Traveling to Bonnaroo: A Patreon Chat

A show that I did not expect to be as excited as I am for, but I am beyond, beyond excited now.

Now that he's got two shows under his belt, Ed O'Brien, E.O.B. on your bongaroo lineup,

this show is going to, I think, be the sleeper.

I want to talk about it in future episodes and let him get a couple more shows under his belt.

But Ed O'Brien from Radiohead put together something really special at Lincoln Hall last night.

This is a bongaroo podcast for bongaroovians by bongaroovians, the what podcast.

I'm Brad Steiner. It's Barry Courter.

Welcome to our little chat with some Patreons today.

Yeah, pretty cool.

It's amazing to me that we keep finding people from literally across the country,

ones in Washington, ones in Dallas.

For me, you could have just stopped. I can't believe we keep finding people

that are willing to talk to us.

Want to speak to these idiots.

Good point. But I mean, the connections that we all have are, it's pretty universal, isn't it?

I mean, we're hearing the same things that we have been saying amongst ourselves

and to hear from somebody, you know, all the way across the country,

which, by the way, just blows my mind that they're willing to make that track.

No kidding.

You know.

It's easy for us. We're 45 miles away.

But for somebody like Liesl, who we'll talk to a little bit later on this afternoon,

who's in Seattle, or Timothy, who's in Dallas, for them to fly in and for Liesl,

put all of her camping equipment on her back and fly all the way from Seattle to do this is beyond comprehension for me.

This is not how I interact with the festival. I would I don't know if I ever could interact with the festival this way.

But my God, they do.

Yeah, I mean, that is a huge commitment.

If we forget something, we pop in the car and go home and get it right.

Call a friend and they bring what if I don't feel so well, I just drive home.

Just drive home or hey, I've seen forgot, you know, forgot to bring whatever.

We just pick it up.

Friends are on the way anyway, so you might as well just ask them to do it.

That's a level of commitment.

And to do it repeatedly really speaks to the festival, I think.

Yeah. And also the fact that they keep, you know, finding ways.

Put it this way. You bring it up in the conversation we have with Timothy.

You know, they've spent so much time figuring out exactly the things that are necessary for somebody to come across country

or get into an RV, empower an RV or find a way to get into group camping or family camping like Liesl did.

They found very interesting ways of making the campsites and the plazas acceptable for a living being for five days.

And that's a testament to them and the investment that they put into this festival.

I was going to say talk about investment.

Timothy spends all that time putting together his spreadsheets and set lists.

A whole spreadsheet.

For set lists.

Yes, just set lists.

That's pretty interesting.

Yeah, you might learn something from Timothy.

It's a really good idea, though, when somebody is willing to work that hard for every artist on the lineup.

If you've got somebody like that in your group, use them.

Use them in their musical knowledge.

His friends use him. They'll come to the show and they'll say, all right, I want to leave, but I want to hear this song.

How many more songs? And he'd say, three more.

I could use that. So Pine Grove is on the lineup this year.

And look, I like Pine Grove.

All right. I find it to be a tad too whiny sometimes.

But we went to see Pine Grove Music Midtown years ago when Old Friends was like just hitting that song.

If you don't know the song, then I'm sorry.

But their main hit, I was like, I just want to see this one song because I love this song so much.

And I show up and we're like two songs in.

I miss like the first two songs.

We listen to this entire show, which, by the way, is the rule that I'll give any musician any tip I give me.

Don't wear shorts on stage. Do not wear shorts on.

You look ridiculous. So he they go through the whole show.

And by the end of it, I'm like every song, my friends are ready to go.

My friends like we got to get out of here. This is just not work.

But just wait. My song is coming up. I know it's coming up. I know it's going to last.

We waited the entire show.

And I look back on the set list. It was the first song they played.

Oh, that worst. I needed that.

I needed Timothy and his set list checklist.

I needed it. And I didn't have it.

The beauty of having a set list guy.

I mean, we're talking to them because they're they're Patreons, which we very much appreciate.

We can't believe you guys listen to us.

Number one. But that kind of committed. It means a lot.

It means a lot.

So amongst a lot of other patrons we're going to talk to this year because we like talking to Bonnarooians.

You know, we like talking to you. We like talking about this festival.

So we've got two today, Liesel and Timothy.

Timothy from Dallas. Let's start there on the what podcast.

Barry Courter, Brad Steiner, Timothy from Dallas, Dallas.

How long have you been in Dallas? Mostly since 97.

Lived in L.A. one year, but otherwise Dallas. Really?

So you come from Dallas to Bonnaroo every year. That's obscene.

Yeah, every year. No kidding. Do you drive or fly?

I fly. I'm lucky enough to get other people to do the driving for me.

We are V and there are a couple of guys that get the RV up there and I just fly in and fly out.

You're such a mooch. Total mooch.

I know. I try to make up for it in other ways, though.

Don't start talking dirty to us. Don't start talking dirty.

Everybody's got a role to play. Yeah, it takes all kinds.

So when you fly, do you come with anything or you just expect it to be there ready for you when you get there?

I've always thought about like somebody shipping something to the post office at Bonnaroo

and going to pick up your stuff and be like, yeah, I'm here to get my camping equipment.

Well, it's kind of the whole point of the group camping thing, wasn't it?

It's one of the perks. You can ship your stuff and they'll take care of it for you and have it.

Like if you ship it, where do you pick it up? I don't know. Is that what you do?

I don't. I'm feeling very guilty as I sit here and answer this question thinking about how goofy I have it.

But what we do, we have other guys in Texas. They load up the RV.

I mean, all the groceries, everything we need, canopy, you name it. They drive it up there.

I mean, all I've got is a small bag that I just have to drag over to the campsite.

And of course, my friends are going to see this and they're going to know how easy that a couple of us have it after watching this.

I mean, we show up and everything's set up. It's beautiful. It's ready to go.

And it's Thursday morning, kind of noonish, and we're just rolling. So we don't ship anything.

It's all just driven in with the RV. How many years?

So our first year was 2013. We did Firefly the year before the first Firefly.

Loved it. That's kind of what got us on the really on the festival thing.

And then the idea was we would do it again. And the lineup, we like Bonnarooo better.

And we went with Bonnarooo and then never looked back. Yeah.

So you figured it out. That's like us. We've over the years kind of. I mean, it's very familiar now.

It's almost like home because everything is in the same place. You have the same routines.

Yeah. I've really wanted to petition them to just like keep our setup there.

You know, I can't. What are you using this woods for? You're not using any of this.

I agree. Don't pick up my trash. Yeah. Yeah.

Barry wants to fence it off and put some chickens at our campsite just so he knows exactly where to go every year.

That's my goal is to get livestock this year.

I mean, we have animals in our campsite, just human ones. They are a disgusting bunch.

How much has it changed over the years, Timothy, for you guys?

Do you add something new every year or is it pretty much you got it figured out?

Well, you know, I've heard you all talk about a lot how you kind of add something every year.

I don't know that we really have. I do feel like we've kind of figured out what works for us and done it.

One thing Bonnarooo added that was a massive game changer for us was, you know, it used to be we would have to bring in gas and a generator.

And we joked this generator. We called it the Whisper 3000 because I mean, you could hear this thing a million miles away.

Our neighbors, I'm sure, hated it. It's the time they were going crazy because it was so loud.

Now we pull this RV or camper up and Bonnarooo has it where you can pay up a little bit and just plug in.

So you've got AC all the time. And again, I know people listen to this are going to be like, are you kidding me?

I'm in a tent and you're in the AC. In the RV spot, they have plug in stations.

How far away from each other are they? I mean, if you're in that area.

So like within camping and we do, you know, save up pay up and we do VIP camping.

And so there's a section of VIP camping for RVs and there's a section of that section that has electrical.

And you just when you're buying your ticket and you're buying your RV spot, you pay up to get that.

And then you can and plug it in and you're good to go the whole time.

Now, just as an aside, how much you talking? What is the what is the pay up cost for power?

I don't I don't remember. I mean, it's not it's far from free.

But, you know, we're like six ways. But, you know, I don't want it's a few hundred dollars.

It's somebody who has parents that RV all over the country.

And when I say all over the country inside the 100 miles before my mother starts complaining,

when do they do what about the you know, the the dumping process?

Do they give you anything to do that or you got to it's all on you?

No, it's I mean, it gets more and more hectic as time goes on.

But there are people driving around one to give you water to to handle the the dumping process.

And you just pay them. Now, the bad part is you need somebody in your camp

who is tired and wants to have an excuse that they can just sit back at camp and not go to.

I already know who that would be in our camp.

Everyone. I know. Hey, I cleaned the toilets today.

Who's got toilet today?

But, you know, somebody can act like they're like the hero, even though they want to stay back anyway.

And they're like, I'll wait to, you know, get everything taken care of.

So that we get well, each year we we deem somebody MVP of camp.

Right. So you get MVP. Well, if you're the least valuable person, you're on toilets.

You know, you're on toilets the next year.

This is what you have this year penance for screwing up camp last year.

I think it's sort of important to point out with the conversations we had last week with Sophie,

especially and and Bobby, you asked the question, why did it take so long for them to get to the plazas?

And I think this this is it.

This is this is the kind of thing that they were devoting a lot of time and energy to to make sure you guys were happy.

You know, and it's sort of one thing at a time. They can't do it all at once.

So and you've never driven in. You only fly.

I only fly. And it's so easy.

So the VIP thing for Bonnarooo, it's not one of my favorite VIPs.

There's a lot of them that do a better job.

To me, the best part about a VIP, if you're going to pay up for the viewing areas and the viewing area for VIP of Bonnarooo are terrible.

Yeah, they hardly exist. Yeah.

Well, they keep moving that hill closer and closer.

No, they keep moving the hill. OK, they keep moving the hill.

You stole my inside baseball.

I was getting ready to throw in that I don't know if you knew, but they moved the hill and it made it worse.

I speak clearly. Yeah, it's come up.

I'm going I'm going to my grave saying that they moved the hill and you can bury me on that hill.

Before they moved that hill, it was still bad viewing area.

But one thing that's huge is if you do VIP, you don't have to wait in the car line to get in.

There's a separate entrance to come in.

So we the only reason we started doing VIP, because most of we don't use his are the people who drive in from Texas after like a 12 hour drive, then sat one year for seven hours in line.

So now they just pull right in.

And then for those of us that fly, we fly into Nashville.

We take the shuttle. You usually jump right on it.

It takes an hour. It pulls straight in. No line.

You get out. You walk to your campsite.

So that's big. And the VIP campsite is not that far from where the shuttle drops off.

Back when we used to do GA, I mean, you had to lace up your shoes.

I mean, it was a hike and that's another advantage with VIP is you're a lot closer to center.

I mean, you know, it used to be when we would do regular GA, we would get in a good mile walk before we were there.

And so that that's been nice, too. I don't think I've ever told the story on this show before.

But my first year, I sort of screwed up my credentials and I had no idea what I was doing.

I was supposed to be in the media area.

But again, this is, you know, year three or two, something like that of Bonnarooo.

So they didn't really understand where to go. And there was it was not clearly marked.

And it was a total show. Right.

So I end up in GA and I have no idea.

This is a kid who didn't doesn't camp. I don't go outdoors. I don't like people.

I don't like it. It just never was something that I even could wrap my head around.

So we get there. We set up our camp.

And and, you know, we're walking and walking like you finally get into.

I mean, this is like when when that when the walk was people along the way selling dryer doors, you know,

they would just sell you anything that they could pull off of their body. Here's a sock.

Can I have a dollar? It was so strange.

Well, at night, because nothing was lit, there was no markers.

There was no signs. You take one right turn.

Every car looks the same at night. OK, there's no like discernible marker for you.

So you take the wrong turn. You're walking that hike that you're talking about.

Imagine taking the wrong turn and making that mile walk in the wrong direction.

We did it. And I could not have been more scared.

It was like the opening scene of Lean on Me, you know, where the principal is to get his head beat into the ground.

I was scared out of my mind.

I remember the real fire.

And then one girl ran up to me, butt ass naked, screaming, PCP.

And crashing to the ground.

That was when we decided to leave.

I was going in the wrong direction.

And ever since then, I've sort of like figured this whole thing out.

And I think the the world around it has gotten just a tad bit better.

It's a little better. But it was a free for all back then.

And that hike is is not one to know it's to forget.

It's 45 hertz to an hour for some folks.

Well, my first experience was not unlike yours.

We showed up on Thursday, didn't know what we were doing.

Went in, had a great time.

Everybody left with me. I stayed late.

Not processing that my camp area was going to look totally different because it's Thursday and people are coming in.

And it's going to be dark. And it's going to be dark.

And I wandered around for a couple hours, it felt like, until finally I was walking back to sleep in center room.

And all of a sudden I saw my RV like a beacon in the night.

I mean, have you ever been?

Of course, I'm calling my friends, their phones are either dead or turned off.

They're not listening. If I wanted to never come back again and then.

But you figure it out. Right. And I would never camp or either for sure.

But this is the part of the Banra thing that I actually have turned around to love so much.

It's that first story, that first year, then the second year you get a little better at it.

And it didn't matter if you started in 2013 or I started in twenty, you know, 2003 or so.

You know, it didn't matter. That first year is always such a, you know, mind screw.

And then the next year you get a little better and the next year you figure it out.

And then by then you're so hooked that it doesn't matter what happens.

Yeah, I think you even commented last year when we were up there how it felt smaller or just different.

And I had to remind you, it's because we've been 15 times. We know pretty much where the, you know,

for a new person, their mind is like, what in the world, Disney world have I just put myself in?

But the people that work at Disney World know every step around the place.

Right, right. I wonder how many times people have crawled into the wrong tent.

Right.

You know, at three and four in the morning. I had a kid try to crawl into mine last year at two or three in the morning.

Yeah, I bet he tried to. Left his shoes right outside.

Luring young ones into your tent late at night.

Yeah, well I had the candy trail.

How many people in your group? You said six?

It varies a little bit, but it's usually been about six.

We've had five or six almost every year and the RV is always completely full.

And it's about that amount.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. We have, ours varies. We've had what, 20 to...

Oh, God.

I mean, in the heat of like Saturday morning, there are people in our camp that I just don't, I don't know who you are.

Yeah, I have no idea who you are. But you're eating all my food and you're taking all of my things.

So help yourself, I guess. I have no idea.

You said you go to several, right?

I did.

Compare. I mean, we talk about all the time, the Bonnarooo being a camping, it makes it so different.

But, you know, you experience a lot of the other ones. How do you compare?

Firefly 2013 or 2012?

2012. And then again, I think it was 2015, we did Bonnarooo, a few of us, not the whole crew, did Bonnarooo Firefly back to back.

We took the RV from Manchester to Dover and did them back to...

Wow.

Yeah. And that was a great comparison for your question, Barry, because, I mean, they're all great in different ways.

But the reason we come back to Bonnarooo is the cliche answer.

The experience, the people and the... I mean, like nothing against Firefly. It's beautiful.

We had a great time. The lineup was maybe the best lineup I've ever seen.

Is that the McCartney year?

It was McCartney and it was Morrissey and I'm a huge Morrissey guy.

No kidding. I forgot Morrissey was there.

I mean, it had all kinds of stuff, but everyone's nice. But it's just a totally different feel.

It feels more like you're going to a bunch of concerts where Bonnarooo feels like an experience.

And, you know, like I go to Hangout every year. Hangout is beautiful. They've got the VIP thing.

I mean, it's worth paying up.

That's exactly right.

It's fake gin. Obviously, you're not getting it for free, but the alcohol and food is all part of it.

You're sitting in swimming pools. There's viewing areas.

I mean, just being on the beach there would be great. And there's music.

But why do you sweat it out in Bonnarooo and, you know, work to get there and all that stuff?

Even if the lineup may not be my favorite, it's because of the entire experience.

There's nothing even close. And the camping is what makes it great.

And I was like, Ibra, I mean, I never had any interest in camping.

I mean, before festivals, you couldn't have paid me to do it.

But it really made me understand, at least under this version, I do it.

I mean, I realize a lot of people are going to hear this and say, you know, being in an RV with an electro hookup is not doing Bonnarooo.

And I'm not saying that. I agree. It's probably not. It works for me.

Yeah. And that's the part. That's the part of like the experience year after year after year is trying to figure out how it works for you.

Yeah, that's exactly right. Some people work really well in GA and love every second of it.

There are people that camp with us that would prefer to be in GA. Yeah.

Now that they have the plazas and everything that they have out there, like there are people that would spend more time in GA than spend time backstage with us.

And that's fine by me. You know, you really just got to find your niche and find your people.

You find anybody you meet, anybody Bonnarooo you come back to every year that you only see at Bonnarooo?

You know, we really haven't. Other than our core group.

I mean, we always make lots of friends and we'll end up hanging out with people at shows.

I mean, a bunch of things are running through my head at times, but it is kind of like ships passing in the night.

And then it seemed like for the most part, we've ended up seeing people again.

I ask that because I wonder if it's the same guy every year that walks around because I was looking through some of my photos from the years past and I keep taking the same photo of the same sign every year.

And I wonder if it's the same guy holding the sign. I eat ass.

I'm dying to know that's the same guy every year. Oh, yeah. It's my thing.

That's my thing. I took I did that first.

I was the guy that had the I'd ask for a sign. Everybody else got me.

I get that question all the time. Timothy, people will say you can't, you know, look in.

I mean, I'm fifty six, so I'm sure it's part of the reason they ask. But some people just don't camp.

But we are here to look at day over fifty six. I appreciate that a lot.

It means it means a bunch. But, you know, you figure it out.

I bring two air mattresses, which are key. We have a Bloody Mary tent, which we talk about all the time.

It's not exactly roughing it. You know, we have a tent just for Bloody Marys.

We have a tent just for a kitchen. We have, you know, I am a diva among all.

I mean, of all the divas in the world, I am the top of the top. I've got a Florida ceiling mirror ceiling fans.

You know, I've got to have seven hundred square feet of carpeting. It's ridiculously.

Yeah. So, I mean, we make it. We make the best of it. And I think that's what people what we what we have learned for people going for their first time.

They'll ask. Don't bring too much. I mean, I think people overpay. We bring too much. We do.

But I mean, you don't need to bring everything to eat. It's going to go bad.

There's plenty of good food inside center. So that's one of those things.

I remember my daughter and a couple of her friends went and they spent twelve months making lists.

And I kind of did, too. And then you learn, you know, you don't need that. You do need that.

Right. But here's here's the secret about these lists that people make.

And I see a whole lot of them on on Reddit. And the reason they're making the list is not because they're like super anal.

It's because they're just excited. There's some you're just wanting to like like talk about it and think about it.

Like I I've got to move soon. Right. And I started packing like three weeks ago.

I don't need to pack for another two weeks. But I'm doing it now because I'm just excited to go.

I'm ready to get going. You know, I get that. And the lists are fun and reading and listening to podcasts and, you know, getting other people to experiences.

But it's it's again, you don't have to pack like you're going to the, you know, Alaska for six months or whatever.

That's how you and I are different. I feel like I feel like I can't take enough.

Like I want to keep bringing more things. You know, I want to get like the deal for like camp is I want to keep making this experience not just more comfortable for me.

But I want you to remember when you walked into our camp, you know, our our buddy Lord Taco, who, you know, is our is our producer of the show.

He brings the the Volkswagen bus. And if you know, if our marquee wasn't the thing that that reminds you of the camp, the Volkswagen bus is going to.

And if it's not the Volkswagen bus, it's going to be everybody's giant cartoon heads on a stick.

And that's the reason why we have like 20 people that we don't know end up on Saturday morning hanging out with us.

That's what I like about it. You know, let me let me clarify.

What you're talking about is the glamping type of stuff. And I agree with that. We do.

We bring like last year we brought a mailbox, which I still think is pretty funny for no reason whatsoever.

Just a real. It was funny. I'm talking about like the essential type of things where, you know, the overpack clothes or the overpack food or things like that.

So are you are you telling me that I shouldn't bring my bunny outfit?

You're telling me I can't bring my onesie. You know what? We didn't bring our robes. We never did do that.

We didn't bring a robe. No, the robe.

Turns out here's the thing about the road party in especially late at night. It's a little too cold for a robe.

It's pretty chilly at night. I don't want to be tracing around the campgrounds and center route in a robe.

What's the essentials that you bring? Is it the same thing every year?

Very basic and pretty boring. In fact, I do listen to you.

You all talk about your camp and we probably need to up our game in terms of a lot of the things you were just talking about.

For us, it's it's t-shirts, shorts or bathing suits, comfortable shoes, hats, sunglasses.

And you're getting pretty close to the end of the list.

You got a camp name. You got a camp name. You got a you got a guy that that operates the whole thing.

You got a camp leader. What do you got?

Well, we that's we don't have a camp name, so we need to work on that.

In terms of camp leader, we really do have like a like I was talking about. Everybody has a role like I'm an obsessive by nature.

I go through and figure out all the shows we think we're going to go to. I go to setlist FM.

Really? Setlist, preferably a festival setlist where a band has done it before, but if not the regular one.

And I put all of them on Spotify. So anybody in our group, if they want to listen to it, they can hear the whole setlist.

We'll be there, you know, on a show. Somebody's thinking they want to take a break and they're like, what songs coming on next?

And I can use the obsessive bar. You've got a spreadsheet ready to go every time you go to a show.

I've never heard this before. It's an illness, but it is what it is.

You got to know who you are. And that's why. So we've got me handling that.

We've got other people handling getting the RV there, doing the grocery shopping.

But it's a kind of everybody knows this is your strength. This is my strength.

This guy, maybe it's just here to have a good time. And we all work on it kind of together.

So do they come to you and they're like, OK, I don't know who I use her a lot.

Yola is. Are you the guy that's that's trying to, you know, you know, put the pin in the cushion explaining who Yola is?

Is that your role? Right. So usually it starts with the bands that I'm interested in.

I know. Or other people say, hey, have you heard Yola? I don't have any idea.

What's that? OK, well, let me check it out and I'll make the setlist for the act.

And then we'll all listen to it and kind of decide, as you all have said many times, as you can imagine.

Then we get to Bonnarooo and the plan goes out the window.

I was going to say we have a we have a spreadsheet guy, too.

And first of all, they get it wrong.

Well, yeah, because he sleeps till six o'clock in the afternoon every day.

It's wrong. And then and then we we go to none of it.

So when you when you make this when you make your spreadsheet or or your Spotify playlist,

you're taking all of your people to these shows. They don't like branch off and go somewhere else.

We do have some branching off.

It depends. There's sometimes there'll be people in the group that have a little bit different musical taste than me, and they'll branch off more.

Some are not as much, you know, the music nerd that I am.

And so they kind of just follow me.

And but then if they don't like it, they'll leave halfway through or if there's something else they want to do, they'll do it.

But sometimes they'll just kind of take my word for it. And especially as we're leading up to Bonnarooo,

there'll be things that we're getting really excited about that we'll share and say, hey, you have to check out this band.

Here's the playlist or start with this song first.

And then they may have when the lineup came out, never heard of the band.

But by the time it's go time, they know it.

So if you if you're making a playlist and a Spotify list and a spreadsheet for us, where are you going?

Where are you taking us to? Who do you like this year? Yeah.

Well, I will tell you, I'm kind of I love that everybody is so excited about this line.

I love that. And I love that it is a Bonnarooo lineup like last year.

I tried so hard with Fish. I really did.

I knew I couldn't get into it, but I love that they were there.

Yeah, I gave it I gave it I gave it, you know, 50 minutes and two songs.

I gave it the time I gave it close to an hour. And I just couldn't get there.

Well, you must have heard one of the short ones if they got to it.

Yeah, I did. I did.

The one I heard was an hour and a half.

And I think they were still going when I walked off.

But this lineup for me, it is not a lot of bands that I listen to a lot and I love.

It's not one of my favorite. But I'm not worried about that at all.

One thing we figured out, you know, we used to fret about lineups and then we figured out it didn't matter.

And like if you were to ask me my favorite shows, all of them are ones that have the element of surprise.

They're going into it. I was like, I don't know if I'm going to love this.

Or when the lineup came out, I was like, oh, man, that band.

And then I got into it. So I don't know anything about Tool. I've given it a little bit of a try.

It feels like we're going to have a fish situation on our hands with Tool, but I'm going to try it.

I'm very excited about Lizzo. And I know as you are as well.

I have nothing to say.

I love Young the Giant, which I don't know how much you all have talked about them.

I love the Alabama Shakes. So Brittany Howard is going to be great.

Vampire Weekend, Tame and Paul. I mean, there's plenty of bands I like.

It's not a lot of my kind of wheelhouse bands.

What's your wheelhouse?

Well, my favorite band, I mean, Springsteen is number one for me.

The Killers are right there with it.

It's probably whatever whatever it means alternative, you know, these days.

I love LCD sound system. That was total Bonnarooo find.

Like you would think I mean, I'm of the age that that probably should have been right in my wheelhouse.

When they were put on the lineup, I was like, oh, you know, I'll check this out.

That was one of my all time favorite Bonnarooo shows in 2016 or before.

Yeah, because you weren't there in 2010.

Yeah, I mean, that one is like Jack White in 2014.

I think this is the best show I've ever been to.

And again, I'm not a big Jack White guy at least going into that.

But, you know, it was it had the Tennessee flavor to it.

He played a long time. He had this whole thing he was doing where kept saying, you know,

if you haven't got something better to do, I'll keep playing.

And if everyone was calling for seven nation army and he finally get right at the end.

I mean, that was a great one. Had that element of surprise.

I love the National. I love the Ava brothers.

Last year had a lot of bands I really, you know, were right in my wheelhouse.

Future Islands, Walk the Moon, Morrissey.

So there's stuff here, but it wouldn't have been I've seen a lot of lineups.

I absolutely love this year.

This one is not as high up the list as some, but I want to go to Bonnarooo.

And that trumps any lineup for me.

I wish I had my phone or the lineup in front of me.

I could go through a couple of things with you and suggest something.

But I'm going to I'm going to throw something at you that you might like a lot.

And I'm stunned as to how much I like it.

This Ed O'Brien set is going to be phenomenal.

EOB. Yeah, he's from Radiohead and he's doing like a cross of Radiohead and Tame Impala.

But you're it sounds to me like you really like a lane that's pop alternative.

And, you know, he's got a little bit of that this song that we started the show with.

It is phenomenal.

Shringer Law, he did his first show in Chicago, his second show in Chicago.

This Bonnarooo show is going to be one of those things that you look back like, oh, my God,

this has turned out to be a lot bigger than we thought it was going to be.

I think he's got something, man.

This this shows are going to be one of the sleepers, the sleepers to check out.

And I feel like if they put it on at a time early afternoon, I mean, a lot of people there

because I don't think a lot of people are making the connection that especially guys like us.

And, you know, the people listen to the show will know who Ed O'Brien is and EOB because we figured it out.

But I don't know if there's going to be a lot of like, you know, right.

We had to figure it out. We had to figure it out.

We're like, you know, whatever. And then the next day, I think we were.

Yeah, I would check that out. I will make an obsessive set list and then I will share with my friend.

Well, he's only done two shows, so I don't know if there's going to be much of a set list,

but he did the entire album at Lincoln Hall last night.

We're doing this on a Sunday. So Saturday night, he did a second show, Lincoln Hall.

I mean, this this guy's good. He's really good.

I was stunned as to how good the show was.

Where does that obsessive does it intersect with the element of surprise?

And when you were talking about being obsessive, you can almost do too much study and you know,

100 percent. I think so.

And, you know, like I got to see the Killers at Bonnarooo and it was great.

And that's like one of my favorite bands at Bonnarooo.

But I think there is something where I've seen the Killers probably 30 times.

They are one of those bands that plays all the hits.

So it doesn't change that much where when you aren't as prepared, you know,

it does kind of set my obsessiveness to the side in a way that is freeing and liberating and makes it more fun.

And with something like LCD, it was like I had been listening to the music,

but I just didn't totally know what I was getting into when the big go ball comes out.

And it's you know, the whole thing is just amazing.

I think that really is what what does it is to kind of set some of that aside.

I think that that LCD sound system show in in 2016 was was damn near one of the greatest shows ever seen in my life.

I mean, I have been waiting to see them for over a decade.

And that moment was was one of the glorious, glorious moments I've ever had a Bonnarooo and LCD is not for everybody.

I get it. I know there are people that dog him out.

But LCD is outside of Alabama Shakes, my favorite band on the planet.

And that was as euphoric as I felt.

And why I'm so excited, excited to see Tame this year is because Tame and Paula got no favors to me.

I mean, they were given no favors going literally from the what to the which that year.

I had to go from the greatest experience I had ever had a Bonnarooo with LCD sound system outside of McCartney.

And then I had to go with Tame and Paula. And I'm like, oh, whatever.

I felt really bad about Tame. I was like, this is a great band.

This is a great show, but I just don't care.

I'm so at a high from from LCD sound system.

So that's why I'm excited to go back and see Tame because I sort of missed half of it the first time go around.

Right. And I share your concern.

I mean, the which stage has always been a battle for us.

And it took us a while to figure out why.

Like, but but there is something with the sound over there.

The sound is not good coming from LCD.

And it's really not good. And I don't know exactly what the deal is, but they have this on the side.

I guess it's so far the side is where the VIP viewing area is.

And, you know, that show was crowded.

We're running over from LCD. So we come and we stand in there.

And it's a great band. I've seen them. I love Tame.

But, man, it was not the experience.

I think this year is going to be awesome.

That's why that's why I'm sort of bummed out that, you know, we can't ask these people everything,

but I'm really bummed out that we never got around to asking Brian and Steve, what exactly are the changes for The Witch?

I mean, if one thing that we missed that I'm more irritated about is when we talk to Steve and Brian is not asking more about what the actual changes in The Witch were.

Now, I appreciate the screen.

I appreciate, you know, them putting some stuff into The Witch stage in years past.

I have had an argument with the sound guy, The Witch stage in years past because of how inadequate it feels when I go from tent to tent to the What stage,

which is the best sounding stage I have ever seen.

You've been to a lot of festivals. You've you've seen what I've never heard a better stage.

The sound quality for the What is unbelievable.

And I can't stress that enough to anybody who thinks that we're just Bonnarooo, you know, groupies.

The reason why we are like this is because it's so well done.

The What stage sounds better than any stage I have ever heard in my life.

And then go to The Witch where it sounds damn near like you just forgot about it sometimes.

And I know a lot of it has to do with the artist and a lot of it has to do with, you know, a million of other.

There's so many things that go into it. I get it.

But, boy, there's just something that just misses in that space sometimes.

And I it really bums me out.

But the best show I ever saw at The Witch was like 14 years ago, 13 years ago, the Yeah Yeah Yes.

I mean, the only time that you can get sound that goes that far into the into the the field is just hard driving guitars.

Anything else that's got intricacies, it just gets lost in the ether out there.

Well, I do have one little trick, which I hate to to give away, because if lots of people do it, it's going to go away.

But the trick I figured out for The Witch is to if you really want to see somebody get there early, get in the pit line and get in the pit.

Now, that's not going to change the sound totally.

But you're you're so close and in it that it seems to overcome some of those other issues.

And when I'm in the pit there, I've really been pretty happy.

It's when I'm away from the pit. That's right.

That's where I started to get to the trees.

Once you get to the trees or behind the soundboard, things just get lost.

That's right.

That is one of the things.

And we haven't talked about it much since since Jeff Quay are, I guess, told us about it.

But the traffic is there is their focus and then fixing the witch.

And we'll have to follow up to see what exactly they're going to do about that.

I mean, I think when they sort of move some of the staging around and opened it up, it seemed to help the flow getting around.

But I'm not sure it helped the sound so much.

So maybe that's what they're having to deal with.

Yeah, you're not. I mean, you're asking the wrong guy.

I know nothing about sound.

The only thing I know about sound is how I hear it.

And I don't know how to fix it. I don't know.

This stuff is somebody else's deal. I have no idea how this works.

Me either. I'm hoping it's working.

I just worry about my hair looking OK.

I worry about the same thing.

I do. You look good. Look good.

I do have a pretty good shine on the head here with the light.

Hoping you all can take that out in post, you know, just tighten up.

We'll talk to our people.

We'll get there, guys.

All right, man.

What else? Thank you for being a patron.

Oh, yeah. And by the way, as a patron, many of the patrons get one of these, which I'm very excited about.

This is a mixtape in our What Podcasts specially designed box.

A mixtape from we've gone back and forth on whether or not you get me, Barry or Lord Taco.

I sort of now I'm getting the point. Just send them all three.

Yeah, it's kind of what I'm thinking. Send all of them.

And then it's and then you guys will realize how much better mine is than all of these two people.

OK, I just wanted to say that this show with you guys sort of answers the question as to whether or not we can be bought.

And so here we are.

Yeah. Dad needs some new golf shirts.

The answer is a resounding yes.

We truly appreciate you guys.

That's awesome. Yeah, thank you.

Not not just being patriots, but listening.

I mean, it's it's getting and that's like if there's if there's a show that you absolutely have to go to, that you're going to take your entire campsite at, which ones are going to be this year.

What's the absolute go to?

Well, it's going to be Lizzo because my campsite is definitely not on the surface going to be excited about that.

And I really think last year, the example of that was they had no interest in Post Malone.

And I got into Post Malone because of the lineup into them before.

But I dragged everybody there and they had an amazing time.

And Lizzo is going to be like that, too, where even if they're not sure it's their thing, it may not be what they queue up when they're in the car.

I think that's going to be the people are going to talk.

It's just going to be it's going to be nonstop fun.

I was going to say, if you find the one show that you all go to, we'll join you.

But we're not going to find you, Lizzo.

We're not going to find you there.

Although that is another trick, and my friends are really going to be upset about me giving this trick away.

But I mean, my my biggest regret of Bonnarooo is I was literally walking away as Paul McCartney was playing Hey Jude.

And I did get to make it up because I've seen him several times.

But we were so overwhelmed. It was year one.

We get to what stage we're like, there's 80,000 people here like we can't there's ants down there.

What we figured out is you go to the left side of the stage and down to the front.

Can't say that out loud. Can't say that out loud.

It's going to irritate people.

But if you end up down finding yourself left of stage, maybe we'll see you, Lizzo, because we will be down there for sure.

Yeah, that McCartney Hey Jude moment.

I told the story before the Hey Jude moment was unbelievable because if I'm I was literally standing behind a group of people and the guy dropped down to one knee.

And asked the girl to marry him during Hey Jude.

And I just oh, God, I lost it.

I absolutely lost it.

And then the fireworks.

Yeah, live and let die fireworks.

That kid was living right.

Oh, no, it wasn't Hey Jude.

I'm sorry. It wasn't Hey Jude.

It was it was maybe I'm amazed.

Yeah, I screwed it up.

Either way, I was crying during Hey Jude, too.

So it didn't matter.

I was crying through the whole show.

What do I know?

That was a good show.

We learned some lessons.

We got to see.

I know you guys have talked about petty.

We saw petty.

But again, we were like at the very back of the what?

And, you know, we were totally disconnected.

We finally now figured out a little bit about how to get a better spot there.

Well, Timothy, thank you so much for for listening, being Patreon and enjoying the show and talking binary with us.

That's what we love.

We love talking binary.

So hopefully we'll see on the farm, buddy.

Yeah, thank you.

I love the show.

I really was happy to contribute to it.

And it's become my favorite podcast.

I mean, I wait for it.

I obsessively, you know, the day waiting for it to drop.

So it's my favorite.

Thanks.

Thanks, man.

We appreciate it.

Thanks for doing.

I appreciate it, buddy.

See you soon.

All right.

Take care.

So cold until I found.

I didn't really know that I felt so cold until I found.

Timothy from Dallas, a Patreon, a patron centric episode here on the what podcast today, just so that we can talk to you, the Bonnaroovian and some of our patrons who have been so gracious to to help us out along this way.

And they're going to get some stuff along the way like this, this mixtape from you, me and Lord Taco.

Look at that.

Look at that.

Interesting to hear.

And we'll hear more from Liesl.

But how people get there and how they can't.

He does RV with his buddies.

He flies in.

They drive the RV.

She flies in and did tent camping for a while.

I mean, I know.

Right.

I mean, that that confounds my brain.

She is a dedicated, dedicated woman.

Yeah.

And she loves this.

I mean, like, I love the idea of talking to somebody who is an absolute dedicated musical discovery person, because that's what we feel like we are and where I think that the festival does best with people who are really, really trying to expand their palette.

Well, to that end, too, you'll hear her say she has to test people.

It gives them a test.

I love that part.

I love that part.

Let's thank some other patrons as well.

Jason Hazel Baker, Chloe Howell, Lucy Young, Phil Hanley, Dan Sweeney, Dustin Garragh, Chelsea Davis, Ella, Frank Swanson, Linda Doles, David Grimes, Bill, Ryan Matthews, and Sean McCarthy and William Wilhoyt.

Thank you for your patronage on Patreon.

Let's get into a part two.

We've got Liesl from Seattle calling in now on the What Podcast.

So we are talking to Liesl.

Sounds like diesel.

Leslie.

Yeah.

And I keep saying Leslie.

I apologize.

I've really screwed that up.

I have really blown it.

When you have a lifelong name like that, you kind of deal with it.

Who's your friend there?

Who do you got?

This is Leo.

Hi, Leo.

My cat's name is Leo.

I know.

I've got a black cat named Leo.

This is awesome.

And weirdly enough, my middle name is Liesl.

It's so strange.

How in the world did that happen?

Worlds collide.

Thank you for doing this.

Yeah, of course.

Thanks for listening, too.

Yeah, no kidding.

So this is really early for you.

You where?

Where?

I'm sorry?

You're where?

Seattle.

You're in Seattle.

So you come from Seattle to Bonnarooo every year?

Yeah.

No kidding.

Cat muted the whole thing.

Get a cat.

Cat's cool.

Cat is my spirit animal right now.

DJ Leo.

The cat is right here.

I think I'm five shades away.

That is hysterical.

I like the sweatshirt.

Do you get that there?

Yes.

Nice.

Many roos ago, I thought I should go full on roos, so I have my necklace and my sweatshirt.

But I've been doing Bonnarooo for a few years now.

Well, in a second we're going to show you Barry's ass tattoo.

It's going to be really good.

Wait till that happens.

It just gets uglier and uglier.

How many of them have you done?

Let's see.

2008 was my first, so I'm coming up on my ninth.

Wow.

That's good.

We talked to Timothy just now about how he comes from Dallas.

I guess you fly too?

You fly as well?

Yeah.

I fly.

I pack everything, all my camping gear and my two suitcases.

Ultra light tent.

Stop it.

Yeah.

Do you have a group of people that you meet every year there, or how does it work when

you come from Seattle?

Well, now I do.

2008 was my first, and then after that I took a hiatus.

Then I got laid off from my job.

I'm like, screw it.

I'm going to Bonnarooo.

At that time, it was InfoRoo was the only kind of chat medium that you had.

I'm kind of a nerd, so I'm on the computer researching everything I can and reading through

all the chat groups that I found at InfoRoo.

I went by myself with all of my camping gear and my two rolling suitcases and showed up

at InfoRoo in tents only.

I made friends then.

Yeah.

Is that normal behavior for you to venture out on your own like that, or was it just

for this?

Normal?

Yeah.

That's pretty bold.

Brave.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, it's kind of like, why not?

I felt really comfortable with the messaging that had been going on in InfoRoo, and what

was the worst that was going to happen?

Camping by myself.

But I knew Bonnarooo.

I'd been there once.

Everyone was great, so why wouldn't I be fine?

I rented a car.

I asked for family camping, so I didn't get put out into quarantine, which at that time

was like pods one and two.

People used to get stuck out there and not be able to get into tent only until Thursday.

So we called it quarantine.

Yeah.

And so I asked for family camping, walked right up 5 p.m. on a Wednesday.

I was there setting up my tent, and I'm like, okay.

And then all of a sudden these InfoRoo people showed up.

That is phenomenal.

Yeah.

I mean, that is essentially the story of this whole festival, in that you're just going

to find the people that you belong with no matter what.

You're going to find the experience that you belong with.

If you're open to it, it will find you no matter what.

Was it that experience and that type of thing that made you come back, or was it an act

or a particular lineup?

It's never about the lineup.

Yeah.

We keep hearing that.

It's so...

It's never...

What the word is.

Yeah.

It's kind of an interesting thing because I met these people, and now you've been in

the same circle, and now you become these lifelong friends.

You hear that story over and over again.

I find music I love in the lineup every year.

And I happen to be friends with...

You remember that you guys once did a podcast with Randy, who was the recorder?

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's terrific.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

We met him at the War and Treaty show.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He keeps sending me files.

He's terrific.

Yeah.

I'm friends with him and his group.

I have some super group friends.

And just over time, through the Randy group, I've really dug into the undercard.

And so I love that.

If I look at this year's lineup, I'm more into the undercard than the top two lines.

Well, if you've been going since 2008 and you took a little sabbatical and you came

back, and you're doing it because not the lineup, and you're doing it because the experience

and the people and what it does for your soul, I imagine.

Oh, yeah.

What was the artist, what was the show that got you?

Even if it was a mainstay, Jack, do you have a moment that hit you that was musical?

Well, OK.

In 2008, there were two.

I decided, being such a Pearl Jam fan at that time, I would wait in line all day for the

Pearl Jam show, working my way through Ozell Motley, BB King, Jack Johnson, and getting

to Pearl Jam.

So the Pearl Jam show in 2008.

That was the year that Jack brought Eddie onto the stage with him when he was playing

by himself.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so that year, also the Rack on Tours, that two o'clock show of the Rack on Tours,

whatever day that was, face melted.

I'm like cemented.

You had a phenomenal what stage lineup that year.

I mean, just BB King alone, you just sat there in the sun.

I remember that year being very, very hot.

I remember being insanely hot.

And for some reason, Jack Johnson was a fill in that year, was he not?

He showed up because he was not on the lineup.

He showed up by himself because he was filling in from somebody who just canceled.

I think that was Mumford and Sons.

That was after.

That was 2013 or 2014 because he was playing with ALO.

His friends, ALO, were on campus.

It's not campus.

It was like a campus.

On the farm.

I think that was another year that Mumford, the guy, had some heart problems, brain problems.

It could be canceled.

And they put on Jack Johnson, which I was happy because I could nap in the campground.

It was just some background music.

But yeah, I mean, 2008, it was great.

The following year, I went to Coachella instead in 2009.

How was that?

It was different.

I mean, it was what you looked like and what you wore, and it was just a different scene.

Walk me through, walk me through how it's a closer trek for you from Seattle to LA and Indio.

But tell me what it was like when you got there.

Was it a camping experience with you?

Did you rent a house?

Did you find people to stay with?

I'm so confused about the Coachella thing.

Of all the major festivals in the country, it's the only one I haven't been to.

And I'm very confused about how it works.

Well, at that time, they didn't have camping at Coachella in 2009.

So I'm originally from Redlands, California, which is about an hour from Palm Springs.

So I still had some friends down there.

And they lived in La Quinta, which is right there by the Polo Grounds.

So my friend Nancy, who was my Bonnarooo buddy my first year, she and I went down there to Coachella and just wanted to check it out.

And she had been on the list and I knew someone, so it was pretty easy to get there and no camping required.

And that made it kind of a no brainer.

Nowadays, I don't know what the camping experience is like.

I don't either.

And the only people I know that ever go get a house.

That seems so strange.

And I know we glamp and I know that we set it up really stupidly and make a fool out of ourselves.

But it's not a house with a pool and beaver three doors down.

I don't know that we did it in forecast.

We got the house and yeah, but of all that, that's a city festival, right?

Like Coachella is not a city festival, but yet you have to operate like it's a city festival.

And that's the craziest thing.

I think that's why you can't really get a feel of the culture in the soul like you get at Bonnarooo because you still had to go to somebody's house at the end of the night and drive however long or drive back to L.A.

Or drive to a house that you've rented for four thousand dollars.

You know, it's it's just doesn't doesn't really doesn't really ever get into you.

Right. It just doesn't hit the same nerve.

I mean, so I feel like, you know, it's so dark and rainy up here.

I hit June and it's like, yes, it's my hippie dippy vibe.

New music. I love it in June.

And then my past has been to kind of then in September go to Riot Fest in Chicago to kind of get a little more punk and a little more to get me through the dark winter.

So that has tended to be my my my music.

So I recently been going to pick a song in Portland, which is like takes all of the undercard of Bonnarooo.

But I don't know why I need the hand.

It takes all of the undercard and moves it into one festival with about three thousand people.

Oh, really? I actually don't know. Pick a song is like.

Who's who's there? Who is there?

Well, last year, well, the Warren Treaty was there the same year that they were at Bonnarooo.

Alton Goon and Madhu Mokdar played last year.

Jen Cloer, Courtney Barnett's girlfriend was playing there.

So Courtney Barnett was there and had people like Phil Lesh.

You've had people like some Austin, Texas acts like the Black Pumas were there two years ago.

And so, I mean, I feel like those are some pretty solid acts.

No kidding. And you do you take these, you even like go see them when they're at Bonnarooo or you're just like, I've seen it.

It depends. Warren Treaty, you don't miss.

Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, you know, like Alton Goon.

OK, it was a great show. I've seen him at Pickathon.

I there's a conflict. I you know, and it depends where I am on the farm, how far I have to work,

what my alcohol content is and what you know, all of those factors that play into what you're going to do.

Do you make a list or you like all of us, you make a list because it's something to divide the time and then you get there and you throw it out.

Oh, gosh. My friend Lindsay, he was part of Roof It.

He makes a grid, an Excel spreadsheet that and then he sends it to me and we highlight green means must see yellow means maybe orange means.

I don't know what I'm going to do.

And then he laminates it and we can wear it around our necks and it's about kind of that big.

And so, you know, last year just looked like a whole bunch of color everywhere.

And I have a feeling this year is going to be the same. Yeah, that Friday alone.

That's a really funny way of putting it together. Like, I wonder if there is, you know, a level even higher than must see and like five alarm fire.

Like you have to like you cannot if anything that you see this year, it has to be who?

Oh, anyone that I have to see this year. Oh, don't make me do this.

My my it is really hard and mine's you know, I don't really know who mine is yet either.

I don't know who mine is. Yes, I do. It knows Yola. It's you.

I've seen like 15 times at this point. I know I'm going to see the show.

I mean, it's not going I'm not going to miss it.

But Yola to me is like the one I've been waiting for and dying to see this entire this entire time.

She's got just this this beautiful, beautiful connection of of country and soul.

If a little bit of war and treaty, a little bit of Tammy Wynette, a little bit of, you know, Dan Arbok.

I love and puts it all together into a package that's, you know, you know, spiritual and soulful.

Oh, God, I love this woman so much. I love her so, so much.

Yeah, I'm the one for me.

And I have a feeling it's going to be the one that I'm going to say I have to go to.

And then I'm going to hear here we go is going to be the the talking heads thing,

which I know you keep making fun of me about, but I really want to see if you're going to believe.

I did. I did not make fun of you about it.

I was just absurd. I thought it was absurd when you saw the lineup and we were like, wow, our eyes popped out of our head.

You went to Turquoise and not Miley Cyrus.

I said we already talked about it. I stand by it.

That's the one I'm excited about. OK.

And Miley, I think Miley is going to be really, Miley's pretty up there for me.

I mean, I look at this lineup and I've seen a lot of kind of the larger acts over the years.

You know, you kind of get seen vampire weekend. I've seen.

And so that's why I'm excited for like a Miley for Lizzo, which I heard the 2016 show and didn't see.

Well, you know, that was everybody. That was everybody.

I mean, you find me somebody that actually went to the Adele show, you know, 10 years ago.

I'll give him one hundred dollars. It just didn't. It just didn't. I'm not doing that, by the way.

But it's just like I got excited. We got we just we just have these things.

And like nobody knew who Lizzo was then.

And if you did go, you were super underground and just happened to stop by.

I can't imagine anybody like you have to go see Lizzo in 2015 or whatever.

I just don't I don't know if that really was.

Yeah, this this is an interesting lineup for me because of the top has more acts that I want to see than sometimes in the past.

Miley Cyrus, Lizzo. But I've really have gotten into the discovery thing.

That's the part about Bonnarooo that I really like coming home with an act that I'd never heard of.

That's now, you know, on play all the time.

Bahamas for me. Still, I listen to that all the time.

Never had heard of him before before seeing it.

And those are Warren treaty. I mean, golly, that was golly.

Bum golly, bum.

Do you really?

Every act does two shows at Picathon.

So you have to.

No kidding.

Yeah. So you get to see them on a main stage and then maybe a smaller wood stage.

And yeah. So I mean, that year was three Warren treaty shows.

So that was pretty fantastic.

I'm excited to see Camp. Camp was at a pic of on last year.

Colony House. I'm excited to see them.

I saw them do an in-store show in Seattle when I was working for Filson for a bit.

So I'm excited to see them all over tree.

I'm kind of curious about that.

This is interesting. The struts are great.

So, you know, here's what's interesting is you live in a city that you're getting these kind of things come through all the time.

And even if you don't, you live within, you know, one hundred and fifty, two hundred miles that you could go to on a pretty easy basis.

Right. You could go to Portland if you really wanted to.

It's weird that you choose Bonnarooo, which is twelve hundred miles away.

God knows how many miles away it is.

And those are the bands that you're talking about seeing.

I mean, Camp Oliver Tree, those things are probably coming through Seattle every week.

But, you know, it's a school night and it's an hour drive up to Seattle and they play until eleven or twelve.

And I have a day job. So, you know, I get it.

And I make this point all the time.

That's just something that's different about Bonnarooo and the fact that it's it's all right there.

And that's why you're there. You're there to go see music.

I mean, it's an hour drive to Seattle. It's also a 45 minute walk to center.

And a school night. I mean, that's a legit, you know, that type of thing.

And you have a cat. You got to get home to that cat.

Well, the cat is self-sufficient.

You know, someone checks in once in a while, but I have an automatic feeder that feeds it twice a day.

That's how I treat Barry.

What day do you get to Manchester?

Do you get there Wednesday or Thursday morning or does it vary?

It varies if I'm doing tent only.

I've gotten there typically Tuesday, spent the night somewhere and then been to Manchester by about 10 a.m.

Really? Yeah.

So that way I can get in line to kind of get in early enough and not have to deal with any traffic accidents.

Where do you usually stay on Tuesday?

Most years I've done Nashville itself.

Yeah, I got you.

Last year we did Murfreesboro, I think we did.

Because we did VIP last year and I'm doing VIP again this year.

So but my daughter's graduating from high school, so I won't get in.

I'm taking a red eye flight Thursday night. Whoa.

Friday. So I'm sad to miss several acts on Thursday.

But yeah, I was going to say you're not doing the tent.

So I was going to ask, you know, they're moved that they moved the tent only.

I think you're going to say they moved the hill because they did.

They did. They totally moved the hill and they moved the witch stage.

Thank you. I agree.

They fenced the witch stage and angled it differently.

See, see. This is why we're connected, you know, by the universe.

Cats. Cats, Lisa. Yeah, all right.

We're the same name.

I'm being ganged up on here.

What was the decision to go VIP for you versus tent only?

Was that I mean, was that a have to kind of thing or you just want to experience or?

Well, I 2008 I actually my first year did VIP, so I knew what was it was all about.

And last year, you know, I usually travel by myself.

It's like my hodge, my pilgrimage.

And I don't have to worry about what you want to go see. I don't know what you want to go see.

Ah, none of that. So but I brought my friend from West Hollywood to come with me.

She was a bottom virgin last year.

And so she wouldn't do anything but VIP. So how did she do?

She did pretty well. She was, you know, until you experience Bonnarooo, no matter what you say,

no matter what tidbits of knowledge about, listen, there's going to be a point where you do not want to hike back over to this tent

because you're over at the VIP Hill or you're over at the main stage.

And there's no way no matter how badly you want to see that act.

And, you know, until you experience it and the vibe, you just don't know no matter what.

So she loved it. And she's coming back.

Except I've connected her with my friend, Lindsay, and she's going to come in Wednesday and actually go out to RV

and then wait for me to come in on Friday and then we'll do the VIP.

You know, I was just sitting here thinking if I had to describe it to somebody who had never been,

I don't know that I don't even know where I would start. You know what I mean?

If you had somebody that you really wanted to go that lived in West Hollywood and didn't want to camp.

Yeah, I would have a hard time explaining what it was.

There is a guy that's going to go with us this year for the first time.

And it's because he's been hearing me tell these stories over and over and over.

Has he been approved by Camp Nut Butter?

Yeah, he has.

But he's obsessed and petrified. I mean, to the point, he's got camping gear for Christmas and all this.

He really wants to go. He's into it.

But he just can't wrap his head around what this is like.

You know, he hears me saying it's great and it's fun and we do the Bloody Mary tent.

But he keeps thinking I'm not a camper. You know, it's just...

It's hard to tell somebody like her friend or tell Lindsay or tell your guy the amount of...

Who's Lindsay?

Her friend.

Oh, OK.

Are you paying attention to that?

No, I thought you called her Lindsay.

Please.

We call Amy.

Huh?

We call Amy.

Why do you call Amy?

So, it's like you can't explain the euphoria that you sense in some parts of the festival.

And you sure as hell can't explain the struggle sometime around Saturday morning or Friday morning when the heat has hit you and it's way too early and the heat is driving you out of your tent.

There's no way to explain that struggle.

And she's right.

You can't explain how hard it is to get your ass up off of a field, off of the ground of a field in the what stage and then walk all the way over to this tent just because you wanted to hear Pine Grove.

It's impossible to explain.

You just have to trust that the person that you're bringing along has a little bit less lazy than you.

Well, we've talked about it, Lisa.

The ones that go to camp with us, Brad and his wife go.

There's a couple others where the couples go.

But my wife doesn't go.

I don't think we have any other couples, do we?

Tara.

Oh, yeah.

But it's don't go if you're not committed.

Right.

I mean, it's really not a halfway kind of thing.

You know, I knew she would be OK because we had gone to Cal Jam in Southern California in 2018 where the Foo Fighters put on a two-day fest in San Bernardino.

And that's where I met her.

And I was able to observe her festival behavior.

And I could see that she could do, you know, get separated for four hours, come back and be fine and have a lemonade.

And we're good. We're golden. You know what I mean?

Like you could kind of you can sense someone's ability versus someone who constantly needs to know what's happening next.

You took her through a test drive. Yeah.

Yeah. You took her for a test drive and you're like, yeah, this car will go OK.

I can take this to Bondura. That's really, really interesting.

That is such a phenomenally funny way of thinking about it is like the person you're going to take.

You've got to put them through a little bit of a test before you're OK with them coming with you.

That is hysterical.

Well, it makes perfect sense because we haven't really talked about this at length on the show, I don't think.

But that would it's it would be a real drag to be with somebody who doesn't want to be there or who you feel like you're responsible for their entertainment.

That is almost why I tell friends of mine, do not bring your significant other.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Don't bring your girlfriend or boyfriend because if they're not all in and if you can't trust them to be OK with themselves,

if they need to go somewhere else and I want to go this way, don't take your significant other.

Like you may love each other. You may really love each other.

But you also probably don't want to be.

Luckily, the wife is all in on every artist that I see.

And she is all we have damn near the exact same taste about everything.

And she's got a spirit and a level and energy better than mine.

So she drags me to things.

That's the only way I would take somebody is if they were going to push me to go somewhere else.

I would never want to trust some of our friends and some of our teammates, girlfriends to go with them to this thing.

It would just be miserable. Yeah, it would be awful.

I call it kind of like dragon dead bodies. You know, it's heavy.

You're trying to get it across.

You feel guilty if you left it on the road.

It's like Dexter and just chop you up and throw you in the river.

It's a real it's a real big deal.

It's a big part of it because, you know, one of you wants to go out at two in the morning or not or go see this show or that show.

And I know, you know, you go ahead, man, that's the worst.

When the wife doesn't want to go, I've got a backup.

Our buddy Nick, you know, he drags me to things that I even then I don't want to go to.

But he's pushing and pushing and pushing for me to go to something.

Last year, you know, drug us to the other at three o'clock in the morning.

Once all the kids were back and in bed, now dad was ready to go out, go back out, see girl talk.

Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

And in our group, we don't go in mass.

You know, we ever it's very rare.

We might start out somewhere and then I try to find one artist, one act every year that I want the entire camp to go to.

I made everybody years ago go to Alabama Shakes because I knew it was going to be pretty special.

We made everybody go to Warren Treaty years ago, a couple of years ago,

because we knew it was just going to be something that I think that we would all like this year.

And I've said it and I'll keep saying it.

I'm dragging every single person to our campsite to Yola because I know that everyone in our campsite is going to love her.

But I feel like there's one of those every year.

We don't we don't have many, though.

Keep talking about Warren Treaty and I wanted to tell I got to interview them the other couple of months ago.

They were coming to town and I asked him, I said how awesome it was when he gets down on a knee.

You can just feel that passion and Michael.

And he said, he said, if I'm down on one knee in front of Tanya, I've done something bad wrong.

They were just so much fun.

I love those news shows tank in the bangas when they play Sunday morning.

That's why I relate to when you say take me to church on Sunday.

I want something that kind of moves me, get shakes off the residue of Saturday and just kind of writes my head.

You like the show, huh? Yeah.

It didn't get it to like R&B for you. No.

No, I'm kind of open to a lot of different kinds of music. You had asked me 10 years ago, would I be listening to country music?

Would I be listening to Sturgill or Margot or any of that?

I would not. But because of Bonnarooo and that bluegrass situation on Sunday, they used to have, you know, that kind of has opened my mind.

So I find myself listening to more genres of music than I did before.

Man, I've never thought about it like that before.

Like, you know, yeah, we we we tend to oversell, you know, maybe how how important Bonnarooo is or or AC Entertainment or festivals in general.

But I never thought about how I listen to artists and then it's all because of the other experiences I've had at Bonnarooo.

And maybe it's because I'm trying to search out where they would go in the festival or if I'd like to see them on the festival.

But yeah, I've never thought about how it expands my mind to like things that I probably never would have liked in the first place.

Oh, absolutely. I think that's that's it for me.

That's when I when I first went and and my morning jacket was not a band that I would have ever found without Bonnarooo.

And it's it's exactly that. It became sort of a discovery thing.

What what's out there that I don't know that's not going to be force fed by radio.

But what she said, what she's saying is not on the front end.

It's on the back end. It's like, yes, you walk in discovering things.

But how does it then shape how you listen to something?

Yeah, no, the next time that you go to discover something, how does the feeling that you have of discovery on the farm then lends you to discovery when you're at Spotify in the middle of September or October before before you even know anything about Bonnarooo?

How does that discovery then feed into everything else in your life?

That's the part that I've never really thought about before.

Well, I'm surprised to hear you say that, because to me, that gets to the whole when you talk to Ashley Caps and thanked him for saving music.

That's that to me is how I know I'm not making fun of you because I knew exactly what he's always making fun of.

I'm like, what?

Well, I mean, I've told this story.

We were at Four Castle in the beer barn there.

It was not the beer barn.

It was a whiskey.

The bourbon tent.

Sorry.

The bourbon.

It was just drinking.

Yeah, we started pretty early and I introduced him to Ashley.

And the first thing out of his mouth is thank you for saving music, which I like to leave an impression.

It's a funny story, but I really did get what you meant.

And I think it's what we're just talking about for me, it going opened my mind to want to find different, not just acts, but genres and all of that, which I think we're saying the same thing.

But I mean, I'm a newspaper reporter.

So covering music, at least was what I've done.

But I really was in a rut.

I mean, everything was just so same until going and realizing there are 90 acts on this lineup and I probably don't know 75 of them.

But now I want to.

And so it opened up Spotify and Pandora and all that.

Like Pandora is a good example.

I would have never listened to music that way before, where I just pick a song and then let it pick for me.

OK, so let me ask you this.

Does that make sense?

It does make sense. Is it Bonnarooo or is it culture in general and how everything has sort of just changed in the way that we.

I think it's all of that.

I think it's Bonnarooo, but then you get Pandora and Spotify and all those.

They came on MP3s.

It's just that it's more accessible that way than it used to be, I think.

I rely on these playlists.

You know what?

Russ put one out. Bonnarooo puts them out.

I download them to Spotify, convert them over to Apple Music so that I can just kind of start listening and getting a feel for what I like.

And you know, and then I do that for Pickathon and different festivals now.

I might just click on it and see where it takes me, you know, but you seem to me as somebody like is a musical discovery person.

What about the person that's not into that?

I mean, like that's the craziest thing is that we I think we tend to talk to each other in our bubble.

But a lot of people don't really care about discovering things.

They want to be told what is what is what is big.

And then they just sort of follow that.

What I would hopefully I would hopefully implore onto someone is if you have a chance to say no to I'm not dogging too loud,

but if you have a chance to say no to tool, save up your energy and go to some other things that may may give you may give you a little bit of a different show.

I just I do I do sort of wonder if I'd love to talk to somebody who literally just goes for the headliners,

who would just go because they want to see three artists on that lineup.

And then I'd ask them, why in the hell did you choose Bonnarooo?

Because you could choose these you could choose that guy or that girl any time of the year for in any city that you want to do in a much smaller venue.

And then probably have a you know, you obviously don't really care about the experience.

So the experience doesn't really matter to you.

And then and then after they went to Bonnarooo, I wonder how their mind changed.

I don't know that we run into many people that don't.

That's what I'm saying.

The day campers or the day people are probably closest that I can think of.

You know, I have a thing.

You know, I have friends in super group.

They were in info room.

Then they formed super group.

And I have people that maybe hear five bands the whole time.

They just don't make it in out of super group.

I know festival, you know, and they have, you know, maybe it was what dead mouse five or Skrillex or whatever it was.

That might be the only reason they went in.

And so for them, it was just about being there with their friends and in, you know, the pods before the pre plaza time, you know, where like super group, they bring a circus tent and set up a theme every year.

And they have been, you know, enrolling stone for their encampment.

And it was kind of the pre plaza camping experience.

So there was no reason for people to leave unless, you know, all of their friends were going, you know, to that five a.m. Skrillex show.

Calliope the first time.

Yeah, that's a really good point.

And I think that's I guess that's sort of where I'm going.

Like, I guess we don't spend too much time with the people who are don't really give a damn about the lineup or don't really give a damn about the artists.

They're literally just there to hang out with their friends and they might they might go see tool and they might go see fish.

And that's about it.

I think there's more and more of that, especially as the plazas get better and better.

You know, Sharla Rubas, she she's talking like I may go in and see music.

I may not. She just likes hanging out at their camp.

So I get it.

Yeah, I mean, I do get it.

And it's OK.

I mean, anybody can use their time, however the hell they want to spend it.

But it is a different world that we're used to.

It's a totally different world.

Absolutely.

You said like somebody who spends their time seeing five acts and we have somebody in our group, Brian.

We've had him on the podcast before.

The the son of a bitch does not leave camp.

I mean, he would he would prefer to listen to the give me an artist on the on the lineup.

Just give me any of the vampire weekend.

He would rather sit in his car at camp listening to Vampire Weekend than going out to the show and watching the show.

It is the most bizarre way to experience this.

But, you know, he loves everything about it.

It's the best week, best week of his life every year.

He's the most unhappy man in the world.

But yet, but yet he loves that week of Montero, even though he doesn't listen to music outside of his car.

Is that the one the sway guy?

No, that's Nick.

OK.

Get high and sway stuff.

Yeah, that's that's Nick.

That's right. Brian.

Brian, let me tell you a story about Brian.

He's not here so I can talk behind his back.

This this guy wanted got a ticket for a girl that he desperately wanted to bring to Bonnarooo.

And so he finagled a ticket so that she would come and so they could watch Pearl Jam together.

So Pearl Jam is there and he's ready to go.

She is a huge Pearl Jam, huge Pearl Jam fan.

He shows up in the middle of the field.

I mean, this guy, I don't know how he did, but he snuck a cooler in.

So he's got all of his Miller lights in a cooler and he's got he's he's let's just say very politely a little loopy out of his mind.

Well, he gets to the middle of the field.

He's got a great spot and she shows up.

He's finally she's finally gotten to him.

She shows up and she goes, hey, thanks for the ticket.

He's been trying to get this girl for years and years.

Hey, thanks for the ticket.

She turns on. I'm going to go meet up with my friend, Gary, some other dude, literally turns around and leaves him within 30 seconds.

The Pearl Jam shows over fireworks are going.

Me and the wife walk out of the pit and we turn left and we just see poor Brian standing by himself, holding an empty cooler, looking at fireworks, looking like

it was the saddest moment I have ever experienced in my life.

Talk about talk about talk about a festival that would not love you back.

Talk about an experience that love you back when you still keep coming back for more.

Well, he's a good example.

I think you like to discover.

I like to discover.

He he puts a lot of energy into the lead up, like anticipating how great something's going to be.

And then he's disappointed. Yeah.

Well, happens all the time.

Whereas, you know, some of us just go, hey, let's go see what happens.

And if it's great, it's great.

I mean, over time, you know, I mean, Japanese breakfast.

I wanted to see that show and I was just kind of.

Oh, that show is terrible.

Oh, God, it's terrible.

The 30 minutes of dinking around a sound check for half an hour.

So disappointing.

Let me tell you. Let me tell you something about that.

I love her, but that show was so bad and I know the manager is going to get really mad at me saying this, but I saw that show.

There's a there's a what is it called?

A trailer backstage where they do the sessions.

What is that damn thing? It's the hay bale sessions, right?

So you can stand in there and watch.

There's like you have maybe four or five people can stand there and watch the hay bale sessions and recording into a thing.

They spent 30 minutes on the stage sound checking in the hay bale session.

They spent 30 minutes sound checking to play two songs.

So everything that they did on stage out in this tent was exactly what they did just a few hours earlier in the hay bale session.

I remember the two people I was with. I looked at them like this is not going to go well.

This is what they do on stage. This is not going to go well.

And that's exactly what happened.

Now, I have heard plenty of people tell me that they've gone to other shows of theirs and it's been perfectly fine.

But, man, that was as irritating as they got irritating as they got.

What was the show that you love the most out of honor?

What was the one that you that you remember the most?

My morning jacket, two a.m. 2008 with the rain.

2008 year was really good for you.

Such a good year.

And like I my first Bonnaroo, right.

And so I took a nap.

I fell asleep while Chris Rock was on stage in my tent and then woke up four songs into Metallica.

And I'm like, where am I?

What's going on?

But I was trying to get a little rest because I knew like I had to see this two a.m.

show my first two a.m. show, you know, and it was just pretty, pretty intense and amazing.

I mean, I have seen them now so many times since.

And the fact that it went for four hours.

I saw two hours of that for I didn't make the whole thing.

Well, and it's just it was just the most amazing and intense thing that I had ever been to.

You know, so now it's like I've seen them in Mexico like I love like Jim James.

You guys were crying.

I was at Jim James.

I mean, you know, and my other friends like, listen, how many years John Prine has?

And I'm like, no, I have to see James.

Yeah, I miss the John Prine show.

I took a nap.

Yeah, I took a nap.

Very funny.

Sometimes you don't wake up in enough time.

You got to do what you got to do.

So you've been to a lot of boundaries, you travel across country, you go to a lot of festivals, you see a lot of shows.

What is the one tip that you'd give a newbie?

Let's see the tip that I would give the newbie.

Don't bring too much stuff.

You know what I mean?

There's plenty of people around that can help you out.

There's always an extra chair.

There's always extra cooler space.

Just don't lug around so much stuff and worry about everything that you're bringing and everything that you're bringing in the center.

I think people spend a lot of time and get worked up in that, oh my gosh, I need to have my pour over coffee.

That might be me.

But I need to have the chair and I need to have the rain boots and I need to have food planned for every meal.

I'm like, you're not eating much at this festival.

Sorry, Kat.

We talk about it all the time.

The food is the one thing that everybody overdoes.

I brought a grill my first year.

We tried to grill up a whole bunch of nonsense and we ended up eating cheese sandwiches.

Trail mix.

It's just too much work.

Plus, I'll be honest with you, not only is the food a lot of work to make at Camp site, you really need to be really under control of the body.

You've got to be really under control of what you put in and be very careful.

I don't really go too crazy thinking that Monterey is the place for me to eat Asian food.

I don't really know if that's the best idea.

I stick to the skewers by the witch stage.

You know, on the right side, when I'm looking at the stage, there's like kebabs.

That's it.

I stick to the Indian food.

There's a one brave brave.

That's really good.

Like I could write by the brewers.

I know it well.

Yeah, I'm not hungry.

And I mean, yeah, ours are meats.

It's spicy pie and cremasties.

I got to get a cremasty, the vegetarian jalapeno corn dog and a pizza.

That's pretty much my entire diet for four days.

I will have to have an Amish donut or a bite.

Bite someone's Amish donut.

Sounds a little dirty.

Lies on.

You say that way.

Words don't always flow right.

So you can imagine if I had a cake, that's delightful.

There you go.

All right.

And then.

Thank you so much for listening.

Thanks for doing this.

Thanks.

Thanks for embodying the Bonnarooo spirit from Seattle all the way in Washington, man.

That is that is pretty special.

And I got to imagine if the Bonnarooo people are listening as much as they say that they

listen, you know, when you have dedicated people that are not just regional but are

all the way in, you know, Washington and that are flying in every year, that's a big,

big deal.

I mean, we talked to Timothy earlier.

He's in Dallas.

So it's you know, we're spoiled.

We're an hour away from Manchester.

So it just blows my mind to think what it must take to get you here.

No, no kidding.

That's that's a commitment.

No kidding.

I love it.

I just I'm willing to take a red eye fight this year so I don't miss.

That's what's great.

You're going to take a red eye.

I'm just saying you better you better like nap on the plane because when you show up

on Friday, you've got a big day on Friday.

Friday is the most stacked day in the I've ever seen in a festival lineup before.

No, I know.

I feel the anxiety and pain right now.

Please don't.

Please don't.

No anxiety.

Please God.

No, it will work out.

It always does.

It will.

I'll always see some great acts.

So I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me.

I love what you do.

I listen to it and I like I just scream at you in my car when you say something and I'm

going to remember.

I'm going to remember to tell them yes.

The whole mood I'm going to remember to tell them oh but you know so be it.

I hate to tweet you guys and I enjoy it so much.

Hey, we thank you so much and we love the interaction and if there's anything that I

think that we have grown to appreciate and didn't.

Well, maybe you didn't grow to appreciate we already appreciate it but we didn't know

is going to come is sort of the we started this just to talk to each other because you

know we that's all we talk about.

But the amount of people that have become people that we really want to talk about this

with as well is just exponentially grown by the thousands.

So now we get to talk about pottery with a whole bunch of other people which is honestly

I mean look at him.

How many how many more times do I need to talk to him about the same things.

I need new blood.

I need new people.

Different viewpoints.

You need a little bit.

Yeah.

Well, thank you so much.

We appreciate you.

Have a great day.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

Among some of our patrons, Timothy, Lisa, we've got more to thank.

Sean McCarthy, William Woodhoyt, Parker, Parker Reed, Meredith Ritman, William Richards,

Ross McNamara, Evan Brown, Aaron Carlson, Timothy Proctor, Katherine Richie, Richie,

oh, Richie, oh, Gordon Silver, Tyrone Basket and Melanie and Jesse Feldman.

You know, we were talking about some artists that, you know, you've discovered and things

that you want to see.

I've recently gotten all in on this Ed O'Brien project, EOB.

Go listen to Shangri-La.

The album I got, I sneaky got to hear it over the phone because they won't send it to me,

but I got to listen.

My God, this album is good.

It comes out in April.

I am ecstatic about what this show could be and I think it's going to be the sleeper.

But I, you know, going through the lineup, talking to Liesl, do you know this lineup

is so good?

I forgot Lana Del Rey was on it.

Oh, I know.

I know.

How is that possible?

I know.

I forgot and run the jewels is on it.

Well, I've been listening, you know, I did the Spotify playlist, which is linked on our

on the What Podcast.com.

I keep finding things and loving it.

I have not spent any time with Ed O'Brien.

That's going to be next, probably this week.

So there's a lot to find in this lineup.

That's the part that almost sends me into a panic panic attack.

There's so much to find and there's so much that I've got to remember that's even there.

Yeah, I can't.

You go through this thing and it's just so it's just so even across the board that when

you forget that Lana Del Rey is there, I'm really worried.

I'm really worried.

The trick for me is going to be we've talked about before the walk bys, you know, I've

made it a habit in past Bonnarooo's to go lay eyes on somebody to see him.

There's going to be some of these where I'm going to want to stay the entire time.

I mean, this is why we always say and Liesl said it too about about not being a lineup

driven thing for her.

You know, I almost I wonder if like I'm going to get to Saturday and remember that I really

like the years where I didn't like the lineup the most.

Yeah, yeah, because you can relax.

I can relax.

But this feels like too much work all this already.

It's what are we in February, March?

I'm already I'm already upset.

I totally agree.

It's going to take it may.

You know, we always go with a plan and then it never happens.

So I'm torn between even worrying about it and just let's get there and see what happens.

So we appreciate you next week.

We're very excited.

Bonnarooo let is back.

We just spin the wheel and we see where it lands and play some music from artists that

we may or may not know.

But years past, we've felt we've found so many artists that we love just based on Bonnarooo

Lett.

And we found friends via Bonnarooo.

Absolutely.

Yeah, I think it's one of the funnest things we do.

I'm looking forward to other patrons to think Haley, Nick Yeatman, Lauren Edholm, Joshua

Herndon, Brooke Tussie, David Solano, David Henson, Skyler, Sean McCain, Phil Nye, the

Bonnarooo guy, Justin Negro, Andrew McBride, Mary T and musical antlers.

Whatever that is, but I'm now intrigued by musical antlers.

One of our new Patreon.

Let's, by the way, you can sign up at the what podcast dot com or the what underscore

podcast on Twitter.

We'll see you next week with Bonnarooo Lett on the what podcast.