I know this is a gaming blog, but I found out that quite a few people (by that I mean like 6 or 7 that I know of) from MLG attended Bonnaroo. Bonnaroo is a fun, free-spirit, all around beautiful time. If anyone is thinking about going, I would definitely recommend it... just be prepared for little-to-no sleep. So here it goes:
*NOTE* Christine is my girlfriend, Charlie is one of my best friends that went with us.
This was the first time I've ever been to Bonnaroo and I tried to read up and prepare as much as I possibly could, but there is no preparing for Bonnaroo. The heat and the lack of sleep is something no one (from the north) can anticipate.
We, Christine, Charlie, and myself, started our journey to Bonnaroo at like 12:30 on Wednesday and drove as quick as possible to Manchester, TN. About 11 miles outside of Manchester we started seeing Bonnaroo signs and getting super psyched... then we hit exit 110 (supposed to be our entrance into Bonnaroo) and it was closed... then we went to exit 111, it, too, was closed. We tried exit 117 and yes, that was closed except to local traffic, so we took the exit and got gas then headed back on I-65. We had to keep going all the way to exit 127... and the Bonnaroo entrance line was still even further back then that... 17 mile line. So a cop led us to some back roads and we ended up only waiting an hour, but little did we know that this backroad would lead us to a part of the Bonnaroo camp sites known as "Bum Fuck Egypt"... meaning it was way the fuck away from Centeroo. 45 minute walk to be exact. We entered our correct exit at 11pm local time and got into our campsite at 12:30am local time... not a bad wait I guess. We set up camp, walked around the place to get a feel of our surroundings then went to bed.
Now before we came to Bonnaroo I read up on ways to sleep in because the heat in the morning was so unbearable in tents. So we set up an EZ-UP, put a tarp up, and multiple fans.. but even that stood no chance to this sourthern-sun. We went to bed at like 2am and woke up promptly at 7:30am to pools of sweat. The first morning waking up like that wasn't soo bad, I still had full energy and adrenaline because I was at Bonnaroo. So we got up, ate, talked with our neighbors and got to know them, then walked around again. Then we finally realized how far the walk was from our campsite to centeroo. We entered Centeroo and just sat right down and checked out the first band of the weekend, Uncle Skeleton, who was surprisingly awesome and easy to dance to. Fast forward a while, we are at Childish Gambino, who was probably the most disappointing set of the weekend. He was AWESOME for the first twenty minutes, but after that oh my God... his lyrics are the most repetitive verses in the world. I swear I heard the same song for an hour with a different beat each time. I wish I didn't go to that show because he made me so uninterested that I decided just to go back to the tent and missed out on Dam Funk, which I could hear from my tent and it sounded funky as hell. Definitely on my check-list of bands I need to see now.
The rest of the weekend just really didn't go as planned, except Friday. Friday I saw almost everyone I wanted to see (other than My Morning Jacket... biggest mistake of the weekend). I decided that sitting and saving a spot for Primus was a better idea, which was fine, because Primus kicked SOOOO much ass. During the set there was an Asian hot air balloon that people were tossing up and this one ran out of hot air and almost landed on me (who had just put on like a half can of highly-flammable bug spray). Luckily for me, the dudes in front of me caught it, because I wasn't paying attention to it, so if you guys some how read this, thank you so much :P. Then they re-lit it up and sent it on it's way... but of course, that wasn't the end of this highly-dramatic event lol. The hot-air balloon, remember it was an active flame, started heading straight for a tree... like RIGHT into the tree. Suddenly, half the crowd stopped paying attention to Primus and was fixed on this hot-air balloon and that tree. Everyone started screaming "NO NO NO" and laughing. The hot-air balloon did get stuck in the tree for a half second, and again people screamed, but somehow it worked its way out and the whole crowd started cheering and laughing in unison. From there we saw Arcade Fire, some of Bassnectar, The Black Angels, and Big Boi, who were all awesome. Then closed the night with Pretty Lights and SHPONGLE!!!! Shpongle = best show of the weekend, hands down. In all we got 1 hour of sleep that night.
Saturday was a day of disappointment because right before Buffalo Springfield it started raining/heavy winds and we realized that we had left our tents' air vents open and almost all of our shit was in the tent so we hurried back (again, 45 minute walk) and got to our tent to find only a corner of the stuff had gotten wet. We were kinda pissed and exhausted so we decided to take it in early. But of course I couldn't sleep because I heard Buffalo Springfield and Eminem, so I stayed up and listened to their sets. We could hear the music perfect, even from our campsite. I got about 4 hours of sleep that night.
Sunday was the day where fatigue finally set in. The heat got to us, the dirt got to us, and the lack of sleep got to us. So we decided we'd skip out after Cold War Kids and go get a jump start on the journey back home and stay in a hotel. But before that we chilled and saw some awesome music. Best set of that day was definitely Galactic... awesome jam band with amazing brass section. After Cold War Kids we split and headed to the road and stayed in White House, TN at the Holiday Inn Express, which was awesome. Air condition, shower, real food, beds, and TV.... relaxing felt like it was a luxury.
The people there were so fun, so chill, everything is so casual, saw multiple topless girls, saw people share everything and they were polite to everyone. It was like heaven (except the heat). Also on a side note, I wore my MSU football jersey and basketball jersey and got about 50 "GO GREEN" chants. I have to say that Michigan State was the most represented school there, by far. And Christine and Charlie will back me up on that claim. Soo many Michigan State, South Carolina, Notre Dame (another awesome thing!) and Ohio State people.
All in all the trip was fun as hell and I'm definitely going to go back as many years as possible! I already miss our neighbors from Michigan :(
Bands I Saw:
Thursday:
Uncle Skeleton - Surprisingly awesome and funky to dance to.
Future Birds - Not my type of band, good at what they do, but don't dig country.
Freelance Whales - Awesome! So good I saw them twice :), like a chill-er version of MGMT
The Knux - Craziest hype man ever
School of Seven Bells (last couple songs) - Not as good as I anticipated.
Band of Skulls - LOVED their show!! Top 5.. so fun, such good sound.
Twin Shadow - Another surprise, didn't check them out before and just kinda ended up there. Good show.
Childish Gambino - Cool for twenty minutes, after that, fucking annoying.
Friday:
420 Comedy Blaze with Cheech Marin, Workaholics cast, Jay Pharoah, and Ralphie May - The best.
Matt & Kim - They always have awesome live shows! Such good energy!
The Pimps of Joytime - Another band we just kinda ended up chilling to, very fun.
Freelance Whales (acoustic set) - Even acoustically, which I'm not usually a fan of, they were awesome!
The Decemberists - I wasn't a huge fan until I saw them at Roo. Completely awesome, singer had awkward stage presence though.
Florence + The Machine - Her first part of the show was a snooze fest and the crowd was MASSIVE.
Primus - I've wanted to see them for 10 years, and they were worth the wait. Les Claypool is a god. Top 2.
Arcade Fire - Second time seeing them, and they were just as good as Lollapalooza! Love them, top 3.
Bassnectar - Only saw him for a few songs but omg, that crowd was sooo energized and he killed it!
The Black Angels - Another show we just kinda stumbled upon and I actually really dug it.
Big Boi - For the first few songs we saw, I looooved it!
Pretty Lights - Stuck around for like 45 minutes and of course it was amazing.. when is PL not amazing?
SHPONGLE - Best show of the weekend. Best crowd, best visuals, best beats, best mixing, just the best.
Saturday:
Chiddy Bang - Of course Chiddy was the shit. His freestyle wasn't as good as Lolla's but the show itself was better.
Portugal. The Man - Loved their show. Reminded me of a Jimmy Eat World show, loved it.
Mumford & Sons - Top 4, LOVED it. It woulda been better if the people around us weren't fucking annoying.
Civil Twilight - Another show we just made our way to randomly and it was awesome. Love Sonic Village :).
...disappointing day thanks to rain and extreme heat.....
Sunday:
Shahidah Omar - Some funky stuff to dance to, loved it.
Neon Trees - The band threw me off at first with how metrosexual they looked, but they sounded amazing.
Galactic - Next to Primus, they were the best musicians. Such awesome energy and sound!
Cold War Kids - The show was just a perfect way to close out my weekend! The crowd was sooo into it, too!
I heard Eminem/Buffalo Springfield/Neil Young from my tent.. but I can't really count that. - From what I heard at my tent, Eminem blew dong but Buffalo Springfield and Neil Young sounded AMAZING. If I would have visually seen them they would have been #1.
Worst show of the weekend: Childish Gambino.
*If you're interested in looking at any more pictures, look at my facebook.
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