Bonnaroo 2009: Thursday (Day 1): Rocking Like A Hurricane
I left for Bonnaroo Wednesday and our large ATLien crew stayed at a motel in Chattanooga for the night to pregame. We drank Fat Tires by the pool in the afternoon and I got to bed much earlier than usual to get some rest for the ‘roo. Thursday I headed to the radio station where I had to pick up my press credentials. I ended up standing outside the building for over two hours before finally getting my pass and heading to the other line to wait for another two hours before getting parked inside the gate somewhere after two o’clock. I walked around the campgrounds taking in the scene as carloads of people were setting up their camps and exploring also. The rest of my group got in about the same time as I did, so I made my way to go camp with them. We then began the annual onslaught of beers and shots upon of arrival.
After becoming sufficiently intoxicated, I made my way to That Tent to see Portugal The Man. The tent was packed out full, so I had to watch the show from afar, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. They played all of their hits all the way back to their first record. They were good when I saw them at the Drunken Unicorn a year or so ago, but I thought they much better this time.
All day it had been raining and drizzling off and on, but right about the moment Portugal The Man were done, the sky just let loose and it poured. I hid out under a mist tent until it let up a bit, and then decided to find “shakedown street” and do some shopping. Of course as soon as I found the shopping area, which was a far distance from our camp, it began pouring hard again. I ended up getting completely soaked for the journey back to home base. I hung out at camp hoping the rain would let up in hopes of catching a dry spell to go see Tobacco, but unfortunately it kept raining so I drank myself to sleep rather early.
Bonnaroo always involves a struggle against the elements, and this year so far it has been a story of hurricane like storming. But the flip side of that is that there hasn’t been too much heat yet, which is very nice. It never ceases to amaze me how fast the weather can go from beautiful blues skies to tornado like thunderstorms. But our camp held up pretty well against the monsoon, and we actually scored the closest site to the stages I’ve had in six years.
It seems the “Fuck Kanye” meme is still alive and well this year in the form of both graffiti and chants, and I think that it is hilarious. The Internet in the press area seems weaker than last year, so I’m not sure how much posting I will get done, but I will have plenty of inebriated tweets to follow all weekend long. It is time to take on what will be an extremely long day and night.
- Posted by Davy Minor on June 12, 2009 at 1:11 pm
