Today, Brad & Barry talk to Nicholas from Walk The Moon and previews their latest trip to the farm. Plus, updates from the site and a chat with listeners, podcasters, and fellow festival-junkies, David and Trevin!
Topics: Walk the Moon, Bonnaroo
Guests: Nicholas Petricca, David Champion, Trevin Bernarding
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You like synthy dance pop?
I do.
Oh, you're a synth dance pop, aren't you?
You were in the 80s dance halls, weren't you, Barry Courter?
Yes, I was.
Welcome to the What Podcasts, the podcast for Bonnarooians by Bonnarooians.
Barry Courter from the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
I'm Brad Steiner from WDOD Radio in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Chattanooga, Tennessee, home of
Walk the Moon's latest tour stop.
They stopped through Chattanooga, and before they did, they decided to talk to us because it turns out they're also playing the little Bonnaroo Festival for us.
What a coincidence.
Yeah, I don't think that I can. Maybe I can. Maybe I can probably find a similar band like Fun, but they seem to be a very interesting pick for a Bonnaroo lineup.
It doesn't necessarily fit.
Maybe. Well, I don't know.
I was just listening, thinking that's going to be one of those proud throw your hands in the air kind of...
One of these guys that you know all the songs, but you don't know who the band is.
Exactly.
I say that in Jebs, joking around, but these guys have a massive following.
Yeah, they're big. A Cincinnati-based band. Nicholas was nice enough to talk to us for a while.
Yeah, to me, it's interesting. I like their story because he struggled a lot. He struggled a lot with whatever this band's identity was.
It took iteration after iteration, time after time before he figured it out. It was just a collection of people, essentially.
Now, they're taking this and trying to be one of the biggest touring bands in the country.
Right. You're right. It was four, five, six years. He kept changing people around and then landed on this lineup. Before they knew it, they were at Bonnaroo.
Yeah, at Bonnaroo.
They were there again in 2013. We talked about that a little with them. They did a Talking Heads set.
Yeah, when you brought that up to me, I was stunned. Absolutely stunned. I would not have put the two bands...
I would not have put... Of all the bands that you could have... You could have sent Adele for all I care.
I never would have imagined that Talking Heads would have been covered by Walk the Moon.
Yeah, well, they did it under the name Kaleidoscope Space Tribe.
Interesting.
On one of the smaller stages. You can watch it. The whole video is on YouTube. I watched it.
Did you really?
Yeah, it's really good.
Now, this is what I was wondering, because this is one of those bands that's making their comeback, bringing yet another set to the farm.
I wonder if we have somebody right now listening that saw any of those shows.
Because when I saw the name pop up, I'm like, oh, this will be the first time they're at Bonnaroo.
Yeah, right.
Oh my God, no, they're not. They've been here like three other times, especially under a guise of a different name.
So if you've seen them at Bonnaroo before, I'd love to bend your ear a couple of times.
Absolutely.
Because I saw the show when they came to town. I went to the venue, watched them a little bit, and it definitely seems as though it is built for outdoors.
There's just certain acts that are built for outdoors, wide open spaces. This seems definitely like one of them.
That's what I was saying. I could sort of envision the whole crowd dancing thing while we were listening to that music.
Yeah, and when you start thinking about like a time, I like doing this too, is whenever you hear a song.
We talked about this last season. You hear a song or you hear a band and you try to place them at the exact time of day, on the exact day, on the stage that you think they're going to be.
Right, right.
And this seems like a witch stage, four o'clock in the afternoon.
I think you read my mind.
Did I?
Exactly what I was thinking.
So let's talk to Nick from Walk the Moon. And then after that, I'd like to talk about some of the announcements that came through the Bonnaroo hemisphere shortly thereafter. What do you think?
Yeah, let's do it. And then we have a couple other guests, right?
Oh yeah, sure. You've got some special guests today.
Yeah, and I'm looking forward to hearing from them. I think they illustrate sort of the whole growth of festivals.
Interesting. Yeah, because you told me that you have some friends that you want to talk to that goes to festivals. They've been to Bonnaroo. They've done, it sounds to me like every East Coast festival that exists.
But they're not the direct demo that most music festivals are after.
I wouldn't think so. No, but they also, if you're one of those people, maybe you're a little older, whatever, who think, I think I'd like to try that, but I'm not sure. That's these guys.
Okay. Their names are what, by the way? I've heard Dave and...
Trevor.
Trevor. Alright, we'll talk to those guys here in a second, but first, Walk the Moon's Nick.
How you doing?
I'm doing amazing. You're coming to Chattanooga soon. I don't know if you guys have ever been to Chattanooga, but you guys get to make maybe a debut.
Yeah, I believe it's the band's first show there. I came through once as a kid on a road trip with my dad to check out some, just American history. My dad was a, he was kind of like a history buff and Civil War. He was just into that kind of stuff and we were just driving through.
And we got a lot of Civil War stuff. In fact, Barry was in the Civil War.
We're still going with the old man joke.
You guys have a history with Bonnaroo. You guys were a natural conversation piece for us when we started setting up this season, mainly because I like you guys' journey through Bonnaroo. You guys start in 2006 and don't sign to a major label until 2011, and that's when it seems as though the shows just got bigger and bigger and bigger.
But I want to start, like, what was 2006 to 2011 for you guys as some, like, road musicians?
Well, I started the band during college and went through, like, about 30 different band members actually.
That many? Maybe I was in Walk the Moon at one point.
Yeah, you may have been. Maybe I don't even remember. But it wasn't until 2011 that we solidified this crew. And that was when AnnaSun was taking off and we got signed. And Bonnaroo was one of the first big festival experiences we ever had.
How many times in those five years did you want to quit? Were you just done with it and it wasn't going to work anymore for you?
There was maybe one time where it was, like, right after college and was kind of down in the dumps about that. And most of the guys at the time wanted to go back to school or go get other jobs or whatever. And it was kind of my choice at that moment to keep going or quit.
How did you eventually come to the group that you found?
Yeah, that was kind of the time period that really defined who Walk the Moon is because I just started diving into the Cincinnati music scene. I'd meet band members at their own shows after they played a show and be like, hey, I've got a gig this weekend. You want to learn some music? And Walk the Moon kind of became this community-oriented project.
We'd throw parties, you know, we'd throw scene parties and get, you know, just get people in the community to get involved. And that's kind of what AnnaSun music video was. It was just like whoever we could find. We were literally pulling people in off the street to be a part of the music video.
And that's kind of like what set us off. What was that like going 2006? You're running through 30 people or so, and then you put this group and then all of a sudden you get signed, you know, to play one of the bigger festivals in the country. I'm guessing that had to be a huge shot in the arm. But what was that transition?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there was something special about this group of guys. You know, they were really dedicated and we had just kind of a magic energy on stage. And Bonnaroo was kind of a defining moment for us. We had missed our flight and flew in and were like arriving late to our own set at Bonnaroo.
And it was, I don't know, one of these little tents, but it was packed and everyone was sweaty and we were painting people's faces as we did at the time. And, you know, it was an awesome time. And I think we've carried that feeling with us, you know, even today when we go to festivals now.
Yeah, they had you in 2011 on the Sonic stage and listeners to this podcast know exactly what that is. On a Sunday around about 730, boy, you got bailed out. You got bailed out because if you're two hours early, hello, that face paint would have been running down your leg.
But they didn't do you any favors. I mean, 2011 on the Sonic stage at 730, you were up against Ray LaMontagne, Florence and the Machine and directly in between the Decemberist and My Morning Jacket. Whoa.
Yeah, that was actually the second set we played. We played two sets that day. Did you really? Like the Wear Cafe. That was the one where we like we rushed in from the airport, played that set, rushed to the other side of the festival, played the Sonic stage.
I didn't know that. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. And then we actually took a plane at like 6 a.m. the next day because I had promised a friend that we'd play his wedding and literally still got Bonnaroo, you know, Tennessee mud on us.
And I'm supposed to MC to things. So I'm like, hey, here's our bride and groom. And I'm oh, oh, my God. That glamorous rock and roll. What a bizarre. What a bizarre life that would have been.
I just had a career defining moment at Bonnaroo in front of maybe the most eclectic crowd that I've had so far. And then I'm MCing my buddy's wedding.
Boy, what a shock to the system. Yeah. You know, the guys, the guys stuck with me and we played that show and we haven't played a wedding since.
But you did go back in 13 to Bonnaroo and did did Walk the Moon set, but also a set under a different name, right? Did Talking Heads tribute?
Yes, our alter ego. Yeah, that's about that. The Talking Heads cover band called called Kaleidoscope Space Tribe. Yeah, very nice.
We we just love we just love Talking Heads and they've been a huge influence on us.
And we we had the opportunity to play this this the side stage that year.
And we thought it would be cool to just kind of do it as a secret and and see who showed up. And it was awesome.
How did that was that your idea or their idea or both? I don't know. I think it's I think Talking Heads is just sort of a an intersection point from for all of us that we all love that band.
No, no, I meant to do it at Bonnaroo. I don't imagine they just let you know, say, hey, come do whatever you want. Here's here's 90 minutes.
I mean, they they kind of did. They were like, hey, we have we have the second set for you. And we're like, well, we'd like to do something a little different with it.
And they were they were into that. Yeah, nice. Are you fulfilling that tradition this year and doing two sets? Is that what I'm hearing?
Um, if we did, I wouldn't tell you. Uh huh. OK. Well, how about this? Because I'm very good at this.
When's the last time you guys did that Talking Heads cover band? When's the last time that those guys got on stage?
The last time that we met up with Kaleidoscope Space Tribe, I think it was maybe 2015. OK. In Cincinnati. We did it. We did it.
What's your show? How about that? How about that? Look, they're about time for the band to get back together.
Five years. I think so. I think you might be right. Well, what's crazy is a professional.
What's crazy about that is because one of the bands that is always talked about as a definer that has not been to Bonnaroo yet is the Talking Heads.
Now, they're not going to do it. He's not going to do that. But boy, that is the show for me that outside of Dolly Parton,
you give me the Talking Heads and Dolly Parton and I'm a happy man. I'm done. I'll tap out from today.
Yeah, I've gotten the chance to see David Byrne a couple of times. He's everybody's legendary.
That new show is unbelievable. That new show is absolutely unbelievable.
2013, when you come back to Bonnaroo the second time, I'm going to give you a little history lesson as to 2013.
You guys played on a Thursday and Thursday we have talked about on the show time and time again is our favorite day across the entire schedule.
And there's a reason because it's the day for discovery. It's the day where everybody's fresh. The farm still looks good.
The only is that we have a rule, by the way, if you ever listen to this, if you ever want to have the lovemaking,
the lovemaking happens on Thursday or Sunday, OK, because you're freshly clean or you're totally dirty.
Yeah, there's one or the other. So on Thursday, let me go through the list of acts.
This is going to blow your mind, Barry, that Walk the Moon played along with on Thursday.
Thursday night, the day of discovery. Let me go down the list of 2013.
Dive, Twenty One Pilots, Future Birds, Ariel Pink, Haim, Walk the Moon, Django Django, Purity Ring, Japan Droids, Father John Misty,
Alt J, Alan Stone, Killer Mike, Capital Cities, Houndmouth.
Wow. Are you kidding me? That's the entire series XMU playlist.
And they were all on Thursday night. That is some some roster that you were a part of on Thursday.
Yeah, I mean, it's just a testament to those people who have got boner if he gets this year, get there early,
because you're going to see, you know, you might see some artists that will go on to do great things.
And you guys, you guys who go from the Sonic stage, you go from the cafe, then you go to the 11th line on Thursday on 2013.
And now you're one of the top line artists of one of the biggest music festivals on the planet.
Do you feel a difference between Boner than all the other festivals that you play?
Yeah, you know, it's it's one of the more rugged ones, which which I really like.
And I think it it brings something out of people that's I don't know, the sort of like rough human togetherness that that that we love.
And that, you know, that feels that feels like home to us.
Yeah, the bonding. That's what we talk about a lot on here. People are there. They're committed.
There's a bond. They want to hear music. The band feels it feeds off of it.
You know, it goes both ways because of that whole camping thing.
I'm guessing the Sunday show that you guys did in 2011, you didn't stay.
But 2013, you guys stayed a few days, right?
Yeah, we got to we got to hang a couple of days there.
And I have a request because this is what you guys do.
If you guys stay Saturday night and do the Sunday thing for Boner, backstage, we camp.
Our camp is called Camp Nut Butter.
You should come by and paint our face. Love it.
And then and then one of us will get married and you can DJ another wedding.
It'll be fun. Recreate the whole perfect.
One of the things we love talking about is is what you guys are going through that whole one of the things that Boner does is sort of once they find acts that they like, they love bringing them back on bigger stages as they as they grow.
Is that do you guys make lists? Do you have wish lists of things to do, goals to meet, that sort of thing?
Oh, yeah. Sure. Like a bucket list.
Sure, sure. Yeah, I mean, absolutely.
And as soon as we cross one off, you know, something something else goes on the list.
You know, I hope someday to be headlining these festivals and right.
And we'd love to, you know, we've we've spent a lot of time overseas as well.
And it's really, really fun to play in Europe and and over in Asia.
And it would be it would be a dream to to, you know, make it on top of some of those those lineups as well.
Nick, what is the difference for you between a show that you do, say, in Chattanooga when you're at a local club of fifteen hundred and on a tent stage at insert music festival here?
How does it change for you?
In a lot of ways, it doesn't change at all. And I think that's really important that we just a festival is a place where people discover music.
So it's it's like our job to just show exactly who we are.
But at the same time, it's it's very different when we're playing to sort of a captive audience of our own people versus thousands of people that may not know who we are.
So, you know, it changes, especially my job as a frontman, you know, how to how to get people engaged and playing along.
I haven't thought about it in that way, but that makes sense. If you've got fifteen hundred people at like the signal that you're going to have, they've bought a ticket to see walk the moon at a festival.
Any of them, their potential half of the crowd, whatever could be could be somebody who's never seen you.
Do you do you try to pick out one or the other or both?
I mean, I understand it doesn't change because you're trying to put on the best show that you can no matter what.
But I mean, like if you're looking out and seeing, hey, there's a bunch of people that don't know the words, does that change maybe even the set list or the focus at all?
You know, you're trying to get new fans versus, hey, all fifteen hundred of those people know every word.
Yeah, I mean, I guess it it it kind of lights a fire under our ass for, you know, for just fighting for our lives a little bit like the old days.
You know, you can't you can't sleep. You can't you can't phone that in at all.
It made me think we talked to Paul Janoway last year of St. Paul and the Broken Bones and they did like three or four shows with the Rolling Stones.
And he was straight up told and it was really kind of a funny story.
He was told there's nobody out there here to see you.
And it you know, it made him bow up and he said, my God, I'm going to get him.
Oh, yeah. I guess that's what I have in mind is, you know, he knew straight away.
Well, yeah, it goes it goes to what is as for you as an artist, what's more rewarding?
Super serving a list of people that are your fans or turning somebody over that's never known you or heard you or seen you before?
Yeah, I think there's nothing that compares to like playing playing to an audience that is kind of like unsure at the beginning of the set.
And by the end, they're going crazy. That's that's an awesome feeling.
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
I would think looking out and having everybody singing every word, especially like an obscure song would be a pretty cool thing.
All right. By the way, you're playing on Saturday.
Do you have anybody? Sunday. I'm sorry.
You have any any people on Sunday that you're dying to see?
You got you got a list already made or have you not spending time with the lineup yet?
I haven't spent much time with it. We've been we've been tunnel vision on this tour right now.
But what you've got something to do other than talk about Bonnaroo.
Yeah, we're and we just put out some new music.
We got a new music video out. We've been working on new tunes to release.
So but rest assured, I'll have a plan by the time I get there.
And I hope you share it with us when the when the time comes.
You get closer to a Bonnaroo. Let's talk again.
I hope because we really like you guys around here and we wish you all the success in the world, buddy.
Thank you very much. I appreciate you guys.
Nick from Walk the Moon on the what podcast a podcast for Bonnaroo by Bonnaroo.
Barry Courter, of course. Brad Steiner from Chattanooga's hits.
Ninety six Chattanooga Times. You press Barry Courters home.
Now we have a pair of tickets to Bonnaroo with camping passes.
And of course, we did like we did last year. If you want to drop us a comment, the what podcast dot com.
Just scroll down to the bottom, say contact us, drop us a comment, something you like, something you're excited about this year.
We'd love to hear it. We've gotten a ton of comments over the past couple of days.
I'd like to read a couple and highlight a few of them and possibly get in for Bonnaroo tickets just by commenting at the what podcast dot com.
So let's start from Dortha. Is that really her name? Dortha? That's a fantastic name.
I've never heard that name before in my life. Just listen to your first episode of the year.
Had the exact same feeling you did about hippocampus.
Now I'm going to spend a week with their catalog on repeat. Thanks for the tip.
There is not a band we've gotten more collective. What's wrong with you than hippocampus over the last week and a half?
Where you been? Yeah, somebody I think you said somebody's like, how did you guys not know this?
Well, I would suggest that if we came on here and pretended that we knew everything about everything, we would be insufferable.
Even more, even more than we already are. I already can't know everything.
I already get beaten up by my friends enough about barreling through knowing everything.
If I if I tried to purport that I knew half of this stuff, I'd be we all know those guys though, right?
You mentioned a band and they're like, oh, yeah, yeah, I've known those buddies.
I've been there since day one. They've got one album, dude.
Okay, Adam Swanson. Adam says, I love you guys. I love that you guys started this podcast.
I figured out about you guys just before the lineup came out.
I'm so happy to get to listen to Bonnaroo things throughout the time until we're all back on the farm.
I keep recommending my friends to listen to you guys. Keep up the good work. Appreciate that, Adam.
And of course, if you want to rate and review this, that would be nice as well.
Helps all of your other friends find us pretty easily in your app store.
I think that one of the things that caught my attention this past week, there's a lot of announcements that came out.
We missed one that was really big. They're moving some of the VIP area campers.
I don't know where they're moving them, but they're opening that area up to GA folk and creating a whole new plaza right there in the form of VIP camping.
Oh, nice. So right right by the gate. Yeah.
The arch. Yeah. If you're if you're looking at the arch, it's around the corner to the left. It's a new plaza.
They're adding all kinds of different camping inside of those tree areas, which those shaded areas, that's money.
And I don't know. Again, we've talked about this before. There's no rhyme or reason how you get in there.
But boy, that's got to be some of the most valuable real estate out there.
Yeah, they're calling that where in the woods, where in the woods will transform the forest into an unforgettable magical landscape.
You got to feel like you really lucked out if you get plopped down right there.
There's sometimes where you like I got to imagine there are those feelings that you have that, yes, you're excited to be a boder and yes, you don't really care where who what when why.
So long as you're around your friends or you feel like you got a good spot.
If you get plopped down like plaza to you like, oh, this is good. I'm right next to what if you're in the back 40?
What if you're like, yeah, we're here, but I don't feel here. You know, it doesn't matter or no one can seem to figure out the rhyme or reason of when to get there, where you will be parked.
Right. Like I have I know a kid who got there. He was pretty much first in line.
Guess where they put it. It's got to be just a deflating feeling.
Man, it was almost closer from here from where we are right now.
I could I could have given him a prime parking space at my house if he needed to.
Unbelievable. Yeah, they announced all the other all the other plazas, the Whiskey Jam at the Villa, Brooklyn's House of Yes and Little Cinema in Plaza Three, the Grove, of course, and seven.
This is really coming of wonder.
This is really coming together. The plazas.
When whenever they announced the plazas, this feels like a new thing. It feels like a new step.
It feels like an evolution to exactly what we've been hearing from them for two years.
Paramore is going to be doing or Hayley Williams of Paramore is going to be doing the sanctuary self love.
Yeah, by the way, Hayley Williams came out on stage and I guess Friday night or Saturday night with Casey Musgraves in that Nashville show.
Yeah. So, ding. Does the does the light go on?
Wow. Does the light go off when when Hayley Williams puts together this this thing out in the plaza?
She might just have some friends pop in. That would be amazing, right?
You know, we keep talking about these experiences, but somebody's going to win a chance to have a makeover, a style makeover with Hayley Williams being part of doing the makeover.
I'll tell you right now, if the only person I want to enter and win is you.
I want Hayley Williams to transform you. Boy, oh boy.
But, you know, we keep talking about these experiences and it's interesting.
I've had more conversations about it, not just Bonnaroo related, but other festivals and and just the whole how that industry has changed.
It has to be more about the band and it has to be more about the lineup and even the music.
Yeah. And the plazas, the plazas in full force, they sound great.
And I love the idea of creating a personality through an artist with a plaza.
I love what they did with KG Elephant last year. I love the connection part of it.
You know, a secret show with KG Elephant. You got to think that this is going to be something that just keeps continuing.
Again, KC Musgraves and Hayley Williams said girls just want to have fun.
I can't not see how that doesn't happen in the plaza. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
That's got to be some sort of Bonnaroo tune up.
And you started to mention characteristics of the festivals. You asked that question of Trevin and David.
And I thought was a really good question. And they were the right guys to ask. Yeah. Festivals. Good ones have a personality.
Right. They have a brand identity. Exactly. I like that idea, though, to personality.
It's got a heartbeat of its own, a soul of its own. Yeah.
And speaking of the Trevin and David, these guys came in. Trevin's on the phone and David came in.
These are some people that Barry has connected with in years past.
Not necessarily your typical Bonnaroo goer, not typically your festival goer.
These guys are a tad out of the demo. They're more Barry Courter. Yeah.
And they are the 25 year olds that go to hang out.
And that's what made me want to have them. Trevin, I know from our kids played soccer together.
So I know I'm a little better than casually. Trevin reached out to me in 2014.
He was going to go to Firefly. Yeah. And he wanted some camping tips.
The next year, both of them went. And then in 2017, I think they both went to Bonnaroo with several other people.
And they have, as you guys will hear, they've gone to a bunch of other festivals.
They've become festival goers. They do their research. They don't mind going by themselves, which I found very interesting.
Well, they're interesting guys. And it's an interesting take.
And it's something that we want to do each and every episode this season on the What Podcast.
Give you a taste of your fellow Bonaroovian, your fellow festival goer.
Let's talk to David and Trevin on the What Podcast.
Hey, is this Tevin? Trevin. Trevin. Trevin. Oh my God. What a start.
What a start. You know, we have a long running issue with Barry Courter, who oftentimes at Camp Nut Butter,
we will all be sitting around and saying hilarious commentary, brilliant insight.
And then Barry will steal it from us and then put it into his column.
The running gag has always been, Barry, just get our names right. We don't care if you steal our content. Just get our names right.
How many times have you gotten my wife's name correct in your articles? Correct.
Yes. Probably once. And that would be the two corrections that I had to run.
How many times did you actually put her name in there? First, it started as Holly.
No, I called her Steiner. She doesn't take your last name. Thank God. I called her Steiner. I called her Holly.
Trevin, nice to meet you. I'm Bard. That's Larry. Hi, Trevin. Thanks for doing this. Yeah, no kidding.
We're up and going. The reason I wanted to have, I have David Champion and Trevin Bernardi, who are our Bonnaroo guests,
because you guys, I actually included you in stories that I did in 2017. That was your first Bonnaroo.
It was. I think actually both of us the first time. Both time, you were with a bunch of other guys.
David, did he say your name is Darrell? David or Darrell?
David. That's what it's going to be from here on out. But was that your first festival as well?
No, the first one actually I went with Trevin. We went to Firefly up in, Trevin was it 2015?
Yeah, 2015. My first festival was Firefly 2014.
So that's why I wanted to get you two guys is because you do a lot of other festivals pretty much instead of now.
You did Bonnaroo once? Once. Yep. So I just thought it would be kind of interesting.
What years? Did you guys go together? Yeah, pretty much Trevin and I have been to most festivals together.
I did Lollapalooza by myself and actually the same year we did Bonnaroo. That was my festival year.
That was your festival year. You just bounced all of them.
Wow, no kidding. David went to Birmingham with us or not, I can't remember.
I did. The Sloss Fest? Yeah, the Sloss Fest as well.
You've had a lot of the same territory in which I've done.
The first thing that I wonder is when you start lining up them like Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Firefly,
do you guys ever do Hangout? Do you guys shirtless bros too? Do the Hangout thing?
I think we've outaged ourselves for there. We just thought we were too over Hangout.
And then you do Sloss Fest. When you put those two together, why Bonnaroo just once and Firefly twice?
And actually it's going to be the third time we're going this summer too.
I've been to Firefly four times. Whoa, no kidding. Okay. So why Bonnaroo once and Firefly four times?
The first time I went in 2014, and David didn't go to that one with me, but it was really because of the lineup.
It was incredible. But also the weather. Dover in June is like 74 degrees, not buggy.
And that's honestly the reason why at that time I never got to Bonnaroo. It was just the heat.
But the lineup in 2014 was crazy good. I thought, well, it's a good time to try it.
And I talked another friend into going, Andy Sawyer, who Barry knows.
And we went with our two boys, and that's how it started.
How old are the kids? They are now juniors in college.
Wow, okay. At the time they were 16. Early 50s, right?
That's exactly my next question. If I could have written down, I wish I had written down,
the reasons why you chose Firefly over Bonnaroo, I was going to guess weather and weather.
That was really the reason. Yeah, because it's the mid-Atlantic.
Of course it's going to be a lot different than Tennessee in the summer.
But boy, you hit a certain age demographic when it comes to these festivals,
and you're looking for a certain type of festival to survive in.
It's going to be a lot different than your 16-year-old kids. Your 16 to 25-year-old kids,
they don't care about Tennessee in the summer. But you guys, a lot like me.
I'm struggling here. I'd like to take a nap.
And for sure, to be honest with you, Bonnaroo, we actually rented an RV.
So we were actually RV camping. Good for you.
Because Trevin will tell you a story. When Firefly poured down rain the first night we were there,
and they almost lost me. I was done. I'm not a camper.
And that tested every part of my being to stay out there in the pouring down rain in a tent.
Trevin, you said 2014. Were you guys festival goers before?
I mean, they're kind of new things, but I'm not sure.
I know you guys, but I don't know you real, real well. Your past.
I'm not sure that I would have pegged you like me.
I wouldn't have pegged me either as festival goers, campers, you know, that kind of...
No, not at all. It was just one of those things.
I've always been a music person, you know, going to concerts and all that kind of thing.
I was in Athens, Georgia in the 80s, and I could do not a lot of bands coming out of that scene.
But no, that was my first festival. And it was really, again, the lineup.
They had Foo Fighters, Outkast, Imagine Dragons, Arctic Monkeys, Weezer, Young the Giant.
I mean, it was an incredible lineup.
What was that first impression that you had when you walked into a festival,
aside from like seeing a show at like the Roxy or the Tabernacle?
I mean, it was really more...the first impression was, you know, in line in the cars at five o'clock in the morning,
coming into the campsite. I mean, it was just crazy to me.
How's this mass chaos going to work?
And then walking to the grounds themselves, it was so liberating.
The fun of a festival can't be duplicated walking into a venue.
So Firefly was your first two?
Yes.
And then you did Bonnaroo, how many years after that?
Two years later.
Okay, so once you got in, did things start changing when you guys started seeing shows differently?
But did you go back to rooms and think of things completely differently after you went to a festival?
I like the festivals better.
Me too.
I really do. I think it just, like Trevin said, it's liberating. It's a vacation to me.
It's just a fun vacation that starts early in the morning and goes late at night.
And yeah, I just enjoy them.
I mean, if you talk about like the level of work you got to put in,
Firefly is a simple one because they give you a lot of shade.
Like you said, Trevin, the weather is always good.
Location's a little bit more difficult to get to,
but the amenities work and they're very easy on the palate for guys like us who might be a little bit harder to please.
Pampered.
Yeah, pampered.
Soft.
I wasn't going to say that about Daryl.
But no, but do you think that you were properly programmed and ready for Bonnaroo after the festival experience that you had before that?
Yes, I knew.
Really?
I pretty much, from Firefly to Bonnaroo?
Yeah.
Yeah, I think because then I knew what I liked, what I didn't like,
but I didn't really have any idea what a festival was going to be like.
I didn't realize how somewhat chaotic between running from one stage to another.
And then also the, I thought, oh, I'll just go and see all these bands that I want to in this order and I'll be okay.
And then you realize, oh, I got distracted. I'm going to go over to listen to these guys.
Oh, I totally missed the band I was going to see in the first place.
But that's okay because I've learned, I find key bands I definitely want to see,
but then I'll be kind of open-minded with some of the other stuff.
Trevin, help me here.
I don't want to pick on David, but I think it's worth pointing out.
I'm correct, right, that David is a little bit anal when it comes to planning, right?
David doesn't plan.
I have no idea. David, did you bring your list? You should have brought your list that you put out for our festivals.
Not right now.
That's why I wanted to have these guys on because our daughters played soccer together is how we met.
And I've heard some of David's planning for out of town trips and it's book-like.
I would give out and distribute things to every parent of exactly the hotel, the schedule, everything, restaurants to eat at.
I bring that up not to tease you, but to tease you, but also that idea of walking into a festival
and it being liberating and just letting go seems so counter.
Within reason. I think it's within reason.
You still have your book and your list, I see.
Boy, that is a great question though, and I think that you stumbled into it for a second.
David, you had to completely change a part of you to maybe survive in this atmosphere and in this world, right?
I'm sure there is a, and not everybody's like you, me and Barry, not list guys. We are a total mess.
But there is parts of me that absolutely have to change to make this work.
There's parts of Barry that absolutely have to change to make this work.
Yours is probably a little animal pretendiveness, right?
Trevin, do you have a piece of you that absolutely had to change or that you were happy that changed after engulfing yourself in this entire process?
That's a good question. So it has to change.
I think the main thing from a music perspective, it opened my eyes that just because something is EDM or if it's rock rap or whatever genre I would never think I would listen to,
that I change because I walk into a band who I think is going to be terrible and it's great.
Sometimes it happens the opposite, but for the most part it's really, it's changed my outlook on music itself.
Just being able to listen to different types of music.
Absolutely. For me it's the whole nighttime thing. I'm a fairly creature of habit. I have a routine.
I don't camp, I don't sleep in a tent or on a mattress any other time of the year.
And I also don't roll out of bed at two in the morning to go see a band or turn the TV or whatever.
But there, yeah, you got to just let it go.
For us that camping festival is part of why I think I like it maybe more than some of the city ones because it is 24 hours.
You're there. There's nothing else to do. Go see the music.
I gotta imagine somebody who really likes less city festivals might do you pretty well then.
Yeah, like Lollapalooza type thing. Yeah, exactly. I've already got my hotel room for August.
I've got somewhere to go.
At least I've got that part planned out.
But I love this idea of not only does it require you to change a major piece of you,
but you also, because you've changed it and lived in it and had to experience it,
it made you probably a better rounded person in the real world.
Contrary to popular belief, I'm a lot like that, David.
I'm pretty anal retinue when it comes to doing things the way that I want to do them, how I want to do them.
My camp guys know I've got a certain specific routine in the morning that I will not adjust.
I'm not adjusting it for anybody or any festival.
But even with that stuff, I've had to shake it out and let go of so much to enjoy this experience.
And it took a good five, six years of doing this before I finally shook it out.
And boy, has it paid off in spades in my real life.
In actual life and 360 other days of my life, the five days that taught me how to let go at Bonnaroo
is I think the reason why I'm probably a better person now than I was before.
I feel like I'm on Oprah.
Okay.
Are you giving me a car?
That's pretty touching.
Are you giving me a car?
That's just...
I know you go to some of these together.
Do you go by yourselves to any of them?
Well, I went to La Palooza. My son was with me.
We have totally different style of music.
He was mostly rap and muse and that sort of thing.
And I was seeing Blink-182. That's who I wanted to see.
Wow, that's just really surprising.
But I don't mind being by myself in that sort of situation.
I make friends.
You're never by yourself.
No, not at all.
They're not by yourself.
I want to ask you both.
Trevin, do you try to talk other friends into going to these things?
And if so, what do you tell them?
How do you describe the festival experience?
Yeah, I always try to talk people into going.
David, I can't remember the exact particulars,
but I'm pretty sure we kind of talked even into going in 2015.
I talked to Andy Sawyer into going with me in 2014.
To me, it's also, as I mentioned, I probably said it's an article that you wrote, Barry.
It's also getting friends together, family together, and just having a good time.
Me and David do trips together all the time, not just festivals.
But to me, the festival always had those memories more than the others.
And I also tell them it's not as bad as you think.
I learn from people like you, Barry, all of why Gatorade bottles are important to bring, things like that.
You did that wide-mouthed Gatorade bottle in the tent at night.
I dated her once, by the way.
A lot of my friends think I'm crazy.
That's just insane.
Part of the reason Trevin and I and Andy went to go to a lot of these together
is it kind of evolved from our father-son trips that we used to take to a lake with our boat.
Every summer was sort of fun. Trevin, when they were eight, is that when we started it?
Yeah, eight, seven, eight.
Then it kind of evolved. After about ten years, they were old enough.
I think that's what started it. That's why we went to Firefly together.
We went to Bonnaroo together.
We spent some time with them. It was sort of father-son bonding.
I never thought about the millennial bonding experience.
I know it was fun.
Yeah, that whole Trevin thing about people are surprised or they think it's something.
We've had that conversation many, many times in our camp as we're sitting there in our lawn chairs,
on carpet, under a tent with our Bloody Mary tent next to us.
We were never invited to, right Trevin?
It's whatever you make it.
What's going to bring you back? What's going to bring you guys back to the farm?
Well, I actually blocked off with my work schedule.
I have Bonnaroo that week every year. I blocked it out again.
But again, it's one of those things. The lineup was just not grabbing me.
Firefly was available. I blocked that out. I just kind of waited to see.
But when I did my research now, there's a lot of cross-up.
There are a lot of same bands playing both this year.
I find that to be so interesting because I always thought that the lineup-based consumer was the younger ones.
I thought the younger kids, especially under the 25s, were lineup-based.
But you guys are middle-aged white men.
But making your decisions based on a lineup, I didn't think that that was the case.
And I may bail out on Lollapalooza unless it just kind of...
If there's so many bands that are singing at Firefly, I probably won't go to Lollapalooza.
Yeah, interesting. Are you going to be lineup-based if you make your decision on Bonnaroo, Trevin?
Yeah, I was about to say that's totally my decision going forward for Bonnaroo is on lineup.
I will go to Firefly every year.
Just for me, going back to the weather, the weather is going to be a lot better.
It's more pleasant. It's easy to get around.
It's very similar to Bonnaroo, the layout of the stages.
But I'm going to pick Firefly.
It's also only about two hours away, right, Trevin?
Well, now it's just kind of a coincidence.
Yeah, where are you, by the way? Where are you?
I'm in Central PA now, Central Pennsylvania.
So let me ask you this. When you guys go to all these festivals, do you feel...
Okay, you feel weather, you feel lineup. Do you guys feel a culture?
At the other ones or...?
At any of them.
More Bonnaroo, I would think.
Bonnaroo is definitely unique, the culture there.
More friendly, I think.
It's friendlier, it's more hippie.
I guess from the... it used to be, from understanding, more of a jam fest type place.
And that kind of carries over to the culture.
But when making your decision, culture doesn't matter to you?
No.
Okay. Wow.
Are you guys seeing a lineup and seeing people that you have never seen that you really wanted to see?
Or are you seeing it from a place where you are discovering bands that you may not have known before?
We did a whole half episode on the whole repeat.
Is it worth seeing the same bands over and over?
Do you not want to see them again?
I can tell you, I would never probably bought tickets to see Snoop Dogg.
And that was a great show. I saw him, thought that was fantastic.
Sure.
Eminem, last year...
Eminem was a cruel show.
It was fantastic. Again, I don't know if I would have spent money and gone out and seen it, but it was a great atmosphere.
I really, really enjoyed that.
How about Kendrick Lamar, David?
I'm not a fan. I tried.
I tried, I tried.
It was amazing hearing everybody singing word for word the songs, and I'm going, I don't know these.
It was not on my list of research before we went.
You know, looking at you, I'm shocked.
Yeah, there you go.
What about you, Travon? Are you a Discovery guy?
Are you looking at lineups based on things that you have always wanted to see or are wanting to see in that moment?
I've really turned into more of a Discovery person now.
It's just more about going and experiencing new music for me.
Of course I want to see the headliners.
I was on the rail for Paul McCartney and Firefly.
How can you, that was incredible.
But at the same time, it's more about, for me now, seeing the newer bands, bands I never heard of, just kind of happen upon.
Are you guys new music fans?
Do you guys actively look for, you consume new product constantly?
Because I say this because a couple episodes ago I mentioned to Barry, I read this article where,
once you hit the age of 30, your consumption of new products goes drastically down, something like 70, 80%,
and you mostly get comfortable in things you already know and already listen to.
I'm the complete opposite.
The last thing I want to do is listen to something I've already heard.
I wonder, when you guys lived your regular lives, are you consuming new products?
Are you going back to the music that you already know and listen to forever?
I mean, I'm always, Alt Nation is the station that my car radio stays on almost the entire time.
I would tell you there was probably a period of time where I was just complacent with most regular music that I had grown up with.
But now I'm always trying to find new stuff. I love Alt Nation.
I wonder if that changed right around when festivals got into your life.
I think you're right because part of it was before I went to Firefly was getting on,
downloading all the music that I knew I was going to, bands I'd never heard of,
and trying to find them and listen to them for the first time and go, yeah, this is good.
I still like my hard rock, I still like my 80s music, that sort of thing.
But Alt Nation is actually what it primarily is on now.
Same with you, Traven?
Yeah, exactly the same.
Being a testament to David, he did a change once he went to Firefly with us.
His music is, we got a whole podcast on his iPod.
But yeah, it's more about, I listen to Alt Nation, I listen to the college station on Sirius.
XMU.
XMU, yeah.
Yeah, Chris Muckley does a great job.
I don't listen to radio ever, unless you count Sirius as radio, I guess.
If I'm buying music, I'm buying newer bands, I can't wait until Arctic Monkeys drop their album, I bought it.
You like that new Arctic Monkeys album?
Not as much as the old stuff.
Arcus Monkeys, I saw them in 2014 at Firefly, and I was also on the rail for them.
This is the greatest band ever.
The reason I ask is mainly because I almost get pissed off when I see something that I don't know.
Like it's angered me for a week and a half that Hippo Campus has gone past me.
And I'll be completely honest, I was livid, livid the day that I saw back.
I was so pissed, I was so mad.
I watched that show and I was just soured and angry for an hour watching back at Music Midtown three years ago.
Madder than I've ever been.
Loved the show, but I was mad because every time Beck had shown up at a festival, I said, eh, I'll pass on that.
I'll pass on that.
You have to pass on Beck.
I know, exactly.
I said the same thing as soon as I saw this show.
What have I been doing?
Well, we did a whole show last year, I remember, about do-overs, part of a show.
There are many of those that I did walk by.
I said, man, I'd like to have Beastie Boys.
I can name a handful of them.
Shows that I just not passed on.
I totally blew it.
I went to OutKast by myself in 2015.
No one would go with me.
I couldn't believe it.
What a show that was.
What were they doing?
What was everyone else in your camp doing?
They were playing cards at the campsite.
Oh, yeah.
Can't get that one every day, can you?
I'm not kidding.
I went by myself to OutKast.
David didn't go there.
I guess it was 2014.
Yeah, I'm sure OutKast comes by your garage when your wife's gone all the time.
Yeah, I'm sure they're all the time.
It happens.
It happens.
You can't see all of them.
Look, hey, thank you so much, Trevin, for being a part of our little slice of Bonnaroo and Festival Life.
David, we appreciate you guys coming by.
And hopefully, we can bring you back both to the farm.
I'd love to talk to somebody who's been there just three years ago, four years ago, and how different it is today.
It's so much different.
The community, the culture, the things they do, and the experiences, Trevin.
Brad and I, we based almost two years of podcasts on, for us three years ago, we would have not ever gone to general admission camping.
And now we can't wait to go back.
Yeah, now I'm thinking about rethinking where the camp goes.
I like those trees.
I know you're kidding.
I'm just lying.
All right.
There's one highlight.
Probably the one thing, if you don't mind, I'll end on it, about Bonnaroo was Trevin and I had stayed up late and gone to the Ed Helms.
The Super Jams.
Absolutely not really necessarily my kind of music.
Absolutely enjoyed that show tremendously.
And probably the highlight of it was when this young man, I don't know if you remember this, the young man in front of us turned around and looked at us like,
Holy cow, you guys are old.
What are you doing here?
And I think he may have even asked how old we are.
And then he said, Holy cow, I want to be just like you when I'm your age.
And I went, that wins.
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
Yeah, that was cool.
Nice.
I feel like I get all the stares in the world at Bonnaroo, not because of my hair, but because I'm with the oldest person at Bonnaroo, a big recorder.
Funny, Trevin, listen to you.
I went to see EDM the first year.
They had the other stage, me and Mike Dewar, who's about my age and Denson, and we're standing in the back and the kids in their furry costumes and their bunny outfits are looking at us.
And for a half a second, I'm thinking, they think we're pretty cool. And then I looked at Mike and I said, they think we're narcs.
Yeah.
I know why they're looking at us.
There's some other announces came through the pipe this week.
And most of it has to do with the other stage lineup announced, which I've got a serious question to ask about the other stage lineup.
Again, as I said earlier today, we said we don't pretend to know every band, all the bands.
And there's a lot that we miss.
Even me, a consumption junkie, I get really upset when I miss something that I probably shouldn't have missed.
And one of those being my hippocampus.
I've been listening to a week and a half now ever since our last show.
I've made no bones about it. I'm not an EDM guy. I don't follow this world.
I don't even travel down the same road.
So you're going to have to tell me somebody who's much more experienced at this than I.
You're going to have to tell me if this lineup is good.
You're going to have to tell me who I need to see on the other because I don't remember a time that I found myself there last year.
And I don't remember being there the year before.
I know I went both years.
Not for long, to be honest.
I like it, but to me it's like some other music.
I like it for a couple of songs.
It's not something I'm going to spend hours listening to.
I like the visual aspect of it.
I mean, just watch people watch. It's great people watching.
Visually, it's a bunch of flashing lights.
And in many cases, if it's a DJ, it's a guy standing at a table basically.
So it's not a lot there.
But the crowd gets pretty crazy and that's a lot of fun.
See, that's exactly what I was about to say.
Because the crowd is so into it and there's so many of them, there's got to be something there.
There's something there.
Sure, sure. I don't expect to like everything.
I don't think anybody likes everything.
And here's the reason I ask is because I didn't know when I was at ACO Fest this past year, I didn't know who Justice was.
I'd never heard of them.
But these guys apparently are massive and they're not going to be touring anymore as one of the final shows that they were ever going to do.
And I didn't know what to expect and I walked into an EDM show and I loved it.
I loved it.
It's fun. It's just kind of let yourself go and well that's it.
Just let yourself go.
And there's definitely some that are better than others.
Like for instance, I mentioned Grizz last week and stumbling upon how artful some of his stuff was.
And it wasn't just a lot of...
I like girl talk for that reason too.
It's fun to listen to and pull out the things that are familiar to you.
Right, because there's just this massive amount of creativity that's needed on the producers part, on the DJ's part to make all of this work.
I do love that.
He hides a lot of, as you like to call them, Easter eggs.
I find myself listening and smiling because I see what he did there.
I see where he pulled that from.
And some of his actually has a theme throughout, dare I say.
That's pretty interesting.
I guess I don't stick around enough to actually know that.
Yeah, it's not a heavy thing often.
And I'm not an expert, but I just know some of the tracks that I've heard and I like.
Okay, I get sort of where he's going with this.
Our friend Mike Dewar, who's one of our camp mates, says we sat and watched the EDM tent the first year.
His one question was, is there a beginning, a middle, and an end?
To any of these songs?
That's a great question.
That's a great question.
Because no, and then when you think about it that way, it's like, wow, what is the point there?
And then there's the other announcement that came down.
I don't know if you're lucky enough to have one of your cities selected, but the Bonnaroo folks decided to reach out to some of their best markets
and their highest selling markets and do some sort of ready to rue events.
I don't know if you've been to any of the ready to rue events, but me being in radio, we've organized some of these in years past.
They didn't necessarily do them last year.
We sort of did our own as a radio station in Chattanooga.
We sort of did our own two years ago.
Well, they're back now and they've got a little bit more of a focus.
In years past, it was just sort of, hey, Brad, go do a Bonnaroo event, figure it out, and we'll promote it for you.
I was like, all right, I'll do that.
But this year, it's a lot more focused.
They're going to have the Rue van.
Now, I'm not going to call it the Rue bus.
Let's don't.
Because it is not the Rue bus.
I don't know what they're bringing, but somebody's driving a Bonnaroo vehicle
through a bunch of towns, one of which is Chattanooga on April 1st that my station is involved in and putting on.
But there are so many others.
14.
14 different cities.
Yeah, you want me to go through them real quick?
Sure, let's do it.
Yeah.
Hopefully, I hope to God, your city has been selected.
Yeah.
Atlanta, Chicago, Nashville, Tampa, Charlotte, Orlando, Birmingham, Indianapolis, Chattanooga, Columbus, Washington, D.C., Jacksonville, Knoxville, and Louisville.
I would just like to say, as an aside, those are some major cities.
And then you throw in Chattanooga.
Chattanooga, Knoxville.
I'm pretty happy about that.
I love it.
Yeah, I mean, as a station, we were on with Bonnaroo since the beginning, the very first day.
They keep coming back and know that Chattanooga is good.
Is there a Nashville date in there at all?
Or is it just Knoxville and Chattanooga?
I don't think.
I know.
I don't see it.
Yeah, there it is.
Third one down.
Okay.
It all starts when?
When does it?
They do, like you said, it's a little more than just show up and come get a sticker or
something.
Right.
They have, I think.
Well, they're going to do trivia.
They're going to do some games.
We're doing it at a local arcade place, but that coin op.
But around the country, from what I understand, they're going to do trivia.
They're going to give away tickets.
They're going to give you discounts on tickets when you buy them on site.
It's sort of like a walking, talking podcast.
It's sort of your opportunity to get around some Bonnarooians and just chit chat about
the lineup and talk amongst yourselves.
What I'd love to do is, even if you want to come to the Chattanooga event, we'll be there.
But if you go to any of the other Ready to Roo events, hit us up.
Let me know how it goes.
I'd love to talk to you about how your event works out and the other Bonnarooians that
you talk to.
And if you don't mind, maybe tell them about us and we can share the love and we can just
make the world a little bit bigger.
That's a great idea.
I'd love to know how these go.
The first one, Atlanta, March 18th.
Wow, March 18th.
It looks like they're soon.
They must have more than one van because it looks like there are five of them.
Atlanta, Chicago, Nashville, Tampa, and Charlotte are all the same date.
Really?
I didn't even notice that.
I do know that they're going to be doing days of service in and around those dates where
they try to get to communities and give back in certain ways.
They're still working out some of those details, but they're definitely doing some sort of
community based stuff outside of just showing up, drinking some beer and giving away some
tickets.
Yeah.
In fact, the same weekend that they're here, I assume it's a weekend there in Columbus,
Ohio.
Yeah.
All right.
There you go.
Thank you so much for joining us this week on the What Podcast.
Next week, we bring back an old favorite, Bonnaroo First Timers.
Bonnaroo First Timers next week starring some kids that I've actually grown to become really
good friends with.
We have these guys AJR and maybe even another surprise special guest.
Hit us up thewhatpodcast.com or the what underscore podcast on Twitter.
We'll talk to you next week.
