So before you go to Bonnaroo you have to spend months planning it out. Get your group ready, get your supplies, get your travel arrangements. It’s a pain in the ass, especially when you do it on as grandiose a scale as we do. That’s right, I said grandiose.
Of course you have to go to Wal Mart and the liquor store the day before the fest, and that’s a pain. Then there’s the grueling, cop-lined traffic jam that you have to ride in to get there. You go through a security check where they rumble through your belongings and try to strip you of your precious glass bottles, and then you have to get your camping spot, stake out the area, and pitch your tents quick so nobody steals your claim. It’s a whole to-do, and add to that, that this year it took like an hour for us to get directed towards our proper parking space, and it’s an understatement to say that we were ready for our first beer.
We managed to crack our first beers just in time to be prepared for Wake Owl to kick off the weekend. They were the first act to film with us at Bonnaroo OH’13, and also the first act to use our solar panels. We’d never tried them out. We sort of did a test run at the RV shop when we picked the van up after having them installed, but this was really the first time we did a full go of it, and we definitely had fingers crossed.
Luckily abundance of sun is never a problem in Manchester, TN, and as soon as Wake Owl plugged in their gear we bore witness to the awesome power of that Sun. There’s nothing like the feeling of success, and we breathed it in deep that Thursday afternoon. Our reward, three songs from four very talented gentlemen. Each worthy of the repeat button.
So more beers were cracked, and smiles as well, and the boys of Wake Owl provided the perfect opening sounds. It was a set filled with that “just got to Bonnaroo” excitement. The whole weekend lay before us all. Pent up jubilation, ready to release, in this place where all of that escape channels through music. It has an effect on the musicians, on the fans, and thus on these wonderful videos. Hopefully they make you feel a little rumble in your stomach, that anxiety, is it time to go back yet?