This week Brad & Barry dive into the schedule and the many, many conflicts for 2019. Along the way to help are listeners Dortha and April and even a surprise appearance from Camp Nutbutter fellow camper and podcast host himself, Bryan Stone!
Topic: Bonnaroo
Hey, hey, hey, hey. How y'all feeling? Journey through the stories that define the artists playing Bungaroo. Who are they? What are they? What will you see? The what? Which bands? This year's show is about the matter with Brad Steiner and Barry Courter. If you were wondering whether or not you should check out the Childish Gambino set at Bungaroo this year, all I have to do is point you to Coachella 2019. Watch that from the other night. Oh my God. Wow. That set was phenomenal. I didn't know the Childish Gambino thing. I didn't really get it. My God, do I get it now. Did you watch it? Not yet. I'm going to. Welcome to, I think, like the second of Christmas Day. Like, Bungaroo fans, we get like three Christmases through the year. This is the second one. It is schedule day. Yeah. Yeah. It's fun. We've made a habit of having our meeting, which I guess we did a little or many when already. So we need to. So this is when you start getting the campsite together. This is when you get your group together. You all either Skype, FaceTime, get to a bar. Once the schedule comes out, this is when you all get together and start figuring it out because now it's crunch time. It is Bungaroo crunch time. This is the What Podcast. That's Barry Courter. I'm Brad Steiner, a podcast for Bungaroovians by Bungaroovians on schedule day. Not necessarily schedule day, but we've had a few days to actually like absorb the schedule, talk to some listeners. We're going to talk to some today. And we might even be joined by one of our camp mates later today. I know. I know. That's what I mean. Isn't that fun? I mean, Mr. Sunshine, Mr. Positivity, radiating energy and happiness at all times. His name is Brian Stone. If you caught some of the episodes last year from camp, you might have heard his voice. He also has his own podcast about, you know, I don't know, things he complains about. Kermudgyny stuff. Yeah. Kermudgyny stuff. Yes. So actually, I think this is his email address. Kermudgyny stuff. Anyway, he's going to join us a little bit later on this afternoon, too, for the podcast that is dealing all with the schedule. And I don't think that you can go too far through the schedule without finding so many conflicts and we'll dive into those, too. But right off the top of my head, they released the schedule earlier this year than ever before. Everything is earlier. Everything's earlier. Everything's a little bit different. They're trying, I guess, some new things to pump in some new energy. But let me just ask you this. And maybe it's because I'm by nature a conspiracy theorist. Do you think that they put any energy into thinking they released the schedule the same week of Coachella's first weekend? I think all of that has some impact. I mean, if, you know, they released the schedule earlier because all these other festivals were releasing theirs, there's only a hand, you know, so many numbers of tickets that can be sold to all of these things. And so I mean, I don't know too many people that can afford to go to more than one. True. Certainly not many. So when decisions are being made, if you see a Coachella or hangout festival already and you like it, you pull the trigger. Well, you see, I don't definitely don't think they're going to change anybody's mind when they release the schedule on the week of Coachella. But I do think that they maybe, you know, deflate the balloon just a little bit of the Coachella energy. I don't know. Maybe I'm just making this up. But it just seemed odd that the same weekend of Coachella, they announced the schedule. What comes next weekend? What about Coachella weekend two? What do they announce the super jams next weekend? You know, they were still was it this week that you was the last week where you could make your payment plan type of thing. OK, so I mean, I think all of that here now. Yeah, I think all of that plays in to how these decisions are made. Now, I don't know what it we're not in those war rooms, so I don't know the exact decisions that they did. Now, going back and seeing that when you first got the lineup and we loved it so much more than many years in the past, did seeing the schedule change the way that you saw the lineup? No, not really. In fact, it's kind of I don't I think I told you earlier, I don't have nearly as many conflicts as I have in the past. And maybe it's just because of all the discussions we've been having. It's probably going to likely be a game day decision for me. Every year as we laugh, we joke, but it's the truth. Every year there are these don't miss. There's no way I'm missing that show. And then, yeah, yeah, look at that chair feels comfortable. I had a couple too many Bloody Marys. Whoopsie. Not just that. Well, not just that for me. A lot of time it's work related. You know, I I want to take a picture of so and so and the band that I was so adamant about seeing is on the other side of the farm or Internet's not working for me. So I'm struggling to send file things for work or or like you said, I just don't want to get up. Yeah, I just want to get up. I wonder if I wonder if there are people who saw the lineup and loved it a lot and then saw the schedule come out and thought it was thinner than they originally thought or the other way around that they just said this is just OK. And then once they see the schedule, they're man, this is so much better than I thought, because I remember in years past when the schedule or the lineup wasn't nearly as beefy and meaty as we thought it was, when the schedule came out, we're like, wait a second, this is so much better than I thought it was. I wonder if that the opposite is true this year a little bit. Well, I mean, to that point, I think I told you the first time I saw it that Thursday is going to kill me. Thursday is unbelievable. Thursday is crushing. And then Sunday, as we talked about, as you guys will hear later on, I mean, that what stage that's all day. Yeah, we'll go through the schedule here with some listeners in a second. We're going to talk to Dortha in April and maybe even Brian Stone stops by at the what podcast Palatial Studios here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. So before we get into like our schedules and what we see as conflicts, the thing that I noticed differently about the at least the online interactive guide, well, they added Wednesday and they added a next page tab because they've got so much going on in the campsites and the pods that they needed somewhere to actually tell you what in the hell was going on, which is a I mean. Yeah, I know. Stroke a genius. I mean, what if what if they start, you know, piling some stuff on a Wednesday night out of nowhere, you know, just starting adding little bits and pieces here in the years coming up? Yeah, I thought about that. Not to out anybody, so I won't say names. But if you remember, we did hear from somebody who sort of said, I kind of wish we hadn't let that get out of the out of the bag like it has out of hand. Yeah. The Wednesday stuff getting there on Wednesday. Yeah, it's just the week gets longer and longer. By the way, speaking of showing up on Wednesday, are they still doing that event on Tuesday night celebrating the original Ikechew or Ikechew, whatever it's called? Far as I know. Yeah, so there's Rebus be the ones kind of Rebus. Let us know what the hell's going on there. So this is what they they did. So if you don't know, before Bonnaroo existed on that same exact site, there was a music festival that was a tremendous failure. They did mostly classic rock and nobody showed up. And it was Lives and Lore as one of the biggest disasters in music history. But it was called like Ikechew, right? Is that what it might be? Itchikoo. That's right. Something like that. Well, they're they're trying to put on something somewhat like that off site in Manchester the Tuesday before Bonnaroo. And I haven't heard anything about it since the original sort of like, hey, let's do this. I haven't heard one thing since. Yeah, just just a little extra trivia. That is why Bonnaroo takes place in Manchester, Tennessee, is because Ashley Capps with AC knew of that site because of Ichikoo. Yes. You know, Superfly was looking to do something and he said, hey, I know this 700 acre farm. They always do something in Manchester, Manchester that night. It's usually a local. Oh, do they? I didn't know that. Yeah. At least they have in the past. I think they're making this sort of that anniversary event. OK. Type of thing. What is the anniversary? It's going to be unbelievable. Wow. Unbelievable. Right. All right. So let's start with Thursday. Now, things get started with a band called Keats. I don't really know anything about them on the house stage, which, by the way, what is the house stage? Yeah, I don't know. Is that I don't what's the little bitty one right in the middle? Oh, I know the house stage. The house stage is in Planet Roo. That's the one they do all the yoga. Yeah, I got you. OK. Yeah, right. OK. So then so then it really gets started, which I think is a stroke of genius is with Peach Pit. So it's a start. And then Thursday for us, I mean, we haven't talked about this, but I know what you're going to say. Thursday is unbelievable. Yeah. Thursday is unbelievable. It goes till six in the morning. And we like that Donna Masol that we've talked about in passing. Right. That voice of hers is unbelievable how strong it is. She's great. So Peach Pit and the Donna Masol and then the Grand Ole Opry thing that, you know, I'm just we're so curious. I did. Well, I don't want to save what I'm going to say about this, but something just seems like it's sneaky and something's going on. Something sneaky is going on with this Grand Ole Opry show. I know. And Jack Harlow and all them witches are people that listeners have both pointed out to us as, you know, check out, don't sleep on type of thing. So. Well, here we go with my first conflict. My first conflict of the festival is a band that when the lineup came out was like the one. There were two bands that I said, these are these are it for me. Cherry Glazer and Rolling Blackouts. Rolling Blackouts, Coastal Fever against the nude party against Bulo. Bulo is going to be the star of the industry here in a couple of years. I mean, that drives me nuts. That drives us. The nude party is really good because they're the first they were the first Bonnaroo Rue Clu and they came to even Chattanooga. They got a great reception here. That's a really, really good show. And I hate that I'm going to miss both of those for Rolling Blackouts. But it's I mean, my mind's made up. My mind's made up. Yeah. I'm right. Thirsty. Who knew? Who knew? And then you got I Like Magic City hippies after that. And then I'm really into Saba. We talked about Saba in the last show when we were talking about, you know, unknown artists that just got added. Saba is one of those that not playing the Who stage, but playing that tent. I think this guy is a one forty five. I know that. But this guy is really, really good. I know. I'm saying we could literally go all night. And who that's going to make for a long weekend? Well, then you then surprise at Caliope till sunrise. We need to find out how to say that. I still think it's Calliope. Calliope? I've never heard Calliope. Well, which one is it? In my mind, it's Calliope. Now I can't even say it. Calliope. Because I keep thinking of the The Blinded by the Light song. What do you mean? It says Calliope. Does he? Uh huh. Well, is when I was walking around New Orleans, there is that street somewhere in the Garden District and when I walked past it, I was like, oh no. Let me just turn on let me just turn on Alexa and see what she says. But well, but here's the problem with that sunrise surprise till sunrise set. Right. That means we're going to be up till sunset. Not because we're at the stage, but because our camp is right next to it. Uh huh. So welcome to 6am, Barry. Yeah, it is right next to it and it is loud. So yeah, I mean, I don't know what sunrise sets at at Cala la la la la la means, but yeah, that's going to last till 6am. I'm telling you. We haven't even talked about GA what might be going on. Uh huh. I mean, look, Thursday night was the first night that I last year was the first night was Thursday. Thursday night I went to GA. It was a Friday night. Oh God, I don't even remember. But there is all kinds of stuff in Thursday night. But we missed the repeat repeat thing on Wednesday night. Right. And so I mean, and who's who's going to be sneaking out into GA on Wednesday night to play? I'm telling you, let me just give you a word of warning here. Thursday is such a great day and you're going to be in such a good mood. You're going to love everything about life on Thursday. Reel it in. Pace. Yes, please pace. Please don't go go crazy until 6am on Thursday. You've got a long, long race to run. Please keep it together. That's all I ask of our people. But yeah, like if you go through some of the stuff that's happening on the GA site, I mean, I don't I don't care what it is. I'm just going to pop in and see what the hell's going on. I mean, even our buddies at Lightning 100 are doing whatever this means. Lightning 100 and tons of guitar pool. What in the world does that mean? We'll have to do a podcast afterwards and talk to people who never left camp. Oh my God, that's a great idea. You know, who literally just went from pod to pod and GA. Oh, I'm sure there's plenty of them. Yeah, that's what I bet you're right. So you go to you go to Friday. So Thursday lasts until six o'clock in the morning. Then Friday to me is is is maybe my busiest day. It has every artist that is on my wish list playing on Friday. That's why Thursday is I just look at it with like my heart with heart palpitations. It's like, oh, Brad, please don't do this. Please don't hurt yourself. I think I've made fun of by a friend of ours the other day when I said, I really need to start working out to get my body in shape for Bonnaroo. Oh, I have. I'm not quite to the, you know, circling dates on the calendar. But I've you know, it's every every opportunity I get is take a walk, you know. Yeah, it's my back. This old man's back is I'm very worried about. It wakes me up in cold sweats because it's like T minus what, 60 or something. Oh, God. All right. So you go to Friday. The artist that you picked out, Manzier Perrine, is starting off Friday against the Teske brothers and Ida May. Ida May, another artist that we talked about when we did the additions to the lineup a couple of weeks ago was last week. Ida May is terrific. And I really just love her voice. I think that's between those two. I think that's a perfect way to start Friday. Yeah. Chill. Especially after. Yeah, it's really chill. The like the the soundscape will be nice. If it's not too hot, I'm going to be freshly showered and ready to go. And then if you if you really want to turn up the guitar rock, Rival Sons on the what stage? Rival Sons are getting a lot of airplay and active rock. They're all guitars. They're rock stars. These guys are straight up rock stars, no doubt. But I'm not going to worry about that because I got Cherry Glazer. So whatever happens to two o'clock, I've got 45 minutes to sort of reconvene and figure out myself before Cherry Glazer, because once Cherry Glazer hits my day, my day goes. My day starts flying from Cherry Glazer to Pinky Pinky to Parquet Courts to AJR to Avett Brothers to Grizz to Courtney Barnett to Childish Gambino to Solange to Beach House. And then maybe I can come up for air. So that's nine straight hours where I don't see any break in my day whatsoever. Seeing, you know, I've got to go by and at least see Girl Talk. 2.45. It's two o'clock at night. Yeah, they're being nappy somewhere. Maybe two. I don't know where it's scheduled. Maybe it's out there in the field watching Girl Talk. It's a great point. I mean, I'm not going to see that fish show on Friday night, not because I don't want to. There's just no possible way. I can't push myself into all of that and try and navigate the what stage only to come back for the Grizz Super Jam, which I absolutely don't want to miss. I think that Grizz Super Jam is going to be a lot of fun. Yeah, I do too. The way that he's the musicianship that he brings to the stage, even as an EDM act, even I'm appreciative of, even I like. And I've got to imagine he's got a lot of people willing to come up there and play to some tracks and add some instrumentals to it. And there's always the mystery of the super jam. You just never know who's going to join. Yeah, good point. And you got the massive return of Brock Hampton. Now Brock Hampton, not necessarily for me, but they canceled last year that Brock Hampton show. People have been waiting two years for that's going to be massive. And then you've got your Girl Talk till three. And of course, we've got our old problem, the surprise set until six o'clock at Galli Open. And that seems to me like one of those days where I'm going to I'm going to be done by a certain time, go back to camp and reset, maybe take a nap or something. And I'll find myself out in a G.A. on Friday night because because the energy and G.A. on a Friday night. Watch out. See, that's the X factor in all this, Brad. I mean, I really just don't know how that's going to change our routine. Yeah. I mean, I think you would agree we have fallen into a fairly comfortable routine with how we do it, right? Having having been there so many times, but we until you went out to G.A. last year, it never entered our thought process. Yeah, I know. So here's the problem is at some point and I'm going to go ahead and get the cat out of the bag. There will be some sort of secret show happening on G.A. It will happen and we're going to get word of it and it's going to spread like wildfire and it's going to throw the entire night the entire night off. And I don't know if it's going to be Saturday night or Friday night, but one of the nights they're going to like send us a note like, hey, just in case you want to go to Plaza, blah, blah, blah. And all of a sudden, you know, Paramore, Casey Musgraves and Maren Morris are playing out in G.A. at a pod. I know. I mean, put throw this in there. What if you wander out there noonish mid afternoon one of the days and you're just having such a good time? You stay. You're going to hang out there. Oh, my God. I know, man. I mean, so we have people in our camp that will wander out into G.A. and hang out with some friends of theirs. And if you do that at two o'clock, three o'clock and, you know, you're having a pretty swell time and things get a little out of control, you look up at seven thirty. You're done. I mean, your day, your day, your day. Who was who's your friend that was with us last year? We saw him like twice. Oh, Trevor. Trevor. Yeah, he wandered out there. We never saw him again. I know growing it. We call him growing young boy because he's a 19 year old kid that works here. But he looks like he's he's a very strange looking. He came back to change, maybe change clothes and once. Yes, he's in camp with us. He was he was in G.A. literally the entire time. I don't think he saw a show. Hey, by the way, can I stop for a second and go backwards? Which one is the plaza that Haley Williams is putting is at the plaza of the sanctuary of self-love plaza to? Yeah. I don't ever actually mention anything that she's doing like she's not ever on the lineup. It's just like Nashville Vinyl Club and a lot of empty space. I thought they did in the when they announced it. Maybe though. I mean, there's all kinds of stuff that that's happening. She's going to do it, but not specifically when or. Right. There's just like her name doesn't appear anywhere on the schedule. And I don't know if that's on purpose to give her like freedom to figure out when she wants to come in. But there is giant swaths of empty space from eight to twelve on Thursday. On Friday, eight to twelve, a giant swath of empty space. I mean, there's a lot of places in these plazas that you can start, you know, right, popping in little surprises and little teeny tiny additions that, you know, will fit in perfectly. We'll have to find somebody, Jeff Guayar or somebody maybe. That would be an interesting question is how they are going to program GA versus the bigger lineup. What if they don't? What if they just throw some stuff out there when they can get it and see what happens? That's what I'm wondering. Because do they want it to compete? Do they care? Yeah. And at this point, you know, and it comes, it brings me back to something that he said that we've latched on to for weeks now. He said that they create lanes for fans of certain types of music and certain, you know, formats of music. They create lanes for you to navigate the festival. Well, that doesn't necessarily ring true when you see the Saturday schedule. Saturday doesn't make a lick of sense when compared to what Jeff Guayar said about lanes. Now, sometimes scheduling is scheduling and they can't do anything about when a certain artist is available. I mean, they got to get John Prine when they can. But John Prine versus Jim James is going to break a lot of people's hearts. Absolutely. Absolutely. Probably that's what they probably got him when they could get him. John Prine. Yeah. And Jim James too, I'm sure. I'm guessing you're probably right. I mean, let's not let's not fool ourselves. Jim James is going to be somewhere else. Yeah. Jim James is going to pop up maybe a couple of different times on this on this lineup. Saturday being as light as it is gives me all of the problems that I probably have ever had in the last three years. You could add up the last three years. I've had no conflicts. I have more conflicts on Saturday than I have had combined in three years. And it's like all happening all at the same time in two different places in two different places on Saturday. I've got Marin Morris, Hippo Campus, Bishop Briggs, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and DeLacy. Five artists that are probably in my top 15 of seeing all playing at the exact same time. And I don't know what to do with that. I really don't know what to do with that. And then if you want to if you want to go even further, I've got Casey Musgraves, Jim James, John Prine, Odessa and the National all happening essentially all at the same time. And if you're but here's the difference. If you are a 15 to 20 minute set guy or girl and you want to just pop in and watch 15 to 20 minutes, that's perfect for you. Right. I'm just not like that. I was getting ready to say that you and I watch differently. I'm OK with a lot of the walk by us because I don't have to be up front. You like to be up front, which is more of an effort. It's a longer walk. It's more of an effort. It's you got to be more intentional about how you get from A to B. I don't have a problem walking to the back and getting 15, 20 minutes. I like it. I stay. Yeah, that's not for me. Yeah. I will say that something odd Childish Gambino's got three artists playing against him, four artists playing against him. Post Malone has nobody. And frankly, the National doesn't either. The National has Space Jesus, Republican hair and a silent disco set from A.C. Slater. I got to imagine that if something happens in GA. Yeah, that's what I'm. It's going to happen somewhere between Jim James and say midnight when Post Malone's done. Something around there is when it's going to happen because that seems way too empty for me to not think something else is going on. Yeah, that's what I was getting at. I would love to know. Man, that takes some coordination, though. It does. That takes a genius to be. I mean, I don't know if it's a matrix, but somebody far smarter than me. Yeah, yeah. That's not a high level. There and there. All right, so the National is my sort of my final show, essentially of Saturday. I mean, I want to see Post Malone. I really think it's going to be fun and I'm going to I'm going to make every effort to get there. But if it ends, if National ends at 11, there's no way I'm getting to where I want to be to see Post Malone. And here's the other thing going back to Friday, dude, there's a big problem. Imagine how hard it's going to be if you are a huge Courtney Barnett fan, which I am, which you are. Brian Stone is you took Courtney fan going from Courtney Barnett and getting to Childish Gambino. Courtney ends at nine. Childish starts at eight forty five. I had I'm just a guy that doesn't like to be one hundred and fifty, two hundred yards away from the stage. So I'm going to have to make sure that I'm somewhere close for Childish Gambino, which means that hour and a half before totally gone. That means I miss entirely the entire Courtney Barnett set. Yeah, that's I know where you're going. And that's like in my head, I'm physically how am I going to do that? How am I going to get here? They're probably not. Yeah, you're going to see if you want if you're going to if you're going to go to Courtney Barnett, that means at eight o'clock, that means at eight o'clock you're going to have to leave just to get somewhere that is manageable for Childish Gambino. And same with Post Malone. For people who have never been, all of the stages are sort of in the center area and they're navigable. But the what stage is the only one that's sort of its own gated entity. And it becomes there are two bottlenecks. Yeah, I mean, and they are massive bottlenecks since the McCartney one that was such a huge crowd. Yeah. And I have a feeling this year is going to be I think Childish is going to be massive. Childish is going to be massive. And imagine the people who desperately wanted to see Grizz, Gojira, Courtney Barnett. And then all of a sudden, you know, they've got to leave at least 30 minutes early from the set that they wanted to see just to get to somewhere to see Childish Gambino. See, and not to keep going back to that GA thing. But in the past, there was no reason other than you were just flat out tired or whatever to not be in center route on those Friday and Saturday nights. You know what I mean? So that everybody was there. I just wonder if if that whole comfort factor, you know, hey, there's it's pretty cool hanging out where we are. I'm curious to see how that impacts some of these crowds. Yeah. And so you get that problem. You get that problem for the Childish Gambino show, and then on Saturday you get the same, like you said, the same problem for Post Malone. Now I don't necessarily see it as as big of a problem going from the National Space Jesus AC Slater to Post Malone or from Camp to Post Malone. But I can see myself probably skipping the Post Malone show because I love the National so much. And I'll be done for National 11 o'clock by 11 15. I'll look up and be like, I don't know if I can make it to Post Malone and be in a place where I feel comfortable. Yeah. I mean, maybe maybe that's one of those shows that people around me convince me to just go to the back of the field and watch Post Malone from the back, sort of like I did Kendrick Lamar last year. Who was the Sunday night closer last year? That's what we that would be the killers, Barry. I think everybody went in to see the killers and Denson, one of our campmates, and I decided to hang out back in the right behind the stage. There's like four of us back there. Yeah, we could hear we couldn't see, but it was we were just done. Yeah, you know, didn't didn't want to fight the crowd. So that's the kind of decision that I'm talking about. And I keep saying it, but I really it's going to depend on how how long Thursday is and how if there is recovery time on Friday. Well, you know, you go to Saturday for me, at least if if I skip Post Malone or if I go to see it in the back of the field until like 12, that's the night I'm going to to G.A. and finding something special in the pod, because honestly, I've got nothing that interests me after tepid interest in Post Malone. Nothing past that lonely island. You can forget it. And then the rest of it is just sort of like Gucci Mane. I'm not I'm not that's not me. But I will if you if you give me something, G.A., I'll be out there all night on Saturday night. Sure. I'm with you. That's probably when is the beer exchange? Oh, God, I forgot about the beer exchange. If it's on Friday, I'm going to get killed. I think it's Friday. Oh, no. And we need to confirm. Oh, my God. The other problem. We've got people that we're supposed to be interviewing on the fast. We got work. Oh, no. Yeah, we're talking. We talked to them about doing something from this beer exchange. I'm my Friday's ruined. I'm going to get crushed on Friday because that's essentially when all the artists are going to be there. All the artists that I want to see are going to be available to be interviewed that day, which means I'm going to be taken away from their show. Oh, God Almighty. I'm going to be a problem. We're completely exactly. I'm going to suggest we think about it for a minute and then just let it happen. All right. So let's go to Sunday and we'll talk to a couple of listeners here in a second and get their perspectives on the schedule and conflicts. And by the way, if you want to win some Bonnaroo tickets, I think we have another week in this at the what podcast or the at the what underscore podcast. My apologies on Twitter or the what podcast dot com. Just drop us any sort of note. And yes, somebody asked me if Podbean comments get you in for the contest. Yeah, absolutely. Any way that you interact with us, I'm literally writing down your screen name and hopefully we can announce it on the show next week and you can claim your tickets. But when you go to Sunday, I've never seen a schedule from Bonnaroo so in the same lane as Sunday. Yeah. And it's not just the what stage where trampled by turtles, Brandi Carlile, the Lumineers are essentially all the same fans. They all sort of to me fill the same sort of space. Now they're all completely different artists and they all have completely different sounds, but they seem so similar when we were told that they sort of program this via how the lanes that you could travel based on the type of music that you like. That to me, Sunday is all one big lane. I'm not sure and I and you know more of these bands than I do, but it feels to me like there's three or four or four, maybe five or six lanes. It doesn't feel all over the place to me. I think maybe it has unless you consider that EDM and you know, the Nashville Grand Ole Opry are polar opposites, I guess in that. But there are four or five distinct lanes, but there's not 12. Right. Does that make sense? I got you. You have any schedule? You have any conflicts on Sunday? I'd like to see Walk the Moon, Lumineers and I'm definitely going to see Little Dicky. So that one. Sure. That's going to be tough. I think Carlisle is probably an entire set for me, though she will be here at our Moon River Festival. Well, that means you miss a lot of the Princess set, which is Maya Rudolph and the Prince cover band. Yeah. And you know, Hobo Johnson is one of those that people spoken highly of. I think that you're going to do and by the way, my boy Patrick Dronie is playing exactly at that time too. It's going to be tough. I don't know what I'm going to do. Patrick Dronie versus Hobo Johnson. I would like to spend 15, 20 minutes at the outset of that Hobo Johnson show just to see what it's about because he's such a lightning rod of back and forth. But Brandi Carlisle on the what is everything that's right about Sunday. Everything that's right about Sunday. It's a four o'clock show. You can probably, if you get there early enough, get into the pit. You know, it's one of those moments where I love Bonnaroo and I hate it all at the same time because it's going to be 200 degrees. I'm going to be miserable, but I'm going to love every second of standing in that pit in the in the blazing hot sun with her. Now that it's everything I love about the festival. Now that I think about it, because of my job at the paper, I have photography access, so I may shoot Brandi. That would be a good one to get the first three songs. That's that's probably what I will do. Yeah. Assuming, assuming I get in. And again, and again, but I will I will keep reiterating. The four o'clock What Stage Show to me is is the festival at its best because it's so easily to be so easily navigated. You can get into the pit pretty easily. You can hear. And then, by the way, the sound is just impeccable. So Brandi Carlile four o'clock on a Sunday, you could not have dreamt it up better for me, which means I'm going to miss Patrick Droney, Princess Lemon Twigs and Hobo Johnson. And then the night goes on and I'm just sort of like, I'll do whatever you can take me in any direction you want to. I'm definitely going to go to Little Dickie. If you want to swing by Lumineers, I'm OK about that. I don't nearly hate Lumineers as much as some people do. I find them to be quite charming. If you want if you even want me to swing by A.C. Slater, I'll do it because those guys are really, really interesting to me, even though they're an EDM act. And then if you want me to go to Mac DeMarco and try to brave that crowd, that crowd is going to be massive. There is not a better piece of scheduling, honestly, than putting Mac DeMarco against Cardi B. Yeah, because let's be honest, they might they might sort of be in the same lane so they can split the crowd and and make it least manageable, at least manageable, because his crowd and Cardi B's crowds are going to be massive. I bet that's the night we go see fish. That is going to be the night I at least give fish a try. I have never once seen fish. I've never had an interest in fish. I've never spent time. I mean, I liked a few albums when I was a kid, but maybe that's the night I finally give them a shot. It feels like it could be a good night for all of Camp Nut Butter to just sort of find a corner in the back and I would be more than happy with that. Yeah, get a beer, let it happen. Yeah, I would have no problem sitting on a on a blanket Sunday night watching fish. Yeah, that's fine by me. That's what I'm feeling. I'm all into that. You want to talk to some listeners and get their takes on the schedule? Absolutely. Who are you talking to first? I'm talking to first Dortha. Dortha, how are you? Hey! Brad Steiner, Barry Courter, how are you? Hi! I'm great, how are you all? I speak as one now. I'm Brad Steiner, Barry Courter. I speak as one. We're a couple. This is not where I thought my life was going. I did not expect this to be where I ended up. Hi, Dortha, how are you dear? I'm great, how are you all? Excellent. How many days are we down to? It's getting close. 62 I think? I think that's about the time. How many boners have you been to, Dortha? This will be my third one, but I haven't been back in a few years. I went to 2014 and 2015. Why did you take a few years off? Most of the financial stuff. The squad ended up like there was always a reason that we couldn't go. Where do you live? I'm in Kentucky, so just outside of Royal Bowl, so not far at all. Yeah, see Brad and I, we only have to drive like an hour, so we don't consider, you know. We don't think about those 15 hour drives some people make in the eight hours. Right, yeah, I think we're down to two and a half, but now my sister lives in Nashville, so we go down a couple days before. What was your initial impression of 2014 when you walked in? It was just nuts. It's an entire different world. It's just insane, and it's really hard to describe if you haven't been there, because even if you've been to another major festival, you've not been to a boner. Right. It is interesting to talk to people who've never been, because their perceptions are all over the place. Usually that it's a big, sweaty, dirty pigsty type of thing, but you can't... It is that. Well, it can be. Right. But you can't... That's impossible. The hardest thing to explain to people is how big it is, I think. Just the farm. As the entire place you're talking about, when you talk about the campsites, et cetera, it's definitely not the biggest music festival that you can go to. Lollapalooza is damn near impossible to navigate. It's just so big. Wow. They take up the entire park, and to get from one main stage to the other, it might be a mile and a half walk. It takes forever. Wow. It's 45 minutes straight, 45 minutes to go from one stage to the next, so if you have a main stage artist that you want to see on one side, there's no possible way you're going to the other side to see the guy playing right after that. Just not happening. But I do see your point as far as Centaru is concerned. That's what I actually think the opposite. I find it to be actually small and quaint. Well, that's because we've done it a lot. You think so? When you first walk in, it's pretty overwhelming. Don't you think, Dortha? That's probably true. Yeah. I got lost. We were partying really hard one night, and we just kept saying, well, we just have to find the Ferris wheel. If we can find the Ferris wheel, it's going to be all okay. So we just kept going in a circle around the park, and we just kept coming back to the same place, not realizing that we had no idea how to get to the Ferris wheel, which you can see from the entire Centaru. Right. Right. Well, you really... It was a good party. I do take that for granted, because now that I think about it, the first year, or actually the second year that I went, they still at the time had the Mounties. That they had the... Literally in Centaru, they had the cops riding the horses. Oh, wow. It was one of those nights, Dortha, where it went a little too hard, way too fast. And by the time I found myself, it was pitch black at night. It might've been midnight, one o'clock in the morning. And I swear to you, when I looked up and I saw a guy on a horse, I thought all hell was breaking loose. I was like, what world did I just walk into? It made no sense. I had to ask people around the next morning. I had to wake up. I was like, guys, did you see a horse? Yeah. I was like, is that real? I think it was the My Morning Jacket witch stage show at midnight or so. I tried to go from one side of that field to the other, and it was so crowded. And there were people passed out on the ground that you had to kind of look down. When I finally looked up, I had no idea where I was. There was a sea of people. I couldn't tell you which... I don't know. It was pretty weird. It does. I guess I do take it for granted how much we've been there and how familiar I am with maybe every step of that place. Because to me, the fun part on Wednesday when we get there is taking that tour through Centauru and just seeing what they've changed, what they've rearranged a little bit. One year, I can never forget how we talked about the fact that they moved the comedy tent... Or no, they moved this tent. They angled it just a little bit. Remember, we talked about that for three days. Three days we talked about just the way they angled a tent. Once you brought that up, and we haven't talked about it since last year, but you're convinced they moved the hill. They moved the hill. Look, I'm not talking about this again. He hung me out to dry in front of Ashley Caps. We're taking a tour of the grounds. They take the press on a tour where you can walk around on Wednesday and see the whole place like you haven't seen it before or something. But they take all the new media out there. And it's just different to see it in the daylight and empty, right? And so when it's daylight and it's empty, when you're standing there at the wet stage and you turn around, that hill, that VIP hill has been moved at least 50 yards. At least 50 yards. You know I'm right about this. No. Okay. And so when I've never been... Dorothy, I've never been more embarrassed to be standing with Brad and Ashley Caps when Brad's asking and Ashley's like, moved what? He looked at me like I was insane. He looked at me like I was riding a horse. Yes. Like, where did you get this horse? And I'm convinced that they moved that hill closer. I'm convinced. I spent that entire weekend eventually thinking that you were correct on that. Thank you, Brian Stowe. I couldn't get it out of my head. The entire weekend. I'm looking at that damn hill. I think it actually is close. I'm telling you, they're not going to admit it. He sat there with Ashley Caps and he looked at me like I had 10 heads and we moved a hill? And then he's looking at me like, you brought this guy with you? I'm telling you, if you just look at it versus pictures from five, six years ago, they moved the damn VIP hill. I'm convinced of it. Anyway, say hello to Brian Stowe, one of our campmates from Camp Nut Butter just walked in. Hi. This is Dorothy. We're on the phone with Dorothy. I'm thrilled about this. As thrilled as you are. She's listening to Brad wax on. Anyway, so the schedule came out this past weekend or this past week. Do you remember when you went in 2015, 2016? Did you have any scheduling problems then? Honestly, when I went then, I had no idea what to expect. I'd never been to any major festival. I was just like, well, I mean, I'm sure I'll get to see whatever I want. So I'm not even going to worry about the schedule until I get there. And then I get there and I see like 10 shows the entire festival. But what's the deal with that? I mean, I'm not going to worry about it. I'm just going to go to the festival. I'm going to go to the festival. I'm going to go to the festival. I mean, there's like 10 shows the entire festival, but this year I'm more prepared. I mean, I just kept wondering everywhere. And it was a blast. It was the best time ever. And I just didn't even pay attention to the ones that I wanted to see. I saw the major ones, like I saw Elton John, but everything else is just like, well, I mean, it's whatever. I'll do whatever. I'll go wherever. I'm not super worried about it. This is the crux of the first time festival goer, right? They end up not giving a damn about who's playing. And this is why we keep saying every year that the lineup just does not matter. You know, lineup matter for some music festivals and of course they affect the bottom line. But if you make the commitment to go and let yourself go and let yourself enjoy it, you really probably don't care too, too much about what you're seeing and when you're seeing it. Right. And that's where I was in those years. And this year, I've just been so into this lineup and there's just so many different things that I want to see. Like what? Let's go to the list. I mean, so like the number one thing that I saw, whatever the lineup first released with the Friday night was Graze and Gojira going on at the same time. And those were two that I was super hype about. So I still don't know what I'm going to do with those. Before we go any further, so Gojira is of course the heavy metal band that we actually talked about a couple of weeks ago. It's weird that you go from Gojira to Grizz. That's an odd compliment. Yeah. I don't think a lot of people are going to have that set conflict. But with me, I mean, I like all the music. I listen to just about everything. And I've been looking forward to seeing Grizz since I first heard him a couple of years ago. I just haven't had the opportunity to actually see him at a festival. But Gojira I found after the lineup dropped this year and I started listening to him no more. I was just like, this is insane. Like what they can do with these instruments is nuts. It's nuts and it's loud. And here's where I don't think it's going to be necessarily too much of a conflict conflict, but the sound bleed from one stage to the other, those are two very, very loud artists. Right? Yeah. Grizz and Gojira literally within 200 yards of each other might be pretty troubling for somebody in the back of the witch stage. Right. Like you can't stand in the middle of any of that and expect to have a good time. Oh my God. I'm going to spin around and explore. That's Courtney Barnett. Yeah, we'll be a Courtney Barnett. So that's not necessarily too much of a conflict for us. What are some of the conflicts that you have? There was a, let's see, there's a couple that the Drax Project, the one that y'all actually just recently featured whenever you did the Who podcast. That is going, yeah, that's going against Jack Harlow, who is a Kentucky rapper. And yeah, I'm super excited to see him and you know, I'm from Kentucky so I'm just like repping him a little bit because he's great, but they're on at similar times. I think there's like a 15 minutes that they aren't overlapping. So tell me about Jack Harlow because the only thing that I will comment on is he's got the oddest head of hair I've ever seen in my, that's a mop. That is a mop. Yeah. He works on that. He got way too into Beavis G. Man, that is, like I don't know where his hair starts and ends. That is an odd look. All right, so tell me about Jack Harlow. He's just like, he's just a rapper and I just like what he does and he talks about Kentucky a lot in his raps and there's not a lot of Kentucky people that are coming out musically. You know, you got Jack Harlow and Howard Schultz. He's only 20. That's young. He's young and he's great. And he's like, I like where he's going. The fact that he's already doing Bonnaroo right now at 20, you go, Beth. Yeah. Look at that. He's down the road from us in Atlanta. There's nothing about that picture that says rap. No, nothing. Nothing at all. He's a cellist. If you ever, if you want to like amend some of these problems, if you want to fix the Drax project, then you're more than welcome to drive to Chattanooga and see them perform at my festival, The Running of the Chihuahuas, which they will be performing one of their very first ever US shows right here for free in Chattanooga. All right. So what else do you have that's on your list? The Childish Camino and Jade Cicada. I have heard just crazy good things about the Jade Cicada show and seeing it live and I've looked it up on YouTube. But I mean, Childish Camino has got to win. Like you can't miss them. Guys, this is interesting. And Brian can help out because Brian's been to as many Bonnaroo's as I have and knows this, especially the back end of this pretty well, the nuts and the bolts of it. They have Childish Camino and Phish playing the what stage, right? Certainly those are totally free and clear and they don't have any people playing with them. Why this year the change? There's four artists playing during Phish. There are one, two, three, four, five things happening during Childish Camino. That is stunning to me. Phish go until one thirty in the morning. What stage doesn't usually go that late? I think Marshmello did that year. Remember Marshmello did that late night show? Yeah, it normally doesn't though. They're usually wrapping things up around midnight. So maybe that's the reason. Well, they did the Kanye. Kanye was supposed to start around that time. Well, that was originally supposed to be on the which stage back in 08. Then they moved it. That was just a disaster. I don't know. Like when you said there when you said there's a conflict with the Childish Gambino show, I thought you were mistaken because normally they don't put something against one of the headliners on the what. And now there's now they are. They're packing a whole bunch of stuff happening during Childish Gambino and during Phish. That's very, very surprising. Post Malone is the only one who's going into post this year. Man, that's a good point. I didn't even think about that. So so when you think like for the nerds, for the guys, the poster nerds, I consider myself one of them. Post Malone going on a post. Is he your headliner? Is he your number one? Post nerds, it's Phish. I know that. But but they're not going on a post. I mean, the only place they're going on a post is Sunday night. There's nothing else going on anyway. But anyway, neither here nor there. I'll tell you the conflict to me, that's not really a conflict. It just makes my decision. I would maybe give Phish a try. I'm not a Phish fan. It's not something that I've ever been a it's never been a deal for me. So my decision is made because Beach House is playing. Done. I don't know. Three sets of Phish is too too many. I think I'm a fan. I think one would have been good enough. But I'm going to do late night Phish and then I'll be on Sunday. No on Friday. I'll be at home on Sunday. No, you won't. Yes, I will. No, you won't. I know you're not going to be home. I know. God, you break so easily. Just depends. Just depends. Dorothy, this is what we do for the whole week. What else do you get? Anything else that is conflict? I think Saturday to me is my latest day, but I can imagine people being very, very worried about Saturday. Yeah, I mean the John Cronin, Jim James. I think that's just mean. That is mean. I'm just now looking at that is very mean. I agree. Of two artists that have so much shared audience. So many people would love. Incredible crossover. And to think that there was probably a conversation happening with those two actually being on the same stage as each other. Well, that's not going to happen. I could totally see Jim James walking out there and playing with John Cronin. That's a good point. Right. I was definitely expecting that. I like the way you said that, though. That's just mean. That's good. My biggest conflict, if it's the right word, is all day Thursday. That schedule, I may be dead by Friday morning. Barry is going to be under a blanket for three days after Thursday. He's going to walk his limit on Thursday. With that, it just goes all night. I mean, Thursday's already a great day. It's loaded up. And then you have any problems on Sunday? Sunday, it's starting with the Ripe and Kigizaku Morioh. Them being on the same stage. Those were two that I also discovered after the lineup came out. And I was looking forward to both of them because those are some that have looked up on YouTube. And it's just like the live shows are incredible. Hey, Dorothe, can I go ahead and put a hundred dollars on the fact that you're not going to go to either one of those? I know. I did not want them to be that early. Yeah. One o'clock on a Sunday. Good luck. Unless you fell out. I needed two Carolina chocolate jobs in 15, I think. And that was fantastic. That is one that got us up early. Yeah, that is fantastic. I mean, I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. Yeah, that is one that got us up early. Yeah, that is. And I'll tell you, we talk about this a lot. And at this point, it's been so long ago, it doesn't even really matter, but we still yearn for the days that Sunday one o'clock on the what stage was some sort of like take me to church music. Yeah, Mavis Staples. Mavis Staples was there. Sharon Jones was there. That was the Charles Bradley slot. Year after year, they put these really great soul artists that almost would be like church like on a Sunday morning at one o'clock morning. Right. But yeah, they don't do that anymore. Caroline Chocolate Drops really the last time where I feel like I was taken to that moment on a Sunday. Yeah, and that was a great set. That's not going to be a conflict. So Sunday on the what though, that is going to be a pretty chill day trampled by turtles, Brandy Carlisle, Luminers into fish. I mean, you're a stoner's dream right there. Our buddy Nick at camp, he'll say he'll basically like, oh, man, look at that. I could just get high and sway to that shit. That is a if you. Yeah, that's one solid lane trampled, but that is they're all essentially the same sort of mode. They're all in the same sort of wavelength. Sunday works for me. Well, Friday is good. Sunday is a pretty is going to be a resting day. There's not there's not a ton for me on Saturday. I agree. We never agree on this. I agree. All right. He's going to be bouncing back to try to see Little Dickey and then walk the moon. Who's the artist? You're not missing this, you, Dortha. Honestly, Peach Pit and their first thing Thursday and I am not missing them for anything. That's amazing. I like Peach Pit a lot and I love, love, love that they are the start of my festival. I love that idea. They come out. They came out with a banger that I really hope that that was intentional because, you know, you put your strongest single out first, the best song in the album. Put it out first. I love the idea of putting somebody really, really strong on that Thursday opening slot and to get your weekend started. I love that. I love that place. Yeah, super excited. Get there early, though. That's going to be crowded, right? Because everybody's so excited to get started. Thursday is going to be packed. I know. And I'll tell you, like there was a year. I can't remember what year we started noticing it, but we got sort of depressed one year walking around because we thought Thursdays were like our secret. We thought we had something special with Thursday. And then one year we looked up like, why are there all these people here? When did the secret get let out that Thursday was the day? Stop coming on Thursday. It was supposed to be travel end day. Right. This is my secret parking lot in the neighborhood. Don't do this. Right. Well, Dortha, we can't wait to see what you got a whole group coming. You got a whole. Yeah, I mean, it's smaller than normal. I think it's like eight of us this year. It used to be like 15, 20. Now we're all old. Oh, it happens. Do you see the guys you're talking to? It happens. We're all old in our late 20s. We have a collective age between me and Barry of 120. Yeah. I'm only 37. That's right. That's right. But I'm sitting here talking about Bonnaroo. So what up? What up? Killing it. You're killing it. My dad. My dad's. All right, Dortha, thank you so much. We can't wait to see on the farm this year and hopefully we can get around and share some times. All right. Thank you. Thanks guys. Have a great day. See you soon. Bye. Brian Stone, Brian Stone from the ever popular Something On Air podcast. You still do that anymore? Yeah, I did one this week. Still on air, all one word. Are you going to be doing a podcast from Bonnaroo? Are you just going to be producing for us? I don't know. Probably both. OK. I'm just kind of winging as I go. Catfish and the Bottle Men. We played one of the days we were doing any band or not. I love this band. You love Catfish and the Bottle Men. I look at. On the what stage on a Friday? That's going to be a hell of a way to start with that. Let's rewind a little bit. Brian is one of our campmates at Camp Nut Butter. He's been around forever. He's been a radio flunky in Chattanooga for a while too. Thank you. You're welcome. No, you're very successful. And he works at the alt station in Chattanooga. Excuse me, in Chattanooga. So you've got your Bonnaroo credentials ready to go. He knows what he's talking about when he comes to Bonnaroo. Give me, before you give me your Catfish and the Bottle Men love, because I want to talk to you about that. Who are your can't miss moments? I understand there's no Pearl Jam and that's all you care about. All you care about is some sort of Eddie Vedder sort of like tron. 25 Sets of the Almond Brothers band. Brian's mode of music starts and ends with, does it sound like, hell far, hell, hell far, hell far, hell far, hell far. That's what you like, no doubt about it. Yeah, that's a really accurate way of putting that. I appreciate that. What is the terrible band that you made me go see at Music Midtown? JJ Gray and Moe Frum. JJ Gray and Moe Frum. I get where you're getting what you're saying with that guy. The worst. Yeah, that's a bad example. It was the worst show I've ever seen. JJ Gray's fine. Stonewashed jeans and a belt buckle. He didn't have stonewashed jeans on. He did have a hell of a belt buckle on. Okay, so that's basically Brian Stone's MO. Guitar driven music played by primarily white guys. That's kind of what I listen to. So your number one artist is who? What did you say? I don't really have a number one artist. The Catfish and the Bottlement show, I'm serious. I think that's going to be, if the weather is anywhere near decent on the What Stage, which I'm going to be spending a lot of my time at the What Stage this year. A lot of stuff I've never seen before that I've just started to like or kind of like Brandi Carlile. I've never been a big fan, but the more I listen, the more I like. So that's going to be one that I absolutely have to see. And Childish Gambino. I got to see what this is all about. I got to see what this is. You're not going to like it. Oh, I'm not expecting to like it. I just got to see what it is. Are you a front of the crowd or back of the crowd guy at the What? Well, obviously that depends on the time of day because that changes where your access is. I'm fine with the middle. I can be anywhere. The sound at the What Stage is as good of any stage as I've ever heard. In the country. Ever heard. I agree. I'm with you. I want to be comfortable. Brad's got to be up front. He needs somebody rubbing his feet. I've never been in the pit. Have you never been in the pit? Never been in the pit once. Even when it's a light afternoon? No. Why? Well, actually take that back. We went to go, what was it, Gary Clark Jr. We got there right at it ended. Yeah. So I walked in and walked out. So that doesn't really count. It literally, it was, pow, good night everybody. Oh yeah. That's exactly what it was. So no, I'm fine out there. I mean, that sound really is just incredible. It just doesn't matter where you're at. And I have not been spoiled as badly as all you have and been on stages. Why are you staring at me? Why would I be staring at you? We both are. Because if there's not somebody rubbing your feet, bringing you drinks, you're not going to watch it. My feet start to hurt. Okay. So no, I don't know what I'm missing out on. And then Spoon was my only real opportunity to get on the what stage. Oh yeah, I invited you on stage for Spoon and you said, nah, no thanks. It was Sunday, man. I was tired and I didn't believe you necessarily. And then you missed one of my great Bonnaroo moments when I met Billy Joel. What did you say? You're doing well, sir? Or something like that? Good work. Have I ever told this story on the show? Yeah. Have I? Good work. Great work. I had my moment to meet Billy Joel. I shook his hand and all I said was, great work. And he looked at me, stared me deep in the eyes and said, thanks? Good talk. Great talk. Nailed it, Brad. But after Catfish and the Bottle Men, that's Friday early. I want to see what AJR sounds like. You're not going to like that either. I don't know that I would, but I'm just curious what those kids will sound like by. Okay. I'm not going to, I hope I'm not giving you the wrong impression, listener of the what podcast at the what underscore podcast on Twitter. I just know Brian's musical taste so well. I just know him like the back of my hand. I know what you're going to like. I know what you're not going to like. Well, stuff that hits the radio of AJR has got an okay sound. I don't dislike it. Look, look, I was, I've been on these kids for six years. We talked to them on the podcast. They were outside our radio station in front of five people. This is five, six years ago, right? These kids have got it. They're pretty young. They're very young. Yeah, they're great. But it's going to be poppy. It's going to be pretty poppy. And I don't know if you're necessarily into that kind of, that kind of stuff. Well, luckily the which stage is easy to get in and out of. So if I get bored, I'll get out of there. But basically it's all just getting ready for Courtney Barnett at seven, whatever. Yeah, you're such a Courtney Barnett. Oh my goodness. I'm lost in love with it. It's almost unhealthy. Okay. So I, so I invited him to be on stage for Spoon and he said, and then one year I invited him into the trailer to watch Courtney Barnett play in the trailer for me and three other people. And at the time, do you know what he said? I'm sure this is not verbatim. Whatever he's about to say. Verbatim. Quote. I promise. Put money down. This is what Brian said. Brian Stone said to me when I said, Hey, you want to get in here and watch this hay bale session with Courtney Barnett? He goes, who's Courtney Barnett? Yeah. Who did we see in there last year? Dua? Dua? No, she didn't do the hay bale session. Last year I saw. You and me and Hillary were in there for somebody. I saw Japanese breakfast in there last year and I saw somebody else. I can't remember the other person. I think it was Japanese breakfast. Yeah. Japanese breakfast is fantastic. I definitely mess that one up. Yeah. You blew it. 2015. That's all right. At some point, when did you start trusting me with this? I still don't trust you for some reason. Yeah. That's what Gary said. What are you talking about? Look, I had a chance that I could have gotten into the pit to see Tom Petty and didn't. Why? I went home. Okay. Well, what happened was. The Sunday night time. It was a Sunday night when yeah, what happened was my daughter called and said, I got us both into the pit for Tom tonight. I said, great. I went in and then I sat in a chair. It was done. Get it. That damn chair got you every time. I called her later and I said, I'm going home. Skipping out on the pit for Pearl Jam for a stupid girl. Yeah. How'd that work? Worst idea ever. Worst idea ever. I'm still not over it. I haven't talked to that girl since. And who told you that was a bad idea? Everyone, but certainly you. Okay. Thank you. She's really pretty though. I've really tried very hard. Been there. Over 15 years, Brian, I've tried very hard to be your life coach, but you just refuse to go hand in hand with me, Thelma and Louis style off of this mountain. Well, we don't really spend all that much time together. That's the problem. No, because you're always on stages and I can't go there or pits that I can't get into or I refuse to go. I don't know why you don't even try. That's insane to me. Like here's what's crazy is if you are even just a regular Bonnaroo GA or how in the world do you not at least try to get into that pit if you can, especially on the afternoon shows. They're so easy. Some people don't like, I mean, some people like have the room around them. I guess. Brian is right because Brad and I had the same credentials last year, but for all the years prior we didn't. So we'd be at camp and be like, come on, let's go see their show. And we'd get there and Brad would go right and we'd go left. See you later. It's not the same experience. I like to fly solo at Bonnaroo too. I like to just do my own thing. Well, we've said that before about our camp Nut Butter. You've been, we've been all camp together. We have a great time. We all love it, but we do not go to shows together. It is very strange. We try to find one or two. Yeah, there's a couple of meetups, but better than that. No, no. If there's eight of us, we go what? Six different ways. Half of our camp doesn't even leave camp, including Brian's. No, I leave. This joke has gone too far. Really? I leave the camp a lot. I spend a lot of time at the media center, the media compound. You left our camp to go smash Nabe's all year last year, but you didn't go to shows. That was an outlier. All right. Technically he did leave the camp 20 feet away. 20 feet away. Yes. To a different camp. To someone else's tent. Yes, it was very strange. All right. So who else you got? You got any other conflicts on your schedule? The schedule overall isn't strong enough for me to really have anything I would consider a real conflict. I feel like you've really tapped out of music for a while. I'm not being insulting. I think that you've hit that age where acquiring new things is not necessarily in your greenhouse. What am I looking at? What day is it that the record company opens on what? Is that Sunday? No, no, that's Saturday. There's a record company. There's Hozier. There's Odessa. There's The National. There's Kacey Musgraves, Jim James, John Payne. I can see any one of those. I don't think that you're a National fan. I would go to the show. I'm not saying I'm a fan. You'll hate it. It won't be for you. But there's plenty to see, but nothing if I miss it, I'm going to be sitting around being like damn it, I can't believe I missed that. What about for you? Jim James, of course I'm a My Morning Jagged fan. I'd love to see that. How about for you the Soul Rebels? Are you a Soul Rebel? I only know the name. Okay. Soul Rebels and Trampled by Turtles, two things that I think you'd be really into. I'm going to trample by Turtles. Yeah, you'd like those. So is Soul Rebels my this year's pick that I have to like? I will come up with my Brian Stone pick. I'm not ready to give that to you yet, but I do have some ideas. Okay. Because every year I give you a pick. And I usually listen to that one pick. It takes me a while to come up. Usually it's by the time the banner is over. And then I'm like oh wait, yeah, that is pretty good. Well yes, and then I have to remind you that that's the one I told you to go see. Well the Courtney Barnett thing was I stumbled on that and then later I think I was like hey that Courtney Barnett was awesome. I told you this 50 times. It's infuriating to me. It's infuriating you don't listen to me. That was a Thursday night, right? It was. She was a Thursday headliner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's our poster child for Thursday night. I wish she was on a bigger stage, but that's fine. Yeah, that was the crazy thing about this schedule. They put her again in a tent. That tent, yeah. I just, I can't. Even if it's the Crappy Witch, I want her on a bigger stage. I do too. I do too. And I don't, I just, I worry about it on, first off, I think that that tent is my least favorite stage of the entire festival. I'm not a big fan of any of the tents to be honest with you. Me either. Me either. For some reason. It's not a comfortable spot. Crappy place to watch me. Well if you get a lightly attended show it's okay. Right. But if it's just bad, if it's just really hot, you just have 10,000 people under there trying to get out of the sun. Yeah, well. And they're, the thing I don't like about them, they're crowded like that. If you get a good spot sort of up front, you got all those people that have to be the up front people and they just keep continuously from the stand. Never stop. Never stop. Somebody's trying to get in front of you. I don't remember which one I was. I was, it was raining. I had a good spot and 10 minutes later I was outside in the rain. I don't remember moving. So I went home. I remember they put those, you know they got the screens out there now which helped but it's just not an overall great experience. Well some people like that a lot more than this mostly because there's that elevation, there's that hill that you can sit on and kind of see over everybody. Yeah that you do kind of feel like you're in a hole. Right? Am I thinking of that right one? One of them you feel like there's no way to get elevated. That's this. I mean that, that is, you know you have this on the left, that on the right. And that to me is maybe a better viewing experience if you're not necessarily invested in the artist. Like for instance T-Pain last year. We all watched T-Pain from that hill on that and we hated every second of it. But nonetheless it was a nice way to like I can just sit back here and see it. This doesn't necessarily give you that opportunity. The super jam was that way last year too. We were all there and had a comfortable spot outside and we weren't invested. Like you couldn't see anything. We could hear. But I'm invested in Courtney Barnett and there's no possible way I think that she should be on a tent. And I'll be honest with you. Look I love AJR. I love those kids. I'm stunned. Stunned they put them on the witch stage. Stunned how in the world they put AJR on a witch and Courtney Barnett in a tent is baffling to me. As we navigate the schedule, it's schedule day on the What Podcast, the whatpodcast.com or the what underscore podcast on Twitter to get in for Bonnaroo tickets. One more week of this and we'll announce the winner next week. Oh we got another listener. By the way, Brian Stone just decided to leave. Why did he just walk out? I don't know but I wanted to tell people listening, if you want to know what the Week in Camp Nut Butter is like, you just got a little taste. Oh my god that was just, I mean that's not even scratching the surface. No, but that's what happens over and over. All day. And bless his heart, he keeps coming back. He's coming back and loves it. And this year, he keeps trying to tell us he's going to bring a girlfriend to witness this abuse. He's out of his mind. Let's talk to another listener, who we got now. April. Hi April from Knoxville. Hi, how are you? What are you doing? I am touring my work's new bar that they just built, or they're building it. Oh, well hello. That was just down in the basement. Well hello. My liver is throbbing. If you're ever in Knoxville, come see it. You know, there's a really great brewery in Knoxville called Print Shop. I'm a big fan of there. They got good beers. Yeah, I haven't actually been there yet. I used to live on outside of town, but not anymore. I live downtown. You're in Knoxville, so it's a very short drive to Monterey, isn't it? Very short. How many times have you been? This will be my 12th year. Wow. 12th year on the farm. We don't talk to many vets that have numbers that high. We've been talking to a lot of people that are 3, 4, 5ers. But like Barry and I have been saying maybe for a year and a half now, the people that have been there for 10, 12, 13 years, imagine that first one that you went to and the difference that it is today. How unbelievable. It's a different world. Totally different. So I remember being scared to death, like my first festival, like what's going to happen. I've heard all these great stories about Monterey, but never thought it was going to be as amazing as it was. I don't know why I was so scared when I arrived, but seeing how it was then and how it is now, it has definitely changed. But it's still my favorite festival. Were you concerned or were you told about the whole spray bottle misting thing? Do you remember that? I did, yes. What? Remember people were supposedly putting like what, PCP spray bottles. Everybody's like, man, don't let anybody spray you. Yeah. And then I was like, I can't walk around barefoot because there's going to be needles. And I was like, that is so stupid. No one does that. And if you do, don't do that. Right, right. Not cool. But yes, I was definitely one of those. That was why it was one of the main reasons why I was scared to go. Yeah. I mean, me too. Me too. Yeah, we all, I was for sure. My first year, not only was I scared, I haven't, well, I don't camp. Look at me. This is not for me. Camping is terrible. I hate the outdoors. I don't like bugs. I don't like people. I don't like heat. I don't like the dirt. I'm yet particular about my bathroom habits. This was not for me. And the first year is historically, I might have told this story before on the air, but it was the worst experience of my life. It was legitimately the worst weekend I have ever had in my life. I felt as though I was in the opening scene of Lean On Me and the kids were coming out of the cages in the, in the cafeteria and they grabbed the principal and they're slamming his head into the ground. It was just scary. It was a scary moment. And I've told this story before. We get lost heading back to our GA campsite, which just felt like it was miles away. I might as well have been camping in Chattanooga. We were in pod one. Do you remember pod one? Yeah. Is that the outer? They would like, they would lock you there. Like once it filled up, they would like not let anybody leave until more of the campgrounds were full. So we kind of just like had, it's now, I guess where all the volunteers camp and all of the medical, like kind of not, kind of think there's like a bridge that you have to cross over. I can't remember, but it was probably like a 35, 40 minute walk and it was just horrible. Yeah. Yeah. And like I made that and here's the crazy thing. I made that walk the first year and I thought it was, you know, it was never going to end. I went to GA last year and if you look at the map, it probably was no different than where I camped 15 years ago, but man, it felt like it was 10 minutes. It feels different. It felt like it was no time whatsoever to get from that pod, that experience that the secret KG Elephant show was at, from there to our camp, it felt like nothing. It felt like nothing. Yeah. That's the genius of how this thing has evolved and changed and really they've taken the user experience and completely upended it and made it so much better. Yeah. I think we were kind of camped there around there last year. I think we were between two and three of the past two years. So we weren't far. Right. But you know. Have you gone as a fan every year or has it been like work related anytime? No. Fan every year. Wow. That's pretty good. Yeah. One year we decided we were going to skip Bodaru and go try Hangout Festival and then we got an opportunity where my friend had a friend who had an extra guest pass. And as you know, because you camp and guess, it's one of the best things that you could possibly have. We don't really like talking about it now. It's terrible. It's just something that just, it sounds so shitty when we talk about it. Well, so she ended up getting a ticket. So I went on Craigslist and found a guest ticket online and we did guess one year. This year we're doing group camping for our first year. So we're excited about that. That's really cool. That is cool. Yeah. We've never done group camping, but we have, you know, all our Knoxville friends are excited. So we're just going to do a big group this year. How many? We're shooting for 25. I think we have about 20 right now. Wow. And they're all from Knoxville or are they coming from everywhere? Most of them are from Knoxville. That's cool. That's really cool. We have some that are from Nashville and Chattanooga. So we'll see how many we have when it all boils down to it. When you look back on your 12 years, what is the one memory you got? Is it a show? Is it a camp experience? What's the one that comes to mind first? Paul McCartney. Me too. Me too. Paul McCartney. Pretty special one. I mean, it was the best show and I was really hoping I would come back this year, but then I thought about it and I was like, I don't think that that show could top the first time I saw it. I felt the same way. When I heard the rumors, I said it on the show and I said it to Barry. I was like, man, I've already had that moment. I don't want it again. But then I realized not everybody had that moment. So, you know, if they want to bring him back, I'll let somebody else enjoy it. I'm not going to go. That was a really interesting discussion for us because I think Brian and I both felt the same way. I've already seen it. But then we thought, you know, there have been several bands that we've seen several times. It's always something different. And like you said, other people haven't seen it. So I can go either way on that one. It's going to be hard to top. And that the reason why McCartney is mine too, over anything that's ever happened at camp or somebody I've met or a show, the reason why that McCartney thing was so special to me as I sat there, I was sitting there in the pit and in front of me was a guy in his girlfriend and then their friends and their maybe I'm amazed comes on and he drops down to one knee and he proposes to her. And I have already cried once during the show when he talks about his friend, John, I've already balled once. Then he plays, maybe I'm amazed. The guy drops down to a knee. He proposes to her. She says, yes, all the friends are hugging. They're hugging me. I'm crying. And then three, two, one, live and let die fireworks. It's like the guy knew the set. He knew the set list perfectly and to find the perfect moment for this to happen. Exactly. Waterworks. I mean, I lost my entire mind. That was the moment I'll never forget. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, it was probably one of the best moments. Best shows I've ever been to, period. Went back to camp and talked about it some more. Woke up that next morning, talked about it some more. It was so good. One of our campmates got back to camp and he said, I'm going to go home now. I saw everything I need to see just now. It's that not going to top it? Not going to top it. You know what? This head in the heart is just not doing it for me. Too bad for them. All right. So when you look at the schedule this year, who's top of your list? So I love Gambian. Do you? I'm going to go see fish. I'm going to do Tramble by Turtles, the Wood Brothers. Love me some John Primes, Jim James. That's going to be my biggest excuse to conflict live. It's going to be Jim James, John Primes, and Odessa all at the same time. Yeah. We talked to Dortha earlier. She said, that's just mean. She had a great line. That's just mean. Jim James versus John Primes. Obviously, John Primes alleged I have to go see him. I'm going to see Jim James again, hopefully. And Odessa is going to be around. So it's going to be one of those things. I may split my time up between Jim James and John Primes, but I'll just have to see Odessa another time. Let me just say this, and I don't want to be morbid about it, but I've gone through this twice. Specifically with Solomon Burke. There's nobody I love. I'm a soul music guy, right? I like 50s and 60s soul music. And Solomon Burke is the top of the list for me. It's Solomon Burke, Syl Johnson, Otis Redding. Well, when I saw Solomon Burke on the lineup, I said, I don't care what's playing around it. I have to see this right now because I don't think I'm going to see it again ever. And by the way, he died six months later. So if you got the shot, if you've got the shot, see John Primes before, you know, before time runs out. Right. Absolutely. Tom Petty. Tom Petty. You know how much I'm not even Tom Petty fan. I'm irritated I never saw that show. I remember seeing Tom Petty closing out Bonnaroo, was it 2013? Yeah. And it was one of, that was a great show also. So yeah, you have to, when legends are in front of you, you have to take your, take it by the reins and go for it. What are some other conflicts you have other than Jim James and John Primes? So we have a Knoxville band playing and they're some good friends of mine. They are playing at the Ville on Thursday, but that's during the, oh gosh. Who's the Knoxville band? What's their names? Three Star Revival. Check them out. They're awesome. Okay. All right. Yeah, but they're playing during Grand Ole Opry. Yeah. Ooh. I'm like, oh, this is really hard. I love you all. And I left last year, cause they played last year also, I left Pigeon's Flame Ping Pong to go see them. So I feel like I have an exemption this year. You do. You got a pre-pass. And they're a Knoxville band, so you'll see them again. Exactly. But they're some good friends. So I'm like, oh, I feel like I should support you, but at the same time I did last year. There's something about, I don't know what is in my head about this, but something just doesn't feel right about this Grand Ole Opry show in a good way. There's a specific reason why it's on Thursday. And there's a specific reason. What's that? I'm very curious as to what they're going to be doing since CMA sets got moved. Right. I agree. I agree. Something is not clicking. And maybe that's what it is, because there's something up. And maybe that's why I feel so weird about it. But I can't miss it. I know this is going to be something, and I don't know what it is, but that's what I want. I can't miss. And as we've said, AC now has a Nashville office. I mean, there has been a Nashville push for three years, and the CMA is moving. I mean, that was an agreement. So I agree with you. There's something up. And when you have on the lineup, Marin Morris, Brandi Carlile, Casey Musgraves, how would you not connect the dots here? Exactly. I'm pretty sure Casey Musgraves and Hailey Williams, they just did a song together at the show. Yeah, girls just want to have fun. I mean, there's really a bunch of crossovers, for sure. Hailey Williams has got an exhibit in the pods. No way she doesn't come out in Grand Ole Opry. She's from Nashville. And I'm crossing my fingers. I know this sounds crazy. Miley Cyrus. I would love it. Okay, I was saying the same thing, but I didn't want anybody to be like, you're wrong. A boy can dream. I mean, JT lives in Nashville. I'm coming out with Lonely Island. I'll be honest with you, if you ever just want to go find Justin Timberlake, just go to the Puckets in Franklin. He eats there three times a week. I know people that live in Franklin that talk to me like, man, this Justin Timberlake is all the time in Puckets. It's like he owns the place. I always felt like Justin's not ever going to do Bonnaroo because he has his own festival. I mean, he runs that. He basically has his hooks in that pilgrimage festival in Franklin. So I can't imagine him doing any sort of Bonnaroo thing. That's very true. Plus, I don't know if, you know, he's a lot of money. He's a lot of money. He's a big number. And it's going to be a big number just for him to show up for 15 minutes, too, by the way. And I don't that doesn't seem like the Bonnaroo speed. But, you know, it's crazy. He also has a lot of money. So it'd be, you know, maybe he does 15 minutes just because it's fun. I'm not. I know. It's a short drive. I mean, he got to have a lot of goodwill. I wouldn't be banking. I wouldn't either. The Lonely Island. I don't know. We'll see. But I definitely want to do that. It is surprising. It is surprising to me. Like, there's a couple of scheduling surprises that we didn't understand. First off, AJR being on the witch stage is stunning to me. I cannot believe. I just kind of listening to them and they're awesome. They're fun. They're a fun, fun pop group. I don't understand the witch stage when you have Courtney Barnett on a tent. And I am pretty stunned that Lonely Island is doing that big of a set that late at night. It is late. And that was another conflict of mine. Is it? I wanted to see Grammatic because I haven't seen Grammatic in a very long time. And that's the same time. And Joe Russo's almost dead. Like, again, I love my jam band. That's going to be a great, like, fun late night dance party. But all that's going on at the same time. I haven't said this yet. And I've been avoiding saying it because I didn't want to make anybody mad. And contrary to popular belief, I make people mad on my radio show. Not here. That's a much different world. I hate Lonely Island. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. You're not convincing. I used to hate them too. I hated them on Saturday Night Live. I cannot stand that guy. And I've got a very, very specific reason why I don't like that kid. That guy on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and the guy that's in Lonely Island. Andy Samberg. Can't stand him. It goes a long way. It's a long history as to why I dislike him so much. But that is something I'm absolutely not even going to pretend that I'm going to. I'm not even going to tell you. I will not sniff it. I will not walk past it. I don't want anything to do with it. I'm betting we see him there. I like that you're getting very emotional about this. I know. I've been holding back for a long time. Yeah, yeah. How do you feel, Brian? Thank you for letting it out. Thank you for letting it out. That would be the only time I talk about Lonely Island, by the way. No, it won't be. I hope that hopefully Andy Samberg doesn't stumble across Camp Nut Butter. Hey, what's up, bro? Hey, guys. Now that would be entertaining. I hope he does come by. I need to stop talking. I've already made somebody mad about Lonely Island. All right. So any other conflicts? Any other things that got you troubled? Girl Talk and Chris Superjam. Yeah, I'm with you there. I like Girl Talk. I love Girl Talk. I've been listening to Girl Talk for years. And the fact that Girl Talk is on that lineup, I got immediately. If it's like any of the previous ones, though, you could probably be anywhere on site and hear a good bit of it. Probably. Like when Beast Nectar. I'm so surprised that Childish Gambino has a set with somebody. Somebody else is playing at the same time. We just talked about that. It's the first time that I've seen a headliner on the What Stage Childish and who's the other one that comes right after Childish? Fish. Yeah. Both of them. Both of them have artists playing during their sets, which is not something I remember happening before. No, that never happens on the What Stage. That's what our listener just now, Dortha, said. Post Malone's the only one playing on a pose, which is so, so fascinating. Other than fish on Sunday night, it's not something I've seen before. Yeah, neither have I. We really do appreciate the time. And if you're ever in Chattanooga, come by and say hi. Oh, yes. Hopefully we'll see you at the farm, OK? Yes, sir. I'll see you later. Have a great one. Thanks, April. See you soon. Bye. There you go. Another week in the books. So what podcast getting closer and closer to Bonnaroo 2019? How many days we have, by the way? Are we under 50? No, should be just under 60. OK. But you know, as we're wrapping this up, Brian, the more we talk and listen to April and Dortha and Brian and what you and I said at the beginning, last year was easily, easily the most fun Bonnaroo for me. Yeah. Everything. There was not a negative. Everything. I mean, I rounded a corner and I'd run into somebody. Right. Nice thing would happen. Good thing would happen. Interviews literally fell. Right. Fell in front of me. This one already feels like while I was pretty relaxed about it earlier in the week, now that I sort of play it all out in my head, this is going to be a crazy one. You get a little stressed? I'm gonna. OK. Because of what, you know, so much that you and I want to see, the GA factor throws a whole new wrinkle in. Hey, Barry, Barry, Barry, take your own advice. Just let go, man. Just let go, man. The Bonnaroo podcast, a podcast for Bonnaroovians by Bonnaroovians. This is the What Podcast. Talk to you again next week. Hey, hey, hey, hey. How y'all feeling? Journey through the stories that define the artist playing Bonnaroo. Who are they? What are they? What will you see? The What. Which bands? This year? That Matter. With Brad Steiner and Barry Courter.
Listen Via:
