Bonnaroo 2009: Day 3

After being knocked on my ass after Day 1, much resting was in order for Saturday morning. If I was going to stay up all night, I had to start drinking around noon and not even head into the 'Roo until the late afternoon. Which is exactly what I did.

Of Montreal

...were late. It wasn't their fault, the tent they were in was running late all day. So when it came around to them being a half hour late, I had to bail. Sorry Kevin Barnes. I will have to catch you some other time.

Wilco



Wilco still amazes me. You never know what you're going to get with these guys. It being Bonnaroo, we got a ton of off-the-wall jamming and banging. Jeff Tweedy and crew opened with (somewhat predictably) "Wilco (The Song)" from thier upcoming LP and proceeded to melt faces thanks to thier secret weapon, guitarist Nels Cline. They did an un-fucking-believable version of "Handshake Drugs," banged "Misunderstood" and screamed the 'Nothing!' ending along with the crowd, and did an amzingly tight version of "Spiders (Kidsmoke)." The only bad thing about their performance was the fact that they only played "Shot In The Arm" from Summerteeth, but I'm most likely going to see them again in a few weeks so I can't complain. They threw the audience a curve by closing with the Mermaid Avenue, Woody Guthrie-penned "Hoodoo Voodoo" for a fun and rollicking ending. Amen.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band



I could write books on Bruce Springsteen. The man is damn near 60, and puts more emotion and energy into his live shows than the amount of ecstasy that every Phish fan did over the weekend COMBINED. Aside from his crowd-amping and speech about 'sexual healing,' Bruce and company didn't relent. I finally heard "Out In The Street" live, which is one of my faves, and he opened with "Badlands," which I had bet my friends he would do. Kudos, me. When the time came for the Boss to grab signs, he picked some incredible ones. He held up one of Santa Claus and proclaimed, "It's too fucking hot for Santa Claus!" before going into, yes, "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town." Did you read that correctly? "SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN!" The other signs were "Growin' Up" (which I had never heard live!) and "Thunder Road." I mean, really?

Max Weinberg's son Jay came out and filled in on drums near the end of the set, and the E Streeters treated the crowd to an encore consisting of "10th Avenue Freeze Out," "Rosalita," "Glory Days," and "Dancing In The Dark." If you've never seen Bruce Springsteen live, its something that cannot be summed up in words. It's something I equate to church.

moe.

Yeah, I watched these guys with my friend for awhile. They are talented, and everyone was on copious amounts of drugs. Another reason why I wasn't really into it. Not that I'm against drugs, I didn't want to roll face around hundreds of thousands of people and dance like a retard to a 24 minute song.

MGMT

The crowd was fucking HUGE at 2:15 am when MGMT went on. So huge, in fact, that it was impossible to get near the TENT that the band was playing in. I mean really, Bonnaroo, the last band of the night is going to play in a TENT!? Piss poor planning, folks. I was able to hear "Electric Feel" and that was about it. Meh.