My Bonnaroo recap. 5th Bonnaroo overall for me, 3rd music festival (1st Bonnaroo) with good ol
@Northern Voice and his friend.
Long drive Wednesday. Kept getting hit with traffic, definitely the longest drive down I've ever had. Whatever. We still get into Murfreesboro at like 10:15 PM and crash. Thursday drive to the fest. I've never seen the highway tollbooth open in my 5 years.....is it closed? Is it open? It's very poorly signed. I blow right by it....we have to be getting off at the normal exit, right? "Exit closed, local traffic only".....well, we might get pulled over but #### it. Cruise around some cops and no one says a thing. Literally 5 minutes later we're in line....I've never seen such a short wait. Unbelievable. I guess that's what you get when you follow someone who knows where they're going
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We're in at like 11 AM. First step, as always, is to crack a beer while you set up camp. We get situated, got a good setup going. Camp NAFTA, we called it, though we had no Mexicans. I had my Turkish flag going too and my traditional Christmas lights strung up. Good times. Give our crew (me [5x], my friend [3x], and 3 newbies) the grand tour of Centeroo. Lots of day-drinking. I've got a really strong buzz going at like 3 PM and decide to chill for a bit. My first show was Lissie....cool vibes, I'd never seen her before. A little folksy for my liking but enough to keep me interested. Not bad.
A bunch of random-### shows after that point, a few beers and some food later, it's time for Jade Bird, whom I've never heard of but comes strongly recommended by NV. She has the cutest ####### giggle I've ever heard. Damn. I'm trying to stay awake so I ditch the group and head to the stage and end up 3rd row side-stage. Show ends, 3/5 of the group bails, but I'm looking to stay up a little longer. I know nothing of any of the night acts.
NV looks up our new favorite artist Leven Kali on his phone....genre: Hip-Hop, R&B. #### it, I'm in. Never heard of this guy but why not. I can always go for some hip-hop/R&B. He shows up late, we're not lit enough for him, of course. But he's alright. A bit of a Bruno Mars, Michael Jackson vibe, but he ends with some trap song. The small crowd seems to know the music, gets me into it. Not a bad closer. Walking back, we wade through the Pigeons Playing Ping Pong crowd...."Under the Sea" cover, which is neat, but it sounds like a ####### Rusted Root show which is not what I need at like 1:30 AM. Bedtime.
Friday starts with more day-drinking (what else), then the Reddit Beer Exchange. I check out Everything Everything with the group, they're fine but doesn't grab me. Ditched the group to get close for Japanese Breakfast, and she was great. Played all the hits including a cover of The Cranberries' "Dreams" and the crowd goes nuts. Cool show. Rest of the group wants Sheryl Crow next, but I'm all about Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue. This was maybe the best show of the entire festival. Super hype, danceable jazz music, covered Green Day, Rage Against the Machine, and a bunch of other stuff. Small crowd but super energetic, highly recommend this. A+++
Paramore was alright but didn't grab me. My buddy and I remarked about how bland their songs kinda are. Meh. Leaving the show, packed in a giant crowd, I accidentally step on the ankle of a girl in front of me. I apologize profusely, in the Bonnaroo spirit, and in the Bonnaroo spirit she and her girlfriend offer that I help them partake in....something that many partake in during Bonnaroo. Saying no would be bad form, right? So the next few hours are a blur, I miss T-Pain entirely and almost pass out at camp from the beer + heat + multiplier effect. Get back in there for Muse, they sound fine but are kinda boring. It may be because I'm high. I spend a lot of this show just laying on the ground, looking up at the stars listening to the hits.
I'm forcing myself to stay up for the Petty Superjam, end up listening to some EDM act, Snakehips. I looked them up on my phone and their genre was "electronic / R&B". This was no Leven Kali, it's a DJ pressing play on a laptop. Finally meet up with NV and his friend and see the Petty Superjam. A+
Saturday is low-key. More day-drinking, then me, NV, and his buddy check out Pond while eating some food. They're pretty good, lead singer is really into it. I missed Mavis Staples because it was so ####### hot and I was trying to stay up for the late night, though I caught a few minutes of Kali Uchis. Because of course I would? Anyway I'm going for CHIC, my #1 show of the festival. I run into two friends who we had met at Wayhome and we sneak into the pit to meet up with NV and pal. I proceed to dance my ### off for like an hour. Some girl is wearing a sheer bodysuit. It's nice. This or Trombone Shorty is the best show of the festival, but I love a good funky dance party so I'm biased.
"Wagon Wheel"! That's about all I need from Old Crow. It's time for Anderson.Paak (my 2nd most anticipated show). He's on his game but he's definitely raw. Spent a lot of the time drumming which was kinda neat. Crowd was into it, but this is about the only time of the entire fest that I felt like the "old guy". Whatever. He was good, not great. Bon Iver first set was good, he played "Perth", which I was dying to hear, but he still just kinda bores me. Eminem, however, was really freakin good. Big surprise. I've seen a lot of hip-hop shows, and a lot of them suck. Eminem did not suck. Non-stop, high energy, all the hits. Like NV, I didn't even flinch at the gunshots and didn't think anything of em. I didn't realize it was a big deal until I got home and started checking the news. Bon Iver second set bored me. Rihanna never showed up. Headed back to camp.
Sunday was the downpour of a lifetime. I've seen storms at Bonnaroo....Petty in 2013, the infamous thunderstorm of 2016 that delayed Pearl Jam 2 hours. Nothing like this. My tent was flooded. We could've survived Sunday but the late-day and overnight was showing a ton of rain in the forecast. We bailed. I was disappointed but it was the right move. When we got home at 2:30 AM ET, Bonnaroo was in the midst of announcing a thunderstorm warning. I'm not sure how well the overnight went that night.
Who's in for next year?
. We stopped by Pigeons Playing Ping Pong and they were covering 'Under the Sea'.
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I can't believe she wasn't there. 
to the predicate of this sentence, thumbs down to the subject. 
