Bonnaroo 2008, The Write-Up, One Writer's Take

    When I first heard that the mighty Metallica had been booked as a headliner for Bonnaroo 2008 I was immediately interested.

    I am a musician, a writer, a media professional, and a HUGE Metallica fan. Metallica has something to do with each of those titles.  Metallica is one of the bands who first inspired me to play music and to expand my horizons. It was 'A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica' (the documentary of the making of the Black Album) that inspired my career choice. When I saw how a record was made and witnessed the process behind studio recording, I knew that's what I wanted to do for a living some day. I went on to study Radio, TV, and Film as a result and have been working as a sound/media engineer for the majority of my professional career.

         I’ve been on many road trips over the years and I’ve been to even more live shows/festivals. I have traveled great distances in the past to catch Metallica at venues like the Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit, The Retama Polo Fields in San Antonio, American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas Staduim, Starplex Ampatheatre, and  a random corn field in Ferris, Texas for Lollapalooza '96. The trip to Bonnaroo was my 15th trek to see Metallica in concert and this journey would prove to be the most memorable to date.

    I bought my tickets the very first day they were available and began planning my vacation around the epic voyage to Manchester, Tennessee. I had originally planned to take a co-worker who eventually pulled out and left me with an extra ticket and nobody to take the trip with. I was fully planning on going alone when I stumbled upon the Bonnaroo ride finder message board. Luckily I found four other people who needed to carpool to Bonnaroo.  One of them even needed a ticket. We worked out the logistics in the weeks leading up to the festival and set out on our journey the Wednesday before Bonnaroo was to begin. Three of the car-poolers-Drew, Bill, and Brenden drove from Austin to my house in Fort Worth where the trip began. Our fourth rider-Rachel, lived on the way and was picked up in Dallas.


        Fortunately, everyone who came on the trip was totally cool and very friendly. We drove my GMC Envoy and had it packed to the roof with camping gear and food. Normally the trip to Manchester takes about 12 hours from Dallas. Our trip was slightly shorter,  as we engaged the warp-drive and drove about 90mph the entire way. Our first waypoint before hitting Bonnaroo was Nashville. We stayed in a slightly ghetto motel along with about a hundred other ‘Roo attendees. The suddenly increased traffic on a Wednesday night was almost too much to handle for the hotel staff. It seems that our fellow Bonnaroo comrades had emptied all of the ice machines in the hotel filling up their coolers, what a tragedy. We could hardly sleep that night because we were all so excited about the festival.

    Thursday morning, after the free southern style breakfast at the ghetto-fab hotel, we set out to Manchester to witness what would be the longest line of cars I have ever seen going to the same place. Bonnaroo is held on a 700 acre farm in rural Tennessee. To say Manchester is a small town is an understatement. For a week each year Manchester’s population swells by up to 80k people. When we first approached Bonnaroo we witnessed a line of cars which stretched over ten miles. We had all read the horror stories of 8 hour waits in line just to get in at previous Bonnaroos. Fortune smiled upon our group as we were directed past the line and through the middle of Manchester to an alternate entrance. Our total wait time was about 2.5 hours. Along the road into Bonnaroo were lush pastures and beautiful wooded areas. The traffic moved so slowly at times, that we were able to get out and walk along the road, chat with other people in line, and play Frisbee. This is how I like to spend my vacation, nice and easy.

    Once we made it though initial line, we had to get in line once again to have our vehicle searched. Once searched, we proceeded to our campsite in Pod # 9, one of the most distant areas from Centeroo-the main festival area. We set up camp, unloaded our gear and started planning our festival experience. There is literally something to do 24-7 at Bonnaroo. There are vendors, food, showers, music, booze, and ANYTHING else you can imagine. We sampled all of it. Before any music was taken in we had to shake off 12 hours in the car. First up was a trip to the silent disco for some dance moves Napoleon Dynamite would be proud of. The silent disco consists of a DJ, a dance floor and a hundred pairs of Koss wireless headphones. From the outside it is a strange sight indeed. Everyone in the silent disco had a great time and got their dance on most fervently.

    Next up was a rousing game of Frisbee. Xbox was handing out glow-in-the-dark Frisbees and we grabbed two. It was a great feeling to run and jump in the fresh, Tennessee, air after being cramped in the truck for so long. The first show I attended at Bonnaroo was Stephen Marley. This was the first Reggae show I’ve ever attended and I was really impressed. The vibe at Bonnaroo is really relaxed and everyone in attendance was there to enjoy themselves to the max. We met people from all over the world while at Bonnaroo. I personally met Canadians, Germans, New Zealanders, Brits, and even some Texans.

    The highlight of Bonnaroo came early for me. Metallica was the first headliner of the festival and played the main stage Friday night. Opening for Metallica was comedy-superstar Chris Rock. I’ve never seen Chris Rock in person and was really impressed with his stand-up routine. Seeing Rock on TV doesn’t really do the guy justice. His set was funny, edgy, and WAY raunchy-loved it!

    There were some people leading up to Bonnaroo who questioned why Metallica was even there. One of the most unfortunate aspects of festivals such as Bonnaroo is musical snobbery. What most people don’t realize is that Metallica embodies the same spirit of live music and the same spirit of going against the grain and achieving massive success in spite of critics. It took about 30 seconds for the snobs to be silenced. Nothing against the ‘jam bands’ of the world, but I would not have attended Bonnaroo and dropped hundreds of dollars if not for the presence of Metallica. They are one of the great bands of all time and deserve just as much respect as any of the obscure bands that music snobs were fawning over.

    Few skeptics remained after the sonic blast that Metallica delivered to the rain-sprinkled Bonnaroo crowd. Although I’ve seen Metallica many times before, I still get chills when I hear ‘The Ecstasy of Gold,’ their epic intro music from the film ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.  Metallica kicked off the show with the classic tune Creeping Death. Talk about a warm-up! My arms cramp up after a minute of playing Creeping Death on guitar. I guess that’s why they are Metallica and I’m a writer. The show rocked hard for two hours with stunners like ..And Justice For All, Last Caress, The Memory Remains, No Remorse,  One and many others.

    It’s been 4 years since I last saw Metallica live. They looked and sounded better than I have ever seen them. Something has certainly changed for the better in camp Metallica. They looked rested, excited, happy, and hungry. The sound quality of Metallica’s stage show is a universe away from where it was 15 years ago. Every riff, drum, and vocal was crisp, clear, and powerful. Lars Ulrich was in top form and finally got his snare drum back. Say what you will about Lars, but he is a legend and a very powerful drummer.  Kirk Hammett was also going off and proving himself as one of the best lead guitar players ever. Guitar solos are decidedly back in style.  Robert Trujillo was also solid and seemed much more at home in the Metallica family than when I last saw him in 2004. Rob adds so much groove and massive musical talent to the band.  James Hetfield was also polished and his voice sounded better than ever.  It looks like all of the Phil Towle therapy..a la Some Kind of Monster.. has paid off. There was a noticeable difference on stage amongst the band and the show was epic to say the least.

    It was easy to spot the true Metallica fans in the crowd because they were the ones who sang every word at the top of their lungs. I too blew out my voice singing along. It was a very cathartic experience. I attended the show with Drew, a huge Metallica fan from Austin. I met another die-hard Metallica fan during the show named Nina. Nina had come to Bonnaroo alone from So-Cal and was one of the coolest people I met while at Bonnaroo. She was a Metallica fan from way back and we made fast friends. Nina kept me company for the duration of Bonnaroo and made it a much more memorable experience.

    After the brutal Metallica show, Nina and I set out to see the rest of the festival together. While the rain held off during Metallica, the skies opened up full blast later that night. I was totally ill-prepared for the rain. It felt like I had jumped into a pool with my clothes on, good times. Later that night we saw a very weird set by Les Claypool at the Super-Jam. We watched around 10 minutes of it and bailed.   I was so soaked when I returned to camp that I hopped in the Envoy and cranked the heat. I air-dried in my boxers and all was right with the world.  Some of the other acts we caught were Tiesto, Sigur Ros, Mastodon, Cat Power, Pearl Jam, MIA, and Robert Plant.

    One of the most publicized events at Bonnaroo was the highly anticipated glow-in-the-dark performance of Kanye West. The show was originally scheduled for 2:45AM. We showed up early and waited…and waited…and waited, shivered a bit too..I didn’t bring a jacket, bad move.

    Around 4:30AM, amid massive booing, Kanye took to the stage and began his hip-hop malaise. The glow effect was largely pointless because the sun began rising before the show was over.  By the end of the performance, the crowd was tired, pissed, and leaving in droves. West had a great opportunity to win over a whole new audience. Most of the crowd were there out of curiosity, most went away disappointed. West didn’t even acknowledge the crowd or apologize for the two hour delay. Forget George Bush not caring about black people. Kanye West obviously doesn’t care about white people, or any people who came from great distances and paid over $200 US to see him.

    Overall, the Bonnaroo experience was a memorable one and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves music, camping, and floating. The only negative aspect of the whole trip was the theft of my camp flag. I raised a huge flag over our campsite in order to find it in the sea of other campers. Someone neatly cut the zip ties and tape, pulled down the flagpole and stole my flag. Not cool, man.

    Provided an equally powerful line-up next year, I will certainly consider doing Bonnaroo again. A big thanks to Yahoo! for giving me the time off to attend. Also big props to my car poolers who contributed cash, laughs, and comradeship along the way. Good Times Indeed. Who’s in for 2009?