The Zen Arcade

My Open Letter to the King of Pop (from May 2005)

I wrote this at The J Train back in May 2005. It's not the kindest thing I ever wrote, particularly as something to post today, but I thought it expressed my combination of affection and revulsion as well as anything could have. Note: adult language.

Zen Arcade 6/23/09: Back in the Real World

Coming up on Tuesday's Zen Arcade: a look back at my favorite moments from Bonnaroo!  Also, new stuff from pretty much everybody.

Tuesday, 6/23/09, 7-10 PM EDT, http://www.wmmtfm.org.

And by the way, have you joined the Facebook group yet?

Long-awaited Sunday 'Roo Post

I am safely back home and trying to integrate myself back into reality, but here's the wrapup from Sunday.

Daily Show Stars in the Comedy Tent. In increasing order of hilarity: Kristen Schall (aka Mel from Flight of the Conchords) and a partner did some sketch comedy that ranged from kinda funny to weird and annoying.  Wyatt Cenac had some funny moments, but his comedy is very low-key and didn't really match the audience's energy.  TDS executive producer Rory Albanese did some great stuff.  Rob Riggle has the frat boy humor thing going on--he would have killed back at Laugh Track Live at the Two Keys--but he's loveable and funny enough to transcend the unforunate genre. 

The star of the group was John Oliver, who was just one of the best stand-ups I've ever seen.  I'd love to see him do a full show, and I'll put my money on him as the next TDS correspondent to break out ala Colbert and Carrell.

Andrew Bird: I wondered how well his work would transfer to the big Which Stage, but he managed to pull it off.  Every time I hear him, especially live, I wonder why I'm not a bigger fan.

Merle Haggard: Merle is 72 years old, and he looked like a regular spring chicken compared to some in his band.  (They collectively had the best collection of Classic Country Hair this side of the Del McCoury Band.)  He still turned it on, though.  I'm not going to say it was a thrilling, high-energy set or anything, but he's a legend and he's got a great catalog of songs.

Snoop Dogg: After last year's Kanye debacle and Friday night's lackluster set from the Beastie Boys, a bad set from Snoop could have killed off hip-hop at Bonnaroo for good (kickass set from The Knux on Thursday notwithstanding).  Could the D-O-double-G rise to the occasion?  Fo' shizzle.  He tore the place up.  I can't put my finger on why Snoop can still pull off the hip-hop he did in his twenties and the Beasties can't, but that's how it is.  His band was tight as hell, he did a nice little Tupac tribute in the middle, and he brought out Erykah Badu to help out on "La Di Da Di".  It's worth mentioning that he did his full set in broad daylight--screw you, Mr. West.

Phish: Hard though it is to imagine, I didn't make it through the whole show.  The first set was awesome, with a killer "Tweezer" and an appearance by Bruce Springsteen at the end.  But I realized halfway through the set that as awesome as it was, I was full.  Bonnaroo is like an enormous and unspeakably delicious buffet; even if you don't eat much of any one thing, you're still going to fill up, and some deliciousness is just going to be left on the table.  I left after "Punch You In the Eye" to gather up my stuff in the Press Trailer, caught the Bruce cameo from the top of the What Stage, and headed for my already packed car at the set break.

So my official count of Phish shows will now stand at 18 1/2.  By all accounts the second set was good but nothing special, so I probably made the right move considering that the extra 1 1/2 hours probably would have meant a few hours stuck in traffic and I didn't get home until 6AM anyway.

Still to come: an overall wrapup, and pictures.

Sunday morning random thoughts

--New rule: if you're well over six feet tall, and you fight your way to the front of a crowded show and proceed to stand directly in front of someone who is 5'5", you can stand there, but he gets to kick you in the balls.  That way you have to ask: is the improved view worth a kick to the balls?

--The liveblogging hasn't quite been so live, because the internet service has been craptastic this year.  I got far better service from the RV last year than I have from the press tent this year.  I can't complain, though; the press experience has otherwise been fantastic this time around, even better than last year.

--A girl on a cell phone, last night, at the campground: "But I've already called everybody I know who does drugs!"

--ID's I've gotten for the station so far: Margaret Cho, Brett Dennen, Alejandro Escovedo, and Triumph.

--So last night we had Elvis Costello in a tent and the Decemberists in another tent, while The Mars Volta were on the larger Which Stage.  Am I just completely underestimating their appeal, or is that crazy?  I know I'm not really into the proggy thing, and I don't know many people who are, so it may just be my slanted view, but I would have thought the Decemberists were a much bigger band.  (I'm sure they wanted a more intimate experience for Costello, which worked out well.)  The younger, hipper types next door assured me that they are fairly popular, but they agreed that it didn't really make sense.

Saturday, Part II (and Sunday preview)

Other bits from Saturday:

Jenny Lewis: Jenny has been here every year, either solo or with Rilo Kiley, and I've always missed her.  This was a mistake on my part.  There have been a few times in my life when a voice has hit me like a shot--Emmylou Harris, Sarah McLachlan, Neko Case--and Jenny is at the top of the list.  The rockers like "Next Messiah" were great, but the hands-down highlight of the set was "Acid Tongue" with her band acting as a choir behind her.

Elvis Costello: One of my musical idols, but I had never managed to see him before.  It was billed as a solo set, and he opened it with a long solo acoustic set of old favorites, including "The Angels Want to Wear My Red Shoes", "Watching the Detectives", "New Amsterdam" with "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" wedged into the middle, "Radio Radio", and "Veronica".  He then brought out Allen Toussaint for some New Orleans-inspired numbers. 

Unfortunately I had to leave the set after that, after a huge guy fell down flat on his face next to me.  He was just standing there one minute, and the next he went down cold.  I went down and tried to get him to respond, and for about ten seconds there while we rolled him over he didn't.  I was about to check his ABCs when he just snapped to life and said, "No, I'm fine, I'm fine," and stood up.  I told him I was a doctor and he had passed out, and he said, "No, I'm straight, I was just listening to the song and fell asleep."  We tried to convice him that one shouldn't do that, and he said he just needed some fresh air and walked out.  I felt kind of compelled to follow him.  Damned professional responsibility.  (He eventually lost me.)

Bruce Springsteen: Look, Bruce, I love you, but consider the idea of a goddamn set break.  It's one thing to play 3 1/2 hours when it's the only thing your audience has really done that day, but when they've already been listening to music in the hot sun for ten hours by that point, it's excessive.  (And yes, I know Phish played 3 1/2 hours on Friday night, but they don't usually do that, and it was just different, OK?  I don't know why.)  I was in the bleachers and my ass was going numb.

I got up to get something to drink and get some circulation happening, and when I walked by the press tent there was an impromptu Celtic/bluegrass circle going on with about four people listening.  The only people I recognized in the circle were one of the girls from Katzenjammer (I had met them earlier) and, surprisingly, Robyn Hitchcock.  To hell with the Boss.  I went back for the last half-hour or so of Bruce's set, and he was even more energetic than he was at the start; I'm not sure what one has to do to be able to sustain that sort of energy at that age, but if Bruce could bottle it, he'd be the emperor of the world.  (Like he couldn't be already.)

I ended up cashing it in a little early; I really didn't have the fuel left in the tank for Nine Inch Nails (and I'm not a huge fan anyway).

Today (Sunday) I'm gonna hit the comedy tent for the Daily Show Stars (no Jon Stewart, unfortunately, but a bunch of the correspondents) then it's the almost unimaginable combination of Brett Dennen, Okkervil River, Merle Haggard, Snoop Dogg, Neko Case, and Phish.  I've already broken camp, so I'm going to leave tonight and at least get part of the way home; the one benefit of being camped in the buttcrack of nowhere is that I'm close to the exit.

Saturday, Part the First

I've done Bonnaroo enough to know that trying to keep the pace up from yesterday would be a tragic mistake.  There wasn't a lot I was dying to see early on, so instead of hanging out at my hot and distant campsite I came here to the press tent.

This turned out to be a good move.  At noon they had The Low Anthem in here to do a set for the press; I had been meaning to check them out anyway, and my instincts were right--they were wonderful.  As soon as I have reliable internet service again I'll be looking their stuff up.

The 1PM press conference already had the unlikely pairing of Margaret Cho and Robert Kennedy, Jr., along with Brett Dennen, but they made it downright impossible by adding one Jimmy Buffett, fresh off of his set at the Which Stage.

I should back up.  One of today's annouced acts was "Ilo and the Coral Reefer All-Stars".  Ilo is a singer from the Canary Islands that Buffett and his crew discovered while they were traveling around, and they decided to give the guy a break and bring him to the US to tour and record.  (From what I heard, it was a good call.)  For the last few weeks it was rumored that Jimmy would be sitting in, and a few days ago they confirmed it.  It turned out to be a mini-set from Jimmy with Ilo doing a few songs in the middle, which was probably the perfect way to do it.

I ventured out and caught some pieces of sets before the 4PM conference, which featured a performance from Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.  Sample quips: "I don't know where to start with the fans here.  This festival has more stages than syphilis!" "Most of the Phish fans here haven't been able to see the band in five years.  I mean, in that time, they could have played, like, three songs." "The Beastie Boys.  I love their high voices.  It's like if Jay Leno slammed his dick in a car door."  I managed to get an ID from him, and you'll be happy to know that WMMT is a wonderful station...for him to poop on.

More later.

One great band returns, another really doesn't

Remember all that skepticism I had about the Phish reunion?  You can consider that over.

Over the course of a three-hour set--a rarity, since they usually do two sets with a break in between--they didn't throw out any big surprises, but they nailed the classics like I've rarely seen.  The "Chalkdust Torture" opener (and the inevitable epic glowstick war) and the huge smile on Trey's face was all it took to convince me that the reunion was for real, and these guys are back because they still have music to make together.

The setlist (from Phish.net, but it jives with the one I kept):
Chalk Dust Torture, Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan, The Divided Sky, Possum, Down with Disease, Alaska, Stash, Golgi Apparatus, Wolfman's Brother, Poor Heart, Kill Devil Falls > Free, Wading in the Velvet Sea, Harry Hood > Highway to Hell > 2001 > You Enjoy Myself > Wilson > You Enjoy Myself
E: A Day in the Life

And I'll come right out and say it--the Beastie Boys sucked.  They were sloppy and awkward, and devoted far too much of the set to the full-band numbers from Check Your Head and Ill Communication, which are good enough and work just fine as interludes, but they're not for building a set around.

It was enough to make me think that they should give it up; after all, it has been almost twenty years since our man MCA had a beard like a billy goat.  But then they did a new track with special guest Nas that was, by far, the highlight of the set.  So maybe hip-hop isn't such a young man's game; you just can't be doing the same hip-hop in your 40s that you were doing in your 20s.

Friday musical awesomeness

My 'Roo mojo in general has not been great. Aside from my distant campsite and the ungodly rain, I wasn't able to catch Ani DiFranco or Janeane Garofalo on the way out of their press conference to get an ID, my camera is jacked up (it's done it before, and it fixed itself then, so I'm crossing my fingers), and I just took an impressive spill here in the press tent when I slipped on some ice at the water cooler. Did you know that a tent wall is a very lousy way to break one's fall? (Since you're wondering, I'm fine.)

But has it been worth it? Oh yes. Bands I've seen sets or partial sets from today:
Dirty Projectors--Very good, and very energetic live. I really like their new mode--it's still challenging but more accessible.
Patterson Hood and the Screwtopians--Basically, this was the Drive-By Truckers without Shana or Cooley. It's weird to see Patterson on the tiny Sonic Stage.
Animal Collective--I've decided that if a band is on the Which Stage it doesn't do much good to try to see them. You have to be there early in the morning to get near the stage, and if you watch from the back you're in the hottest of the hot sun. The best way to enjoy the stage, really, is to listen while you're wandering around. Animal Collective was perfect for this, since there's not much to see.
St. Vincent--Don't you love it when you go into something with high expectations and they still get blown away? I've loved both of Annie Clark's albums, but her show was just insane. She wrestles sounds out of her guitar that a guitar shouldn't make, and her band was top-notch.
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals--I'm not sure what it is that keeps me from loving this band. I really want to love them. I've enjoyed their shows here. Maybe it's the way they feel like the world's best wedding band. Their show today was, as usual, great--I really don't understand why they're not bigger than they are.
King Sunny Ade--A genuine legend, and a show worthy of one. He's backed up by an 11-piece band, six of whom are drummers.

There were a few others in there, too, mostly caught while I was walking from one set to another. Right now I'm listening to Rev. Al Green and chilling out a little; in a few minutes I'm going to get some food and prepare myself for the craziness of the Beastie Boys and Phish.

At least it's not dusty

Roo-related randomness from Friday morning: --It rained like hell last night. I was seriously worried about a hull breach in my tent, since I admittedly put it up pretty sloppily (didn't have enough room to do it quite right), but the old girl held up, as did the canopy. --I'm in Camp Randolph Duke. I felt really old when the New Englanders next door had never even heard of Trading Places. We're in between Camp Mortimer Duke (of course) and Camp David Wooderson; they had at least heard of Dazed and Confused. --Quote from one of the New Englanders, trying to convince her crew that they could wait until Monday to leave instead of Sunday: "Come on. The bullshit back home isn't going anywhere." I told her that should be the official motto of Bonnaroo. --You can't bring glass bottles into the venue, so what happens to all the booze they confiscate at the gate? Apparently it all goes to the local police department, who uses it at some sort of fundraiser for their charitable arm. --I'm listening to the Beastie Boys' soundcheck right now. --On the schedule for today: the Inforoo Brunch, press orientation/conference (with Ani Difranco!), Dirty Projectors, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Lucinda Williams, Beasties, and Phish, among other things. --On the schedule for today: Dirty Projectors,

Bonnaroo! Thursday!

Hello from Bonnaroo! It's Thursday night, and I'm waiting out a thunderstorm in the guest tent. We talked about what they might do in the event of tornadoes--what could they do, exactly? My suggestion: drink heavily, then hang on really tight to something. I planned to leave at about 3:00 this morning, but the alarm I set had other plans. When I woke up from the "quick nap" I laid down for at midnight, it seemed awfully light out for 3AM...but not for 6:30 AM, which it was. That's OK--I really needed the sleep. The ride down was about six hours, then it was just over an hour in the will-call line and two hours in the traffic to the venue. Arriving at Bonnaroo is an inexact science at best; the consensus seems to be that it doesn't matter what time you get there, you might end up with a good campsite and you might not. I didn't. It's about a two-beer walk from my campsite to the venue. I do, however, have a cool bunch of folks from New England joining me in the next site. Tonight so far I've seen White Rabbits and The Knux, who were both incredible. They let me in the photo pit for The Knux; I'll get some pics up tomorrow.