All Bonnaroo Saga posts: tag/Bonnaroo 07
Eat My Dust by String Cheese Incident
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/sci1996-08-11.sbd.flac16/sci1996-08-11d1t09_64kb.mp3]
Manchester, TN
So Charles, Melissa, and I made basecamp underneath a row of payphones. Melissa is pretty ditzy, but nice. She wore a long skirt and had hair that reached her waist. Charles has long blonde hair and a beard which is still shorter than his hair, for now. He said he grew the beard so people would stop mistaking him for a chick. I think that is only a half joke. While we were sitting under the payphones, one of them rings. Melissa answers it, and the chick on the other end asks for someone named Johnny. Melissa steps over to the main area of the terminal where most people are waiting for their buses to arrive, and calls out for Johnny, yelling that he has a phone call. Johnny is in his late twenties, he has short trimmed hair, and lots of peircings and tattoos. He notices our bags and general appearance and asks if we’re going to Bonnaroo. We find out he had just come from there, and had a pretty crappy experience. He had been lead to believe that someone would supply him with a ticket, but that never happened, and since he didn’t have thte moneyy to grab one from a scalper, he just walked away. What makes this such a crappy experience is that he was now in the middle of Tennessee for no reason. So he was now on his way home, waiting for a bus at 0600 the next morning. He was trying to coordinate something with his girlfriend (the girl calling the payphone). Johnny was an interesting guy, heavy into alternative life styles and body mods. Another interesting thing to note: he is friends with Lizardman. Besides that, he is part of a suspension team, gauged his earlobes, and split his tongue. He also raised and owns a couple Boa Constrictors. An interesting guy with lots of good stories, Johnny was a good addition to our group. So he hung out with us for a while until Charles and Melissa decided to his up a nearby pub with live irish music. Johnny joined them, but I stayed behind. I like Irish music well enough, but pubs less so, especially if I haven’t had much sleep. So my plan was to catch up on this journal, then catch a little snooze. Not long after they left, Johnny returned alone. He told me he tuned back after two blocks, favoring sleep. He went to go find an empty bench to sleep on, and I finished writing, still sitting under the phones. Once I was done I went to the bathroom to wash up and shave while I still had running water (shaving sucks when you’re camping). Charles came into the bathroom about a minute after I did, so I took my time knowing someone would be watching our bags. When I got out, the terminal was crowded, and it had been nearly empty when I went in. I couldn’t find my bags, or Charles and Melissa. Just then, Melissa bumped into me on her way to the bathroom, and let me know they have moved outside so they didn’t have to deal with all those people. I’m not sure what happened to Johnny, I think some people may have sat on him.
Outside, it was much quieter, and actually more comfortable. We had befriended the security guard inside when he learned that he came from the same area as C&M. We made friends with the next guard as well, when the first’s shift was over. Turns out the next guard also hailed from that area. What are the odds? They provided sporadic company as they made their rounds throughout the building. It seems their main duty is to keep people from smoking out front, as well as keeping panhandelers away. Those two things are more related than you may think. The reason they don’t want people smoking out front is because it gives a big target for panhandelers.
Another guy waiting for a bus joined us outside. He had just gotten out of jail, and was on parole. He had been to Bonnaroo in years past, and told us some tales of sneaking into the fest in the old days. In case you’re wondering, he got busted at a Particle concert and did 14 months. He was who I talked to most in the early morning hours. Charles had gone inside to crash and Melissa had fallen asleep on her luggage out front with us. This guy, I’ll call him Todd, was a big jamfan. It was refreshing to talk to someone who appreciated the music, because C&M weren’t big jamfans. We talked about the bands at Bonnaroo and other festivals and shows or experiences we’d had in the past. As the sun started to come up, he went inside to catch his bus. I figured I’d go inside when the street lights went out, which somehow managed to be about the same time Melissa got up. We went inside, found Charles, and found new places to sleep. Charles and I grabbed a spot on the floor between two benches, and I managed to get about an hour of sleep before some employee woke me up and told me to move. C&M moved to take over more than half of a bench, and I sat down on another one, using the cooler they brought as a legrest. In case you don’t know, bus station terminal benches are the most uncomfortable things ever. After an hour you lose feeling in various body parts, which makes any decent amount of sleep difficult. C&M pulled it off, however, sleeping until 10. I got an hour here and there, but spent most of my time staring at the wall and listening to CNN on the TV above me.
Around 0930, people started to arrive in the terminal (before that, it had just been us and the employees). A good number of them were headed to Bonnaroo. They weren’t as late as we were, however, and had planned on arriving on Friday. When Charles woke up, he found himself surrounded by Amish people. Its true: the amish travel by Greyhound. He reaction as he looked around him was priceless. We got on the bus at 11, and arrived in Manchester soon after (about noon?). We got a ride to the main entrance from a local guy trying to make a buck by serving as a shuttle. He told us that someone had already died, although he didn’t know how (probably drugs or dehydration). Once inside, we start to head to tent-only camping, but it is really hot and C&M didn’t have bags designed for ease of carry (a sleeping bag was tied on to their suitcase using ethernet cable). So at one of our breaks, a fella walks over and offers us a spot next to them on the corner of a crossroad. Its a good spot, and since we don’t really know where we were headed to, we accept. [NOTE: if you ever travel and have to rely on the kindness of strangers, it is very very helpful to have a female with you. Melissa is the sole reason we got this spot.] Unfortunately, these guys are part of the new fraty crowd at festivals, and as I write this I hear people commenting about the disarray of their site. Two even stopped to take pictures. But that’s ok. I can have jerks for neighbors since I won’t be spending much time at camp.
After setting up camp, C&M&I go to explore Centeroo. And after a brief setback (Melissa forgot she left her acid in her purse, so we had to go back to camp to leave it there) we were in Centeroo. I got to catch the last few songs of Tortise (who are very good). From there I saw Kings of Leon (also good), the Nightwatchman (good, but annoying), Dierks Bently (less good), and lastly the Black Keys (best). At Kings of Leon, the guy standing in front of me lost his balance and collapsed. He was on the ground and not moving when his buddy started to leave and get help. He didn’t get more than three steps away before his fallen comrade was back on his feet, albeit shakily. I’m not sure what happened, he’d been smoking pot, but that shouldn’t have had this effect on him. Maybe the sun? Either way his friends brought him out of the crowd. At the Nightwatchman show, Tom Morello amused me. He is a good guitarist, but all of his music is very political. At one point, when talking about the verses commonly removed from Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land he said “God forbid you should come to a Nightwatchman show and think for yourself!” and everyone cheered. In the middle of his very next song he said “Now pump your fists!” right before he soloed. The crowd, of course, obliged. Way to think for yourselves, guys. This happened a few more times in a couple other forms before his set ended. I went to see Dierks Bently because it was said that Sam Bush would be joining him. After two songs, Sammy wasn’t on stage, and the music sucked, so I left. The Black Keys put on a hell of a show. The tiny tent they were in was packed, so I decided to sit outside and stay cool instead of standing in a crowd of warm bodies. While the show was great, my seat was not. I got covered in dust from foot traffic (unavoidable). I’ve been steadily coughing it up since then. But the Black Keys: thumbs up. I skipped Tool because I could hear them from my tent. I’m about to head out to see The String Cheese Incident, who are on their last tour with Bill Nershi. Can’t miss that. I’ll write more later.