Middle Tennessee Music is Rockin all over the mid-state, especially at Bonnaroo in Manchester!

This year’s line up is staggering, and we have at least 5 representatives on the grounds to soak up every moment! [-update: I’ve heard from 3 of them, counting me. Perhaps J-Gro is still on the Farm…]

It’s currently 2:40 in the a.m. 6-12-2014 and the little white MTM ranger is  loaded to the max. We’ll pile myself, Beth and Freedom into it, make one last stop at the Wally World for some line and H2O, and get in the cue.

Gates opened around 6 last night. Traffic hasn’t been too bad, but with the rain we’ve had every 12 hrs for the past 2 weeks, it’s a mess according to my “sources” … Welcome to the first really muddy Bonnaroo in several years. Let’s have some Fun!

After driving around in the mud for a bit. We finally made camp around nine. It’s the weirdest camp I’ve ever had at Bonnaro…right up beside the stages. Oh boy this should be fun ! [turns out I made many more trips to camp and back than usual, and spent less time there overall. Thus I missed a lot of neighborly interaction, until Sunday night, when Louie and I got to jam with John from Michigan, and the kid flat wailed on the guitar!]

The Preatures (Sydney, New South Wales) from my fave spot under the oak at That tent. Talking with my new friend Bob from Michigan. Lots of folks came down from Michigan this year.

On Thursday, I caught The Preatures and The Wild Feathers. Both just nailed their sets, and Freedom (that’s muh boy) said the Wild Feathers were one of his faves.

 [I had a bunch of others on my list, but my plan sort of disintegrated. Having been awake for nearly 48 hrs prepping and working, I fell into a short nap after supper.  I woke for a while and checked out Clowd Nothings for a bit, but couldn’t stay awake, so back to camp for one of those short naps that lasted ’til dawn, just as the music was ending. So, I started Friday early with a traditional Bonna-Breakfast and headed on over to Centeroo for a nice morning walk.]

Freedom went to see Cherub and stayed for the whole show, of all the acts he caught, he has talked about them the most. Mid-Tenn part-timer Steve Alter said that Banks was Great. Our camp neighbors loved Omar Souleyman. Beth C really got into Break science.

Green Sky Bluegrass Just killed their set at What Stage! Guitarist, Dave. G is celebrating a wedding! They did a couple tunes from a new record due out in September some old-timey stuff and an hour of tasty originals.

Big Sam’s Funky Nation! Stompin on What Stage with a vengeance! These guys are worth the ticket price. [This was the fourth Big Sam show I’ve seen at the Roo and they always kick arse. Freedom and Beth agreed (it’s nice when your kids approve of your music)]

Umphrey’s McGee put on a hell of a show with lots of great energy! Janelle Monae is up next at what stage I’m still here with the high school band. The weather has held out – nice and cloudy and cool. Another hour on my shift, then it’s back to camp for dinner and a rockin night of Bonnaroo. Oh, here’s a tip – Kanye West decided to outlaw glow sticks at Bonnaroo because he’s so afraid of getting wailed on… again.

A little Umphrey’s conversation:

William: Who are these guys?

Me: You’ve heard them on the radio… I don’t know their songs real well, just the sound.

Beth: I don’t think I know any of their songs. (they listen to classic rock and dance when on radio, I listen to the music MidTenn receives for review)

Me: you may like them. Think Widespread…

Beth and William: Who?

William: They’re really good musicians, but repetitive.

Beth: If these songs were about half as long, it would be better, they all start to sound the same with the long solo jams. But yeah, they are really good. I’m hungry when do we get off work?

[After Friday dinner, I needed another little nap – only an hour or so this time. The kids took off to see Vampire Weekend and loved it. I caught up with Freedom for Kanye’s show. Neither of us are fans, but went with an open mind (o.k. we tried to keep open minds) just to see what would happen.

We were both completely non-plussed by the spectacle. Kanye was not very late, 9 minutes by my clock – just enough for me to raz him on Facebook, not enough to complain. His opening was pretty much a non-opener. It was set on a dark red back-screen with almost no lighting, the self-proclaimed Greatest Rock Artist Ever was invisible to everyone except those right up front, hidden in the shadows, and he totally eschewed the side screens. Add to that that the sound absolutely sucked (there’s no nice way to say it) and right from the get-go, he set himself up for a bad reception from a crowd who weren’t really sure they wanted to see him in the first place.

We left early, really early, and went over to That tent, where Beth and I had the most wonderful time listening to the techs run sound-check for the Derek Trucks Super Jam, which was Awesome!

William went over to see Mastodon and said they slammed it. I bounced around between Derek Trucks and Ice Cube. Both were great.

I have to stop here and compare Ice Cube and Kanye. Ice Cube, who comes from a genre practically built on making outlandish claims of greatness was humble, truthful and real throughout his performance. He engaged his audience, cut jokes (and a couple sideways slams “we play nice, over here…”) gave big love to guests and friends and the crowd and behaved as a true professional – all the things Kanye forgot. I have to say Cube gave the very best (and maybe only) rap performance I have ever enjoyed at Bonnaroo.

Other Friday favourites from our crew included Skrillex and Meshuggah. Beth did the whole thing at Skrillex, Freedom just had to catch Meshuggah and loved it. Our neighbors went on and on about Die Antwoord, whom I heard from our camp (just 300 yds away) and must say they RoKKed.]

Beautiful morning at Bonnaroo! Seasick Steve, Tedeschi Trucks Band,Damon Albarn, Lionel Ritchie will lead the day at What Stage with Jack White closing. I’ll miss Drive By Truckers and a couple others on my fave list,but it’s for a good cause 😉

John Paul Jones with Seasick Steve jamming on a 1973 Ford air cleaner!Seasick Steve took the What stage to start the day and we’re looking forward to roKKin it all day and all night.

Tedeschi trucks band I mean do I need to say anymore?

[..and… this is where my updates seem to have stopped getting through. I’ll add the balance with notes below…]

Okay, where are we? When we left off yesterday, I was headed to the tent for coffee. We came back and watched Lionel Richie oh my freaking gawd!

Sun, 3:51 PM

All the crowd appreciated Lionel and his wonderful, heartfelt with performance so much more than Kanye and his whatever that was.

[Lionel Richie goes down in my list of best concerts ever. He’s not the only one from this Bonnaroo to make that list, but definitely right up near the top. He was personable, loveable, a leader of dance and song, funny and just an all-out showman. I personally loved the intimate introductions to the songs and, well, “who are you gonna call on?”]

After Lionel, I grabbed dinner and rushed back to meet Lou and Caroline at our great spot for Jack White. Now, I’m not really the biggest fan of Jack White but Damn! What a show!

we went over to The Flaming Lips show at which stage. I had been extremely disappointed at the last Lips show at Roo. There are a lot of reasons for that, but I left it upset with the band themselves. Honestly, I had a completely open mind when I sat down, early and waited for them, while chilling with some cool peeps from AZ. The Flaming Lips hit it tight with real professionalism, a great stage set and show, and the best musical performance I’ve ever heard from them. Faith Restored!

I bounced back and forth between us Which Stage and This Tent which had Skrillex posting a super jam with Mickey Hart and all sorts other folks – that one went on till 5:30 this morning, and was fantastic! In me travels, I caught bits of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – awe-diddly-awesome!

William Campbell [the one I’ve been calling “Freedom”] went to see Cut Copy he says it was awesome. Hey loved their electronica-glitch music of it as well as Glitch Mob that he saw the day before, and he was thrilled with the Skrillex super jam, too.

William reports that it was not as exciting as Glitch Mob but the light show was one of the most fantastic things he’s seen the entire time.

We woke to a beautiful morning today [Sunday] and after getting some great pictures last night when the humidity lifted I got some great morning shots and had a blast walking to my post here at what stage

Carolina Chocolate Drops opened things up at the what stage today, and Yonder Mountain string band were sick! They brought Danny Barnes from the bad livers with them!

Arctic Monkeys are up next followed by the Avett Brothers and Elton John will be our headliner tonight from 9:30 til 11:30 I expect he’ll probably play ’til 12:30 or 1 [update: I was unfamiliar with Arctic Monkeys and really really liked them. Very musical, good songs, could have been a little more dynamic (probably the sound guys)]

Really gotta hand it to Yonder Mountain String Band and all the credits they gave Lionel Richie. Lionel also went on about what a great night he was having and that he would be back I can’t wait till next Bonnaroo already!

Reports are coming back to me that Broken Bells are going to be a great show Capital Cities evidently rock your world. loving Vance joy or pain City Utah city and color is another one there looking forward to it 6 hes at first I think is that I’m ready for his back and performers the folks are really looking forward to that   [just ignore all of that, I have no idea what it was supposed to say, and voice-to-text didn’t either]

I’m told that Capital Cities killed, Broken Bells ( I caught the last half) were Great, Wiz Kalifa (I stopped in for a few, it was really fun, I dig his humor) was on top of his game. Vance Joy, Amos Lee, Black lillies and Shovels and Rope (loved them!) were also big on the reported favorite shows.

I’ll send pictures over in a bit

Sun, 4:07 PM