Day 3 –
After the My Morning Jacket experience, Cara and I were wondering, “how could this get any better?” Well we had all of Saturday to find out with the expectation that PEARL JAM would absolutely kill it. Before we get to that, let us continue with the earlier parts of the day.
Once again we woke up and met up with The Press Project at the “Which” stage, waiting for Alyssa to pick us up for showers. I don’t quite know how we managed to pull this one off but we fit about 15 people in a 10 person car – which I think, only added to the excitement of it all (as well as a combined sweaty mess and stink, haha).
Quick showers and more waffle house eggs, hash browns (which you could get with onion, chili, cheese, jalapeño peppers, etc), orange juice and coffee – made way for Day 3.
Our first stop was the Sonic Stage to meet up with everyone from Ourstage and to see one of the bands they brought to Bonnaroo – The Sons Of Roswell. While I was watching this show I felt a bit strange because the guitar player kept trying to follow the lead singer, and the bassist was a bit unsure of what he was doing – little did I know that a week before Bonnaroo, their original lead singer quit and they had written a whole set worth of new songs in a week – it was very impressive because aside from their nervous faces, the band sounded good.
After their performance we ran over to see Ozomatli who once again –ROCKED. Everyone in the crowd was loving it, dancing and having a great time.
Quickly back to the Sonic stage to catch Donavon Frankenreiter for a small intimate show. While I was hanging out in the Ourstage tent, I saw a kid signing his demo cd’s – his name was Timmy Whiting – so naturally I told him, “it’s the greatest name ever”. There was a woman beside him who told me she was his mother and we talked for a bit – I met the whole family who was so stoked to be at Bonnaroo – such warm people. They were a bunch of surfers (so I felt a connection there) and each of the children played a different instrument – the next Partridge Family perhaps…who knows. The fathers name was Tim as well – too many Tim’s for such a small tent, I don’t know if anyone was ready for it, haha. What was great was that their favorite artist was in fact….Donavon Frankenreiter and Laura/Alyssa gave them the chance to go backstage to meet him. To see the smiles on their faces as they met one of their music heroes was such an amazing experience, it’s really what this festival is all about . . . once again Ourstage hooked everyone up big time!
Next Cara and I made our way to see B.B King – you have to go B.B its like an unwritten rule. We saw him be presented with a key to the city, which was well deserved – but after the first song I received a call from Alyssa that Talib Kweli was going to do an interview with her at the Ourstage tent and Cara and I were invited to sit in on it!!!!!
We ran back, only to find that Talib had a signing in another tent at 6:30 and would come do the interview after it – this wasn’t too bad because I knew Cara wanted to swing by Ben Folds and I wanted to see Iron & Wine. Ben Folds played a few strange songs (which he does from time to time) and the show overall wasn’t bad, I Knew Cara wished he played something she recognized, so we then walked over to Iron & Wine saw a few songs, quickly heard a bit of Levon Helm and The Ramble On The Road – you know him from The Band, “take a load off Annie…” He was awesome and we wished we could see a bit more but Talib awaited our arrival, hahah so we ran back to the Ourstage tent.
We sat right next to Talib as Alyssa gave an amazing interview. He was such a nice guy, very well spoken, not to mention I have always been a fan of his awesome lyrics. I really wanted to get a pic/autograph but he rushed out of the tent to get ready for his show, and I was feeling a bit bummed until Cara goes “Hey Talib can you sign this for my B/f”, hahah, Yea Cara!!! So he did, he signed my cd- which I really was getting for my brother who is a huge fan – as well as the best brother in the world (sorry all you other brothers from different mothers, haha yea I’m a cheese ball)
Cara and I didn’t have much time to see Jack Johnson up close and personal, we did listen from our tent before taking a nap to get ready for Pearl Jam.
Here is where things get a bit crazy, the security at Pearl Jam was out of control, and we broke off from our Ourstage friends who tried to get backstage with their press passes. They told us to wait by this fence which was at a direct 180 degree angle to the stage which meant, we couldn’t see a thing – and hopefully once they got in, 2 press passes could be passed back to us and we would go in. I was constantly in touch with Alyssa who was saying even they were having trouble getting in – things weren’t looking good. While we waited, I was standing next to a security guard who said even he couldn’t get in . . . ok things weren’t looking good at all, in fact they looked horrible. Through talking with him he sort of got the notion that I worked for Ourstage and was saying he is the contact for Roger Alan Wade – who is Johnny Knoxville’s cousin and a singer who worked with Johnny Cash – Idk, basically he wanted Ourstage to do an interview with him, so I pretended I worked for Ourstage just in case they wanted the interview. The guard liked us a lot and said he would try to get us backstage…Score….though I’m sad to say things never materialized. BUT…….
While we waited, everyone behind us kept pushing up towards the stage and soon enough Cara and I were at this gate where the guards said no one else was allowed in, passes or not. BUZZKILL!
Suddenly another guard saw us and said alright, you 2 can go in…..WHAT….we ran in and I was so excited I didn’t even realize we were in the front pit FRONT ROW!!!!! OF PEARL JAM!!!!! I looked back to see 70 thousand people. The show was INCREDIBLE……that’s all I need to say about that that, Eddie Vedder was awesome, the whole band was.
We were tired after the show but we pushed ourselves to go see Lupe Fiasco – who was good, and Talib Kweli which we got to sit in front of the first row while Andy took some video of us rocking out – Talib was out of this world.
Then Cara and I went backstage and when Talib finished his set he was standing right next to us, with his DJ while the crowd cried “Talib, Talib, Talib…” He was deciding which songs to do next…..RIGHT NEXT TO US. Suddenly the clean up crew ran on stage and started breaking down the set and despite Talib’s manager’s cries not to, it was too late. Talib was a bit bummed but either way the show was amazing.
Back to our tent for some sleep and onto Day 4!!!!!
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