festival Lovin' Life.
Don't forget, the latest competition from The What Podcast is still on, and gang wants to hear from you! Give a call to The What Podcast official voicemail line at (423) 667-7877 and share your best Bonnaroo tips, tell a favorite Bonnaroo memory, or ask a question. They'll then select one winner to receive a prize package of Bonnaroo memorabilia from Barry's basement!
Listen to The What Podcast chat about Shaky Knees 2024 and Bryan's perfect Bonnaroo 2024 schedule. Do us a solid and also like, review, and subscribe to The What Podcast wherever you listen.
Topics: Bonnaroo, Shaky Knees, Lovin' Life
Guest: Trevin Bernarding
We're into the month of May.
It's countdown time till Bonnaroo 2024.
It's time for us to start making our own personal picks, which we all know we're never going
to stick to.
We're going to try.
Here we go with our personal picks.
First up is Bryan Stone.
Here's who he plans to see right now.
Hey everybody.
Welcome to the What Podcast.
I'm Barry.
That's Brian.
That's Lord Taco.
As you'll notice, Lord Taco is not in the bus.
He's actually in Atlanta at Shaky Knees.
It's May the 5th.
We have lots to talk about.
We've got a long show.
We've got a special guest, Trevin Bernarding, who is in Charlotte at, what is it?
Love and Life?
Love and Life.
Love and Life Festival.
First year for the new festival, yeah.
Yeah.
Trevin is, he's been on several times with us.
He's almost a correspondent, I guess we could call him, but he reached out and said, I'm
here at this festival if you want to talk about it.
And we're going to get into that here in a little bit on this show as well.
But we also have other news.
Thanks to everybody who's been reaching out to our phone number, 423-667-7877.
We've gotten several comments about pro tips on how to handle Bonnaroo and a couple of
questions I guess.
But thanks to you guys for doing that.
I've actually been inspired by a couple of the tips.
I'm going to go do some shopping here pretty soon on how to handle my campsite.
It's never too early to start getting at least mentally prepared.
And as it starts to get in the mid to upper 80s here in the South, it's starting to feel
like it.
And that just little inner excitement picks up a little bit when you're like, I was outside
just for a few minutes when it was in and out of rain down here in the South right now.
But the sun came out and it was blazing and I was out in the yard for a minute and I was
like, yep.
Whoa, I'm starting to remember what it feels like to be at Bonnaroo.
You start smelling that porta potty, that blue.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm going to start working this into the regular here so I don't just, but obviously by the
time we get to mid-June, we'll be much more soaked in humidity by that point.
But we'll see.
You never know.
We're back in the 70s in the third week of May according to the long, late, the high
70s.
That could end up in the 80s, but you never know where we'll go into June.
And it's interesting.
I was thinking about it this morning.
The three of us camp completely differently.
I typically have brought a big family size tent and two big old air mattresses and Russ
brings VW West Falia and Brian sleeps in a tent about the size of a sleeping bag.
That's pretty close to true.
Like not exaggerated.
It's a very small tent, but it's very nice and 100% waterproof.
Well, very, very, very water resistant of a tent and it can be moved and picked up and
packed up in minutes and has worked beautifully.
It's not the most comfortable thing I've ever done because I kind of live out of it as well.
Yeah.
Just changing clothes has got to be a bitch.
It's awful, but the minimalist on packing and being able to be very free in that regard
and then kind of mooch off the other guys like, well, I don't know, you two and two
or three or four others over the years.
It's worked out beautifully for me.
That's the reason I bring it up.
It's just a different way.
And then listening to actually Parker from RooHamm and I did it last year accidentally.
I've always had an easy up, but the idea of just dropping a bug netting or a tarp around
it and just using that as my space, man, that's, it's, it's, it's the same as what you're talking
about, Brian, but bigger.
It's easy up, it's easy down and I've got a ton of space.
I can change clothes.
I've seen something like that before.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what I'm looking at this year.
So, uh, but point being now's the time, um, we've said it before, get your stuff, get
it out, lay it out on the floor, make sure there's no whole moss, seven, eating it.
The poles are there.
They're not broken.
You know, put it out and, um, touch it, do all that stuff and don't, you know, if somebody
else is bringing the tent poles, make sure they've got the tent poles, you know, that
kind of thing.
So start digging through the sunscreen spot bottles.
See how many is, how much is left in each one of those from that crate over there in
the corner.
And then, yeah, and make sure they're not expired.
So sunscreen actually does have an expiration date.
So make sure it's kind of with least within date.
Same with batteries.
Part of that's fun too.
Part of it is logistics.
It's smart, but part of it is fun because it gets you excited about, you know, it's
coming and it is coming.
We're, you know, what five weeks.
Um, so there's that news.
What was the other Brian?
We had some announcements, right?
Some new, uh, new lineup.
Uh, well, the mean quickly, I guess if we want to do it here, the Bonnaroo news, just
the who stage, um, lineup is out.
And for the first time, many times on Thursdays, I hardly know anything.
Maybe one have I even heard of never have I heard of anything on the who stage prior.
And this year I know two of them, um, which I'm excited about, uh, the one we've talked
at at length on here.
We'll get to in a second, I guess.
But, uh, yeah, the official who stage is out.
And what real quick, do you want to start with some past here?
Look at some people have been on this who stay before.
Do we want to look at that?
So let's do this.
So we can go ahead and start.
I don't have any other news.
Uh, do you, Russ, any, uh, anything else?
Cause part of the show is Brian.
This is Brian's picks.
And so we can start with, uh, the who, if you want to, sounds like we're going to, um,
might as well.
I don't have any other, I think those were the big things.
Um, so yeah, you, you sent a note yesterday saying you went back and looked at some of
the bands that had played on the who stage and we always make this point.
Everybody had to start somewhere.
And so part of the fun of Bonnaroo for me has always been discovery.
So being able to leave on a Monday and say, Oh, I'd never heard of that band.
And now they're one of my favorites type of thing.
So yeah, and, and especially on Reddit, um, which I spend a lot more time around this
time of year, you know, when it's, when it's in season, just look at what people are talking
about and you see all the old schedules that are on the, all the stages that we're very
familiar with and go to.
And you can do that for, and, and be mesmerized about just like three years before.
I'm not talking about it.
I need you to look at a year, a one from 15 years ago and you can look at one from three
years ago and be like, wait, that was the festival we went to.
It's remarkable how they do this.
And maybe many others stack out that way across the country too, but I bet it's not as extensive
as this as a, as a Bonnaroo year to year list is, uh, the, the who stages.
I mean, that is really on the small end of the, of, uh, on the verge or, um, on the move
type of buzz cuts as we might call them back in the day.
But um, yeah, so I rarely pay that close attention to it.
They've moved, haven't they moved the who stage more towards where the comedy area was?
Am I right on that guys?
They have.
Yeah.
Yeah.
For people who have been there before, it used to be kind of tucked in where like Food
Row was like, yeah, towards an artist corner of a village kind of thing where like, and
there was, and it's changed many times, not necessarily that one, but there's been two
or three, there was a true music lounge for a little while.
The Budweiser deal.
Then there was the Miller Lite live experience.
This is not that, but it's not much bigger than, than what those were.
I mean, this is, this is for, Hey, get some relief from the crowds and come watch a generally
signed band.
Uh, most times a working everyday hardworking band, but, um, and just, you know, have to
start somewhere.
As you say, even if you've been a band for years and years and years, that might be the
place you have to start.
And I think we learned from our friend, Brad Steiner, former cohost, uh, founder, co-founder
of the show that some of those bands are paying their own freight to get there.
So I have heard him talk about that.
Yeah.
So it's, you know, it's an opportunity for them, uh, to be, you know, to get this on
their resume and to get in front of people.
And we've seen a couple of great shows there.
Um, so, you know, so, I mean, there's no reason to go through the who state we can throw,
I mean, throw up the graphic and because I don't know, I can't tell you anything about
a single band on here, except for on Thursday, the Foxys.
And this isn't the official start of the, of, of my picks, but the Foxys is a friend
of friends in Nashville and, uh, might look to have them on before we get to festival
weekend.
We'll see, um, fun, cool band that's been working for, I mean, five plus years minimum.
And then of course, on Saturday, who I've learned through this show, like maybe others
listening have as well, the boot scooting boogie nights.
That is the who's stage on Saturday.
If we already knew that, that that was for sure where they were going to be.
I thought maybe they were going to be.
Plaza somewhere.
I wasn't sure.
They're also doing a Plaza show.
Okay.
Double dipping.
Okay.
That's where I got a little confused.
Like, didn't we already talk about this, but no, cause no one's talked about the who's
stage.
And so they're on Saturday.
So I'm first time ever, I'm looking at who's stage.
I'm like, all right, nice.
Well, I got to do one at one or two of these.
We'll see.
We got to go see Corey, go say hi to Corey.
Nice.
But real quick though.
So I did think, all right, let's take a look back at this.
It didn't take long to find a Reddit sub that would talk about it.
And I started to get it rolling and it started, my interest was getting peaked.
And then I just kind of ran out of time.
And then the, the sources got bad to figure out more information in this, but this is
a pretty good start.
So these are who's stage, um, performances since 2009, just kind of scattered 2009, Portugal,
the man on the freaking who's stage.
And they're that band's been the same.
It's not like it was like one guy and two guys.
It's the same band you've seen now on the main stage for 20,000 people, uh, was on,
uh, that stage.
That was a huge one.
Uh, walk the moon in 2011.
Had a good little run on the show.
Yeah.
Had a good little run.
Um, these don't go in order here.
Uh, 2016 more and Morris, the country singer who played our, our now defunct festival here
not too long ago and was a lot of fun.
Uh, Mount joy has made a lot of noise in the kind of alt Americana rock world.
Uh, my love of my life of the last 10, seven years or so, Jade bird UK from the UK in 2018
went out a fighter in 2022, who I know, uh, Russ, at least you've talked about more than
or maybe both of you guys have.
Yeah.
Uh, they just played shaking knees here Friday.
And uh, in 2022 also there was three of them here, Daniel Donato.
And I only know his name because he's played here in town to some fanfare.
And I was like, okay, I know the name.
I, my friend, I've had some friends tell me to go see them.
So I'd put them on there cause I recognized him.
And then our, uh, friend of the show flip turn was on the who stage last year or two
years ago, two years, two years ago.
So that's pretty cool.
That's a pretty cool dynamic to something like this in any setting, the little kids
table, you know, they would be like a Paul to hear me call it.
Yep.
You never know what you're going to see.
So, uh, yep.
The, uh, one of my favorite days ever at Bonnaroo started at the who stage with Davey.
Um, I've told this story so, so many times, our good friend, Mike Dewar and Chrissy Menci.
We went to see Davey and it was about 10 people and then there was 30 and then there was 50
and the band was just so happy.
And it just started a great day.
And we went right from there to the Warren treaty where bald my eyes out listening to,
uh, Tanya and Michael, their testimony about PTSD and just fell in love with that band
went right from there to Mavis staples.
And then we went to, um, uh, I'm losing his, uh, sheik.
What's his name?
Um, she, she, she, um, can't believe I can't think of his name.
Um, I'll think of it.
Um, Nile Rogers, sorry.
I had a brain, I went brain dead.
Nile Rogers who, you know, went from, Hey, do you guys mind if I play a couple of songs
that I've been involved with and did like 45 minutes of Madonna and David Bowie and
sheik and then told a story about how he had just found out he was cancer free when he
thought he was literally going to die.
It's a pretty uplifting day.
We cried.
I mean, we cried all those.
I looked at Mike Dewar and he said, man, I'm spent.
I'm going back to camp.
Anyway, it all started at the who, uh, stage with Davy.
So I'm glad you brought that up.
Cause I, I, to me, I think that's the biggest thing I try to tell people is everybody had
to start somewhere, go see these bands you've never heard of.
Cause you never know.
You know, you might see a Portugal, the man, um, and, uh, you might see them with 15 people,
you know, and then you might see them with a bunch of people.
You know, yeah.
2009 was some time ago.
Sometimes it's hard.
You got to start doing the math real quick in your head when you think, Oh, nine back
that just a little back a little ways ago.
Right.
Right.
And that's so much, but, uh, because they, they headline or, or, or top of the, one of
the evenings on the what stage is it just last year?
I think it was just last year.
It's anyway, they're just a monster band now.
So you're not going to find that a lot, but you are going to find bands that really get
to that next level on stuff like this.
And I think, and I don't know if the Foxy's are one of them, but I want to believe it
cause she's really pretty and she's great and she's great.
And she's a hell of a front woman.
Think think para more, but less alt emo, uh, angry and, uh, just a little different style,
but still very, uh, fast paced.
So anyway, I have some feelers out to talk to Lauren from, uh, from the Fox.
Okay.
And I'll also say I've always thought Bonnaroo does a great job of bringing people back.
You know, you hear two, you hear two different sides.
Don't want to see repeats, but they've also been very good about having somebody that's
on a who stage.
And then the next year they're on the witch.
I have been, I have been such a hypocrite back and forth contradictory jerk on this.
I get mad about the constant, uh, repeat, uh, lineup to lineups that many, many, many,
many, many years.
And then I find it so intriguing, intriguing in a great story to hear about the trajectory
of bands like Mumford and sons and my morning jackets and my own jacket and black keys and
so many others that are well known and so many that we'll never have heard of that move
up the ranks.
And it's almost like a graduation process and it's really neat, but then I don't want
them to book the same bands all the time.
Well, what is it that you want Brian?
Yeah.
Well, I think the key is you said it, it's up, it's graduating.
They don't, they don't typically go down or usually even play the same stage.
But they don't, they certainly don't take any, it's the, yeah, it's kind of a, it's
kind of a corporate American business kind of practice.
Right.
You've earned it.
You're not going down or sideways.
You're either going up or you're going nowhere.
And it's a little scary proposition really.
100%.
All right.
So are we ready to get into your, your picks?
Sure.
Women.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We can do that.
All right.
I'm going to open the schedule up and typically what we do, you can do it any way you want.
You can do it.
We've done this every year.
You know, it can be, these are my don't misses.
These are my walk-bys.
We can go day by day.
That's typically how we do it.
Yeah.
We'll start day by day for sure.
All right.
Let's do that.
So these are Brian's picks for Bonnaroo 2024.
Who you got on Thursday?
All right.
So what I did do to get, to kind of bounce off what you just said, as far as I didn't
think about it the way you did or the way you just said it, as far as maybe a guarantee
or a walk-by, that's a good, a good way to label if you're making your own little legend
on your mat, on your map over here, whatever it could be walk-by.
So I guess my walk-by list would be what I put in orange and my more realistic is what
I put in yellow for anybody who's, who's watching.
I won't focus on the walk-bys as much, but to start a Thursday, if I'm there by all,
measurements and all at this point, I will be there on Thursday.
Because I think this is a really nice, fun Thursday, especially with the pretty lights
thing.
I've mentioned it over and over on this show, them on the what stage is a sight to be, to
be old.
I don't care if, what it is.
You could say any one of these bands is going to be on this stage on a Thursday, first time
ever.
Yep.
So I'm going no matter what.
Like I got to think I'll give that an hour.
If I'm having a really good day and I'm feeling good, relaxed, tolerant, patient, if I have
all those things going, which on a Thursday, I think I will, I'll probably give pretty
lights an hour.
And then I've got to see what geese sounds like just so I can do some kind of slapstick
attempt at humor of a goose, geese, maybe later sometime down the road content piece.
So I need to see it so I can, it's just, I'm thinking way out on something I'll probably
never do.
But anyway, they're at 10 o'clock on that.
And then really the only other thing that I, that's not too late on Thursday, Neil Francis,
the Francis comes alive, Neil Francis.
Yep.
After what we've done, after what we've discovered through this show this year and this season,
I can't not go try to do that.
I wish it wasn't quite so late, but that's not too late to be prohibitive at all.
And then in the walk by stuff, this would be if I'm just stumbling around trying to
not, not really feeling like going to bed yet and getting ready to call tonight, the
Fisher and other stage and then Guar this tent.
It feels like I could have some fun floating back and forth between those two shows and
just people watching.
I think that could be a really nice way to, to wrap that up.
Seeing either of those sets much, probably not, but watching their crazy fans, I think
sounds like a nice time.
So somebody brought up, I don't remember if it was the RooHamm guys or, or Daniel and Charlotte
on the, on the real Rue bus, but what about the idea of war at two o'clock in the morning
and then you got to find a shower.
You know what I mean?
I think that's hilarious.
Yeah.
Cause if you, if anybody knows what a war show is like, uh, you're going to get covered
in blood if you get anywhere close.
If you're, yeah.
See, and I don't know how, how far is, I don't know where the safe zone is.
Um, cause I just don't, I'm not as familiar with it as I should be, but I do know that,
yeah, this is something you need to keep in mind.
Either bring the baby wipes or something.
That's why I'm thinking a little circle around the center or on the periphery out there.
Yeah.
I think it's the more con land of the tent stage where I can't, you know, get, I can't
get in too much trouble there.
So I just thought that was a funny idea.
Yeah.
It sounds like a great idea until about two 15.
Oh, I don't know.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I don't know.
And I didn't see Guar last time they were here as they are not, this is not the first
time while, uh, addition to the festival.
We've already done this in the middle of night at Bonnaroo with Guar and I'm cool with doing
it again because why the hell not at two in the morning, knock yourself out.
Y'all do whatever you want to do.
All right.
Good pick.
Uh, so that brings up Friday, which let's point out again, guys, we say this every time,
don't go hard on Thursday, but we just, we're, we're up till two 30 in the morning now on
Thursday.
So what does your Friday look like?
Ryan, when does it start?
Uh, well, that kind of leads out of what you're just talking about.
It depends on whether, and it depends on where I'm feeling at that time.
But what I can use educated guesses is to believe is that roaming around in the late
morning, early afternoon is going to be what I'm going to likely be wanting to do.
Just, just roaming for a couple of hours, potentially, which puts me in the witch and
what, which we have pretty fast access right to those two stages and, uh, which is beautiful.
And 49 Winchester at two and Larkin Po at three, three Larkin on what and a Winchester
on, on which this is not normally my favorite kind of stuff, but if you like one, you like
them both, whether you know it or not, you do.
You just haven't been introduced yet.
That's a pretty nice little early going to be very light crowds.
If the sun's not, if we're not a 95 day, 95 degree day, if we're an 87 degree day, please,
please, please.
That, that's very possible.
If it's a 95 degree day, I won't do either, but that'd be a nice way to start.
This is not a big, this is a very rest day for me Friday.
Um, Gary Clark Jr. on the witch at eight, uh, five 45 for an hour.
Definitely have to take a look at that and nothing.
I don't see myself making it to the what for the whole afternoon.
I maybe could do a walk by Dominique Fike at six 45.
I could see that possibly happening, but not overly likely.
And I'll probably miss post Malone.
Sorry everybody.
I just, I doubt I'll be around Maggie Rogers at nine 45 on the witch would be, oh, I'm
sorry.
I meant, you know what I meant to do as I was doing this last night?
I forgot to Mark a big X through Maggie, Maggie Ross or Rogers.
Cause I missed Joe Russo's almost dead at nine 15 on that on Friday.
And that will be a start to finish show for me.
That'll be get there early, listen to dead.
I mean dead for an hour and a half on the farm.
I'm taking it anywhere I can get it.
And I'm certainly going to take it from Jay Rad.
Um, and that'll take up the majority of that night.
And then I'll probably mosey back towards post Malone, see how that's sounding from
far back in the field and then call it a night on Friday, I would say.
All right.
So that's a, yeah, that's a, you, you can make up for Thursday.
It sounds like a fairly relaxed Friday.
Yeah.
And well, the whole festival just spreads out pretty nicely.
So they're all kind of relaxed, um, early portions of the, when now we're on Saturday,
the 15th early portions of what and which all of these acts I've heard of three of the
six, Brittany Howard, Teske, uh, John Patis, the other three, not as much.
I could see myself easily hovering around those stages and just seeing what some of
this stuff sounds like.
Um, from Brittany Howard to ones I know well, to, to, to the main, which I've never even
heard of, I could easily find myself enjoying any portions of that for the entire afternoon.
The what, uh, excuse me, uh, that and this don't do anything for me early on.
So that, that'll be what I'll do early.
But as the evening afternoon turns into evening, everything changes and it's just one, two,
three punch.
Renee rap on the witch, which I'm happy to see she has a, a stage, a big stage, cause
I think she's the little I've followed her, which is very little, but on YouTube to see
the shows, her crowds and her, it's, it's a good, it's a good interaction.
I think that's going to be fun.
And then cage, the elephant is on the what at eight 30 that is a start to finish show.
That's get there.
So that's Lee, you know, Renee rap.
I'll do her for whatever length of time that it feels like I need to cage will be get there
early, let the crowd leave and then Lee, you know, like I'll spend two hours at, at that
probably just to alleviate crowds and all that.
And then immediately following that back over on the witch cigarettes after sex, I don't
have to see this entire show, but I think I need to see most of it.
I think you can agree with that a little bit, Barry, at least in a perfect scenario.
Cause I know we've both been impressed by what that band has done and that's it.
That's pretty much it.
I mean, that ends at 10 45.
So it's not like that's being too, too lame.
I know you guys think I'm sometimes exaggerating on this.
I hate the red hot chili pepper.
No, I know you do.
I hate them despite the one night despite all the rumors of me singing into a bottle.
Uh, yeah.
And I say that, and I love like five to seven songs from 30 years ago.
And I'm, I'm still frustrated.
They're on this lineup.
I think if they're replaced with so many different acts, it would change my overall outlook.
I didn't want to say I plan on going to see that, but I probably will.
Do you see yourself, and again, we're, we've done this so many times and I don't want to
give too much away from my own picks, but I kind of see me doing a lot of, uh, visiting
hugging and howdy as we say with the camp mates and people we've gotten to know.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I can almost, I've left myself a lot of open time to do that, but sorry, go ahead.
Well, I was going to ask the pretty light sunrise set, uh, do you see it kind of, I
mean, after cigarettes, after sex, you knew you're back at camp and then it's suddenly
two 33 o'clock and it's like, we're up.
Let's go watch this set or I know we're going to hear it.
Right.
Are you asking about us us?
Are you asking about what other people across the 60s?
You, you, me, do you see us in our little camp nut butter heading over to the pretty
light sunrise set?
If I'm going to have a Sunday, which I want to have, it can involve pretty lights at two
15 in the morning.
Okay.
All right.
It can't.
And if, um, what was, oh yeah.
The Thursday set, the three hour Thursday set, that'll be all the pretty lights I need.
Yeah.
All right.
But, but, but, but, but I could be up feeling good.
I also don't go to, I don't go to sleep early just cause I'm saying I'm not going to shows
late.
Doesn't mean I'm asleep.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I get it.
A hundred percent.
I'm up late.
I'm up till three or four in the morning.
I'm just not in a field watching pretty lights till three or four in the morning.
Uh, but it doesn't mean I wouldn't do it.
It doesn't mean I wouldn't.
It just means it's probably not likely.
I, I think your schedule and mine are probably coming together pretty similarly.
I I'm going to have a lot of flexibility in mine.
Um, show wise, I've got some flexibility, but the, the news that's great for me this
year and why I've been really excited about the lineup, even when I initially wasn't just
from the, you know, like here's what, here it is now react.
Well, that's not a great way to even do it at all.
We shouldn't do it even though we do it every single time.
We're going to next year too.
Yeah, we will.
But after it settles and I look at it, I can get it to see it.
I can see any band I want.
Like there's, there is, there is no overlap, not, not anything that truly means anything.
So that wraps up Saturday and then we can knock this thing out with a Sunday, which
is I am very well known for leaving on Sundays for a long time now.
And they seem to get more and more and earlier and earlier, and sometimes not at all.
And I don't want that to be the case this year.
And well, it won't be because my, you know, other love of my life, the beaches, my new
love of the life, Jay, Jay bird would be upset cats are knocking.
I don't know if you don't hear that.
Um, beaches at two 30 that's a get there early, stay till it's over and then let the crowd
disperse before I completely walk.
That's going to be a great.
Here's the problem.
Two 30 to three 15, a 45 minute set early on the this tent, a 45 minute set for a band
that's on the rise.
It's opening for the rolling stones this year.
I know that's a bump that that's an industry.
They don't deserve to open for the rolling stones, but they still are.
And 45 minutes now they don't, they have a lot of music, but it is fast paced and short.
So there's going to be a lot of songs in 45 minutes and they're not a yak it up there.
You know, let's, you know, it's all about, we're playing bangers here, but still 45 minutes.
That is a, that's disappointing, but I'll take what I can get right after that.
Help me out, Russ.
I always mess it up.
Chapel rone, chapel, chapel, chapel, chapel, chapel rone.
She gets an hour right afterwards.
What is her saying that went around the internet everywhere?
I'm the girls that all the girls wish I was or so, or I'm the, it was, I, sorry, such
a provocatively awesome statement.
Anyway, I got to see this, this person on stage.
This sounds like it's going to be, I mean, this sounds like flamboyant.
This sounds like it's, it's highly pop, super pop music, but it's catchy.
And I got to see that that's an hour at four o'clock.
So I'm thinking this 10, I'm just chilling in the early afternoon on a Sunday.
I think that'll be comfortable.
Go get a spicy pie in between.
You get a spicy pie beat, you know, I'm, you know, in your head, you're getting ready to
leave, but you got still plenty of time.
This sounds beautiful if weather, you know, if weather cooperates and, um, right about
it is all that overlap.
We get to Milky chance back to back with Carly Rae Jepsen on the what I saw Milky chance
on the what in 17 and as all what stages it sounded amazing.
I feel like I should do that again if I can fit that in there.
And then Carly J. Repson would just can, can I get the call me maybe in here somewhere?
I hate to be that dork.
I don't, I'm sorry to be that guy, but that seems too good to pass up.
That's that seems like a, a social media moment for the ages.
Right.
Yeah.
On the main stage at Bonnaroo.
Call me maybe I got to do it.
And that's pretty much it until if I can make it this, I wish Isabel was playing earlier
on the what I wish she was at the Carly time slot of five ish instead of eight 15 on the
witch Jason is one of the 400 unit.
That's my closer.
That's my done.
That's my mic drop.
That's the final note.
I'm out of here.
See you later.
See that's an issue for us because we live so close is it's so easy to think I can get
in the car and be home in 55 minutes.
You know what makes that even easier when you tell yourself that at four o'clock, that's
my boy.
Or you can stay and watch Jason is bull.
And then if you're then gonna stay, see Fred again because you're there.
So yeah, that's never happening.
But for me, but I mean, I didn't stay for Stevie.
And I love Stevie Nicks and I was like, I'm out of here.
But the now this is total first world festival problems for sure.
And nobody wants to hear it.
But also the one little thing though on the travel back is we lose an hour going home.
So it's only an hour drive, but we lose two hours.
So when is will wraps up at nine 30, well, that's 10 30 and I'm still standing here in
the staring at the witch stage, which means I won't be off this festival ground for another
hour.
Maybe, maybe, maybe half hour if you're, if man, if you're, if you're planning all day
and you're ready and you're, you know, you're locked and ready to go, which means I'm not
home till about midnight and I go back to work the next Monday.
That's how my work week works on that.
I take the week prior.
That's tough.
Yeah, it is.
I take the week prior.
I've done them both.
I've done after I need the week.
The off days leading up are far more superior to the days after.
And so, um, yeah, yeah, I used to leave Sunday morning so I could come home and my wife and
I, we would spend Sunday in the pool.
I mean, I would come home, put everything in the laundry, you know, the dirty clothes.
What a way to end the weekend.
It was awesome.
What a perfect way to end the weekend.
I would have a cooler full of whatever leftover beer I would get home about 11.
We would go outside and just get in the water and just float.
It was great, but I missed so much music.
And then now we started going, you know, stay until Monday.
I think that's the way to go.
If you can swing the time off, stay until Monday.
It just gives you that extra little cushion of I don't have to pack up and leave right
away.
I can, you know, get one more night of sleep and then wake up and then pack up, you know,
and you're not pressured to be back at back home.
It is nice.
And Brian, you, you, you both of you, we started going.
For Wednesday, for the pressers, uh, they started doing the walkthroughs on Wednesday.
Yeah.
And then, but so Wednesday to Monday.
And I think the second year we did that, I got back on Monday, did all my unpacking and
everything and I have no memory of anything until that Friday.
I have done something similar to that schedule four times.
Maybe, maybe, maybe four and, and, and a couple of them, because we had some great weather
were very memorable, but mostly it's so much.
It's so, so, so, so much.
And we, and some of those were when we had better accommodations, we still have good
one.
Oh yeah.
They were a little bit better.
Absolutely.
We'll see.
We'll see that this is a mean beaches is, is not negotiable unless I wake up, you know,
need medical attention, the beaches is not negotiable.
That's happening, but there's, there's a world where I wake up and say the beaches and at
three 15 I'm going to go find a pool.
I'm out of here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I, you know, um, I've told an actual beach.
I've told the story, you know, I could be there by the evening when the Tom Petty year
great, my daughter, you know, who's working for the festival at that time, call them and
said, I got you pit passes for petty Sunday night.
And I said, cool, I'm in.
And then I sat in a chair and I called her and I said, I'm going home.
There's no way I'm standing for 90 minutes at 1130 at night.
I'm done.
Yeah.
And of course, I mean, unless you're a big, unless you're a big petty guy, which I don't,
I was, but huge regret, but, um, I did, I'd do it again.
You know, I was, yeah, just honestly, you know, uh,
You know, we'll, we'll talk about shaking these later, but I did go to that late night
pond set here in Atlanta at terminal West.
And, you know, that didn't start till midnight.
And I honestly thought about, I could just walk back to the hotel, but I'm glad I went
stayed for the whole thing and it was, I'm glad I did.
It was fun.
All right.
Those are great picks, Brian.
Thanks.
Uh, we're going to do Russ's next week and then I'm going to do mine the following week.
If everything goes as scheduled, but right now we've got, uh, joining us is a friend
of the show, a sometimes correspondent.
We joke, uh, Trevin Bernarding.
He is in Charlotte, North Carolina at the love and life festival.
And Russ you'll see is down in Atlanta at shaky knees.
And we thought it'd be a good idea to kind of get, uh, you know, what it's like at these
other festivals, two city festivals, as opposed to a camping festival.
Yeah, it's a dueling hotel, uh, festivals.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's funny.
My original idea was cause we thought it was going to rain.
My original idea was kind of do like a CNN, uh, you know, how they always have their
reporters standing in the beach.
Yeah.
Behind me, but the weather didn't danger everywhere.
Yeah.
The weather, the weather played out great.
And, uh, yeah, it's a little weird to be, uh, in a hotel room instead of the bus, but
we'll talk about that.
Well, I think it's a great interview because both of you, you get to share not only the
bands you want to see, but how these city festivals are a little different than Bonnaroo.
And, uh, I appreciate Trevin.
He's there with his wife who it's her birthday, happy birthday and his 17 year old daughter.
So we talk about that a little bit.
Um, you know, everybody does a festival different.
Every festival is a little different.
And we just kind of thought this was a great opportunity to, uh, to get a, you know, boots
on the ground kind of thing.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Man on the street as they call it.
So, uh, or man in the hotel room down the street, man on the blocks over than another
right from the festival.
I thought it worked out great.
So here we go.
Thanks again to Trevin and thank you guys for listening, especially it's a long show.
We know it, but I think there's a lot of good detail.
So here we go.
So, uh, you are in Atlanta.
Correct.
Yeah, you can probably, yeah, you probably see I'm not on the bus.
I'm in a hotel in Atlanta at a shaky knees and we are joined, uh, as always by Brian
Stone who is in Eastridge.
Hello.
If it looks like I just woke up, it's cause I did just wake up.
It's early Sunday morning.
I'm Barry, of course with the What Podcast.
I'm at the world headquarters here on missionary Ridge in Chattanooga.
And we're joined by friend of the show and, uh, uh, almost a correspondent at this point.
I don't know what we're going to call you, Travin, but Travin Bernarding is joining us
early on a Sunday.
You are where?
Certainly not going to pay you though.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The pay, the pay doubles.
Barry's friendship is pay enough.
Yeah, I'm in Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina.
Why tell us why?
Uh, no con is why I'm here right now.
Of course, you know, I love festivals and my daughter loves me.
She's 17.
Uh, just loves Noah.
I was looking at tickets to see him in individual shows.
Tickets were crazy.
I'm talking about face value tickets were like two 50, three, just for normal tickets.
And so we, so we started looking at festivals and eyeballed this one, a new one, kind of
a, you know, took a chance, but he was a headliner.
Didn't know what day, but we knew his headlining Friday in Atlanta.
So we thought this will work out.
So we'll be playing Saturday or Sunday in Charlotte.
What's the festival?
Love and life.
Yeah.
It's a great lineup.
We'll get into that.
Yeah.
Love and life in, in Charlotte.
Uh, how long has that one been around?
Do we just roughly?
No, it's first year.
Oh, it's his first year.
Okay.
First year.
Nice.
We'll get into that.
So Noah just played here Friday in Atlanta at shaky knees.
And then I guess he left and went to Charlotte.
Well, he made a guest appearance last night with Maggie Rogers.
Oh, nice.
Nice.
So he's already in Charlotte yesterday.
Well for those who don't know, he is a former, uh, another friend of the show was on, uh,
was it two years ago?
I think two years ago.
They all run together, but he's one of my favorite guests.
I told Trevin yesterday, I have a bit of a man crush.
Uh, what a great interview.
He was so open.
Um, and he was still fairly new, right?
And then, uh, did the Bonnaroo performance, which everyone still talks about being one
of the largest tent shows ever.
You couldn't get anywhere close to it, right?
Yeah.
It was the worst year ever to not have those screens.
Cause I, I took the bait on the Noah con thing.
I still don't know any more now than I did at Bonnaroo last year.
Cause I haven't listened much since it was the biggest and I, I'm not, I'm not trying
to be too much into the moment at that time, but I don't think I've ever seen an overflow
cloud crowd at a stage show in 20 years.
I mean, it was, it was impossible to even really to get anywhere near it, especially
with no screens.
So luckily they're fixing that.
He's great and great story, a lot of, you know, a lot of, uh, discussion with us about
mental health and, uh, just being honest and open and how he connects with fans.
So it's funny that that one thing that brought you to this festival, right.
And I meant to ask Trevin, you have two daughters now is, is this the daughter that I watched
try to pick on an entire boys soccer team when she was in like seventh grade or is this
the one who played soccer with my daughter?
It's not the one I have three daughters.
Oh, I didn't.
Okay.
Yeah.
Nice.
Yeah.
So she's my youngest.
She's 17.
So my oldest, uh, play with your daughter, maybe one or two years because she's one number
in your daughter.
And then the seventh grader, the one that time, that's the mother one who's that's my main
one.
Yes.
Yes.
I was like, who was that kid?
And yeah, I don't remember if you were near me and you're like, that's my daughter.
It's like, Oh my God.
This is my, this is my youngest one.
She's a junior in high school.
Well, I have a reason for asking cause that, you know, you're there with your wife and
17 year old.
So I want to get into that a little bit as well.
But, uh, all right, let's start with you, Russ, uh, shaky knees.
This is what your third or fourth?
Uh, I think it's my fourth.
Yeah.
It sounds right.
How's it going?
It's going great.
Um, thought we were going to get some rain yesterday, but it, it, the cloud, cloud stayed
away.
Uh, it was nice and warm and sunny.
Um, kind of a, I guess a preview for Rue cause it's getting, it's getting to be hot and lots
of walking around and lots of festival stuff.
So I started yesterday or I saw, yeah, yes.
Uh, Friday started with, uh, metric was my first band that I saw and then went into the
psychedelic porn crumpets, which was a band that I think David, uh, I am, who suggested
to us.
Yeah.
Say that name again.
Yeah.
I'm like, psychedelic porn crumpets.
Yeah.
All right.
Yeah.
I don't know if you saw Brian, he gets a, we, we get a text from our friend, David Bruce.
I am Bonnaroo.
He's like, that's one of my favorite bands.
I'm like, you're making that up.
Come on.
Where'd you read that?
Sorry.
I'm not trying to, to, to be a jerk about it.
All right.
Well, okay.
Anyway, sorry.
Go ahead.
Go ahead.
Uh, Russ.
Yeah.
I saw a discussion about last week about, are you an on the rail kind of person or you
were on the rail?
Why aren't you, I was on the rail for, uh, all them witches.
I saw, I saw the social media posts and I was like, well, that answers the question
for us after the, after the show.
Uh, but, uh, good stuff, huh?
Great.
Yeah.
They were, I've seen them.
They played shaky knees before they played Bonnaroo.
Um, I always go see them and yeah, I think that was the one show that I stayed the entire
set for and was on the rail.
So now did you push your way?
Did you have to knock any kids over to blue haired ladies to get there or you just walk
out?
No, I just pretty much walked up.
I mean, it was not a very, uh, I mean, it was, it was, it was crowded.
I mean, there's people there, but, uh, not, not too bad.
Yeah.
How were the crowds?
I want to, and I'm going to ask, uh, Trevin that as well.
How were the crowds?
Crowds are huge.
Um, I think this is a sold out festival, at least for, I wondered about that.
I think that's what they said and you could feel it.
I mean, there's people everywhere and you know, it's, it's, it's, there's people here,
but it doesn't feel too crowded.
Uh, I don't feel like, you know, it's easy to still get around to the different stages
and to the different, uh, you know, bathrooms and food and all that.
So it, it, it doesn't feel, it feels well managed.
Yeah.
I don't want to bore people too much with the logistics to where you're at, but, um,
because I've been to shaky many times.
It was on the regular rotation about starting about five, six years ago and went for about
four or five years and it's moved.
It was in Centennial Park downtown near, you know, where the stadiums are and all, all
that in the heart of Atlanta.
And then it's, but it spent most of its time where you are today or this weekend, Russ,
uh, in Centennial Park, right?
Am I getting the name of it?
I think it's Centennial.
It's Central.
It's Central Park.
I'm sorry.
It's Central Park and that's a pretty good layout.
It's pretty big.
And it, even though it always feels full, it's never, it's, it's never prohibited to,
to be able to get around in my experience.
And that if you've lines, those kinds of things, has that all been manageable?
That's all been manageable.
Um, they did move some stages around the, uh, they put the, the Ponce de Leon stage,
I guess it's like the third biggest stage.
Yeah.
They moved it way back, which I think makes sense, um, to kind of get it away from the
other two main stages, but they also moved criminal records, which was kind of in a little,
uh, grassy tree area with lots of shade.
Almost like a little Grove.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was like a little Grove.
They moved that over next to the Ponce de Leon stage, which doesn't make a lot of sense.
I mean, they're on a slab of concrete now or something.
Probably.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's just out in the open.
Yeah.
I think they said they were doing some renovations or something in that part of the park, so
they had to move it.
Yeah.
Part of what I find interesting about this is, uh, you know, Russ is known Russ with
the bus.
Uh, you bring the VW to Bonnaroo, you get there on Tuesday, you stay till, you know,
September, uh, you love to camp.
Traven, you've become, uh, like, you know, we joked, you've been, you've been on this
show several times and it's because you go to a lot of different festivals, uh, and you
have a good perspective.
I think you've done it always, right?
You've done camping, you've done VIP, you've done GA, you, you're in a hotel room now in
Charlotte.
Uh, and I'll ask both of you, um, to kind of compare and contrast the city fast versus
the camping fast and, and that sort of thing.
And I know I'm jumping all over, but, uh, Traven, how are you, how are you doing, uh,
this festival this year?
It's yeah, this festival is only choice is hotel.
So we're, we're walking three quarters of a mile, maybe to the site.
It's right in, right in first ward park, which is, you know, downtown, I think called uptown
Charlotte.
So yeah, it's a small park, uh, only three stages.
Um, it's, it's a hotel is the only option that there's no camping here.
So it's a different, totally different vibe as, as, as, you know, Russ can test, I'm sure
from camping, you know, walking from a hotel.
So that was the only choice at this one.
What does that mean?
I mean, like to the, to somebody who's never been to one, what are we, how does that alter
the vibe?
I guess what's the difference between camping festival and a, you know, we're going back
to the hotel where there's AC and I assume a restaurant and those sorts of things.
Yeah.
I've literally most of the time I'm in a hotel.
I've been like four or five camping festivals, which is more of a community feel.
As you guys know, your Monterey was awesome for that, right?
You get to know your neighbors, you hope your neighbors aren't loud and you're late at night
drinking with them at two o'clock in the morning or whatever.
And here it's more about the shows, I suppose.
I mean, you still get to know people around you and things, but it's just not the same
community feeling at a festival like this.
Yeah.
You know, when you're at Bonnaroo, I think Barry, you've said it before, when you're,
when you're there, you're there.
And you know, you're kind of in a bubble because once you enter Bonnaroo, for most people that
camp, you don't leave for the entire duration.
You're, you're in there.
So it's almost like you're kind of separated from reality a little bit.
You know, the outside world is there, but you're not, you're not participating in that
here.
You know, you, when you get to the end of the night, you know, okay, I've got to go
back to the hotel and go back to real life.
You know, for me, it's about a 20 minute walk, which isn't bad, but, uh, you know, it does
kind of take you out of the moment or at least, uh, you know, you have to go back to real
life, I guess.
And, but you know, there's some good things too.
You know, we had brunch yesterday morning.
There's a, you know, a group of us, there's, you know, we're in downtown Atlanta.
There's plenty to do.
There's a, you know, if you want to take a break from the festival and go out and, you
know, eat and, you know, find a bar or something, you can do it, which is also kind of neat.
But I think I much prefer camping myself.
Yes.
I think this is, um, kind of just fascinating for me over the last 20 years.
I've come, I've gone back and forth on the city fest hotel primarily, or whatever other
accommodations and the camping fest.
And once upon a time I loved, because it's all I knew the city fest.
And then Bonnaroo came around and changed everything, changed everything I thought about.
And then I got older and things changed and I prioritized different things.
I think they both have their place and both serve them really well.
There's in the last couple of times I went to shaky knees, my goal was, or, or my, my,
my plan, it went away from going to three days and it turned into pick one day, maybe
two, but usually it would be one last couple of times and just get there when the, when
the gates open, no lines, no problems, no, just cruise right on in and spend the extra
the entire day there.
It's exhausting, but if it's a good lineup, which shaking knees always is, and this, um,
sorry, I didn't, I closed out the page.
I had the fat living loud.
Is that right?
Love and life, love and life, um, very nice lineup this year.
That's got its own special place.
It can be fun.
Not certainly in a, what we're used to and what we're normally talking about Bonnaroo,
but I think they both can work.
Well, not, I think, I know they do because I have been, yeah, I think a safe as more
about the lineup, definitely.
I mean, I'm sure most, I don't know what the percentage is, but how many people go to Bonnaroo?
I want to monitor it.
I don't care.
Yeah.
We talk about that all the time.
Right.
It's going to be fine.
We're having a good time.
I mean, love and life, we're shaking knees always has a great lineup too.
But yeah, it's, I think, I think safe as are mostly about the lineup and how well they
do.
And then, you know, Bonnaroo, Coachella, whatever.
Lots of health experience.
You know, we joke, you sit down and you spend a lot of time making your list.
Here's what I'm going to, I'm going to go here, here, here, here.
And then you never do because it's so big.
Yeah.
Does that, does that the same at a City Fest?
Are you traveling?
I mean, again, you've done these, you said Noah Khan is huge because that's your, your
daughters and then is it like, Oh, and there's other people will go see, or how, how firm
are you in your, your scheduling?
I guess is what I'm trying to ask.
This is a little different, I think, than shaky knees where you don't have much choice.
There's only three stages.
There's two main stages and a local stage and they bounce.
There's hardly any overlap.
So like Moon River here in Chattanooga, one ends and the other starts and you just, yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe slightly larger than the river, but yeah, same concept.
So it is on the lineup.
It's like yesterday was, yesterday was my favorite day.
I got here by my, I went there by myself at one o'clock, but my family joined me around
four.
I'm talking about, there you go.
And, and I get there.
I mean, I am like, I know it's like 10 people there, but that's what I felt like.
And for me, it was awesome.
I mean, I was able to go, I explored the entire grounds.
It's all these different bands I want to see.
Um, but yeah, it's, it's not the same as trying to kick out my, you don't have to sacrifice
the festival like this, however you're stuck.
It's not as stress inducing.
It's not as stress inducing to figure out, you know, how can I make this perfect?
Cause it's, it's almost set up, especially those, those, uh, back and forth kind of stage
settings, which, um, shaky there, they do that, but, but they're not next to each other,
right?
Still, they're still Russ, the stages are still a little bit of a walk.
I mean, I'm talking, I don't know, 16th of a mile.
I mean, it is not far.
Yeah, it's not far.
They do spread them out.
And I think that really helps because you don't really get a lot of sound bleed from
one to the other.
So when you, once you go from one stage to the next, you can fully hear this stage.
So yeah, they do a pretty good job with, you know, bouncing you back and forth between
the different stages.
And there's really not a lot of conflicts either here.
It sounds like forecastle.
Love, love, love life is back and forth.
Like one into the fast of the other, you know, so there's a little bit of bleed though.
Honestly, there's a little bit of a bleed.
You could get as close as you wanted, or if you wanted some space, you could back up.
Yes.
Yeah.
That's, and that's huge.
That's nice.
Um, I haven't even asked, uh, other than Noah, who, who, who'd you, who have you seen and
who are you guys going to see?
It's a great lineup.
So we got here a little bit later on Friday because our plan was a little bit late.
Um, we saw Dominic back in the post Malone.
Have you all seen post Malone before?
I mean, that guy is just really, really good.
I don't know if I'm going to see him in a month and a half yet, but we'll see.
Um, but yeah, that was just, I've seen him twice.
It's my second time, but really, really good.
So yesterday was the first day of full day.
So we started off with Axe and Axe and Hatchetman.
They were a pretty new band.
I just picked up on a month ago, two months ago, maybe they were like 10 people were there.
And it's like, this is maybe next year they're playing some, you know, bigger stage and I
won't be able to do that.
And they have Happy Landing, another great band from North Carolina, Uppercommer.
The Struts, I don't understand.
Some explained to me while the Struts play midday at a small festival, those guys frigging
rock.
You know, I mean, they were true rock.
They do rock.
I mean, they're from the UK.
They're like, they're the stones.
I mean, I'm not in that category, obviously, but they're just, what a great band.
And then the phrase.
Yeah, they're just a raw rock and roll band.
Sorry, go ahead.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Why are they not getting?
I don't have more attention.
I don't understand.
And the frame is making a comeback with a 2000s alt band, whatever.
They're they're back.
And I'm, you know, again, my 17 year old daughter, build a bond with her over music I love, you
know, when I was younger and then we had Young the Giant.
Oh my God.
I've seen them like 19 times and I've loved them every time.
They're modified.
Sorry, Trent, to modify what we the Never Not Great.
They're never not fun.
Young the Giant is always a blast.
They've there's so much energy.
And they're shaking these little love.
Well, a friend of mine, David, was also shaking these.
And then Maggie Rogers.
After that, it's like, this is what an awesome day.
And I mentioned Noah Khan came out.
I was like, wow, he's already here.
But she has a song where he just says a line.
This is some funny lines in her song.
That's what he did.
It's all he did.
He came out, said his funny lines, went backstage.
It was like this is then Stevie Stevie Nicks, headliner.
So what a great day.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know if I said on here, my my daughter just had a baby two months ago
and the baby is named Stevie Jane after Stevie Nicks.
So that that touches me that you got to see her.
And along those lines and Russ, I want to I'm going to get back to you about line up.
But Trevin, how cool is it to be there with your 17 year old daughter and your wife?
I mean, to be able to have the conversations about music and shared music and all that
is pretty cool.
Excuse me.
Pretty cool, right?
Yeah, it's it's really cool.
I started when my son was 15.
He and I went to Firefly together.
I never been to a festival.
We'll start off with him camping at Firefly.
And it's just something, you know, I've always introduced to my kids, but you know, they
didn't have to force it on me.
They love music.
And we go to I went to Monterey with Bridget in 2017, my oldest.
As a family, I have four kids, one's married.
We're going to the Launch Your All Festival and all of us, all of us, entire family.
So for us, this is how we get together.
I mean, kids get older.
You know, I mean, that landslide song just wants your laws, you know, last night, just
thinking about my own kids and and things, things of that nature.
So yeah, it's very special.
And this is my wife's birthday is May 1st.
So this is a storage for her to we did VIP, which we don't always do together.
But we splurged on that for her birthday, too.
So very special.
It's Dad of the Year over here.
Yeah.
Well, it's it's so interesting because I mean, I have a large part of why I'm even doing
this podcast is because of my kids and Bonnaroo.
But my kids introduced me to new music.
You know, I mean, if you listen, if you knew what I listen to, it's 70s, 80s kind of rock.
But I, you know, I tried to keep up because my kids were, you know, listening to new music.
So it's just I think it's just cool.
So.
All right, Russ, one quick point on that, like, you know, in the 80s, also in R.A.M.,
B-52s and all that kind of stuff, my parents hated it.
And I'm like, I'm not going to be that parent, man.
I'm just not.
Yeah.
I don't like all I don't like poppy, you know, all that stuff.
But I always said, doja cat.
I mean, it's good stuff.
I'm not I'm not going to be that guy.
And I love all these.
I love all music.
So, you know, well, you I think you and I are similar in that I felt a responsibility
to introduce my kids to stuff, though I never felt like I wanted to tell them what they
should like.
All right.
Yes.
You know, they know the Beatles, they know the Stones.
We used to sit out all the time.
Song would come on the radio and I'm like, who's that?
My kids can kill at trivia.
They are those kids that, you know, they would walk into the office and the old people are
like, you know, that song, you know, the bar case.
Yeah.
You know, so I felt that obligation.
But you know, they were into Carson was into Huffam Moose and whatever.
I'm like, you know, in the Mbop.
I'm like, OK, if you like it, good.
You know, that's you.
All right, Russ, what's so what have you seen?
You talked a little bit already.
It's what you see yesterday and what are you going to see today?
Yeah, that kind of went over Friday.
Yesterday was a pretty big day because I met up with a shout out to Evan Bonnaroo.
Met up with him, one of Brad's friends from New York.
He's here with Skyler and whose last name is not Bonnaroo.
Yeah, Evan Bonnaroo, the Brown.
Evan Bonnaroo is a big Pearl Jam guy.
And so we we snap chat a lot.
I don't ever met Evan, but I feel like he's one of my best friends in the last like eight
months.
So yes.
Yeah.
You get along with him.
He's got several people's phone listing is Evan Bonnaroo.
What is it?
My phone also saw Meredith M.
Gizzi, who is a friend of the show.
She met her at Bonnaroo last year.
She lives in Atlanta.
So this was an easy fest for her to get to.
And we all just had a brunch yesterday morning and then went into the festival.
Yesterday I saw Chicano Batman, which was first for me.
Chicano Batman.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They've been around for a little bit now.
I remember when they were first on the Bonnaroo lineup, I was like Chicago Batman.
What?
Yeah.
Chicano Batman.
That didn't get any better, dude.
I still don't know what it is.
But yeah, they're pretty.
It's a pretty nice act.
Yeah.
And then at Evan's recommendation, I went to see Royal Blood.
I've never heard of this band, but it's a two piece.
It's a great band.
It's a guitar and a drummer.
And that's pretty much it.
They brought out a keyboard at one point, but for the most part, it's just two dudes
and they put on a hell of a show.
I mean, it's a lot of sound for just two people, but yeah, great.
Russ, did you notice the guitar was a bass guitar?
I didn't.
So they only have drums and bass?
Drums and bass.
Wow.
Okay.
I mean, I've heard of that before, but I can't give you many examples.
Four string bass or is it like a stick?
Four string bass.
Nice.
All right.
I'm going to look that up.
Yeah.
Check them out.
Cool.
Then of course, you know, went to the offspring, went to Queens of the Stone Age and Weezer
closed the night out.
And then Daniel, also Daniel from Roobuss is here.
He brought his niece, Lacey.
I think she's about eight, but you know, he's been taking her to festivals since she was
four.
There's that responsibility.
There it is.
Yeah.
So, but we ended up going to Pond late night here at Terminal West.
They played at about midnight over on the other side of town and we got tickets and
went on in.
They put on a good show too.
I saw them, you know, I saw their set Friday, but that was neat going to, I guess, a show
after a festival.
So Russ, is that the show you said there, West Terminal or Terminal West, is that part
of the, the shaky knees kind of satellite ecosystem outside of the festival?
Because I see them promoting that these separate shows and they're usually ticketed events.
They're ticketed events.
You got to buy another ticket, but it's like sanctioned through the shaky knees kind of
orbit.
Yeah.
It's, it's kind of blessed through shaky knees.
The, and a few other bands did some late night sets at different venues around town, but
yeah, the pond show was great.
What about tonight?
What's left?
Probably, well, the struts are on here, so I'll go see them.
And Kingfish is one I want to see.
I think he was on the, one of the canceled Bonnaroo lineups.
Never got to see him.
Dinosaur Jr. is my big one for today.
Dinosaur Jr.
Yeah.
It's all in Milwaukee.
I still got, I could be there in two hours, you know, an hour and 40 minutes.
Let's go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You can make it.
Yeah.
Probably my highlight of my day will be Dinosaur Jr.
Billy Idol, of course, and Portugal the man, and then Foo Fighters closes it out.
I purposely didn't even want to remember what the lineup was last week with the phone.
I don't want the phone mode set in.
Right.
You're killing me, man.
You're killing me.
Billy Idol is the full band with what's his guitarist?
It's Steve Stevens.
Was that his name?
I wouldn't know.
I don't know.
Yeah.
I wouldn't know.
I think it is.
Yeah.
They were, remember we saw him, Brian, you were there at Bonnaroo.
I think it was right, like Alice Cooper.
Was that the Alice Cooper year or am I mixing them up?
Doesn't.
Oh, I don't know.
That was a long drunk time ago.
Yeah.
That was a good drunk for you.
I think that's when we actually first hung out.
I think we've talked about it.
Yes.
I don't remember this well.
It's fun.
But Billy's cool, man.
I mean, yeah.
All right.
Trevin, what do you got today?
It's a pretty slow day today.
I'm going to be exploring some new things.
Parmerly, I've never seen, I didn't know they were, honestly, I didn't know they were a
country band.
I know I've heard of them, but I've listened to some of their music on Spotify.
Beach Boys are the throwback.
The Mike Love Band.
The Mike Love Beach Boys.
I'm sorry.
It'll be fun.
My wife's hoping Stamos shows up, I'm like, I wouldn't count on that.
That's when he would show up with Mike.
She's honestly hoping he's going to show up.
But so my daughter has talked me into being on the rail for Noah.
So it's I'm not going to see much today.
I think we're just going to.
I told her, OK, I'll give it a shot.
This is her thing.
So the beach, beach boys plays two bands before Noah
started Beach Boys and ride it out.
Is that what you're just going to be there?
You know, hopefully one thing that's people pretty cool about letting you in and out.
If you know you're there and you're not like, you're not getting past me.
Yeah.
A certain point, you're all packed in.
You can't move anyway.
And when there and when there's a little overlap, there's an easier way in and out.
So it is in it isn't exactly like stay on it, never move.
But you still really got to take care of that real estate.
I mean, it's not going to hold itself.
I've been on the rail for lots of shows that I really want to see.
And it's it's it's I'm older now, though.
It's like, oh, my God, can I put a pair of pins?
I'm going to do this.
But I'm going to try.
I told her I'll try.
She says, well, dad, dad, I'm here no matter what.
As long as you be by yourself, it's fine.
I want to be there with her.
Yeah, we'll see how it goes.
All right.
So logistically, how are these how are these festivals going?
You guys are both you've been to many.
How does it compare?
I know there's been a little bit of news.
Festival kind of mentioned some stuff about the VIP area there at the festival in Charlotte.
And we talked about it last year with Bonnaroo with this ginormous VIP area with not very
many people in it.
How has that been, Trevin?
I know we talked a little yesterday.
Yeah, it's it's almost like two different festivals.
You know, I spent a little time yesterday in general in GA just just to see how it was.
It's like it's it's it's all it's I don't look I'm not judging.
I guess it's you got to make money if you're a festival, right?
This is their first year.
But the the one stage it's a huge VIP area right in front.
And then you got a super VIP.
They have their own corner to the other stage is more younger and just more of a I guess
more classic festival vibe to it.
They have a very small VIP to the side.
People like, you know, chain smokers play there and bands like that more DJ sets.
I think I only have one DJ set this festival, but it's definitely a tale to two festivals.
You know, it's you've created you created a class in the festival.
Trevin, without having to get into too many details, how much does it feel like a first
year fest?
Because I think we all kind of have an understanding what any kind of first year events got growing
pains.
How's it how's it feel as a first year?
I mean, there's stuff that's weird.
Like they have they have they have the water stations.
There's multiple plain water stations are all together.
What are you doing?
Why not spread them out?
But again, first year, they're all together.
I assume was logistics.
That's where the freshwater pipe came through.
I don't know.
But one area for fresh and that's the festival thing.
There was a big social media campaign almost.
They announced no water stations.
Oh, is that them?
Was that that festival?
And then they later came back and said, OK, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we got
them.
We got you.
Yeah, I remember that story.
Right.
So they came back.
They doubled down on originally.
So, oh, you know, if you're feeling woozy, go to the medical tent.
What?
They said, get dehydrated and then we'll give you some water.
It was bizarre.
But they were landed.
And then it could be there's not enough food stations, so to speak.
You know, VIP only has two and the lines move.
But there's a great park with a fountain with all the bathrooms are for the VIP, all porta
potties.
But still, they can put food there.
So, yeah, there's small things like that, Barry, that first year festival.
But as far as getting in and out, it's they've done fine.
That's a great question, Brian.
I'm glad you asked.
It made me think, Russ, you remember talking to Drew Holcomb about Moon River their first
year and he was like, I think we bought what, 10 cases of water that first day and and no
quarters?
Didn't have any quarters and had to go to a laundromat or something.
Yeah, you just don't think about those things until you do it.
So how about you about Shaking these, Russ?
I mean, you four years now, they moved it.
They get they well, yeah, they moved it prior to me attending.
It's always been at this.
They bounce back and forth.
They've gone back from Centennial to Central.
So they already have a really good understanding of what they're doing there.
My guess would be it's running pretty well.
Is that a good guess?
Yeah, it's running very smooth.
I think it's a solid festival.
Really?
Yeah, this is their 11th year.
I think last year they'd had their 10th anniversary.
And so, yeah, it's pretty well run.
They've figured out where to put all the water stations and where to put the food.
And you know, they've got stages pretty well lined up.
So, you know, yeah, it's it's logistically it's very smooth.
Just a quick thing that only people from the southeast would understand at all and more
specifically to Atlanta.
But the old music Midtown, not the one they do now, which is a nice festival, too, but
that was in the late mid to late 90s and early 2000s.
That was a really popular, massively attended Peter and Alex.
Those guys down here, the big names, Cooley, one of them is I think they were the big promoters
of that.
And there was fun, fun, fond memories of Gen Xers and rocker types.
And they had they had every genre of music that you could ever imagine.
It wasn't just a rock festival.
Yeah, Shaking is kind of took that model and even Central Park is closer to where the actual
Midtown was.
And now it's it it gives nostalgic feels as well as a really great lineup every year.
And it sounds like it's the same this year, too.
Same this year.
Yeah.
Let me ask this, because yesterday morning when I reached out to you guys both, it was
raining and the forecast was rain.
That was raining like hell all over here.
So I figured it was down there, too.
Yeah.
So we didn't get any rain here.
Yeah.
So I was going to ask what were your plans?
I mean, talk about 24 hours ago versus now, because that's a big part of festivals, man.
You can't predict the weather and you got to deal with it.
If one thing I do is I ran a locker.
I think that's a to me a veteran move kind of thing.
Always run a locker, even if you're camping on.
So that way you're not going back to your site or anything else.
So we brought change of clothes, didn't know, but it ended up just drizzling all day.
It was actually better than 85 and sunny, honestly, we were not uncomfortable at all.
It was a slight drizzle almost all day, but it was fine.
When landslide started last night and she's doing Stevie Nixon emotional tribute to this
slain policeman here in Charlotte and the buckets just it was like it was like just
they just we got friggin drenched.
I mean, it was it poured like you would not believe it was really nowhere to go.
But we're all having fun.
It was like, you know, you know, we were I gave my wife my hat, you know, and and it
was so bad.
Fortunately, that was it was the last song we just sprig in the buckets.
But luckily, but luckily it was a great day.
Good memory.
Yeah, sounds good.
Actually, I think I felt a raindrop at brunch and, you know, with oh, is it starting?
But you know, the forecast really it really didn't rain at all.
I brought a jacket.
I didn't get a locker, but you know, I could walk back to the hotel if I needed to.
But other than that, my plan was just to get wet if it rained.
But you did get a locker a couple of years ago there, did you?
I think I remember.
Yeah, I've got a locker before and it is a good fit.
Yeah, it's a good pro pro tip.
This is just a risk mitigation technique.
It'll get a locker.
And then there are free swag if some someplace to put that to.
So I do want to also shout out.
I ran into Josh and Sal.
These are two dudes that come here from Texas.
They also go to Bonnaroo and they listen to the show.
And I ran into them actually never.
They recognized me last year at Shaking Ease and happened to run into them again here.
And so they're you know, they also said they they bring a bunch of barbecue and cook it
up out in camp for Bonnaroo.
And they've invited us all, you know, all to come out and have some barbecue, which
sounds great.
You know, who knows where they're how far they are from us.
But it's neat to run into them again, especially just, you know, happen to two years in a row.
That's cool.
Rest the rock star.
Happy birthday.
Happy birthday.
It's my wife, Alicia.
Give her a shout out.
It's why we're here.
It's my daughter, Brooklyn, for introducing me to Noah.
Nice.
Well, if you get to see Noah tonight, tell him Goober says, hey, you know, that's what
I always.
All right.
Well, have fun, Traven.
Thank you so much for joining us on a Sunday morning and tell the family hello.
And y'all have fun.
And was it Montreal you're going to Montreal in August?
We are.
It's crazy.
Good for you.
So I'll talk to you all soon.
Great, great.
Thanks.
Thanks, Trav.
All right.
Well, good show.
Like I said, a bunch.
We've got a we did a lot.
And we're going to continue to do a lot.
It's kind of funny, guys.
I never thought we'd have this much talk about every week.
But I know there it is.
Yeah.
I mean, it's fun to do for sure.
It was daunting beyond belief when you guys first brought the idea up years and years
ago.
Like, I mean, when it when when the when it jumped off the ground and then after it was
continuing to roll and like, all right, then when then you really have to sit down and
think about, OK, like you said, fifty two, fifty weeks.
That's no big deal.
Or is it?
Or is it?
I'll let you know.
I'll let you know more.
But no, it's fun.
And especially now, though, I mean, I heard that this part is the part I knew least.
Leading up like the build is where it really starts to pick up.
And it only get better over the next.
Boy, imagine we're knocking on the door June in five minutes from now.
And and we're all getting packed and ready to go.
And that's all that excitement builds within us, within the audience, within all of YouTube,
within all of social media and Reddit.
And you can just feel it from every level that you're you're letting yourself, you know,
putting yourself in that in that in their their threads and everything else.
It's it's you can just feel it, you know, every within all the platforms that you use.
And it makes it that much more exciting.
Yeah, it's great.
All right.
Well, thanks, everybody, for listening, especially if you stuck with us this this long.
I think it's another good show.
Proud of what we've done in addition to doing it every week.
I think everyone I've been pretty solid.
And that's because of you guys.
I appreciate it very much.
Very, very much.
All right.
Thanks, everybody.
We'll be back next week with the talk.
Bye.