Bonnaroo Review Part 1 of 3: Thursday - Friday

Bonnaroo is listed as a three-day festival but it officially started on Thursday. Kirsten and I decided to approach it a little differently and go down to Nashville for Thursday night and hang out and see a couple of sights. We left Milwaukee at 5:00 AM...

...and arrived in Nashville around 3:00 PM just in time to check in to the hotel. We stayed at the Millennium Maxwell House which is near the famed 2nd Avenue where there are a bunch of restaurants, shops and of course bars playing live music. The hotel was nice and offered a shuttle that will take you anywhere you wanted to go.

We went down to 2nd Ave. and walked the street one time and then settled on eating at the Hard Rock since it had a nice outdoor patio. Our server's name was Schoon, who was a 20-something white boy who was really cool. He had been to the Roo the past 2 years so he pulled up a chair as soon as he found out that's what we were in town for. Really friendly and polite guy. A running theme in the South. I had the BBQ pulled pork which was incredible.

After that we decided on B.B. King's place to catch a couple drinks and some music. The band was called B.B. King's Place Rockers or something like that and they were quite good. Really got the crowd going and played some great soul and blues music. The place was relatively full when we got there which was early, 7:30ish I believe, but heads started turning when a tall, paunchy looking fellow with a ponytail came walking through the place. None other than Steven Seagal (pictured) apparently is a part-owner and also has his own band which according to the many locals in the place, is extremely good. Also, be on the lookout for Under Seige 3: Plane Danger which is to be released next year. No, that's not a joke.

Friday morning we headed down to the Roo early in the AM and apparently we were one of the few. There was absolutely no traffic getting in which was sweet considering we heard reports of 15-mile backups to get in on Thursday. Once we were there, we almost immediatly combined "campsites" which is the 10-feet of room behind your vehicle, with our neighbors, Randy & Joe who came down from the New England area. These guys were great and definitely made our experience more enjoyable. It was Randy's second year there so he had the inside scoop on a lot of things to do, where to go, how to get the free stuff, etc. They are both very into music and knew a lot about the shows that were there and gave us some background on some to check out. More to come from those guys later.

Kirsten and I headed down to Centeroo, which is where all the stages and things are. I was about to type "where the action is" but that isn't really true since there is PLENTY going on among the various camping areas. The first act we caught was Andrew Bird over at the "That Tent" who is an extremely talented musician who is labeled as a "Songwriter, whistler, glockenspielist, guitar player, singer and violinist." He was great. From there we went over and caught Ben Folds who was rocking over at the "Which Stage." After that, the drive and 95 degree weather caught up to us a bit so we headed back to the site to catch a nap.

We awoke in time to head back and catch the Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers show which was incredible. Stevie Nicks joined them on stage about half way through and sang a couple songs including "Stop Dragging My Heart Around" which was great. Both Tom and Stevie just look rough but they sound incredible. After that we strolled back to the campsite and turned in for the evening. I woke up several times during the night and I heard a nice medley of sounds including, but not limited to, crickets, My Morning Jacket playing and Randy's snoring. He warned us 5 minutes after we met what we'd be in for. I didn't believe him. That was the last time during the weekend I didn't believe something he said. That guy was a fricken chainsaw. Ah the people you meet at Bonnaroo...

Part 2 Coming Soon