The What Podcast is back after taking a couple of weeks off! What have we been up to? Find out how Bryan's trip to NYC to see Pearl Jam went, and why Barry is wearing those ridiculous sunglasses.
We also take the time to make our picks for South Star Festival, coming up soon in Huntsville, AL. Note that we recorded this before the news broke that Jane's Addiction was cancelling the rest of their tour. At this point, a replacement has not been announced yet. Finally, we look ahead to some upcoming events and the start of the Bonnaroo 2025 rumor season!
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Topic: South Star
00:00 | Intro |
06:11 | What Russ has been up to |
10:59 | South Star picks |
22:55 | Warped Tour coming back |
24:18 | Happy Birthday Barry |
26:21 | Bryan's trip to NYC |
37:47 | Bryan's trip to the caverns |
39:59 | Wrapping up and looking ahead |
42:18 | Outro |
I didn't like Candle Box in 1997.
I have friends who are, have been mad at me my whole life because I
not only don't like them, I hate them.
I hate their music.
So I won't be at that, but, um,
welcome back to the what podcast I'm Barry.
That's Brian.
That's Lord taco.
We've taken a couple of weeks off.
We're back.
There's a reason why I have these hideous sunglasses on to say,
you look cool to me.
Well, they are cool.
And if, if you're old school, you know, you should know why, who,
why I have these on.
I guess I'm not old school enough.
Uh, we didn't have time for a pre-show meeting today.
No, I wasn't going to give it up either, but I'm, I'm, I'm going to apologize
maybe to you guys cause I I'm feeling a little mushy.
I'm feeling a little old.
Today's my birthday.
Oh, wow.
And I was, uh, this is my happy birthday.
Thank you.
This sounds so stupid.
So I was down in the basement listening to my Victrola listening to an Elvis
record and I walked over to my computer and I saw these and I was given these by
the curator of Graceland as part of my job years ago.
They are an exact replica of the sunglasses that Elvis used to wear.
And I actually held in my hand Elvis's sunglasses that these are modeled after.
And first of all, I want to say they weighed about 400 pounds.
I can't believe the man wore them, but it sort of triggered, um, and I've been
thinking about this all week, uh, and, and Brian, it's kind of your fault cause I
was listening to your podcast, uh, Wednesday stone on air.
You've had a pretty doggone good month or summer.
It's been pretty nice.
Yeah.
It's been pretty nice.
It's not over yet either.
It's not over.
And you were very, uh, effusive, uh, which is unusual for you in thanking
people for what a great summer you've had.
And I've had the same sort of week.
Uh, and that's kind of where I'm going with this.
Um, we're pretty lucky people.
We get to do a lot of cool things and that's kind of what I wanted to talk about today.
We're going to talk about South star.
We're going to talk about our picks a little bit.
Uh, and that's even part of what I mean.
We're going to, you and I, um, Russ, sorry, keep kicking sand in your face.
I know you're going to, uh, you're going to a niece's wedding, right?
Or a family member's wedding.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Can't make South star this year.
Unfortunately down in Florida or something like that.
Yeah.
We'll be in Florida, which is cool.
I mean, I, you know, I, it's, you gotta go.
I mean, it'd be cooler if it was any other weekend during the year.
Yeah.
Life, man.
But, uh, I got a couple of phone calls this week from, uh, people, Brian that you,
that we all know that are also going to be at South star.
And I was like, oh, cool.
You know, I mean, the more I think about this festival coming up, I mean,
the more excited I am about it because not only the lineup is good, but we're
going to see a lot of people that we've met over the years through Bonnaroo or
through work or through whatever.
And again, it was just, just sort of this, you know, I just, like I said,
this morning I woke up and started like, well, that's pretty good.
Yeah.
I'm not going to complain.
If you can't reflect it and get to that point on your birthday, I don't know
if you're ever going to get to that point.
I don't know if you're ever going to get there.
I know, but it's like, uh, we're going to see a lot of people, uh, that, well,
the three of us, as we've said before, wouldn't know each other.
We wouldn't know each other like we do, if not for this music festival, Bonnaroo.
100%.
100%.
Yeah.
And, uh, we're going to see a bunch of people down in Huntsville that we would
never have known if it weren't for Bonnaroo or music festivals.
Yep.
Yep.
Um, you know, so life's pretty good.
Um, yeah.
And it's real easy to get, you know, wrapped up in life and think that
it's exactly the opposite, you know?
And, and I, and I do it all the time, you know?
Yeah.
I mean, I'm a self-sabotaging, crazy person sometimes.
So I, you know, I understand this a hundred percent.
And when you, it's really nice to be able to sit back and, and, and realize,
you know, and be thankful.
And it's something I wouldn't have done 15 years ago.
Yeah.
It's just not where my brain would have gone.
And, um, it does now.
So yeah, I, I a hundred percent can get behind what you're saying.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
It takes just as much energy.
I mean, all the cliches we can, we can, we can pull them all out, but, uh, you
know, and, and not to get political, but I'm just, I don't want to go backwards.
I'm tired of it being negative.
Life is pretty doggone good.
And that's just the way I'm choosing to see it.
And, uh, it, uh, there's so many things like these sunglasses.
And that's, that's the point of, I mean, I held Elvis's sunglasses.
What the hell?
That's pretty neat.
Who gets to do that?
And I should, nobody should be shocked that Elvis has gaudy hundred
pounds sunglasses either.
That's pretty wild.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah.
If you don't know who Elvis is, you're too young.
Look it up.
I'm not apologizing.
Everybody knows who Elvis is.
Don't they?
Don't they?
They better.
You don't look it up.
So anyway, uh, and, and along those lines, I'm going to ask Brian, uh, you know,
he's had a couple of pretty cool trips, which is part of why we took a couple
of weeks off, but, uh, uh, Russ, I always over talk and, and, uh, you know, what
have you been doing the last couple of weeks?
What's going on?
Yeah.
Good question.
Where the hell you been?
The local bar?
No.
Yeah.
Local bar.
Pretty much haven't, haven't done a whole lot of anything.
Had any good PBR had some PBR, uh, been streaming a lot.
Oh yeah.
I'd have noticed, uh, what World War three or whatever it was that you're playing
the other day, I didn't even know what it was.
I don't even see.
And the thing is with those games, Russ, I'm your age and I don't recognize any
of these games you're playing.
I played all these games when I thought I did.
I thought I did.
And, but, uh, yeah, that Twitch channel, man, it's working.
Yeah.
It's been a lot of fun.
Um, and, uh, so that's pretty much all I've been up to.
Um, I did secure tickets, Barry, you know, we've got, uh, next month we're
going to go see beat in Nashville.
Yeah.
I don't know if we told you, we kind of mentioned it to you, Brian.
We're going to go see beat.
I saw that it was in the text thread.
Yeah.
I think I was moving around, uh, traveling when I saw that.
So yeah, it was at the rhyme.
I, yeah, at the rhyming.
Rhyming.
It's at the rhyming and it's, uh, yeah, it's former members of King Crimson with
Steve vie and Danny Carey on drums from tool tool, playing the eighties, uh,
incarnation of King Crimson.
Yeah.
That's a wild, isn't that not?
Yeah.
That's, that's, that's a wild group of people doing a very cool thing.
I mean, I had heard of it, but I didn't, I didn't know Danny Carey was
playing, playing drums.
I know that he's, I see him pop up in my algorithms a lot for some reason,
but, uh, hmm, rhyme and y'all, y'all seen a show with the rhyming music show.
It's been a long, long, long time.
Yeah.
I think I have been there, but it has been a long time.
It's an interesting place to see a show.
I, uh, and I mean that in the sense that it's not that great.
It's, it's, it's like awesome.
I mean, it's so cool to be there.
It's like, it's like a museum, you know, it's a, it's a museum itself.
Yeah. And I got talked into the, uh, what is it?
The Ford room, the little VIP upgrade y'all are doing.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I have not been in there.
Russ is gonna, we're going, he's gonna ride with my brother and my nephew.
And, um, Mike, when he bought the tickets, got the pre-show thing in the,
in the Ford room, which is like what drinks and some food and a poster.
I've seen, yeah, I've seen those add-ons they've done.
Yeah.
They've, they've had, there's a, in the last year, I think, I think
in the last 10 years, they've put a lot of additions on the rhyme.
And the last time I want was about 10 years ago for Noel Gallagher, but
it's a cool place, but you can get, it was, it was built when the average
height of a, of a male was barely six feet.
So the overhang hangs really far down.
If you're underneath that overhang, it cuts off your view.
Like right here, we're in the upper.
So then you're, you're, you're in a good spot.
That's why you want to be upstairs at the, that's what we heard.
So you want to be upstairs, but what a cool show.
I'm looking forward to it.
And, um, I'm especially glad you're going with us.
That's going to be fun.
Uh, yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
Uh, the only other thing I did was, uh, I was an extra in a music video.
Oh yeah.
What was that about?
One of our local bands.
I know, uh, Lillian is the name of the band.
Lillian.
My nephew's band.
Yeah, our friend Travis Knight's in there and then, uh, Graham, uh,
your nephew, Barry are in a band together.
And I, you know, happened to go out one night and see them perform and bought a
record and they put out a call for, uh, they're shooting a music video and
they're, it's a bar scene.
And so they just asked for people to show up and, you know, Populate a bar.
So I thought, well, I can do that.
So that's easy enough for you, right?
Good looking people who could drink a beer and you fit that bill.
Huh?
I fit the bill.
Any compensation for that?
A free PBR or anything?
Yeah.
Was there choreography?
Did you dance?
I mean, what did you do exactly?
Just stood there and drink beer.
That's your skillset, man.
Yeah.
Sounds like a hell of a gig.
I'm born to play this role.
Looking forward to the, uh, I'm sure I'll get an Oscar whenever it comes out.
Talk about typecasting.
We need beer drinking guys.
You'll never get another gig in this city now.
Taco.
That's funny.
Yeah.
He's got the big head now.
He's, he's going to need money.
Yeah, I can put that on my resume.
I start asking for a little bit more money from y'all.
Yeah, that'll work out well.
Yeah.
All right.
So that's my mushy part.
I just, uh, point being, uh, we're lucky people and we get to do some cool stuff.
And, uh, part of that is we get to go, uh, Brian and I, uh, we're going to go to South
Star, which is, uh, the festival in Huntsville, Alabama, 28th and 29th.
Um, yeah, we're talking from the time this is going to hit, uh, 10 days.
Yeah.
10 days.
And we were kind of talking off air, Brian.
I mean, when this was announced, the three of us were all very excited.
We were going, we're going, we're going.
And then of course our mood kind of dipped a little bit about two months ago.
So I really want to, you know, it's what we do.
It's all the time.
Oh, wait a second.
I don't know.
Wait, you mean I gotta get off the couch?
Remember bourbon to be on, we were going to do, and it was going to be the biggest
party of the year.
And we haven't talked about it in five months.
Maybe not so much.
I'm going, uh, but this is a little different for sure.
Exactly.
I am very excited.
Uh, to the point, like, I'm not going to be talking about it.
To the point, like this morning when I was listening, like I said, to the Victrola, I
was charging batteries.
I'm getting my 10 out.
I'm getting my, you know, I'm starting to think about packing, uh, trying to think of,
trying to think about how the weekend is actually going to go.
So I'm really, really excited about it.
Uh, um, and so, but it's different cause we had Corey Smith on a couple of three weeks
ago, and this is kind of a city festival, but not a city festival.
So, and it's also a brand new festival.
So I'm, I'm kind of curious, Brian, you're probably like me, you know, we've done enough
of these, but I'm trying to figure out how it's going to work.
Right?
I mean, yeah, I mean, we, uh, just saw the map yesterday or in the last couple of days.
So that was nice to at least get a quick view of it.
Doesn't mean that, you know exactly what to expect.
We're talking to Corey, we, we know more than the map shows us as far as how big it is.
What do you say?
13 minutes from entrance to the very back, very small amount of time.
Yeah.
Which is awesome.
Very small amount of time, but very toilet.
Same.
That's huge.
And a very, very, very big space though.
So we'll find out what that means exactly.
Uh, when we get there.
So yeah, there's a lot to learn and, um, I'm still, you know, I think we've talked about
it if, if not on the show off, we, none of us have a ton of Huntsville experience.
And the little bit that we have is pretty recent.
So it's going to be an interesting first time event.
Hopefully one of many, you know, we'll time we'll tell on that, but yeah, I think you're
like me, we're starting to really put together our lists.
Uh, you know, what do I want to do?
What do I anticipate?
What time do I think I'll get there?
The good news was something like this is, is that it, it's so, it looks like it's so
well designed.
You don't really need a list.
You can kind of just do it all.
Right.
If you, if you want to, without it being an unrealistic expectation, right?
Like Bonnaroo and Lollapaloo's and many of these other monster festivals, you get excited
and you make these lists and we all, we, we've made, we've done a whole damn show on it.
Everybody understands this by now.
It's ridiculous.
It's fun.
So you're always going to do it.
You're always going to do your list because it's part of it's like March madness.
You know, you're going to fill it out and here it looks like, and this is how moon river
was our local festival.
That's that's come and gone.
Now, if you want it to, you could just go on down and you could see every single act
of the day without putting any real effort into it.
You might get pretty damn tired, especially when it's still summer in the, in those, in
the South in September.
It looks like this might be that way too, which is really cool.
Cause that means you can make it up on the fly.
And if you truly don't want to miss Jen blossoms and Jimmy world and then you won't.
Yeah.
And so that's a, unless the weather comes in and screws things up, which we also know
September can be notorious for that in the South as well as we're dealing with not us
specifically, but the South is dealing with right now.
Yeah.
There is that.
And so like I said, in the intro, we're going to see a lot of people that we know, which
is a whole different sort of element.
So I'm really, really excited about it.
And I didn't, I mean, I was excited when the lineup came out and the fact that it's so
close.
But the closer I get, I'm, I mean, I'm, I'm really looking forward to this.
Yeah.
And Huntsville, I was there in May.
That was the first time since I was very, very, very young.
It's a pretty, I think it's a pretty cool town.
It's very cool.
Yeah.
I like it a lot.
It's, it reminds me of, of where we're from a lot in some ways and not in others.
So I'm, I'm, it's an hour and 20 minutes down the road too.
It's going to be really easy for us.
So yeah, it's going to be good.
Who are you looking forward to?
And Russ, I'm going to ask you to contribute.
If you were to go, I'll ask you first, who were, who were the bands that you would see
yeah, your official picks.
Like the ones like if you had to, there's only a handful.
Obviously we could see them all.
If you didn't have a selfish niece who decided to ruin your weekend and, and everybody who
loves football that weekend.
I'm not that guy.
They will have a big TV.
I'm not that guy, but we all know those guys and gals are everywhere.
Go ahead.
Here's my, well, here's my theoretical picks then since you put me on the spot.
Probably number one for me to see would be Beck.
I've never seen Beck.
I've always wanted to, never had the chance.
So sucks that I'm going to miss him, but that's probably number one for me.
I also do kind of want to see Sublime.
Mostly just cause I'm curious how, you know, it's going to work with their, with, with
the son of what's his name, Bradley.
Yeah.
He sounds pretty good from what I've kind of just poked around.
So I'd like to see Sublime.
I'm right there with you, Brian, Jane's Addiction would be way up there for me too.
Big boy.
We kind of already saw it.
River been here.
That was a fun show.
So there's my handful, I guess.
We'll know the fighter.
Yeah.
All right.
Let me go next.
Yep.
Go ahead.
Um, Saturday I would like to see, uh, Jane's Addiction as, as you referenced, uh, taco.
Never seen Jane's Addiction, not even that big of a fan, but I just, it's the original
or mostly it's Perry and help me out Russ.
Why am I forgetting the freaking guitar player's name?
It was in Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Perry is the one I, all I know and Ben caught stealing is one of the great beginning songs,
the great intros ever.
Dave Navarro.
Oh Jesus, Dave Navarro.
Uh, Navarro and, uh, and Perry are there.
So that's all that really matters.
So Jane's Addiction, uh, never seen Gwen Stefani or, um, man, my memory doesn't work at all.
What the hell was the name of their band?
Who are we talking about?
Shine down.
What are you talking about?
We've been off for two weeks.
Blink.
Gwen Stefani's band.
Uh, no doubt.
My God.
Sorry everybody.
Uh, I've never seen no doubt or Gwen.
So those are back to back on the main stage on Saturday.
That sounds really fun.
If that's all I did on Saturday, that'd be a great day to me.
Um, I've seen Jim Blossoms, don't care about much of the rest.
I didn't like Candle Box in 1997.
I have friends who are, have been mad at me my whole life because I not only don't like
them, I hate them.
I hate their music.
So I won't be at that, but, um, that's mainly on Saturday and TLC.
I know it's not, you know, they're not all alive anymore, but I've never seen any version
of the girls from TLC.
I would love to see that.
And that goes right in a row on Saturday, TLC, Jane's Addiction, Gwen.
If I just wanted to park right there, that's a perfect day in my book.
And then move on to Saturday or excuse me, Sunday.
I've seen Pete Yorn, but I'd do it again for sure.
Goo Goo dolls I've seen don't need to do it again.
Blink 182.
I'd have trouble seeing them if they were playing down the road from my house.
I likely won't see that.
But Beck, I'm in the same ballpark as you guys.
Never seen Beck, love Beck.
And that's a, it's Beck and Jane's Addiction that really are on those, both those back
to back days.
It's like that really kind of sells it for me.
A hundred percent agree that and the way this line, the way it's playing out, like if it
was a Bonnaroo, if this was a Bonnaroo lineup and I had to make the effort to go from one
side of the farm to the other.
Beck and Jane's Addiction would be the two that I would make the effort.
The rest of them would be kind of-
See how that falls.
Yeah.
Walk bys.
If I'm there, I'm there.
But the fact that this is two stages and you just can walk back and forth.
You mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, Brian.
These are bands that you're going to sit there whether you want to or not and know more songs
than you think you know.
Yeah, like Jimmy Eat World.
Yeah.
You're going to know five songs from Jimmy Eat World.
Exactly.
And you're going to be like, okay, well that was fun.
You know, it just takes some time.
And what the heck else are you going to do, right?
Yeah.
My old, you're there, you're there.
You might as well see it.
So I think it's a great lineup.
I think it's going to be a fun lineup.
If you want to walk away and go buy a t-shirt or something during whatever, you can.
Or watch some football, right?
Or watch some football.
I mean, I noticed on the map, which you'll see on here that it's got the little sports
football viewing area, which we talked with Cory, talked about it was going to be a very
big spacious area.
So on both Saturday and Sunday, hell, if you want to just go and hang out, see a little
music and watch football.
And hang out with these people that I keep talking about that we know are going to be
there.
Yeah.
Catch some ball too.
I don't know who the Titans and who that weekend or any other games that I care about.
I'll check into that later.
Music festivals come before football in my world every single time.
But if you give me an opportunity to watch a little ball, I'll take a look.
I'm into it.
So I'm really excited.
I think it's going to be fun.
I'm excited about the festival itself.
I'm excited to see how it works.
I'm excited to see, you know, like you guys said, back for sure.
Jane's addiction.
I've never seen Gwen Stefani.
I want to see it, you know.
Yeah, I bet it's pretty fun.
That's yeah.
That's my, I guess that's what I'm anticipating is I may not be a huge fan of everybody on
the lineup, but I think it's going to be fun.
Yeah.
I forgot to mention Jim blossoms.
It's funny if they're, they're, they're side by side or back to back with candle box.
And I could see someone saying, wait a second, hold on.
You like Jim blossoms, but you don't like candle box.
What's the matter with you, man?
Because candle box is a much more rock and roll band than Jim blossoms are.
And I don't even know how many original members are left in Jim blossoms, but boy, I liked
them a lot back in the day.
So that'll be another one that, and that goes right up with the TLC, Jane's addiction.
I mean, that's a full day that Saturday is just a really good looking day for me.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
And then, and then we get to go discover Huntsville and hang out with friends.
So I'm really, I'm, I'm excited about it.
Brian, you mentioned off air.
There was a little bit of news.
We don't have a lot of news, right?
Nothing really.
Yeah.
Except for, I saw this just within the last day, I guess warped tour is coming
back.
Um, I never did warped, uh, because it was not, it was not really, well, at least I don't
remember it being in, in my, I'm trying to think of a better way to put it than wheelhouse,
but what I, what I was into at the time, when I went back and looked at some of the early
warp tour lineups, three 11, um, do I have it still pulled up?
I hope I do.
I'm sorry if I don't, but, uh, and I don't, but three, yeah, there it is.
This is the second year, three 11 back, speaking of which blink 182, speaking of which fish
bone, um, real big fish, Pennywise, no effects, mighty, mighty Boston.
There's a lot of good bands on there.
And I, I don't know what I, why I didn't think so then, but, um, but it's so, it was a, it
went all the way to 2019.
I had no idea when from 1995 to 2019, I'm guessing 2020 was just, we're done with this
because of, of all the obvious reasons, but it's coming back next year and, uh, the emo
kids are going to be happy is all I can say to that.
Um, you're looking at your computer screen and like I said, it's my birthday.
And one thing, Brian, you and I, you've talked about it.
I've talked about it.
One of the craziest things about Facebook, it's so corny, but the happy birthdays, it's
like the only thing I like from it.
I appreciate it.
People that means so much.
It's so, I don't even just thank you everybody.
And you get to hear from people, uh, and I'm hearing from people.
I just got from, you know, people I've met through Bonnaroo, Jeff Quay are and Ken Weinstein
and people like that.
I would never know if not for Bonnaroo, you know, just saying happy birthday.
And that means a bunch, but, um, along, leave a comment, leave a comment, tell Barry happy
birthday too.
Yeah.
Let's keep it going.
You jerk.
Don't be, I actually got on that subject.
I have never told anybody happy birthday on Facebook once.
Not once I'll text people and say, Hey, happy birthday.
I just got to keep my street going.
I can't tell you happy birthday on Facebook, but I want them all coming towards me when
I get them.
I used to go and tell people that I knew there were twins.
I would tell their twin to tell their brother or sister, happy birthday for me, but I wouldn't
tell them happy birthday.
It's something, you know, I'm stupid as hell.
I do weird things and that's just one of the weird things.
So Barry, you will not get a happy birthday from me.
I don't expect it.
I can't break my 20 year streak of never doing it.
Ryan has like three things that are really meaningful to him and they're all stupid.
That's one, the time clock forward time change.
We're almost there.
Are you ready for it?
And I don't know what your other one is, but you're the only person who gives a shit.
I don't know if that's true or not.
His head explodes, but I do want to hear.
I want to hear from you again along the lines of the, we're so lucky we get to do stuff.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Let's do talking about it.
You got to go.
I mean, this is a big, I have to imagine it's a pretty cool event for you, right?
You got to see your favorite band in probably one of the most famous venues in the world.
I mean, I would put it top five.
Yeah.
And so, you know, what was that like?
So well, so my, I went up to see our buddy Brad in New York and it's been planned all
year long.
It's been since January, since the tour and the album was all released and, and, and Brad's
got a lot of weight in, in Nashville, these Nashville in, in New York city these days.
And, and so from the jump early to start the year, it's like, okay, I'll see you in September.
And you know, these tickets, the Pearl Jam fight against ticket master, that's long gone.
If you want a ticket, it's going to cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
If you want a good seat for sure.
And you weren't going to get them to a place like Madison's wear garden.
Anyway, if you want to go see him in Fenway this week, there's still tickets available
because there's 60,000 seats in that book.
Maybe not 60, but 40, 40,000 anyway.
And so yeah, so I, the whole time I never really, me and Brad don't talk, talk much
about it.
So I didn't really know what the plan was, but you know, Brad, he likes to, he likes
to be the guy that showed like, I'm the guy, I'm the guy.
And we, we all want to wish we could be that guy.
And he kind of is that guy.
So I never, I never really asked what we were doing because I knew that if the opportunity
was for something to be really special, he was going to make sure it happened.
He wasn't getting you seats in the back row.
No, no, no, no.
And so just the overall trip to New York is we didn't really do, we sat in a ton of bars,
just bar hop and bar hop.
And these are great bars.
And this is the, the city fascinates me all the way around.
So which is, which is interesting because to remind people you don't drink, I don't
drink.
Yes.
There is legalization recreationally though, if you know what I mean.
So I was able to kind of keep my mind occupied that way, which is still not the most ideal
way to do it.
I run around the city of New York at a hundred miles an hour, all stone.
That's not necessarily the best thing to do.
But the overall trip, we just, it was really kind of what you're just talking about with
Southstar Barry.
It was kind of hanging out with friends.
So Evan Bonnaroo there, you know, he's a Jersey kid.
We and we hung out with Skylar.
Is that Skylar?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
So Skylar was there and, and we went to dinner a couple of times and didn't really do the
stuff that you would expect that someone going to New York would do the sightseeing like
we, like we did a couple of years ago.
So you did that before.
Yeah.
Which you can do a hundred times and not see it all in that crazy city.
And so it was really just kind of hanging out.
But the, yeah, the, to the question Pearl Jam, it at Madison square garden, oh my God,
like just, yeah, I mean, had you been to the garden before?
Yeah.
One time, the last time that I went to see it, when he first moved up there, we went
to see rage against the machine.
Okay.
That's right.
I forgot.
And it was, that was kind of a throw in at the end of it.
I went to go see baseball when I, when they first, Brad and his wife, Hillary first moved
up there two and a half or right around two years ago.
And last minute it's like, Whoa, Hey, rage is playing.
Want to go?
Yeah.
And so I had already been there.
So I didn't do anything this whole stretch that I hadn't already done.
So there's there, it wasn't a ton to be all the newness had kind of worn off, but we went
to this early post or pre show gathering at another bar, just right around the corner
from the garden, free spread food, all you can drink two hours before with all his radio,
you know, industry types.
These aren't just we're on the radio DJ and radio.
These are programmers.
So it's pretty, it's really fascinating to eavesdrop.
Cause I know just enough that if I do get out and they were very friendly people and
they, they were happy to talk to me.
There was not a lot of ego or pretentiousness around, which you would expect with people
Brad's hanging out with.
You would get a lot of that.
They're very friendly people and almost treated me as like a colleague, which I'm not like
they, half of their day is sitting around having a meeting deciding how many times should
we play the new blink 182 song.
What do you think, Brad?
I'm thinking every other hour, you know, that those are the kinds of conversations they
have is not just what we're and I'm more used to, which is on a small town basis of media
in a, in a town that doesn't matter.
This is a bunch of people sitting around and talking about, can you believe the new, uh,
who is it?
Lincoln park comes out tomorrow.
We got to figure it.
You know, they're, they're talking stuff that I'm not used to, but I know it well enough
that I can, I can not sound dumb and they were really inviting and really cool.
Like this idea that New York people are assholes is not really true.
Maybe it's just me.
I fit in, right?
Maybe I just fit in really friendly people.
And so we're hanging out and this is just another day for them.
They went to cage the elephant at Madison square garden the next day.
I'm getting on a plane, going home.
They're all getting together to go to cage, do the same thing.
Well, can I, I mean, if I can, I mean, not only, but those conversations are meaningful,
right?
I mean, what they're talking about is impacted in Chattanooga.
Sure.
Yeah.
No, it goes down the line and Montana and you know, it all shakes out when I'm sitting
here at the old alt, uh, station here in our town that I was the last radio gig I have,
the reason we're playing what we're playing is cause they're deciding it up there.
That conversation that you were privy.
Yeah.
That's what I mean.
That's cool.
It is very cool.
Like I was loving it.
I was eating it up cause I've never been, this is the major leagues to me.
I play in the minor leagues.
Yeah.
Um, barely like low level minor leagues.
And this is just another day at the office and we leave the show.
I'll jump ahead.
We leave the show with another guy.
We're on the, uh, you know, on the train going somewhere and he's asking me about the set
list cause I am the, in this setting though, I am the Pearl Jam expert.
Yeah.
So because that's where we're at, I, I, man, that was actually as much fun as, as the show.
And I know you understand that Barry and a lot of people might not, but I get, I'm excited
about those kinds of things.
And so we're, we're at this, this, I don't remember what it is, but this bar eating and
drinking and yucking it up.
And then it's, I'm at little, little like, Hey, it's, I don't really want to cut this
close guys, but they know exactly what time the show starts.
Like they've been told this time exactly.
So I'm following them around.
We go in through this new area of the garden that they built kind of like this atrium plaza
area didn't even really like it that much.
I wanted to go in the actual gate of, you know, where you see the garden and you get
the, the, the, the panoramic view of, of, because it's a gorgeous building.
I never even saw the garden.
We walked in this plaza thing.
I'm kind of like, what the hell is it?
It looks like a mall.
What is this?
And then we ended up in this dark matter.
That's the name of the tour lounge with free drinks and food inside Madison square garden,
which I had no idea with the laminates and everything.
And I'm, to them, it's just another day at the office.
Right.
And it's like, I'm bet it's like, can you believe they don't have, you know, top shelf?
I mean, that's kind of slightly the attitude.
It was mostly joking.
And then on to, you know, so I just, you know, I'm eating it up and then we go to the show
and it's, you know, at the end of the day, it's another Pearl Jam show.
Don't really have anything exciting to say about that.
It's funny.
A couple of really deep cuts in the, in the set, like early nineties that no one's ever
heard of kind of things, which was a surprise to a, to a super fan like me, but outside
of that, it's just another Pearl Jam show.
So it was, it was great though.
You said something that reminded me a lot of it, it's way inside baseball, but that's
what we do.
So I'm going to tell it.
They you said they know when the show is going to start to the minute and they know when
it's going to end to the minute.
And my favorite band, my morning jacket played here in town and the guy who runs the venue
is a friend and he said, it's going to start at 802 at the Tivoli at the Tivoli and it's
not going to run till 1007, I think.
So two hours and three minutes.
Right.
And I'm like, okay, cool.
Good to know.
And I've told this story.
My wife went with me because she knows I love this band and first note, literally all 1735
people stood up except for my wife who sat in the chair and looking like this first song
ended and she looked up at me and she said, how much longer?
And I said, I said two hours and one minute and we're watching every fricking second.
So that was a deep cut show too.
If you remember, they played some old school stuff that I knew to the minute.
You know what?
To tell her we got two more hours.
These shut the hell up.
These industry jerks I was with had the set list before the show started and they're all
over there looking at me like, get that out of here, get that away from me.
What are you trying to do, ruin the whole damn trip?
And I was making a joke but meaning it, I get that out of here, man.
And because that stuff will leak a little bit on Twitter but you've got to really look
for it.
Every one of them had, hey, starts at 845, ends at...
You guys are about to ruin the whole week.
Factor in joke.
Joke here or whatever.
Some of them are that way and some are not.
To most all these people that they didn't care anything about, this could have been
insert anybody here tonight.
It's a lot of people who...
It's almost, it's not like mandatory, but it's almost like, hey, it's part of the gig
today.
It's part of their job.
Tonight we go to Madison Square Garden, tomorrow we go again for Cage.
Next week we'll release the Blink 182, the whatever band I was just talking about, Linkin
Park.
All these...
The Surprise Jack White Show.
The Surprise Jack White Show in Jersey last week that was not announced, nobody knew anything
about it.
Well, it was all we were talking about.
It's just a really, really neat dynamic to be involved in.
That was...
Yeah, we went to a ball game and just some random other stuff that just not...
No word, noteworthy.
But yeah.
To sort of recap, and I mean it, good for you.
You've had a great summer.
Bonnaroo, you did the Sphere, you saw the Dead.
You did this.
And now we're going to Huntsville, so...
Then that's it.
Then I'm...
Life will suck after that.
It's going to start sucking again.
Well, it's winter time.
Yeah, and the time changes.
Right?
Yeah, that's right.
Life's over.
Life's over.
Then I get a call out of nowhere from Letitia Wolfe, who's a Southern... pretty well known
in the music industry in the Southeastern area, and a long time friend of mine to go to the
Caverns to see Bill Burr, the comedian.
This isn't...
There's a story here that I'm not going to go into all that much right now, but for anybody
who doesn't know, which is probably most of you, we have this venue in what is called
Pelham, Tennessee.
P-L-H-A-M.
Pelham, Tennessee.
Yeah, not to be confused with Pelham, Alabama.
If you know where Bonnaroo is, it's about 20 minutes east.
Not far.
It's at the bottom of the Montego Mountain, which is just a hill, on the Nashville side.
And it's a cave, and there's a stage and a venue.
It's gotten very, very popular.
They have a lot...
It's a lot of jam band stuff.
There's a camping element to it.
There's an outside amp.
It's actually become very, very... quite the destination for a lot of people and artists.
And I had never been before, and I get a call, hey, you want to go to the Caverns this week?
Okay.
That's the first time I've heard of a comedian being in there.
I know they've done a lot of jam bands, a lot of hippie shows with a lot of lights.
Yeah, a lot of...
There's been some EDM there.
EDM shows.
So that's cool.
They had a comedian.
Bill Burr, and it was his sidekick, Dean Del Rey.
And really, Bill Burr was just there to get butts in seats.
This was a live TV... some kind of live taping, which in itself was a wild environment to
be in.
It was a cave, and it feels and smells and looks like a cave.
This is not just some kind of stage prop.
It's very cool.
Very, very cool.
And I'm surprised cell service comes through, like GPS and all that.
And so the live taping, they're really...
You don't get to just kind of do whatever you want.
You've got to sit down and shut up and don't, which is kind of a comedy show anyway.
But very, very different environment.
Very cool to be a part of.
I can't say I loved it all that much, but it was really, really fun to wrap up the week
doing that.
So yeah, it's been a wild summer.
It's been a lot of fun doing the show, doing all these things and talk about it too.
Thank you guys so much for watching and listening and playing along and being interactive.
And it's...
Yeah, we got...
The South Star will kind of be the end of the summer run for me, and then I hibernate.
Get ready for 2025.
That's kind of what I'm thinking.
Then we'll start serious rumor season.
And then Russ and I, we get to go to Nashville.
I'm so excited about that.
Me too.
And then also speaking of the Caverns that you just went to, I'm probably going to do
Cave Fest next month too with our friends, Beth and Brad, Nashville Brad, Jerry, Mike,
all those guys we just did Domaru with.
Oh yeah, that's right.
She comes over for that.
Help me out with Cave Fest again.
Why?
I know I've heard...
Is that at Pelham too, right?
Yeah, that's at the Caverns.
That's at the Caverns.
And it's just a...
You know, it's a...
Big camping weekend, right?
Yeah, it's a big camping weekend.
A lot of bluegrass, which is not really my thing, but I'll go and hang out with them
and have a good time.
Yeah, and take the bus and there you can bring some PBR and you're going to be gold, man.
It was a late, late, late show that we went to, so I wasn't able to really get any lay
of the land at all.
And it was a really, we got to move, we got to move, we got to move thing.
And you can't have your phone, which was anxiety filled enough, so no pictures and anything
like that.
But it's a really big property that I am really looking forward to going back and seeing again.
I won't be with you on that trip, I doubt, but I certainly want to do something like
that because it looks like...
It's just a wild, cool, really unique venue.
It's super cool.
In a town of 403, by the way.
Yeah.
How they ever let, how that ever, you're driving through little backwoods neighborhoods, thinking...
Well they have the cave and the amphitheater outside.
Yes.
Correct.
Which they unearthed literally during COVID when they couldn't do inside the cave.
So they started clearing brush and realized, oh my gosh, we have this basically natural
amphitheater.
And it did so well.
It was like, well, this is...
This is really cool space, so good for them.
All right guys, we will be back next week doing something.
I don't know what.
And then we will be, Brian and I will be in Huntsville for South Star.
And beyond that, I don't know what's going to happen.
Hopefully we'll have interviews from some of the musicians there and we'll probably
do an episode or two with those.
And then we'll start getting ready for Bonnaroo.
So all right guys, thanks for everything.
Please listen, subscribe, review, do all that kind of stuff.
Yeah.
Join the discord too.
Join the discord and...
Yeah.
Maybe even the people on this show should join the discord one of these days.
Yeah.
I'm talking to you too.
Join the discord.
Yeah.
I'm excited a lot actually, and then I forget like two seconds later.
But I am very sincere.
We're all lucky and I mean it.
Happy birthday, Barry.
Thanks very much guys.
Yeah, and happy birthday.
Make sure you leave a comment.
Tell Barry happy birthday.
All right.
Happy birthday.