Category Archives: Road Trip

Festival, Folk, Garage, Good Times, Hip Hop, Indie, Jam, Music, Outlaw Country, Photography, Rap, Road Trip

Bonnaroo 2009 – Day 1 In Review

3 Comments

Still feeling good and excited for today’s second installment of Bonnaroo I thought I would share the link of the review I did for Blogcritics.Org on my day one experience.

Concert Review: Bonnaroo 2009 – 06/11/2009 – Day 1

The first day was insane.  It was just Adam and I as Matt decided to go to see the B-52’s play in Chattanooga.  (To each their own my friends…)  Being the nice guy that I am I dropped his ass off down by the river in Chattanooga and then headed to Bonnaroo with Adam for our first day of the four day weekend.

Bonnaroo is just as great as I remember it.  Tons of people all sharing the same vibe.  Music playing all over the place full of different genres.  Vendors selling their crafts as well as food and taking donations for various causes including something called “Mountain Top Removal“.

It was a little scattered on the farm as many people would not be arriving until Friday. People would actually be piling in all night long as some were not as fortunate as myself in having an extended weekend.

There are plenty more booths that need to be checked out and I will be doing some more of that today.

I saw some great acts I have never seen before as well as some favorites like Those Darlins.  Yes, I am aware that I talk about them entirely too much but once you see them live you will understand my liken for the bunch.  Not only is their music fun and catchy but the girls are super cool too.  After their set Kelly Darlin spotted me and recognized me from her last show in Cleveland.  She gave me a huge hug and chatted for a moment.  I’m not starstruck or anything, but how cool is that?  I know I am an unforgettable guy and all but for someone who has been non-stop touring for months and seen millions of faces, to remember one is pretty rad

John and Katie from Thirty Tigers were there too.  I seriously love those two, they are great.  Where I would have liked to have hung with them more after Those Darlins rocked out it was thunderstorming way too much and they had to help get the girl’s gear to their van.  I’m hoping to run into them today.

So I leave you here with some photos I took with my little camera yesterday.  I am not sure that I want to take in the good camera with the threat of storms and whatnot.  I prefer to come home with no damaged equipment.  We are prepared though.  I purchased a rain jacket and waterproof box and Adam and Matt both got ponchos.

Bonnaroo Day 2, here I come.

Good Times, Road Trip

And So It Begins – Pre-Bonnaroo Shenanigans

2 Comments

I write this with tired eyes from a Holiday Inn Express in Kimball, TN – a podunk Tennessee mountain town about 40 miles away from the actual Bonnaroo venue located in Manchester, TN.

The ride was tough and I did it all by myself. More on that in a second.

I do believe though I am a bit of a psychic though.  You see, I wrote a little pre-Bonnaroo scenario about our drive as included with a mix I submitted for Addicted To Vinyl’s Monday Morning Mix just this past week.  I comically mentioned things about the drive I found funny including sleeping and physical harm.  Some it what I wrote about actually came true…

For the record, this crap does not work at all... 3 cans of Monster energy drink however does.

Matt, Rad-am (Adam) and I hit the road around 3am Wednesday morning with hopes of getting to Nashville around the lunchtime hour to meet up with some folk.  In a nutshell I drove the entire way while Matt slept most of the time and Adam rose and fell into subconsciousness.  For fun when Adam would start bobbing his head I would relentlessly smack the back of my hand into his chest.  I am sure he did not find it as funny as I did but it kept me going.

As we rolled through Kentucky there was a terrible thunderstorm that made the drive tough.  This was a reminder of what could come this weekend.  Bonnaroo + Thunderstorms = Not Fun.

It got bad, real bad.
It got bad, real bad.

Having been up since 5am on Tuesday I was having a tough time staying awake but I kept at it, took rest stop breaks when needed, slammed sugarfree energy drinks, and finally got the three of us to Nashville where we met up with the wonderful John and Katie at Thirty Tigers.

John and Katie were supercool folk who I look forward to kicking it with hopefully within the next couple of days.  Very good people who are all about music.

Speaking of music, their office is actually located above one of the sweetest record stores I have ever set foot in, Grimey’s.  This music store specializes in new and pre-loved (awesome) CDs and vinyl.  I was like a kid in a candy store looking around and talked myself out of a lot of purchases.  By the time we had to head out I had purchased two LPs and a 45.

From there we checked out Music Rd. where we had lunch with one of Matt’s friends who runs his own networking music promoting company.  Awesome conversations and a shrimp poboy sandwich made for a great lunchtime hour.

Drained and in need of serious sleep we made way to the hotel.  I can not tell you how great it felt to put my head on that pillow and take a 4 hour nap.  Not wanting to waste the entire night Adam and I went to see what was good in Kimball, TN.

Well, there was the neon heavy Tennessee Alabama Fireworks Souvenir store…

I’ll get a better picture later since my camera fogged up during all of the other ones I took.  This place sold fireworks, beer, and tacky ass typical souvenirs.  It was glorious.

That was about it for the city as far as standout attractions.

Bonnaroo starts around noon tomorrow.  The weather is calling for strong scattered storms tomorrow.  I may play it safe and leave the cameras in the car.  I hope the showers stay away though…

Wish us luck.

I’ll post an update tomorrow when we get back from day 1 at Bonnaroo.