Chappell Roan that oh my god. Could you get another person into that room into that space? Oh my god

This is in I mean it just keeps blowing my mind this this young lady

Chappell Roan is taking over

Pop music watch out Taylor Swift

Welcome back to the What Podcast. I'm Barry. That's Brian. That's Lord taco Russ. How are you guys?

Great

I'm doing well a

Lot of cool stuff going on up north. We'll get to that down south. It's kind of boring right now, but

Dog days of summer as they call it right Barry. Yes. Yeah, but we do have some news to talk about for

2025 I guess we'll get to that

We're gonna yeah, we've got a lot to talk about

We were going to have our guest we talked about it well before Bonnaroo

That we were gonna give some stuff away from my basement

And we're gonna pick a winner and we did and she was gonna be our guest today

She got called into work, which is fine that happens life happens. Everything's good. She'll be our guest

I hope next week

And I say that only because I think we teased it last week or two weeks ago or seven weeks ago

Whatever

She'll be on and she's great. She's got a great story

But so many things to get to

Lala Palooza is going on

There's a bluegrass festival coming to Chattanooga. That's big news for us. What else?

I mean, there's all kinds of things going on. Yeah this Canadian festival in Montreal that

I wasn't hip to

because I just wasn't paying close enough attention to and it's going on this weekend or the this past weekend and

It looks to be a big time

also our

Correspondent as we're calling Trevin correspondent Trevin who's been on the show several times is up there

I reached out to him this morning to get an update

I'll

We'll get into that a little bit

Chappell Roan is up there pictures from that you and I were sharing with each other the three of us yesterday. That's incredible

I want to start and this won't mean much to you guys because it's so weird. I got a

text on Friday from Ray Crabtree who's the drummer for the White Animals and

I shared he shared they've got a new record out and I shared it with you guys and as soon as I hit send

I realized you were probably both babies

when the white animals were

the literal

Shit, I don't know how else to say it

Yeah, and you're gonna have to not only let the audience know what you're talking about more

You're gonna have to let me and I'm guessing likely Russ know as well

Yeah, so go ahead and do that because you mentioned it. It was that is that a regional to the southeast thing or a

hometown Chattanooga thing or

Go ahead Russ. What were you gonna say? Well being a baby doesn't matter. I mean, I know plenty of bands before my time

I've listened to all kinds of music, you know older than me, but I don't have a nobody knows babies

Nobody knows babies better than yeah

I'm just saying is I don't I don't have a clue who this band is

Yeah, I get it. So this is like a local band. Yeah, we're not Millennials. We do know before we were born

Yeah, you don't have to be like it. I get it. They were so

It's kind of funny you went yesterday

Brian to see driving and crying right last night in yeah local free a little little concert series we have here in Chattanooga

So I was driving and crying. I was trying to think of how to how to

approach this they were the combination of

driving and crying and whoever your local best band ever was and

to your point regional

if you were a fraternity sorority member in any college between

Virginia and Florida in the 80s you knew who the white animals were

Okay, that makes sense. I mean they were it

And you use driving and crying as a as a comp there is perfect because they were a frat type band too back

More like late 80s into the early 90s if you were in a frat from that same swath of states

You liked driving and crying because they came to your fraternity house

They came to your fraternity house and and they were your band

Yeah, that's that's what I that's kind of the point

I'm trying to make is you thought you knew them better than anybody else in the world

Right and because your access to be able to be around them was probably quite good

Then you be felt like you were friends with them

This is perfect comp with driving and crying because this is what I've been doing with them my whole life

How many people I'll talk to you were like who right and a third is like, oh, they're okay

And then the other third is like they're the greatest I've ever heard my life. I was there. I was there

I met him that night too. We've all met the guy dude

We all met and so the other the thing that the reason I want to bring it up

Is because we're talking the 80s. So it was pre social media. So there was not any of that

It was just they were in your town and uh, they played

Uh yesterday's which is a local club. Um

Every town has the club

Yesterday's was ours

And uh, these guys did a show one sunday, I think

Came in limos

The line was all the way around the block

I mean just huge right in limousines, huh came in limousines. They were big big time. They used to fill up the armory

Um, and they've got a new record out and that's why i'm i'm bringing it up. Um

Is it a comeback of sorts or do they write do they over?

Or even if it's every 10 years, I mean do they put out music here and there? No. Well, yes and no they came

Chattanooga

2018 I think that's why kind of

The drummer ray is is their manager. He's the pr guy I should say not manager

He reached out and we've been talking ever since

Uh kind of become friendly and then he you know reached out and said hey, we've got this new record coming out

Do you want to copy? And of course, you know, yeah, I do

Of course, um, and it's really really good and it's it's um

What I like about it is they went back and did what they used to do

And the other thing is they had a guy and this was so

So they were they used to open for the white. I mean, uh talking heads

And they had their uh sound guy was considered their fifth member and they called him dub master

right sort of

Predated the whole edm

DJ thing right? We're talking the early 80s

so if you can imagine a lot of echo a lot of reverb a lot of

Hit that note and then it would do do do do do do, you know

So yeah the 80s in a lot of ways was a very experimental

decade

um with that kind of stuff that kind of technology and um from hip hop to to

Neil young did some of that stuff in the 80s. Yeah

these guys uh

The reason i'm even talking about it. We don't typically go regional

But they were so big and if you know, I mean brian you're fond of saying if you know, you know

If you were too much if you were a fan of the white animals

You'll be very excited to know they have a new record out. It's called star time

I think it's really good and uh, I just think it's kind of cool

Because it predates so much of what we love

musically and everything else and well, it's always cool to see a band like

driving and crying or

Somebody who would be from the same

regional ish kind of niche kind of um, uh space of music

Keep making music even if it's not that great like it's still cool to know that they still they still pull that off and

Yeah, so that's real cool. Yeah

Anyway, I wanted to give them a shout out and let everybody know if you're if you were around back in the day

And you were into the white animals. They've got new music out and it's really good. So

Uh, how was well

Go ahead on the subject of new music, uh smashing pumpkins has a new record out

I saw that was that long awaited for or they didn't just drop that out of nowhere. Did they?

I don't know. I mean, it's not something I follow. I just kind of saw

The news and went and checked it out. Uh, I thought it was pretty good

It's 10 songs, which is a lot different than like the 30 that they have been doing in some of these other albums

But I it it sounds part of it sounds like a smashing pumpkins mixed with tool almost

Very

Heavy, yeah

But then you know, i'm still kind of getting through the whole album

But other songs almost sound like old school smashing pumpkins just well

To speak to smashing pumpkins for a minute. It used to be one of my favorites

They went on this. I mean billy corgan's kind of an insufferable type

Yeah, but but he's grown out of that a lot. It would appear and

And they went for like 15 or 20 years where they did

It seemed like purposely annoying music. Yeah, like we're purposely gonna make music

That's not anything like our first four albums including the very first one gish, which is still one of their best

right and

and then over the last

I don't know going on 10 years, but certainly five six seven years

He's kind of embraced this. You know what? Sorry guys

I know I kind of abandoned all the stuff you liked and I probably shouldn't have done that

And now they tour heavily on all that that early stuff rather than

The michael stipe type, you know who who would be like i'm not playing this crap anymore

I love that you connected those two because there's nobody more purposely annoying than michael stipe

I know and I love them both

But rather than then stick to it. I'm not gonna make what you want me to make

I'm gonna make music you hate you want to hear cool songs not a chance

That's great

And that's what that's what I'm talking about

Yeah, that's great. And that's what that's what billy corgan did for years and then he has come way back around on that

They've even done a few tours that were specifically

First two albums and that's it. Please go build a place up

And so it doesn't surprise me to hear that maybe he tried to make a throwback album

I'm gonna have to give that a listen. Uh, give it a yeah, give it a shot

I don't know. It's you know, i'm gonna ruminate on purposely annoying for a while. That's awesome

You know, I don't know my first thought was van morrison and then my second was was michael stipe. So

Good spot on

I don't know that his voice has uh aged all that well, you know, he's always kind of saying in like this weird

Uh timbre, but uh, yeah his voice doesn't sound great, but he struggled to hit those notes

Those notes, excuse me

Awfully early in his career. I mean, yeah

that that

Don't need to explain why you can hear how create, you know raspy and loud it would get but he has struggled with that for a

While, but I definitely am interested to hear that because the last three or four records. Oh god get those out of here

You got no time for those. I'm i'm liking this new one

All right. Cool. How was the how was the driving and crying?

Uh same as it always is

Really good really fun. Uh, it's a bit I was talking to a mike doer local promoter that everybody on the show here is

Camp nut butter founder. Yeah, long time camp nut butter a member

Talking to him about it last night. He's a he's tight with them and he you know

All they gotta do is call him up like hey, can you play the backyard real quick?

Hey, I got a bar mitzvah. I gotta get booked

It's always just a big reunion it's a big reunion of uh

Of whatever that that group of people were over the last 30 years that you've known

This is very similar. I mean you you just connected it right from the jump at the white animals thing

It's like, you know

It's really neat. It's really fun big crowd big turnout

But they're never doing anything very different than ever because they're in their 60s

I can't believe they still do it and I know what?

I won't do it here, but tell me how much they pay them to play. It's like

Y'all are retiring yet. Oh my god, because they play here like twice a year. It's right

I mean they're they're from atlanta, but they're you know in all of georgia

north florida

Tennessee, north carolina. I mean there's not a venue they won't play and good for them. Maybe it is strictly just

We love this or maybe it's

Just like the rest of us how the hell am I gonna retire my 401k is a mess

Big news in chattanooga

monday, uh

Chattanooga is getting the

ibma international bluegrass music association conference

Is coming to chattanooga for the next three years starting in september

Of 2025 it had been in raleigh for what the last 12 years. Well, yeah

the reason that I bring that up is because

When it was announced and brian, I think you talked about this on your stone on air podcast

You thought like a lot of people did that it was going to be the replacement for moon river

um

Or was going to be something similar

and

It's not it's nothing like that

Which is kind of why i'm bringing it up. Um

This you think it's react. Sorry. Do you think it's reactionary to uh for a quick reset?

We lost a festival called moon river as far as we'll go with that

But do you think it was reactionary to that like if moon river was like hey, we're here for five more years

Do you think the city and county would have gone after it?

um

ibm, uh

Ibma i'm talking about yes

Uh because it's such a big deal and that's that's why I want to mention it because it the other thing is some

You know, it has that connection. Uh

We talk about festivals all the time on this show and so chattanooga

Had moon river, which is a 12 000 13 000

um people

Festival that we had in september. We lost that we go and not lost they're on hiatus. We'll say it's gone riverbend. Yeah

Um, that's what we all believe anyway, and then huntsville announced that south star is coming

So the timing of it is is why i'm sort of bringing it up

Um, we all thought the same thing, you know, is this chattanooga's replacement is chattanooga gone after

I don't think so. I think the idea from what I understand is that uh, I

Ibma and i'm gonna make sure I keep saying it in the right i've had to double check myself

It sounds like we're talking about some kind of yeah. I am bb or the other

Bill gates organizations here in town or something. It's a completely different type of thing

It it has music it has a lot of music, but it also is an awards thing. It's a conference. It's five days

It's more than just

You know set up some stages and play

It's a big deal. It's a huge deal. It brings uh, 45 50 000 people from all over the

world

to wherever it is

uh, and chattanooga is lucky to have it and proud to get it, but

It i it's not a replacement or it's not in

Lua or anything like that. In fact, they don't even know where the show the big show is going to be yet

Yeah, I don't know if you know that. Yeah, I think you

I yeah, I only reference that I don't have any idea

It does feel like it might be a to be determined situation, but it is we don't have a big

Um venue for for something like that. Think of like an amphitheater would be mainly what i'm talking about

But we certainly have a nice riverfront that could be dressed up very very well for a festival without any

No issue there at all

Um, you know my first thoughts on it not to go too far into something here local

But I mean it it I I do believe it's a big deal

I do believe the people who care about this are very passionate and dedicated towards it

Um, it it does it just immediately kind of felt a little contrived a little forced in

I I get I don't I don't I don't know why i'm thinking that exactly other than it just doesn't feel like this is a

Chattanooga thing but we have a lot of events that aren't you know iron man? Um, uh the head of the hooch

Just some rowing event, uh decathlon event that we have here

They didn't start here. We brought them here and they're they become events here. So

That's a silly thing to get hung up on

Um, but it's interesting you say it that way the head of the hooch to me started in uh outside of atlanta

Um chat a hooch that hence the name

But I can't think of anything more perfect for downtown chattanooga than that event because of the way the the riverfront lays out

Yeah, it's very cool. It is cool, but you're right. It didn't start here, but it fits here iron man

I i'm with you on that one

Well this world of bluegrass thing

Um, it's been going for a while now and it's just it's very well established and I spent some time in on the raleigh reddit pages

reddit subreddits and

Nobody is happy about

How these pissed off there was not a you know

There's it's almost impossible to look at a thread on social and not find somebody who's like good riddance

The parking was terrible like something anything right?

There's uh, oh man

Here's let me give you my anecdotal story of my bad day and here's why this sucks

Not even any of that they were like, uh

We've you know for

For a dozen years they've been working on that

And we don't do anything in the city of chattanooga though like this. This is going to be an interesting. Um

Uh

How it comes together?

Structurally because this is kind of I think austin texas when I think of a city that an event like this where it's right

sprawls out it's not just in a concentrated area and

The way they talked about it in raleigh. It sounded like it took over their their whole city

they're also two and almost two and a half times bigger than us and

And they said it took over their city in a way that was very complimentary

it was we got all these things to do and some of them are free and some of them are not and

So that get that makes it a lot of options for a lot of different people

I don't want to pay x dollars to go see bands. I've never heard of fine

We'll go over here where everything's free and and then turns out that everybody seems to enjoy that

So it'd be interesting to see how we as a city pull off something. We've never done like this, but i'm excited for it

Yeah, how does this affect the three sisters?

Because we have our own bluegrass festival. I'm getting ready to get into that but

No, no, no, i'm glad you brought it up. I was but I want to

Finish up what brian was talking about

We had uh, donna l who is with the chattanooga tourism company on a radio show that I do

On saturdays. She was very instrumental in bringing it in and to your point brian

The reason we got it we got it over 32 other cities

I mean there was a big battle huntsville for example was in the running little rock

And the reason I bring that up is as we talked about on here south star is going to huntsville because the mayor

really really wants wanted an event that would appeal to

the the

Type of people that they want to move to huntsville

Huntsville right the engineers the young movers and shakers the creatives

So they went after it

Um chattanooga went after this and the reason that they got it, I believe and according to donna is because they

Managed to get so many different people at the table

You know and and some federal or state money state money state was behind it our state tourism people are all about it

Everybody got behind it because

It's a big deal. Yeah to the credit of tennessee

Legislators, which I throw under the bus every chance I get as you there was a there was a lot of

Concern that I don't know where that money came from. Um, it could have been that infrastructure bill federally

I don't know but it came from somewhere and everybody was worried here in the state

Is that all just going to go to nashville is nashville going to the titans have a new stadium to nashville's the coolest thing in the

In the country on this side of the mississippi when it's not as nearly as cool as people will tell you that it is

But no to their credit to tennessee's credit. They really doled this money out. I at least for us

Very generously and that's we didn't have to get into taxpayers. We didn't have the referendum this thing

We didn't have the vote on it. It's being paid for by this. I'm sorry. I wish I wrote it down the

tennessee

whatever fund and that's a big reason but also because of the amount of

Uh support it got from local politicians and local

Musicians leaders music leaders all those kinds of people so again the point that you know

The reason we're talking about it on this show, which is mostly about bonnaroo

But it's about festivals and music in general is this is this is what's happening. This is the new

Um, you know, this is the new reality. This is what you have to do to get these type of events and

And these are the type of events they can

I mean we get it for three years

Uh, and brian you you've talked about we're we're looking at bringing a building a new baseball stadium

Uh, these are the kinds of things that people get all fired up about

Uh, because it's taxpayer money whatever but it it changes it can impact

The type of city you live in you know, you have something like this

Oh, I love it when my tax dollars go and build new stadiums. Nobody wants to hear me say that

I know in the political conversation nobody wants nobody cares because that is that is also anecdotal and doesn't really matter to the overall scope

But to me

Yeah, that's where I want my money. Y'all are going to spend it on something and probably waste half of it

Go ahead and build a stadium with it if you want

But here with this situation the world of bluegrass and reason went through so easily and the excitement

I wouldn't call it excitement around here because I don't think many people really know what it is

Not yet. They don't but the but the anticipation is right

What ain't causing us nothing. So who cares?

No, that's exactly right. And and I think the three of us can agree

I don't care about bluegrass. It's

Probably my least favorite type of we we've never really talked about that

You know that i've said i've either hinted around it or then straight out came and said it out loud

I don't get this stuff either but hey, it's still fun. I respect it. I love it. I can I know people

I look at you know, the sand bushes the belly strings

It's a party. It's a party every time it's a great time. It's easy to drink a cold beer

It's it's as good as it gets to stand around and drink a cold beer and I respect the players

But to me, it's the same song just played three different ways fast faster and fastest russ

Where are you with us on this? Are you with us? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you know, I like you know one or two bluegrass songs and then i'm like

Because it is you gotta be careful who you say that out loud true

Mm-hmm. You really really really do and I don't want to stunt and we you know a lot

I know a lot of bluegrass players. I mean we all do some of them are on pretty

Regionally high rungs of ladders and I don't want to mess up those relationships by telling people

I think their music sucks and I don't not they're there but uh the the generalization

Yeah, but I don't think it sucks. I just don't like it. And yeah, it's just boring

You know, we know cindy pinion. She you guys it if there's anybody out there listening to this who has not seen

bluegrass forever

Sticker bumper stickers. I don't care what state you live in. I guarantee you you've seen a bluegrass forever bumper sticker

Yeah, it's got the silhouette of the guy with the stand-up base or is it a fiddle? Maybe it's a fiddle, but either way

Boxcar right boxcar pinion. It's cindy's dad. Okay

Tremendous respect for what she has done for bluegrass and that festival and it's here

So yeah, I don't I don't this I don't I don't hate it. I just it's not me

Yeah, and then russ brought up three sisters. Yeah, so I'm gonna go I want to talk about that

So that's the other thing that's really fascinating about this is we have an incredible

bluegrass festival in chattanooga

I can't imagine there's a better one because that one's so good

There can't be there cannot be that one's so boxcar pinion, you know

The fletcher bright and his family started a festival in chattanooga

It's almost 18 years ago

I think

It seems like it's more than that, but it's a little maybe 20. It may be a while. It's but it's been around for a while

It's two days. It's free and it is

Everybody who is anybody has played it and like I said

I'm not a bluegrass fan, but I've been and I go often because it's awesome

Yeah, I go every year and because it's free. I never miss a free event down

and

The pflax the sand bushes. I mean name them

Keller Williams. I know he's not a top draw anymore

But Keller is one of my favorites because he's not really a bluegrass guy, right?

Conforms to it, but then green sky bluegrass yonder mountain string band infamous string dusters this year

It is a big name every single year and this is now going to be within a week or two of each other

They're back to back

Is it back to back on purpose on purpose and I I will question that until I see it work

That's a lot. That's a lot of bluegrass saturation in a 10-day stretch

Well to the city's credit and I love them for doing this

They reached out to george bright fletcher bright who started this his family

flat george, I think if I if i'm right

George is my age went to his dad. His dad was is is was a real estate

mogul here in town tycoon around

Has has done more for this city's music scene than probably anybody that I can think of

But george went to his dad one day and said I think we need to do a festival

And and fletcher said okay, let's do it

And so they put up a bunch of money and they named this thing after george's literally three sisters

uh fletcher's three daughters

um and and

Created a festival for free

And it's been rolling ever since and I reached out to one of the somebody from the chattanooga tourism company last week

And just said because I didn't know

Were there discussions with anybody from fleets?

There was that's what I wanted to bring up

Um, yeah, and I got that I got that answer but go ahead. Yeah

This the ib ibma wanted to bring this here

12 years ago

And uh, there was some a lot of concern. They didn't want to make fletcher

You know didn't want to piss him off basically and at that time three

Yeah, and at that time three sisters was fairly new. So it was a touchy

uh, but this time around

Uh and from what I understand, uh guys, uh, randy steel who you both know, right? You should know, uh, yeah

You don't know randy. Okay. Randy's a fireman, but he's also a terrific

Um musician bluegrass one of the kindest gentlest souls you'll ever meet so great. He's ever raised his voice

Never seen it before. I think he's awesome

But apparently he is a member of ibma and and you know

Heard that maybe they were thinking about moving and he reached out to uh stratton tingle

Ah and said I think we got a chance. I think we you know, are we interested and

So phone calls were made they called chattanooga tourism and then dominoes

now

That's such a chattanooga story most of you guys out there listening

But it's the way it works anywhere. That's why i'm mentioning it. So well and it's

It's really good for I mean, I I don't love the idea

We're stacking up a bunch of bluegrass right as college football starts too. That matters here doesn't matter to me as much but it matters around here

Don't love that idea, but I do love the idea of of of getting something. Yeah, you're you're losing

Add addition subtract. There you go. It's the way life goes and i'm fine. I'm good with i'm happy about it

And they did call george to your to your that was the exact thing

Response I got was they called george and he first person we talked to was george fletcher and I said well

Question answered. Thank you very much. Right right right right right called george and he said yeah, let's do this because it's such a big thing. So

Anyway, uh, you know, like I said, we talk festivals and i'm just fascinated by how this type of thing works

Yeah, september of next year. I'm end of september and then the uh, three sisters is the first week of october. So

If you like bluegrass, we got a ton of it

Come grab a room plan to stay the week. You can throw a tent up in taco's backyard

Don't look for the bus

All right, so what do we want to talk about next we got uh, let's get the lalapalooza for a minute our buddy brad is there

um

He dodged my hey you want to come on the show

Um, he got when he hits the big city, especially chicago. He really likes the city of chicago. He goes a little hard sometimes

and uh

I wasn't expecting i'd love to have him on to to to talk about it

But he's there as per usual with his amazing access, but

You know, even if that weren't the case

Chappell Roan that oh my god

Could you get another person into that room into that space?

Oh my god, this is insane. I mean it just keeps blowing my mind

Running off and seeing the dead and getting wrapped back up in the dead for like a month brought me out of the Chappell Roan

hysteria I was in

But it's slowly creeping back in when I see it like the bonnaroo crowd now

Doesn't look like all that big a deal

I mean, that was pretty nice

Grant park, I don't know how big it is

But because i've been to chicago, but not grant park

It's pretty damn big though

See, yeah a see a see a see a see from like

As far back as you could possibly be and i've saw several different vantage points on socials

Of people dancing and losing it to Chappell Roan would look to be so far away

They weren't even at the festival. They were that far back and

Just having a blast as if they were 20 rows out

this woman

This this young lady Chappell Roan is taking over pop music

Watch out taylor swift you are mild to the bone

Compared to what this woman's doing. I mean, I i'm i'm jumping way ahead of the you know, car. Yeah

I'm not really go there yet. I don't know. I've talked some

I've talked to some taylor people some pop people in some industry-ish types that are like this ascension is

Possibly on its way. We'll see. I don't know that might be a little hyperbolically stupid but

She's no, I don't taking pop and going nuts with it. It's great. I love it

I don't disagree with the at the moment thing. It's uh, my my

Hesitation is taylor has been around forever getting yeah

Yeah, and continues and the the only thing is anybody who's asked me do they do do I think that Chappell has staying power?

And that that's the whole thing. That's that's that was my point

Yeah, can she keep doing that? Well the to me the quick answer which this is a question that can't be answered but for me

Her music I mean I now know it all I know every song chaparone's ever played

I know them all and they are all at least

On a level of pretty good this isn't just bubblegum corporate designed pop music. This is

well

Well layered what could be played as acoustic rock songs if you wanted to just barely rearrange them

their lyrics are are

Are brilliant the music arrangement is brilliant

What she does most of and the fact that everything she's done to this point

Is at least on a level of pretty good like pink pony club and hot to go that ever

That's the ones that hit all the clips

Those are her dumbest songs by far the dumb it like the dumbest

No real meeting other than just get the place moving

Most everything else has a deeper meaning but it's not so coded. You can't get it. But I just love the snark

Oh, it's got it. It's got a dash everything. The recipe is almost perfect. It's got a good dash of brash a good dash of

Right snark. It's got f you in there. It's got I love you in there. It's got i'll do you know it

Yeah, it's good good good

And uh that picture and I know we'll have it posted but I don't see how they could have gotten one more person into that space

Close to a safety hazard really. Um, I think the weather was pretty good in in chicago

I don't think the heat was was was like crazy crazy crazy bad and and they also you know

I'm sure the infrastructure there is pretty pretty darn good and I didn't read or hear of anything

That that was a of a danger at least not on a on a headline level

One thing real quick. I do want to say though when we were coming up with the idea of the

And I was still kind of riding my high so I was uh,

Uh, you know, I would regularly I know I use lalapalooza as an example a lot where i'm like

Well, you don't get this kind of stuff at lalapalooza or you're like this is and that's just me being a little uh,

Exaggeration to the moment kind of prisoner of the moment when I was watching a bunch of this stuff from lala on uh on social

over the last week

It kind of and I think it's kind of like a

Needed to see this stuff from lala on uh on social over the last week

It kind of and I know taco you can speak to this because you've been to more of them recently than me

There is something certainly still pretty special about a city festival too

Like there is moments of

This is great like nowhere else, too

And so if i've ever felt sounded like I was shortchanging some of those

I miss my old music, Midtown Days and the Shakey Knees.

I've been to Shakey in four or five years.

That kind of stuff is really, really fun in its own way.

And I, Taco, I know you just went to Shakey earlier this year.

It is, yeah, I went to Shakey.

And of course, I'm biased.

I prefer a camping festival.

But there's still a lot of fun you can have at a city festival,

for sure.

Especially just because there's so much else to do, really.

Yeah.

If you've got good accommodations and a good setup,

that helps everything.

But I mean even further than that, there

is a level of kind of getting immersed.

That Grant Park looked magical.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Oh my god.

As long as everybody's safe, I would have done anything

to be in Grant Park yesterday.

And it wouldn't have mattered if we went home to my home,

to a hostel, to wherever.

It's got Park Bench.

I'll sleep on that tonight, whatever it is.

I loved going to Forecastle because of Louisville.

Hey, I've missed out on that.

It was as much about Louisville as it was the music.

Loved it.

Our friend correspondent Trevon Bernarding

is currently, as we're talking today, up in Canada at Oceaga.

Yeah, and I wanted to shift to that too, which

he and another friend of ours referred to as, or at least

a couple people did, forget who exactly,

that it's basically the Lollapalooza of Canada.

Yeah.

It's Oceaga.

O-S-H-E-A-G-A.

I had to go and look it up and then write it out phonetically.

O-S-H-E-A-G-A.

And he's, to your point, Trevon is,

and we'll probably have him on again,

because he loves these festivals.

But this one is special to him.

And he's gone by himself.

He's gone camping.

He's done City Fest.

But this one was one that he is with his wife

and I think two of his daughters.

I don't know if all three are there.

But I reached out this morning and he just texted me back

and said, it's a great vibe with the international feel.

The best lineup for me was yesterday

with Chappell, Chappell Roan, Mid Afternoon,

and then Rancid, Smashing Pumpkins, and Green Day.

How about that, Tago?

Wow.

I'm glad you brought that up, because I

forgot to pull it up.

That day in particular, the way this thing

is stacked up on the main stage, that

would have been Saturday night at Oceaga in Montreal.

So yeah, Chappell at, I can't even read the times.

They're in some kind of French decoding.

I don't know what it is.

But early in the day, we'll call that probably 2.30 or so.

Chappell Roan, Rancid, the punk ass Rancid,

who got popular because of Green Day.

That's why I know who Rancid is.

But I would have thought Rancid was a band for 30 years.

So Chappell, Rancid, then Renee Rapp,

who Renee Rapp and Chappell Roan are going

to have a crossover big time.

But I like how they laid it out, because it kind of

lets people, gives time to kind of chill, come back.

And then the headline with Green Day.

That's a long day of very emotional roller coaster music.

Chappell Roan and Renee Rapp's, I'll

fight you over my boyfriend too, Ty.

Like, I'll make you feel stupid too, girl.

She sings that way too.

That'd be a fun day of music.

And then I guess he wrapped up the day with Linda Lindas

and T-Pain.

And then, let's see, Green Day.

Yeah, and then Noah Khan.

Smashing Pumpkins too, Russ.

Noah Khan was up there.

So Noah Khan headlines on Sunday night.

OK.

Yeah.

All right.

So it is a really cool looking festival.

And I knew that Montreal and Quebec was pretty French.

I double checked.

I didn't realize it's French.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think, and again, we'll have Traven on.

But I'm pretty sure they're there,

because his daughter is a huge Noah Khan fan.

And this was a family thing.

And I get to go to Montreal.

And you get to go to Canada to see a music festival.

So that sounds great.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah, very cool.

Yeah.

Neil Young dropped out of everything.

The Crazy Horse band got sick.

And they're all 80.

Neil's the youngest of Crazy Horse.

There's three of them, including Neil.

He's 78.

The rest of them are 80 plus.

And so he's out of Bourbon Beyond,

was is a California festivals.

Actually Eddie Vedders, he's one of the producers of it.

But he dropped out of both of those and Sting

was replaced for both those festivals.

Does that do anything for you, Barry?

Does Sting being added to a festival,

especially one like Bourbon and Beyond

that we were all so excited about,

does that mean anything to you?

I've seen, we saw Sting, we saw the police at Bonnaroo, right?

That was all I needed, but.

Yeah, it was disappointing only because it was such a,

if you remember, we all thought,

cause Andy Summer, right, had played the year before,

Sumner had played the year before with,

was it Oysterhead?

Oysterhead, yeah.

Oh, Copeland, Copeland, Stewart, Copeland,

Stewart Copeland, sorry.

And so we. And he sat and he played with people

like all weekend long.

Yeah, yeah, and so we thought this police set

was gonna be this mind blowing thing

and it was just straight up.

It was just sending me out of Nessos.

It was like, sounded just like the radio kind of thing.

I don't remember it real, real well

because I don't like, I don't like the police much at all.

And I don't know, Sting, he's fine.

Yeah. He's fine.

You know, he's fine.

To your question, I would rather see Neil.

Yeah. Personally, but.

I think, well, I don't see, I don't know

if that would be a universal answer or not

because Sting is quite obviously quite popular.

So I think on paper though, that's a really good,

that's a really good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'll give you that. Change out.

I'll give you that.

That's, that's star for star.

Yeah. I'll give you that.

So.

Legacy act for legacy act for sure.

And then Bourbon and Beyond, I mean, they,

I wanted to go into this just for a minute too.

This is, I'll start here

and then you'll see why in a sec.

So Bourbon and Beyond is just stacked

by everybody's estimation from a star power name

to a, to a niche artist on down.

It's just one of the better festival lineups

we've ever seen.

It doesn't matter who's playing on that Thursday.

It could be Rod Stewart, you know,

just insert somebody here

because Zach Brian is the headliner on that Saturday.

Are either of you guys paying that close of attention

to the ascension of what this Zach Brian guy,

where he's gone, where he's going?

Have y'all, have y'all seen this?

Have you, does it matter?

Does it mean anything to you?

Only that it's huge.

Yeah. I mean.

Because for me, for a while it was the,

all the, this, the first name, last name guys,

Zach Brian, Luke Brian, Luke, Luke, John, John,

Perry, John, like I don't, I don't know who these people are.

Right.

Yeah. I'm getting, I'm going to sideways now, but

Perry.

Like all these guys, like this is, you know,

there's so many of the Morgan wall and you know, all these,

and, and, and I just was not giving it any,

any amount of my attention.

And it was just, I was blowing it off and rolling my eyes

and acting like you guys are crazy.

This can't be that good.

And then if you read, I don't want to get, you know,

two other ways sideways here,

any kind of political conversation.

But if you look at Zach Brian's just Wiki or whatever,

but if just anything with a biograph,

a biography kind of write up layout,

it reads like a Toby Keith write up, which is fine.

I mean, I don't really want to read any more about it, but I,

but so I'm thinking, okay, star spangled. Awesome.

I gotcha.

And the more I've looked at this and the more I've talked to

people who, when they tell me to listen to something,

if I'm not following their lead, then that's on me.

And I, and they're never wrong, like almost undefeated types.

They're like, dude,

just stop what you're doing and listen to this stuff.

You'll love it. And I still haven't done it,

but other than enough to realize, okay,

maybe they're onto something, but he,

that whole festival is wrapped up around bourbon and beyond

that Zach Brian show on that Saturday night.

Like that, that day pass and most weekends sold just

because of him. It blows my mind. How big,

this guy's filling up football stadiums.

Yeah. I know Sharla from the Roobus is a huge fan.

That's the whole reason she came to moon river was just for

Zach Brian.

Yeah, that, that was, that's when it started was at moon

river. When I was with some people who,

some of them, I didn't respect their opinion all that much.

Well, we're going to go see, but Zach Brian was like, well,

yee haw and shucks. We'll see you later guys.

And that was, you know, wrong of me,

but that's when it started. And he has, boy, that was,

he was nothing at that point, but,

but his fan base was building and it's it singer songwriter

is bull thing. People are like, if you like Jason is bull,

dude, then this is where you need to be,

but haven't quite got there yet myself.

Speaking of, and we need to check South star,

the Huntsville festival. I don't,

I think you guys probably got the same email I did.

If you were a, if you went to moon river,

you got an email that, hey, moon river ticket buyers,

you can get tickets to South star. Did you guys get that?

Yeah, I, I don't know. I don't know, but I wonder.

That's what I, that's my point. I wonder, I would have,

I've assumed that would have sold out by now or been,

do we know what the, have we guessed or know what the

capacity on that might be?

I think it's in that 12 to, well, probably 15.

I'm going to get, so not, not, not a huge number.

It's a boutique as we call them.

Good, good.

For the sake of when I go on that Saturday,

if that's what I ended up doing.

I am going, I already have my, my accommodations.

Daniel tells me that my accommodations are set.

So I'm going.

Oh yeah, no, I, I, our options are pretty plentiful

for this one. So it's, it's, it's a, even,

it's a difficult one to, to not do because it's such a,

it's so convenient, a convenient situation, but Russell

be in the bus.

Of course he will.

No, I'll be, I actually can't make this one.

I got a conflict.

That's right. You can't go.

You were going to go with Lindsay.

Those damn weddings get you every time.

I know.

You haven't grown out of those weddings.

I guess the younger, you know,

send a gift, send a gift.

The family.

She's registered send her, send her the gift card.

Anyway, we'll talk about that.

The ticket prices for that thing are not that bad.

Like 250 ish on the starting point to 300.

I mean, I think some,

I think we're starting to change our mind on what good

and bad the definition is for ticket prices.

But I overall, I think it's pretty good.

If you got it on that ticket code, it was, you know,

about 200, which was really good.

Oh, early on.

Yeah.

I'm still looking forward to it.

I want to see, I want to see Stephanie.

I want to see Jane's addiction back.

Jane's addiction is my number, number one has to know,

you know, no concessions going to be made here.

Cause they're, I don't think I've,

and Stephanie, I believe is that Saturday night too.

And I've never seen no doubt or her.

So that would be good to get that out of the way too.

But it is non-negotiable.

Jane's addiction.

And I believe that's maybe Russ,

you would know this better than me.

That's, that's Navarro, right?

That's, that's Dave Navarro.

That's, that's, that's all, that's the,

that's the real band that matters.

Yeah. I've never seen them.

And there never been one of my top, you know,

anywhere near top favorites,

but they certainly got cool music that needs to be seen.

Yeah.

All right.

You'll be, you'll be dancing at a wedding.

You know, we do what we have to do, right?

All right.

What else?

I got these from Bonnaroo Loopholes to Reality Group,

which is actually one of the more popular ones.

So just some dates coming up this year

that I didn't confirm any of this since we got a second,

I'll throw them out there.

Cause I just happened to print it off.

Pre-sale dates that usually come around Thanksgiving,

November 16th, where they're saying, whoever they is,

lineup drop January 9th.

These do fall on the dates that they normally do.

Plus this person who,

who put this little significant date post out,

also put up a Google doc of all these exact dates

of the last five festivals.

So just to show where, I mean, this is some fandom crazy.

That's why I even looked at it.

I was like, this guy, this is awesome.

Like, I don't know if it's accurate.

Isn't that funny?

But when five years back to show that all these dates fall

right about on those same times.

So, you know,

lineup schedule, April 2nd,

if you want to go that far into 2025,

but look for maybe some tickets for sale on the pre-sale

in November and I mean,

it'll be November before you know it.

And it'll be, things will start to be news building up

just a couple of months from now.

Yeah, it won't be long.

I watched our last-

Speaking of loophole, we should, oh, sorry.

Go ahead.

I was gonna say, speaking of loophole,

I'm surprised we should probably get Shayna on at some point.

Yep, okay.

I don't, who's Shayna?

Well, she's the admin for the Facebook group.

It's a pretty big group.

Oh, okay.

I was trying to connect the dot too.

Sorry.

Yeah, my bad, my bad, my bad.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a very, very, very populated group.

Yeah.

I'm surprised we hadn't had her on.

That's a good thought.

There's a bunch.

Note to self.

Here we go.

Yeah, we're gonna have, again,

I think next week, you know, unless something changes,

we will have our winner of our contest

to win crap from my basement.

I actually sent her some pretty cool stuff, to be honest.

But I can't wait to hear her story.

So we have a lot of guests lined up.

As we mentioned before,

we're gonna have some of the folks from C3,

but that won't be till this fall

to talk about what went right last year

and what plans they have for next year.

I'm looking forward to that.

So, all right.

I can't think of anything else.

I think we're pretty much caught up.

I mean, we're hitting the stretch

of just a few festivals left, really.

I mean, there's the few that end up in September and October

and we've already mentioned a couple of them,

but you know, things start to settle down as we're,

still blazing hot down here in the South,

but it won't be long before that changes.

I don't know about you guys,

but August seemed like it was way, way,

way out in the future.

Back in June 11th, you mean?

Yeah, and then we hit August 1st and I'm like, holy.

What?

Well, we have milked everything from Bonnaroo

for as long as we can.

There is nothing left.

There's nothing but B-roll

and us cussing at each other and arguing.

Yee-haw and chucks.

Yee-haw and chucks.

Oh, and thanks to Beth.

That was really fun.

And Russ, thank you.

Y'all don't even have any idea what he had to do

to make that show work and you did a terrific job.

But thanks to Beth.

Also love the little standalone Woodstock video

you made separate there too on the YouTube channel, right?

Russ, yeah.

Yeah.

That's cool just to be able to separate those out.

Just to have a standalone thing.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Very good work, very good work.

Great work.

Thanks.

All right.

Great work.

Great work.

Great work.

See you guys.