Phish...and special guest

Yesterday was an absolutely astounding end to my first Bonnaroo!

As I told you, we waited all day so we could see Phish from the front. It was definitely a long day, but very worth it.

There were two performances before Phish. Erykah Badu was completely unremarkable. It's hard to have a "comeback" performance when there's nothing to come back to. She spent her hour and a half on stage singing about how she is god; and how she has a large rear end.

Snoop Dogg on the other hand tore up the stage. He busted out all of his classics and rapped over some other artists tracks. He also had one of the cooler stage setups included a drum set made out of a chopper motorcycle that the drummer sat on the seat of.

When 8:30 finally rolled around, I was tired...but that was all gone when Phisb went on. The first set was epic...and ended with Trey bringing on a special guest. We had talked about hoping Phish would bring on Snoop Dogg, since the band had previously covered Gin and Juice...but this special guest we had not even considered. Trey told a story about the first concert he attended at the age of 12. When he started getting choked up at the end of the story, we knew he was going to bring on someone big...and he did. Bruce Springsteen. They played three of The Boss' songs including Glory Days. It was breathtaking seeing my favorite guitarist trade riffs with Bruce. That was only the first set.

The second set did not disappoint. They threw in some of my favorites, like Suzie Greenberg and Farmhouse. They capped off 4 days of unbelievable music with a ridiculously high energy Tweezer Reprise. It was surreal walking out last night. I'm still processing everything I saw, heard and experienced. I will post at least once more with my reflections when I am a little better rested and have an actual keyboard to type on. Happy Monday!

The Boss

I would not call myself a Bruce Springsteen fan...or I should say, I would not have called myself a Springsteen, until last night. After coming on a half hour late, Bruce absolutely rocked our faces off. He played through the hits, added some new ones, and even threw in some awesome covers. I was impressed and I'm excited to listen to his stuff a little more.

Right now, were sitting in the front row of the main stage, waiting for Phish. Yes, they play at 8:30 tonight, so we have a while to wait. But at least we get to see Snoop Dogg somewhere in the middle of the wait. Here's a preview of our seats:

Catching up on 24+ Hours of Awesomeness

First off, sorry for the lack of posts! Between lack of cell phone signal/data coverage and lack of an outlet to plug my phone into, posting was a little tough. But we're still here stronger than ever! Here's a recap of what we've been up to...

Bela Fleck - yesterday I got to see one of my favorite artists, Bela Fleck, play with a man named Toumani Diabate. Bela Fleck, probably the world's most renowned banjo player, had been one of my favorite artists since I heard one of his albums, Live Art, which he recorded with his band, the Flecktones (which includes another of my favorite artists, Victor Wooten.). I was a bit bummed when I found out Bela was not playing with his band at Roo. Things changed when I first heard Mr Diabate play!
Toumani is the best kora player in the world. Never heard of the kora? Me neither, until yesterday. The kora is a 21 stringed instrument made of calabash and cowhide. The bass line is played with one thumb, the melody with the other thumb, and the fingers are used to improvise. So it is essentially a one man band. The show was unreal and was capped off by an awesome rendition of Dueling Banjos.

Beastie Boys - our first show on the huge stage was the Beastie Boys. While I listened to them a lot in high school, I hadn't thought much about them recently. I was unsure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by a high energy show which included some favorites like Intergalactic and Sabotage. The best part though was when Nas came out and did a song with them! Amazing! No idea what Nas was doing at Bonnaroo, but it was sweet.

Phish - as you may already know, the deciding factor for me in my decision to attend Bonnaroo was the prospect of seeing Phish twice. The first show was last night and lived up to all expectations. They played some of my favorites, like You Enjoy Myself and Golgi Apparatus. They finished with an encore that consisted of a medley of Beetles songs.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - if you like guitar music, you know R&G. They put on an unbelievable show this afternoon. I, along with the crowd were consistently blown away by the sheer amount of talent emanating from the stage. If you haven't checked them out, go do it!

So here I find myself sitting on the lawn, listening to Jeff Tweedy and Wilco for the first time and waiting for The Boss and the E Street Band to tear it up.

What an amazing experience this has been thus far. There's still another Phish show too! More updates to come hopefully!!!