On today's episode of The What Podcast, we take a slight detour from Bonnaroo 2024 discussion and recap recent events. Russ went camping (again), and Bryan Stone flew out to Las Vegas to catch three nights of Dead & Company at The Sphere, plus the Hoover Dam.
Bringing things back to Bonnaroo though, we also feature our interview with Happy Landing, who performed on the Who Stage Thursday at Bonnaroo 2024. Andrew, Wilson, Jacob, Keegan, and Matty from the band sat down with us and talked about doing their first Bonnaroo.
Listen to this episode of The What Podcast here or watch it on YouTube. Do us a solid and also like, review, and subscribe to The What Podcast wherever you listen.
Topics: Las Vegas Sphere, Dead & Company, Bonnaroo, Happy Landing
Guests: Andrew Gardner, Wilson Moyer, Jacob Christensen, Keegan Christensen, Matty Hendley
00:00 | Intro |
02:12 | Contest Update |
04:55 | Upcoming shows |
07:55 | Russ went camping again |
11:05 | Dead & Co. at The Sphere |
49:06 | Setting up this week's interview |
53:49 | Happy Landing at Bonnaroo |
01:08:37 | Outro |
So even if you are in the most subdued time of the show,
you still have three dimensional stars coming at you.
You get so used to it, you don't realize it anymore.
You don't realize you're looking at something
that if you were on, you know, that classic,
if I was on acid, this would look crazy.
So many people have said before,
the whole show is that, the whole show is that.
["The Last Supper"]
Welcome back to another edition of the What Podcast.
I'm Barry, that's Russ, that's Bryan Stone.
We are wrapping up, we're getting closer to wrapping up
our sort of recap of Bonnaroo 2024.
We did, you know, several interviews with bands on site,
say She She, Miss Shegander, Gwar.
And today we're gonna bring you the interview
that we did with Happy Landing.
But the big news, and we'll get to it here in a little bit,
our man Bryan, world traveler, jet setter, you know.
The 2024 Bryan Summer of Fun is in Lake Two,
just wrapped up, man.
I was thinking about this earlier.
This is like a whole new Bryan.
This was, Bryan typically is the guy who holds up in his house
and, you know, we don't see him for a while.
Or just goes to the show and says,
he has my fun and then just goes home and keeps him.
Find something to complain about.
Damn it, I couldn't hear the guitar very well, damn it.
Guy in front of me had the biggest afro ever or something,
you know, whatever.
But all of a sudden now he's going to Bonnaroo,
he's going later to New York for Madison Square Garden
to see one of his other favorite bands.
But this past weekend he went out to Las Vegas.
To the Sphere.
To the Sphere and saw the dead.
And we're going to hear about that ad nauseam here in a little bit.
We will.
We're going to hear about Russ's other camping trip.
You had a little music mini festival, non-Bonnaroo related, right?
I'm sure there was probably one or two people there.
Yeah, nothing to do with Bonnaroo.
Nothing to do.
But I wanted to real quickly, coincidentally,
we've sort of not talked about it here in a while,
but we started a contest before Bonnaroo
asking people to tell us which bands to see.
But then we also said share with us one of your favorite memories
or pieces of memorabilia.
And then we would come up with a prize packet.
We didn't have a date, we didn't have a prize pack, anything like that.
Something from my basement.
Basically something I want to get rid of to clear out space.
Coincidentally, my buddy that I work with, his wife,
showed up at the office Friday.
And guess what he found?
Well, I know, so I won't spoil.
At a yard sale.
Oh, wow.
So, really is one of the cooler promotional...
Why don't you describe it for the people that aren't watching?
Bonnaroo things.
You're not watching.
So yeah, 2014, Bonnaroo delivered your tickets, basically,
your wristband, and a lunchbox.
And it's really cool.
Rufus is all over it.
You know, all the iconic sort of things that are...
That has been 10 years now, hasn't it?
Wow.
Yeah, yeah.
And the funny thing is, I have two of these already,
but I didn't want to get rid of them.
No, I wouldn't get rid of mine.
And now I have a third that I didn't have to buy,
so I'm going to give it away.
And whatever I can stuff in here, there's already...
And here's the other.
This is how selfish I am.
I have a couple of bandanas still in the cellophane.
Wow.
And since I have duplicates, I'm willing to part with them.
Well, I was going to...
I had it on a note to do the other week or so,
and I might do it again later on down the road.
But the amount...
And maybe I already mentioned it,
but the amount of stuff people collected, Bonnaroo,
is getting so absurd now,
it kind of makes it look like our collection's
not as good as we thought it was.
The collectibles are just such a part of it,
and I love it because I love knickknacks.
I'll take anything you'll give me.
But yeah, I guess we're looking at getting somebody a winner
within the next week, by next show.
Yeah, so let me see if I can get it right.
4, 2, 3, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 7, 7?
Yeah, but we've just got to pick a winner.
We've already run the contest.
Well, I wouldn't mind having...
What do you mean?
People can't call in with more of these?
I mean, I'm all about it.
I want to hear all these memories.
Well, you better hurry either way,
because we're picking a winner real soon.
We're picking a winner real soon.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think we're going to have much time.
Somebody's going to get that swell lunchbox
and whatever else I can fit in there.
All right, wanted to do that,
and we have still, like I said,
we have our gore interview,
which was a relatively short one,
but we have a special episode planned
that we're probably going to spend more time than we should.
Probably end up dedicating,
based on the way I've been putting together my head,
a majority of a show to goire.
I think it's worth it.
I think we'll have some special guests
that were involved with the show,
at least from a coverage standpoint,
and I think that's going to be a lot of fun.
The interview is like three minutes,
and that I thought, you know, at first, like,
damn, that's it.
Of course, I didn't know what to do.
I didn't know how to get any more,
but that's all anybody got,
because everybody was like,
it's not like, so where do you go next on the tour, guys?
Or we go to bleep, bleep, bleep.
Your mom's house.
We go to your mom's bedroom.
That's exactly right.
It was exactly what was needed,
but there's some other stuff that happened around it
that we're going to talk about,
and then, of course, we have what I think
is sort of the put the final wrap on it
was our interview that we did on the real bus,
the Roo Bus, with a bunch of people
that you should recognize their names
if you listen to any of these podcasts.
Yeah, so we'll bleed into August for the recap stuff,
so anything we haven't got to yet,
we're still working on that.
And then we're lining up some stuff
I'm pretty excited about.
We want to talk to some of the C3 people
festival people
and get their take on what went well,
what went wrong.
They would never say that.
Things, what do they call them?
Challenges?
Challenges, yes.
Challenges.
Challenges.
You mean the big F up, right?
Yes, the challenge.
I meant the challenge.
Things we can improve on.
That's always fun, and I'm really looking forward to that.
All right, and then we'll start thinking about
planning for next year before we know it.
We'll have to start looking at mock.
It's like sports media.
Mock draft season.
It's mock.
Not yet, though.
Not a chance yet.
But here into the fall,
once fall starts creeping in,
we'll have to start looking at mock lineups
and then doing our evaluations there.
But nowhere near yet, not yet.
Well, bands start putting out their upcoming 2025 tours,
and that's when everybody tries to read the tea leaves
and look, oh, there's a gap in June,
and they're not announcing anything.
Maybe they're playing Bonnaroo.
It's a lot of that kind of like...
I love it.
Yeah.
Oh, it's fun.
And yeah, people have gotten pretty sophisticated.
I mean, we know from doing this show enough
that they're not going to be out, you know,
they're not going to do Bonnaroo if they don't have product.
So you can look at who's got product coming out
or who put product out this year.
Album cycle is a big deal.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's gotten pretty sophisticated,
and some folks have gotten pretty close.
So anyway, we'll look forward to all that.
So all right, Russ, why don't you go first?
This is another camping trip.
Shockey, Russ went camping, everybody.
He waits until it warms up outside a little bit.
Big show today, Russ goes camping.
Yeah, once again, sorry.
Yeah.
Now, this was another one of those like undisclosed locations,
and you know, kind of it's who you know to get in.
So this one was on Lookout Mountain,
so pretty much right in here in our backyard in Georgia.
It's like speakeasy camping.
You got to have the password.
Yeah, this isn't something you just, you know, show up at.
You got to know, and you got to know when and where and who is the big thing.
But this is a bluff right on the side of Lookout Mountain,
and it's a big, flat, narrow piece of land
that, you know, we all kind of line up and camp on.
And this is actually an airstrip.
They had planes taking off and landing while we were there.
And, you know, of course, you got to, you know, clear the area.
Plane's coming in, so, you know, we all have to kind of make sure nobody's,
you know, get the dogs up, make sure nobody's in the flight path.
And, you know, then sure enough, you know, a little plane comes in.
And these are like, you know, light sport aircraft.
So these are, you know, pretty small.
I was going to say, I'm picturing Wayne's World
having a real deep conversation on the back of the Pinto
or whatever they drive, and then hold on, here it goes.
Oh! And the plane comes flying.
Pretty much, yeah.
You were thinking that, and I was picturing some dog
chasing an airplane's tire as they want to do.
Well, they're about big enough for that.
I mean, you know, it could freak a dog out if, you know, a giant plane comes in.
But, yeah, these were just, you know, sport aircraft that people come in and land.
And so we did that. They had a few bands to play.
There was an 80s cover band, which I thought was pretty fun.
You know, just, you know, silly little stuff like that.
Our buddy Butch Ross, I don't know if you know him.
I know Butch.
He's played a lot in Chattanooga. Yeah, he played. He plays up there every year.
The Dulcimer is what he is most known for.
I love Butch. He's great.
Yeah, Butch is awesome.
So, yeah, we had a bunch of food.
You know, we had a bunch of beer.
It was just a really fun, pleasant camping weekend.
Well, I mean, I guess part of what I'm hearing is that I'm not on that list.
I didn't sound like you were either, Brian, even though you're out of town.
So that's a Ross special right there.
You got to get the knock knock high sign next year.
Yeah. Yeah, this is a it's called.
They call it the the Nerfi N.R.F.E.
No Room for Error is the name of the landing strip because it really is.
If you don't get in there just right, you know, you're not going to make it
because it's a very narrow path.
There's nothing but trees and everything around.
It's pretty wild.
All right.
All right. Anything else?
That's it for me.
I mean, nothing to do with nothing compared to what Brian did.
I didn't want to cut you off.
Thank you.
Because I think we know when Brian gets going on this, he's very excited about this trip that he made out to the sphere.
So all right.
First of all, I got to ask and then I'm going to let you talk.
Yeah, ask all you guys.
Any hundred and twenty eight degrees.
No, I think it didn't get above one twenty.
All right.
Well, good for you then.
Not above one twenty.
Really?
So much of Vegas connects.
You don't really have to go outside much.
It really wasn't much of a deal.
And it's you know, I wasn't in it for long, but it was it doesn't feel much different than 97 here with all the humidity.
I mean, it really doesn't. But I didn't walk around in it for an hour.
You know, if I did that, I guess I could get back to you.
But yes, it was it was certainly in record temperatures, at least as far as consistency of where it was.
Not not necessarily a top out number, but I think like five or six days in a row is 115 plus, which is reaching some kind of record thing.
So even for the locals, it was awfully warm.
But I tell it seriously, though, I am so giddy.
I barely been back. It's about 28 hours now.
So I haven't had I slept most of that.
So I haven't had a lot of a ton of time to digest.
And I've been boring every single person I run into about it.
And and I and I'm like, hold on.
I just want to tell you a minute.
And then I just go and go, hold on.
I want to get to grad to detailed.
And then I go detail, detail, detail.
So I'll try not to do that here either.
And and a little bit of a spoiler alert.
If this is something you're wanting to do, there's two.
There's one more chance to do it this year.
And I think they'll do another one next year.
I didn't want anybody telling me anything going into it.
And many people told me that it's not going to matter.
Don't worry about it. It really isn't going to matter.
Didn't care what they had to say.
I still didn't want to hear it.
And I stayed away, away, away, away.
They are right.
I can't spoil this.
I can give you an idea of how neat it is, but I cannot.
It is not possible to be spoiled.
And and one of the I listen to a podcast on the way up.
I wish I could get accredited here, but it was by a guy who did the did the show,
that podcast show the night after the first night of this two and a half month run.
So two months ago.
So the first time anybody's ever seen this.
And he's the what stuck out the most to me was he said it's kind of it would to me if to him,
it feels like trying to tell somebody I don't remember what year you use,
but I'll just make up a year, somebody in 1915 who only knows maybe still pictures.
Maybe you know what a good look, a decent still picture looks like.
And trying to explain to that person what a major motion picture with light, sound, music,
and an auditorium to watch it in.
You tell that person, they say you live on Mars, dude.
You know, I thought that was perfect when I was listening on the way up.
And as soon as I saw it, I was like, that's like the perfect way to explain it
because you couldn't explain to that guy or girl, woman, that technological advance.
You really can't do that here either.
First of all, Vegas sucks.
Vegas is a stupid city.
That place sucks.
And I don't gamble.
And nowadays I don't party or drink.
I still I could still have fun at a party, but none of it.
I mean, just none of it is of any interest to me.
I've seen crazier stuff going on every other block in New York City than I saw in Vegas.
I mean, that's just it's like Disneyland for adults.
Well, yeah, they're I mean, it's a rabbit hole, but everything I've heard is they're sort of confused
and conflicted between whether they want to be family oriented or not.
Well, it does feel like there's a lot of kids.
I mean, the the the well, at least I was in this strip area, which is the Mirage is over there,
the Treasure Island, a lot of the ones I remember from the old movies.
Those are all coming down and they're going to be, you know,
a major archeological or architectural wonders in themselves.
I was at the Venetian, which is one of the nicest places, which is a place that never ends.
And it's a big mall and it's really nice.
And the the casinos themselves, when I first saw it, it's first time I've been in a casino.
I thought it was an arcade. It's like an arcade.
This is where you all spend all night long. Oh, you can smoke or there's places.
OK, great. You can have drinks and you're playing video games.
Yeah, that's what it looked like to me.
I didn't put a single dollar in. I thought I'd be
potentially talked into at least giving it a try.
It's like, well, you put money in that hit button.
Yeah. See you later. I'm out of here.
So that didn't do anything for me.
So this to to set it up, because I've heard you talk about it before on Stone On Air,
your own podcast, and we've talked about it.
Yeah, probably give it a little bit of backstory.
Yeah, that's all right.
Again, I know you're excited. So
this was a combination of the band that you wanted to see and the sphere, right.
And a friend of yours with an opportunity.
Yeah. That's how it all fell into place. Exactly.
Like I had no plans on doing this two months ago.
And a friend of mine who really just I mean, at our age, mid 40s,
not most your friends can't just drop what they're doing and run off to Vegas for a long weekend.
I could could if I wanted to.
And so I I like The Dead a lot. I don't love them.
They played Bonnaroo twice.
I wasn't at either one of them. I regret those.
I regret it, but I wasn't at either one of them.
They played Sunday both times. Sorry.
I leave Sunday haters.
But so I like The Dead a lot, but it really had nothing to do with them.
I needed to see the sphere. OK. And
who else are you going to you know, if if there's if there's another band that's designed for something like this,
I can't possibly think of of who it would be.
And I didn't pay full retail.
So that helped a lot, too.
And so that's yeah, that's how it came together.
And let me and you don't have to give away numbers.
But what does that mean? I mean, is it prohibitive or is it, you know, if cost going to cost?
Yeah, it's going to cost you.
But it's not prohibitive. I mean, you got in.
You got a ticket. It's cost prohibitive. OK.
I would. But he did you a solid. Yes.
I got you. OK. Very big, solid, very big, solid.
I think that it is absolutely cost prohibitive.
OK. To to a majority of the demographic that would listen to this,
which I am the demographic that would listen to this like, yes, it's very common.
Coming from Chattanooga, having a direct flight to Vegas.
That's going to help. Right. Helped a lot.
Kind of helped your decision. Helped a lot.
Well, that's that was the catalyst. That was like, OK, it's in my head with my buddy.
It's in my head. It's in my head. Whoa.
Now we can fly straight there, because for those of us, we just got direct.
We don't have a very good airport. We actually have a great airport.
But it just doesn't direct flight anywhere.
Many places anyway. And Vegas, we just got a direct flight.
So that was a big, big part of it. But tickets and lodging. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
OK. You've got to have you got to drop some money.
And if you just dropped what it would generally cost to go to Bonnaroo and do it right.
A month later, run off to Vegas. These are worlds I don't live in.
Yeah. My guess is most listeners don't live in that world either.
So I am not lost on me that the luck of the situation here has been very nice.
OK.
But also, when I was told about it, hey, we're going to do three nights.
Guys, you know, I've seen a ton of live music, just like all of us, you guys.
And I've been a big jam band guy back in the day. I've grown out of it.
But I love jam going to see two nights of something done it countless times.
I have never in my life seen the same band three nights in a row.
Never, never would consider it, even at times when I love like panic plays three nights all the time.
I've never done the three night run.
And so when it was like, yeah, we're doing three nights, going to Vegas to see.
And we got to fly back so fast and we're going to go to three dead shows.
I mean, I said it to him straight up. I don't think I like that idea.
But he said, well, then miracle the ticket, which is, you know, give it away or sell it or go gamble or do whatever you want to do.
I don't care. You know, yeah.
And by the time I got half. Well, basically, by the time the first show was over, I knew.
But after the second one, I was like, there's no chance I'm not doing the third one, mainly because Vegas sucks.
There's nothing else to do as far as I'm concerned.
But the. It's the it's overall, it's a production and it's of course, obviously, but it's it's it's a story.
It's a story arc and the show starts the same way every night and ends the same way every night.
And they use a lot of the same visuals with different songs and things like that.
So it's not a brand new like a Grateful Dead show is a different set every single night.
Right. But these visuals are not they're very much recycled, but they're used in different orders.
And so now the new thing is, of course, within the jam band community, guessing what are they going to open with?
What do you think? What do you think? What do you what do you think?
Now it's like, remember that thing we saw last night?
I wonder what do you think they'll use to that one this time?
And that kind of brings a whole nother dynamic of not just are we looking for, you know, what are we going to hear tonight?
What are we going to see? See also.
So if you just like the band, you know, five songs, you know, and you've just heard them before and you think those five songs are pretty cool one night and get out of there.
You've got everything you're going to need.
You've seen what this amazing production looks like.
But if you like them a lot, a lot, lot, and you don't go to this, you're you're going to regret it the rest of your life.
And Bobby is Bobby Weir is 78 years old. And so there's only a little bit of these runs left.
And it is it is indescribable how cool these transitions are.
And just to give a quick view, we'll go and run that right now.
Russ, this is when you when I'm in the radio world, when someone to come in and say, I'm putting you to work today.
Be like, God, that means I got to pull all this stuff. I got to do all this stuff.
I'm putting you to work today. I don't have enough to do.
Yeah, let's go. So this is like a perfect transition of this is Tennessee Jed where you can see this portal and it would go to one of their classic
venues they played over the last 40 years. And then that that visual would kind of hang around with lots of little weird things flying around and stuff.
And then this one, it goes to Winterland from San Francisco that closed down in the late 70s.
There was Cornell, which is very popular in Cornell University, very popular and grateful dead lore.
There's Hampton in Virginia, which is one of some of their legendary shows in the Madison Square Garden is another one.
And Red Rocks is another one. So you're not going to get the same venue that it shoots into, but you're going to get one of them.
So that's where it's it's different, but not. That's one of them.
The the open of the show is just a stripped down rock show.
They just play a rock show with but except for as you can see here with with Bobby Weir, it's the biggest.
It takes up the entire sphere so you can see it.
It just it looks amazing just seeing him just sitting there playing just a simple guitar and playing a song.
Each shows opens that way, which is a simple one song.
And then I don't have a video for this. The whole world opens up the whole thing.
The sphere starts to open and it's it'll take too long to even try to explain that.
But it's it's like a Google Earth kind of view in and out from from the earth to space to intergalactic stars to Milky Way's to made up alien land.
And it and it all kind of has this theme throughout the show.
And then towards the end of the show, it closes and it comes back from crazy space to intergalactic to Milky Way to just above the atmosphere to into the atmosphere.
And then over the first over the three days, you start to think, hold on, see if we can figure out when because it takes like an hour for that for that slow comeback.
It's it's it's watching a movie. If you know the band, you know their history and you appreciate it more than if you know it.
It's a movie. It's just a weirdest movie you've ever seen.
Right. And it's a movie that not everybody can understand, but it does have an open middle and close.
And then then the what's the final one here?
Oh, here was one where this was one more Saturday night, which on Saturday night, of course, you're going to get.
But they played this one. It's it's a bunch of handbills, concert posters and ticket stubs.
Yeah. And it covers the entire as far as the eye can see, which is a little couple of blurbs where you can see the band inside.
And they played that to their most popular songs.
So the first night was Casey Jones. And then the next night was I can't remember which one.
And then that one was one more Saturday night.
So on that set on those nights were like, I wonder where they're going to use all those handbills, which song tonight.
So that kind of that kind of anticipation you build inside yourself.
Normally, when I'm at a dead show or any jam band show, even if I'm getting a little tired, you know, I'm kind of like, you know, speed this thing up a little bit.
Twenty minutes on this thing.
But in this case, you knew every time there was a transition, every time there was going to be something different to see and the anticipation, anticipation built.
And you look up and it's three and a half hours and it's like, whoa, that was where did it go?
What was the set with three and a half, four hours by the time you got it started until it end, it was it was seven thirty to eleven thirty intermission break
with a third solid 30, 40 minute intermission, start a little late, come back a little.
You know, it's yeah. So it's not solid, but it is 18 songs.
And for the dead stretching all those damn things out so long, that's a lot of songs.
Yeah. The three nights.
I'm just trying to put myself there was that I mean, obviously it was fun.
Did you do you have to see three?
And what I mean by that is, I mean, you now have the comparative opportunity.
Yeah. One was different than two and two is different than three.
And for a for a real dead, somebody would consider themselves a deadhead.
You should do three because it kind of it kind of ties together enough, enough, not really, but enough.
If you one and two would be fine.
And as I think I mentioned earlier, if you just barely know the band, one is 100 percent right.
Like all you need, one gives you a perfect understanding of what this band is and how these I mean,
these are six each one of these little just looking at it when it's turned off is wild.
Yeah, right. Which I think I have a picture of that too.
So it looks I can't tell if it's video, if it's scaffolding.
I can't tell. This is one of them.
Whatever number they're on on the wonders of the world.
I don't know where or what number we're on on that.
This is the next one.
So 20th wonder of the world, whatever.
This is it. The technological advance of this place is clear to see by the naked eye.
It is not clear to understand until you see it.
That leads me to the next sort of question is, especially with the three nights,
I'm guessing the first night you're just, you know, having a swivel.
Yes. Trying to figure out the technology.
And then you're trying to figure out the music and then you're trying to figure out how they merge the two.
Is that I mean, or is that happening all at once?
No, that's a that's a fair assumption and mostly true, mostly correct.
What I've I should have mentioned already, I should have mentioned from the jump because it matters.
The first two nights we were in the three hundred section and it's all one side.
So it's, you know, one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, same as you would expect.
And it doesn't appear that it matters where you are if you're up in the seats.
It doesn't appear. So the first two nights we were in three hundreds and then we traded,
which was just a genius stroke by my buddy to do this.
He last minute decided to do it, traded for the floor.
The floor is once you've already done the other two, the floor now gives you.
And I'm really speaking specifically to the dead.
I don't know what the Eagles are going to look like in there.
You know, I don't know how this is going to go. It's going to be wonderful.
If you love the Eagles, you're going to have the best Eagle show you've ever seen.
But the floor gets you to where you can actually.
Oh, yeah, I'm actually here to see a rock band and the Grateful Dead actually has a lot of songs I truly love.
And it is kind of cool to just watch them play music and not get lost in the.
Yeah, OK. That's what I'm. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
So it was if we were in three hundred or four hundred or even maybe one hundred the whole time,
it would be difficult, even though you can still see the stage pretty good.
It would be difficult to just focus on the music only.
So on night three, we were able to really just see the band play some, which was cool.
And but you still get stuck looking straight up in the sky.
It's and it is so dizzying.
Yeah, I almost fell over hard multiple times just looking up,
not because I was messed up or anything, because I lost.
It was that dizzying, but it was so irresistible.
It's like staring at the sun. Don't stare. I can't help. I have to.
And straight up, what if you were tripping?
What would I mean? How? Don't do it.
Don't do it is what I would say. Don't do it is what I would say.
But I mean, people who like that kind of thing know how to handle it well.
And I'm sure it was pretty wild. But I mean, you know, I jokingly but serious meant it seriously.
Said in there at some point, I'm like, this is LSD.
Yeah, what this is LSD because like even at the times when things are calm,
because every now and again, a song sets in and nothing really happens.
Like it isn't a constant three and a half hour mind bleep.
You know, it does settle down sometimes into a song where you'll just have them on the major screen
and they'll be little fluttering something, but not much.
But there's almost always stars coming because remember, we're in a galaxy.
The whole thing is you we've left Earth and we're in a galaxy and we're coming back to Earth back through the galaxy.
So even if you are in the most subdued time of the show, you still have three dimensional stars coming at you.
You get so used to it, you don't realize it anymore.
You don't realize you're looking at something that if you were on that tip, that classic.
If I was on acid, this would look crazy.
So many people have said before the whole show is that the whole show is that compared to what?
I mean, most recent pretty lights with the lasers and everything.
I mean, that you just really that's a good point.
You made it. I guess in my mind, I'm thinking you're just constantly being bombarded with.
No, no, you're not.
But if it could feel like you are, I guess it could feel like you are.
I'm not and I've just I'm at a point in my life where I really pay closer attention to things that I didn't quite used to.
We did discuss whoever we was.
We were trying to think what are the bands that would work here?
Like for the for the the purpose, the spirit of this place.
Right. Tool is one that came to mind.
Fish, obviously they've already done it.
I'm blanking on others right now.
Pretty lights was one that I that I think I think I came up with that when I was a pretty lights would work perfect in here.
And I'm glad you brought that up because I do want to I do want to tie this into Bon Roop because I spent a little bit of time on this show and much on others that I just rave about the what stage?
It's the greatest place to see a stage, greatest sound, greatest production.
I've never seen anything better.
And I I will never believe that there's anything better.
And then I ever now and again, I'll like, well, what do you think about what you think?
Red Rocks might blow your mind enough.
You think that might?
And I'm like, there's no chance.
No way. Red Rocks stage.
I'm not talking about the venue.
The stage can do that.
I believe that still holds because this isn't about a stage.
OK, this isn't about a stage.
This is about a building.
So I still think the what stage is the winner here.
But as far as sound and visuals are concerned, this is the you know, this is the place that does it.
It's got to be better than anywhere.
It is loud, but not too loud.
It's perfectly blended.
It's perfect. Like from the floor, you feel you feel the music as much as you see it, not quite through just strict vibrations.
But there is a little bit.
It's designed vibrations.
It's not somebody left the bass too heavy one Saturday at your heart.
Your head, your chest isn't exploding.
Yeah, the witch stage guy sounded fall asleep on the bass and you're feeling it.
This is design.
It's wild.
And then you look around and you don't see any speakers.
You don't see any cameras.
You don't see anything that shows how this production takes place.
So I'm even looking at weird.
I mean, I'm doing a little bit more weird than others.
I'm like, I'm like, how do they even have this camera angle?
Where's the sound coming from?
Where's the, you know, how do they get off the stage?
All this stuff.
Because you look at it and there's it's it's it's optical mind effery.
Even when it's turned off, like when it's just sitting there and then it went, you know, it's on 24 hours a day from the outside.
And we had the I don't think I know if I mentioned earlier, we our hotel view had this sphere like it was beautiful.
It was so cool.
I'm up late anyway.
I was up at night just staring at this.
What's next on the sphere?
There's a steely again.
All right.
You know, did that three o'clock in the morning one night because I wasn't going to go gambling.
I'll just stare at the sphere and smoke.
So it's each their own.
If gambles your thing and the good then you're going to have fun doing both.
But let's see.
I mean, I think that pretty much that pretty much touches on most of those parts to that point.
Does it what does it change your thinking on?
I mean, you just said the what stage is still the best.
But does it change how you might want to see shows going forward?
I mean, we all.
That's a good question.
They spend a, you know, a lot of money on that thing.
Not everyone can do it.
Does it, you know, are you now like, I can't stand in front of a flatbed truck and watch a band anymore.
You know, where's my where's my visuals?
That's a fair, very fair question and a good question.
And the answer is it for me, not at all.
Me, not at all, because it's I'm a rock and roll guy.
And so absolutely it will not.
But for the debt, it will.
Yeah, like I won't go see.
I mean, they're they're close to done.
But I will never go see the dead again.
And that that that was that was kind of the idea anyway.
Well, this is where it has to happen.
You and I, I think all three of us are in agreement on this.
It's it's about the show and the heart and the passion.
That's what grabs me.
Well, that's what's got me into the dead at early age was less the music and more the people, the the the passion, the dedication,
everything that goes into it.
I was so fascinated with from a late teen, early 20.
It didn't matter that I liked the music.
I was or if I or even if I did or not, I didn't like a lot of it.
I still don't like fish.
I'd still go to a fish show because it's it's it's just yeah atmosphere.
It's infectious.
It's really, really, really infectious.
Now this I'm glad you brought that.
It's made me think of this real kind of fast.
I don't again I don't want to go forever on this.
But this was kind of like seeing the Grateful Dead in comparison to like if you were going to a huge football game or the Super Bowl.
Right.
Like the huge football game the week before the AFC championship game is the crazy Kansas City Chiefs fans and Casey and they're throwing down like they always do.
Right.
When you go to the Super Bowl, some of those people are there.
Yeah.
That's not what you're getting.
This is like that.
So some people aren't going to love that.
But I think it's a perfectly good trade off for what you're going to see.
It is very buttoned up a lot more corporate.
You don't.
Hey, I'm going to wander over to 103 and see what jail is.
Johnny's doing.
No, you're not, dude, because your seat's right there.
You're not wandering around in the halls or in the areas because they do have great.
I mean, it's it's like anything you'd see in Los Angeles.
It's high end.
The employees are incredible.
My God, they're saints, actually.
They're angels.
They did such it's such a high end place.
They're going to leave you alone.
They're not bothering you.
But you're not going to noodle around in the in the aisle because you feel like it.
No, you're you go sit and noodle in your seat all you want.
So and then the floor is a different story for sure.
They are floors, always a different story.
So it is a very corporate version.
And we can play this now.
This is ridiculous.
The Dead Forever experience had all kinds of interactive stuff.
It is totally Disneyland Grateful Dead.
All right. Yeah, that was my next you brought.
Yes. Think about it.
I mean, I couldn't let I couldn't let one merch official merch or get away from it.
It's got all the good information on the did the true dead fans.
Get in.
I mean, you talk about how expensive it is.
Were there true or was this all, you know, skinny pants types?
It it I didn't see it was it was not a rowdy crowd.
I don't I think a lot of the the travel and dead fans did not go.
But they've also been there for two and a half months.
Right. So I don't know what it looked like back in June.
Sure. But yes, they did have a shakedown.
But it was inside at the Tuscany, if anybody knows it, because they they they
couldn't have it outside.
It was 115 degrees.
And it was a it was we went to it and it was fine.
You know, it was fine. But it's it's not that's also a vibe.
That's an aura. That's a mystique.
That's a and throwing it in a convention center.
You know, it's it was cool to go to for a few minutes, but we weren't going twice.
So that all that takes away.
So there's going to be some hard course.
Right. There's going to be some dead heads.
I've been doing this in 73, my green bus that I drove before I sold it to Taco.
And and they're going to be like, this is bull spit.
I'm not, you know, sell out John May.
There's going to be those guys, those people, and they're not wrong.
I wouldn't even argue with them. I just say I get it.
But I mean, I'm dead forever pin right here.
I mean, it's dead forever. Everything.
And it was a total it was a total Disneyland experience of of an interactive museum.
I actually thought that was going to be something I couldn't wait to see this.
But it was it was Disneyland.
All right. So there was it had a lot of that.
And I'll never need to go to Vegas again, thankfully.
And I can't imagine why I'd ever want to go to the sphere again,
because I don't know who would do something that I would enjoy anywhere to that level.
So if you're a dead fan, go and.
But let me ask you about the screen.
The screen is all encompassing, like everywhere you look at screen, right?
It's pretty essentially.
Yes, it's very top, not as much.
But but yes, essentially it goes all the way up.
And then they can optically make it look like you're in a square instead of a oval.
Yeah, they can optically look they can make it look like whatever you want.
And and there's because of that leaving Earth and coming back thing.
It really is, I believe I couldn't quite figure this out, but I think it's just it's constantly slightly
moving, almost like the rotation of planets.
And so if you ever just really think you're it always feels like you're kind of moving
when you're on the floor, the stage always looks like it's kind of doing this.
Yes, a little bit sometimes.
So is this like an IMAX screen on steroids?
I mean, we've all been to a you know, an IMAX.
And you get that kind of it fills your whole vision and it kind of dizzies you just because it feels like you're moving.
It's an IMAX that is technologically advanced by crazy amounts.
It is it would be the greatest planetarium you've ever seen.
Surely they'll do surely Neil deGrasse Tyson will come in there and do some kind of space show in there.
I mean, why not?
I'm really glad to hear you say, though, that at some point it became back about the band and the music,
because that's I guess that's something that I would have that surprised me.
Yeah, at some point it became a concert again.
You weren't just being bombarded.
So that's that's new.
There was a yeah, there was we talked about that exact thing, too, that that because when you're on the floor and work your way close,
that's a little different.
But when you're up top, you can't really see the band, not to a matter that that is satisfying if you really wanted to see them.
But they did have where they would just show them on the screen good enough and then not much else going on.
And that would just sometimes for a whole show.
So you did get to actually just, you know, remember, I'm at a rock concert and I don't have to be tripping my mind out every second.
I should know this. What's capacity?
See, I didn't double check on this.
I thought it was 15, but I was told by many people that it was more like 20 or 22.
If only there were a way to find that out.
I know.
I don't have I'm not going to look it up now because I don't have my phone.
Because I don't want to get it.
I thought six, 18, six.
OK, I thought when someone told me 20, 22, I was like, no, it's not 20, 15, 18, which is yes.
So, yeah, in between what we were both guessing.
So 18, which is which is a healthy amount of people.
So also, when you think about a venue like that, it's not just what you can do.
It's can you fill a place like that up that many people?
Yeah, as we've learned, the nut now is about 15000.
So yeah.
So when you and no one's going to do that for one night, that's too expensive.
You have to do that for more or at least you have the multiplier for your business department of your band.
The Eagles are about to do a run for about a month.
That's got to be able to multiply to make it worth their while.
I heard and I don't remember if it was Trey, Anastasia himself, or Thurman Fish did it.
They didn't want to do multiple.
They didn't want to do months because they don't like to repeat shows ever.
And so they only did like four or five or something.
They did four, I believe one weekend.
Yeah. So it's a different and you two did a bunch.
And so you two did about a month or more.
I thought that was I'm not a big you two guy, but that was a good place to start to give it a good test.
A good test run.
I know some people that went that just are you two crazy and loved it.
I don't know what that would look like.
I'm sure a lot like that Bonnaroo show with all that screaming that was behind them.
If you remember.
So, I mean, it's I it's just all I've been thinking about since I was while I was there since I got back.
Also, just just for because it's definitely worth noting did break away to go to the Hoover Dam.
Oh, yeah. And boy, that made my weekend too, because I wanted to do something.
I felt like it was just like I don't need to just go out to casinos and see dead shows and go to Vegas and be a degenerate.
Like I need to do something.
And the Hoover Dam was a perfect, perfect idea.
We drove out there, rented a car for the day, and then we also needed to make some rounds and get some stuff.
So that worked out beautifully.
Went went down there in the morning. It was about ninety five, you know, one hundred.
It wasn't quite one fifteen. We got there around.
Yeah, about nine or ten o'clock in the morning.
Boy, that is a sight to see. I mean, that is that is that is incredible.
That's cool. So that was fun to do on Friday.
And then I was wanting to do something else on Saturday.
I was trying to cram in a lot just because I had very little time.
And by the time I woke up Saturday, jet lag and lack of sleep was catching up to me.
And then we had the final night and we flew out at six a.m. the next day.
So basically I didn't sleep for a day and a half.
And I just said, you know what? To hell with checking out anymore in Vegas.
I'm sleeping all day. I sleep in bed till two o'clock in the afternoon on on Saturday.
So by that time, I was just ready to get to do the show.
I did see you saw Evan Bonabu. What did he think? Oh, my God.
I tried to throw a list together quick and just put stuff on it.
Yeah, I did see Evan. He found me. I thought there was I was like,
holy Jesus, man. How did you find me?
And then pin pin where I was or anything.
He probably just looked for the socks. You're not that hard to find, man.
I don't in this place, though.
Yeah, 18,000 Bryan Stones in there.
Yeah, just look for the guy in the knees, the striped knee socks.
Yeah, I will tell you the temperature inside the sphere.
Sixty. Oh, nice.
It's freezing. I guess they got all those computers.
They got to keep cool. It's freezing cold.
But, yeah, so Evan, for about an hour, we were hanging around the dead,
the dead experience thing. It's kind of a good meat spot.
But he found me in the casino. I was.
Hey, man. And then we were going to meet up at the show.
But you know how that goes. You know, it was too hard.
And so we even talked to him about coming on the show.
But he's he's he is traveling as we speak this moment.
So he caught a couple. I wonder if he's told his parents yet that he's going to have to change his last name.
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
Just going to I don't know. I I do not know Evan's last name and I don't care.
Nobody does. I think it's Brown, actually, maybe.
But it's Bonnaroo, man. So that was yeah, that was very cool.
And I do, Evan, if you're listening, I do.
I am disappointed we weren't able to meet up on the floor.
But man, we had such a great spot and we were, you know,
I was trying to focus on watching a rock band for a little bit.
And so I was like, I am not moving because this is I'd say 30 rows out, you know, at a major rock concert.
That's nice for me. I Brad Steiner, right?
Well, I don't know what I don't have to be on the stage to be happy.
Yeah, I don't know what you're having to do to take care of your friend, but he sure did.
You're right. So absolutely. Well, yeah, he certainly did.
Jeremy Clutsons, his name, by the way, will throw him out a shout out at least.
Yeah, Jeremy, I got good friends, man.
I've had I've done a lot of dumb things and I've had to do some things to fix my life.
And and I won't go into those details now, but never one of them was having to, you know,
you better start running with better crowds, son. Like, no, I'm the problem.
All my friends are good. Yeah, that's cool. Well, good for you.
Anything else from either of you before speaking to Bonnaroo?
No, I guess we should get to our talk with Happy Landing, which I will say quickly before we get to it.
I enjoy those kids. I hope they don't mind me calling them kids.
Their music is good, too. I like it.
I'm not going to act like I've listened to a ton and I know much about them since I'm not going to pretend to be that guy.
But I listened to enough and they were fun.
This is I've said it a hundred thousand times.
This is one of my favorite things. Having done the job I did for the Times Repress for almost four decades.
I love meeting bands on the way up, doing that first interview or the first few and then seeing where it goes.
And yeah, I love that, too.
And yeah, it's that's never lost on me. And I've never grown out of that.
I don't care how small a band is in a covering.
I don't mean necessarily mean just an interview, but in a covering, being around, just kind of being a part of that ecosystem of how that goes.
That's a fun place to be, whether it whether it ever pans out or not.
I mean, my dumb fake, but not fake story of Jason Isbell used to be my friend.
Not really. But I've been around him drinking with a bunch of people 22 years ago.
Right. Like nobody knew he was going to be the star he was at that time.
And so, yeah, who knows where Happy Landing goes?
Who knows where they've been since then or since? We'll find out a little bit more now.
I love that point. Yeah.
Everybody has to start somewhere. And, you know, we've gotten to follow repeat, repeat and Warren Treaty.
And I mean, we're on and on.
St. Paul, my God. St. Paul.
Yeah, that's a good one. Gosh, that's one of my favorites.
Yeah, it's just everybody has to start somewhere.
And as we've said, Bonnaroo typically does a great job of picking bands that are going to have a shelf life.
They're good because they're good. The bands are good. And these guys are good.
And yeah, a lot of festivals book bands that aren't good sometimes.
I mean, sometimes they got to fill out the festival. Right.
Bonnaroo doesn't book bad bands ever.
No, no, Coachella and some of these Lollapalooza, the major ones really don't.
But Bonnaroo never has. It's like if you're booked at Bonnaroo, that means somewhere in some ecosystem of music, you are making waves.
You're making music that there's a reason.
That's right. It's not just because you're bringing eyeballs and you're a TikTok star or whatever.
It's because you're doing something that's got a potential to go somewhere else.
Right. That stood out. And I'm always surprised to hear when the acts say, no, didn't really know anything about Bonnaroo.
Or they did. Remember a couple of those guys like, no, don't know much about it.
They're from Nashville, Knoxville and Mississippi. Right.
That's funny. You remember that. That's 100 percent. They are very young.
My neighbors had just moved in recently. Super fast.
They were in the yard when I pulled up and I was in a hurry to get in here to get recorded.
But they were watching the cat while I was gone. I was like, yeah, hey, man, thanks.
I was like, you guys like the dead that much? I don't know.
Like 24. I think I know one of their songs maybe because they're so popular.
I think my dad listened to this.
I was like, you know what? Thanks for taking care of the cat. See you all later.
Yeah.
Love you to death, but I'm not going to go any further on this.
It's funny, too, because the other thing I remember, Brian, because it kind of russes when it was done, they were like, that was fun.
I'm like, it's supposed to be fun. Right.
She said the same thing. I'm like, what's are we that different?
I mean, it's just, you know, yeah, we're not putting you on trial.
We should. Well, exactly. Yeah.
Well, I don't know. I mean, there's a lot of doing interviews can be exhausting.
Now we're talking to a lot of bands that aren't, you know, their demands, not crazy high.
Say she had a busy schedule that day, at least until they got to us. I think they were they were done.
Yeah. Michigan had a brutal schedule that day.
So doing interviews can be tiring for sure. So I don't know.
I just it surprised me. He's like, that was fun. Yeah. Well, you know, I hope it's all sharp stick.
It's not fun. We're not any good at this. Exactly.
That's my point, I guess. All right. So anything, any other setup before we listen to these guys and let them roll?
Let's get to thank them again. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to see where they go.
Happy landing.
All right. So, hey, everybody, here we are. We're back at our all time favorite place. Right, Brian?
And just getting started to all the vibes in the air. The heat hasn't hit just enough to to mess anybody's day up yet.
We're all in good spirits. And man, what a fun day. Still have a little bit of energy left.
Yeah. So it's first. This is our first interview of the day. We're with happy landing. Thank you guys so much.
Thank you all for being here with us. Is this your first route to play?
Definitely first route to play. Yeah. A lot of us are our newbies. It's our first time.
Never been in general. Yeah. Yep. Well, let's do this real quick.
If we can, let's go around. If you don't mind, tell us first name is fine. Who you you guys are.
And then I want to ask about that. Who all has been here?
You can actually introduce yourself and then say whether you've been to Rue before if you don't mind.
Because that always is fascinating to me. Totally, man. My name is Andrew.
I actually have been here. I did one day last year. Saw Kendrick Lamar. It was very cool.
Wilson. Haven't been to Rue before, but I grew up in Franklin, so it's always been around, you know.
Jacob. My name is Jacob. And yes, first Rue of all time for me.
My name is Keegan and this is my first time. But I grew up in Tennessee, so I feel like I've always been hearing about it.
I've never been. I'm Matty. This is my first Rue as well.
We'll go back the other way then. What is your expectation?
What? What? Because we were just at our own camp when there's a young young guy who's never been.
He says it's nothing like what I imagined. I said, what did you imagine? And he couldn't even answer.
It's a great question. Great question. I think everybody kind of prepped us with what it was going to be like.
Just crazy spread out, hot, awesome. A lot of camping.
So my expectation, I guess I try to keep my expectations, you know, even keeled for the show.
You know, I don't want to think too hard about what that's going to be like.
Just hope we have fun. And then camping, I just feel like it's going to be sweaty and just a good time.
So I hear a couple of you guys say Tennessee roots around here.
The lure of this place didn't bring you already or just things got in the way or I mean,
it's kind of a rite of passage in this state, you know.
I didn't really start going to any. I didn't start going to shows or definitely festivals until pretty kind of late into high school, it felt like.
And Bonnaroo was just a commitment and it is a camping. Yeah, it was something I couldn't afford for most of high school to.
There's that too. And the coolest thing I think about being here is like it feels it feels especially special to grow up around here
and go to Bonnaroo for the first time as an artist, like to have sort of like got our way here on the basis of our music.
So I'm going to go ahead because I just I know you've never been here before because I noticed your shirt just now.
That's a heavy February shirt, man. That is not a June.
I'm trying to like I'm trying to Lawrence of Arabia my way out of sunburn for the moment.
If I if I'd been smarter and prepped with some sunscreen earlier, I wouldn't be wearing the shirt.
The price of being cool, Barry. It's nice looking cool.
They make long danger. He told me it was like comfort is fleeting, but looking sick is forever.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's funny because we were laughing because behind us are the guys from Guar.
So we you guys could have chosen that. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it always be a lot worse later.
So my loincloth left his loincloth at home.
All right. So let's talk about the show.
And then we're going to talk about the band. The other question we always ask bands, especially
well, all bands, I think is one of our favorite questions is, do you approach Bonnaroo any differently than you do any other kind of show?
And I know that's a trick question because it sounds like you're going to say, yeah, we phone in some of them.
But this one, we really and I get that part of the question. Yeah, I don't think we ever phone it in.
I would say I would say we give it we get everything 100 percent of the time.
And I think the stakes of Bonnaroo are high, much higher.
So I don't know. It adds to the it adds to the excitement and the energy, I think.
At least. Well, I'm glad you went there because I was just going to say to kind of piggy off what Barry said.
Yeah, you're going to approach a show. You're going to do a show. You're going to do your best. Right.
And that's what everybody's we would imagine. We say. But is there any extra pressure?
You know, it's got such a marketing kind of name because it definitely shows where, like, you know, we've played for the sound guy and like, oh, yeah, we still we still try our best to crush it for like five people.
Like, like, but I mean, Bonnaroo, this is like our first mega festival that we've ever played.
So it's like and it's right in our backyard in Nashville.
So it's like we I'm speaking for myself also. I don't know.
Yeah, anybody I'm like I'm like buzzing, but in a way that is just going to like come out on stage and just hammer it.
Yeah, it's kind of like when your dad is at your show, you know, you're like, you know, you're going to give it like we don't we seriously always keep that one hundred at our shows.
We never we never phone anything in.
But when like my dad's in the audience, I'm like, I really got to make him proud.
Yeah, you don't want to disappoint our spiritual dads are here.
I'm going to dunk this basketball.
I'll show you dad.
You told me this would never work.
So, you know, people are watching.
And so that's it's a cool feeling that people are watching and people and people care.
Like, I mean, even if they don't know who you are, I mean, they're not there's so much there's so much to do here that that they could be doing something else.
Right. They said they're watching your show for whatever reason.
They might just found that they might have woke up taking a nap there.
Yeah. Right. And I mean, that's some of the best stories, smallest bands ever turned into something bigger because of happenstance.
You know, you use the word. Go ahead.
You're going to. Well, it's actually funny. I'm going to pivot because that that reminds me of a story we did like as far as people happening upon our show and like literally waking up.
We did play a show at a festival one time in Florida.
Okeechobee Festival. Oh, yeah. And we play it.
It was a similar situation where it's kind of a newer one of the newer stages or like kind of a smaller stage where it's kind of newer bands that are kind of coming into the festival for the first time.
And the specific thing about this place was like it was really well shaded.
So this whole Florida campground is just like sun.
It's just hitting you everywhere. But this one spot. Yeah. It was like it was kind of like an oasis.
There was trees and stuff. So people were sleeping at this stage and had her awake.
And it's the it's also it's where it says the Sunday. Yeah. It's the last day everybody strung out. It was like we come in.
We're just like bright and bushy. We're like, this is awesome. It's like 10 a.m.
And we're just like, blah. And I was sound checking my drums.
Like, you know, because that's what you do. Yeah. And I'm like hitting my snare just like testing, like, you know, checking the snare.
And this girl comes around the corner and she goes, excuse me, can you keep it down?
We're trying to have a son, a sound bath. I was like, I'm trying to sound check.
You said, you need a real you need a real bad. Yeah.
Try out one of those real ones. Yeah.
Super hippie central. Yeah. It was like the dingiest part of the whole festival grounds.
They woke up to us playing. But it is it's got some bomb.
It's got some Van Roux kind of vibes to it. I could totally understand that you have the opposite this weekend.
You're starting things, you know, in the evening on the stage.
I mean, we're asked what you think your expectations are.
How are you feeling? I mean, I mean, jitters like I've done a lot of things I thought I was good at that I was still scared to shitless to do.
I'm suggesting that is this does the set change at all?
It's a pretty standard. I mean, right now we're kind of we have an album coming out in about a month.
Wait, what day is today? A month from yesterday, July 12th.
Their album's coming out. And so we've been trying to test out a lot of our new music and try to integrate some of our bigger older songs in there.
And we've solidified this like this is the perfect 45 minute set for where we are right now.
And so we've done it before. I feel good about it.
Honestly, I've been more focused on the campsite. Yeah. Yeah.
Prepping for like the camping. Once we see the stage.
Part of the reason I ask is because part of the lure we've been doing this.
Brian's been to all of them. I've been to like 18.
So part of the lure is fans are here. You mentioned commitment.
So, you know, you've got an audience that wants to be here and that right away changes a lot of things.
But along with that comes an audience that wants to discover and learn and they appreciate, you know, what you guys put out there.
So occasionally, O'Bandal, you know, pull out a rarity or something they've wanted to do.
That's kind of why I was asked. That's cool. I think. Yeah.
Being having it being our first one, I think we're like we're just wanted to go really well.
You know what I mean? And like, sure. Definitely.
So we're we're playing I guess we're like playing our hits in a way.
But I think that works is like a new guy on the block. It's like player hits. Why not?
But you mentioned the commitment that people have here and like I really have seen that too.
I mentioned that I just got to do like one day here last last year.
And I've been fortunate enough to like go to some other really a couple other really big festivals and see how they do stuff and like just what the community and the the the vibe is over there.
And it's it's there's just something different here. Like people really take care of each other.
People really care about the music. You know, the fashion is super cool.
And like that's a big element at other places. And it's definitely a big element here. But like it really feels like the music is why people are here and the community and just the the farm itself.
Yeah. You'll figure out pretty quickly that the fashion goes out the window. Right.
Yeah. Two o'clock in the afternoon. First day. You'll figure out.
How long are you here? I think we're going to stay.
All right. So who you want to see who's who's the Fred again.
I'm sorry. Fired up for Fred again on Sunday.
Sunday night. That's the commitment.
I know everyone wants to see her.
How exciting. How exciting that they moved her.
I don't know. You all have no clue if you haven't been here.
She was going to be on one of the we heard.
Yeah. Which is the tent right that this end she was at the.
Yeah. And they moved her to the crowd.
But she. Yeah. The secondary stage.
It's going to be it's going to be something to see on Sunday.
At least that's what we're all hoping. Yeah.
And before that move there was real concern because she has exploded.
And these tents are great. You know, and all these stages are great.
But sometimes they don't work.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'll just say quick.
I saw Noah Khan last year. That was the situation.
Like it was like you couldn't really enjoy the show because it was just like
everybody on the campsite wanted to see it.
I think that was part of their learning experience from last year because yeah,
that's exactly what we were concerned.
We meaning just the you know, the festival in general was worried about.
So that's going to be big time.
It's cool. You get to hang out for the whole weekend to a lot of people got to pop in and out.
Yeah, I'm stoked to see idols. OK, that's going to be sick.
I've never seen them before, but I fucking love their music.
And I could I mean, there's a bunch like.
But they're the ones that come to mind the most.
There's Emo Super Jam is going to be sick, even though same time as Cage.
But yeah, idols is probably my number one.
You guys who you're going to see? Cage the elephant.
Yeah. OK, nice. Nice.
I'll say I think parcels like a late night set is going to be really, really cool.
So I'm really pumped about that as well.
So you guys call Nashville home base then? Yes, sir.
How's it? How's it like playing and working in what I everybody tells me?
They call Los Angeles East these days.
I don't know how prevalent that is in the community, but I hear that from my music and friends.
How's it like working in Nashville these days?
You can say it's a loaded question. No, you got it.
We're just we're really we tore a lot.
We tore a lot. So we really I mean, Nashville is just like a house.
OK, yeah. Sure.
And it's like our producers there.
We have some of the people there who work with us.
But like, we don't really get in the.
In the scene very much.
It's just what I mean by at least what I think they mean when they say just it's just so big now.
It's so huge.
And I know you can say that about everywhere, but it really, really.
Yeah, like having having grown up in Franklin with like my dad working in downtown Nashville and stuff for like as long as I can remember.
Yeah, Nashville's mad.
We're from Chattanooga. So we're just down the road.
I mean, you know, spend a lot of time in middle Tennessee.
Yeah, still love it. I still know it's still wonderful.
It's just like the expense of it and the traffic of it and like every every little layer of difficulty, it seems like gets gets heightened.
But it's still awesome to be here. I think that's a real testament to Nashville's value is that like no matter how much harder it's going to get to be here, it's still going to be a really nice time to live.
No one said it's going to be easy. No. Yeah. Yeah.
What do you want to move to Austin?
Just Nashville in the desert.
All right. So we're going to wrap this up. Thank you guys so much for giving us some time.
Best of luck. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Typically, we'll see you. We'll run into each other all the time.
Have a great time. Thank you.
Thank you.
Yeah. See. So there you go. That was fun.
I like those guys. Yeah. I mean, it's
it's you just said it before we went into it.
I mean, it's it's just it's so much fun to talk to guys and gals, whether they know what they're getting themselves into or not.
I mean, say she she knew exactly and were geared and ready. And these guys and girls, they just couldn't wait to play a great show.
Yeah. You remember they didn't really care where it was.
You remember us. They reminded me of Briston Moroni, that interview.
Yeah. Yeah. Very happy.
His dad was on on the farm and yeah, they reminded me a lot of him for some reason.
And fortunately, I hit record this time.
Good. You haven't had one of those terrible mishaps in quite some time.
You guys are taco. Did you hit record on this show?
Because I ain't doing that again.
Actually, I will. You want to do it?
Oh, please keep going. Start over. Yeah.
I can't. It makes me mad when you guys do it.
Did you hit record? I'm like, yes.
But please keep doing it because I don't always.
It's like, hey, did you remember your wallet? You got your ID?
I never don't have my wallet or ID. Yes, Mom, I got a jacket, too.
But you're right. You're right.
All right. Glad you had a great time. Both of you.
Thanks for listening, guys. I mean, I know that's not what we normally do.
I'm interested. It was cool. It was such a pleasure.
I mean, I cannot tell you how it was not just a fun time in Vegas.
You know, I don't want I don't want it to get lost in that world either.
Well, of course you had fun in Vegas. Not shut up. None of that.
This thing could have been in, you know, Nicaragua.
I don't know where it did. I it was it's it is amazing.
So thank you for listening to that. Thank you for listening to the show.
I appreciate it. Well, and I need I need phone numbers from all your friends
because you guys are hanging out with better people than I am.
Yeah, I don't know. I might have tapped that well dry, man.
Yeah. What did you do? What did you do this weekend, Barry?
I babysat a seven year old granddaughter. We had a blast.
Well, you know, a little different world. We had a great time.
I know you and I and genuinely you love that. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
It was a blast. To me, it sounds like a freaking nightmare.
But hey, what are you going to do? Yeah, we had a blast.
All right, guys. Thank you. Thanks for listening.
Like, share, subscribe, do all that stuff.
And we'll be back next week with more. Oh, yeah. See you later. Yep.