Our group of 8 arrived in Manchester, TN on our RV Thursday night a little bit after 11. Unfortunately, we still had to wait in line for about an hour until we could get into the campground. While waiting, we were lucky enough to see a guy get his clothes cut off of him by police officers and then strip searched beside one of their patrol vehicles. Lets just say his weekend was probably ruined. What an awesome way to start Bonnaroo, though. Finally it was our turn in line. A group of like 5 college-aged kids asked us all to get out while they searched the RV. After a few minutes they came out and joked it was taking them a little bit longer because they were watching “Borat” that had been playing on our TV. Once they finished searching the RV and gave us the thumbs up, we were ready to proceed to the campgrounds. Very nice!

We unpacked and set-up our camp, popped a beer, took a deep breath; we had made it! A few of us in the group then decided to make our way to Centeroo (the main area) before the first night wrapped up. It was around a 15-minute walk, so not that bad. Our first year at Bonnaroo in 2005, we had the worst spot possible at around a 45 minute walk.

Once we came upon Centeroo we decided to first check out one of the DJ tents. Lots of hippies dancing to techno. Awesome. After that, we found another tent and were able to experience our first “silent disco.” Think headphones on each person + club music. Pretty neat. We arrived too late to see any bands, but hung around for about an hour just checking out some of the sites and looking over the map for where certain things were situated this year. We finally made our way back “home” to rest up for a long day on Friday.

{{{ FRIDAY }}}

Woke up early, made breakfast, played a few card games over some beers, and headed out to see the bands.

In order of appearance:

Kings of Leon
- There was a fairly large crowd to see these guys. I was familiar with a little bit of their music, so I enjoyed some of the show. Though, I had to leave early to catch Morello on one of the side stages.

The Nightwatchman
- Morello was having a really great time during his performance. One of the songs was being filmed for the soundtrack for the movie Sicko (Michael Moore’s new documentary), so he had to play that it twice. He joked for us to “look pretty.” Tom also said he knew nothing about Bonnaroo coming in, but guaranteed a return next year because he had been so impressed with the festival and the people. He also said we were the “best crowd The Nightwatchman has ever played to.” I missed his autograph session after the performance, but I figured the line was going to be pretty ridiculous, and I needed to head back to our camp to get ready for TOOL.

http://i11.tinypic.com/4mtw7sh.jpg


TOOL -
My crew and I headed out to the TOOL show around 8:15. After stopping for a couple beers and a bathroom break on the way to the main-stage, I lost half of the guys I was staying with. So my only friend that stuck with me, his girlfriend, and I worked our way toward the left side near the pit area. We were probably about 4 rows away from the pit fence. And, we were followed in by two cute ladies who saw us fighting (i.e. stepping over the passed out hippies) our way through the crowd to get a better spot. {Seriously, there have been some extremely attractive girls at the recent TOOL shows I’ve been to. A+ to that.} All in all, it was a pretty good view to watch the show and ended up sounding great from there. It was loud, but very clear.

The weather was perfect, there was a full moon and a nice breeze to keep us cool, and I was getting ready to watch a TOOL concert. Can't get any better.

The guys came out at exactly 9:00 and kicked into Jambi. This is such a great opening song. It’s also one of my all-time favorites by TOOL. Jambi has so many different tones, from very heavy to very soft. And the fire theme during the live performance is very trippy.

Stinkfist (regular version) was next. It was a definite crowd pleaser, and brought out some weird “hippie moshing” close to my area. I assumed TOOL would do the more “jammy” or extended version of this song, which they didn't. I’ll bring that point up later in this review, though.

Next we have The Pot. For some reason once the groove in this song started, the moshing became a bit ridiculous. It was basically this one stoned out girl, who was a bit on the large side, running into people. As they would push her away, she would just run into another person. And it started this endless cycle of pushing her around, until eventually a group of idiots joined her in the moshing. There was a couple beside me who had some professional cameras in use during TOOL, and for some reason they started using me as a shield. I mean, I’m like 5’5”, so I thought that was kind of dumb, but whatever. I just grabbed the shirt of the next idiot who ran into me and wouldn’t let him go until the crowd calmed down and went back to normal. I think he was too drugged out to know the difference, because he just screamed with delight and waved his arms around when I told him he wasn’t fucking running into anyone else. After a couple minutes of the silly monkeys and their slam dancing, I was able to enjoy the show once again.

46 + 2 was next on the set-list. This song has been a highlight for me on this leg of the tour. It’s better viewed at a distance, because then you can see the formation of the geometrical patterns behind Danny during his solo and the light rig shining down from above him. Great stuff.

After 46+2 and the extended version of Schism, Maynard dedicated the next song to all of us on the marijuana or the LSD. Of course, that song being Rosetta Stoned. There was no Lost Keys intro. This performance was definitely a highlight for me. For some reason the distortion part was not as mudded this time around as it has been at the two pervious shows, because it sounded somewhat audible and not extremely out of place. I love this song, though. It takes all of the great elements of Third Eye and twists it into this evil little ball throughout the beginning, and then spits it back out at the end. And, you’re left standing there pondering images of UFOs and aliens and hospital beds.

Next we have…Flood! This actually had a somewhat full intro. I was so happy to hear this song, if not for me, for my friend who had been excited the entire week to hear it. It made his night. And, it rocked my ass off, too. So, win-win.

The interesting thing I noticed throughout this concert was that TOOL seemed to not put in any of the long segues they had been doing. Also, there was no set break before Wings. This is when they sit on stage for a few minutes while the crowd holds up their lighters. They could have easily used this exact set-list and stretched it to 11:30, but instead chose to end at 11:00. That’s why I thought they were trying to hurry up and get in more songs. My friend and I were discussing this notion after we observed them hammering out the songs a bit quicker than normal. Strange, but maybe they had to leave the venue early? Or, just really don’t like to play that long? Junior -- if you’re there, any idea?

Wings For Marie (Pt 1) / 10000 Days (Wings Pt 2) was next. This is the ultimate epic song. It’s not so jam-band-esque or trippy as Third Eye, or Disposition / Reflection / Triad. It’s just a great musical experience. You have the color patterns and the lasers and then the body floating in the cloud tunnel on the video screens. Add to that the tunnel of eyes, plus the giant 10,000 Days artwork in the back. It’s just a complete sensory overload.

Once Wings ended, TOOL didn’t waste a lot of time until they broke into the intro for our next song, Lateralus. Enter “Tom Fucking Morello.” Adding him as a special guest just put this performance as tied for number 1 on my list of TOOL shows (the Tabernacle show also being there because of the rarity and uniqueness of that experience). Bonnaroo was lucky number 10 for me seeing TOOL in concert.

http://i8.tinypic.com/6c47q5i.jpg

After Lateralus and then Vicarious, I figured the concert was finished. Though, once the houselights didn’t come on, it was obvious we were getting at least one more tune. Aenema time!

What a great closing song to an amazing show. Everyone held their hands up and sang the final stanza with Maynard. Once Danny hit the final slams on his drum set and then threw his sticks into the crowd, we all knew it was over. The houselights came on and the guys walked out to the front of the stage to wave to us. Morello even joined the band on stage for the hug, which was pretty cool.

In closing, during these past 3 shows my friends and I were lucky enough to see each of the 3 different set-lists TOOL has done on this leg of the 10,000 Days tour. Pushit in Richmond, The Pot and Right in Two in Atlantic City, and then The Pot, Flood, and closing with Aenema at Bonnaroo. I guess I can understand someone feeling a little upset if they were expecting a certain song and got another one, but what can you do? The shows are still incredible, and the band is playing as tight and concise as ever.

After seeing 5 different shows off of the 10,000 Days tour over this past year, it has definitely become my favorite TOOL CD. Maybe that’s why I love these recent shows so much? It has been such an amazing experience to watch these guys perform; I just can’t put it to words. As possibly corny or weird as it may sound, I just sincerely love this band. There, I feel better.

Bonnaroo wasn’t over, though. Here is the rest of my adventure last weekend…

(continued on next post...)