I strong armed my traveling companion Justin to report back to me his top 10 moments of the Bonnaroo Music Festival as a final recap of our sonjourn to Tennessee a couple weeks ago.

10. The road trip there…Despite not leaving until almost midnight on Wed 6/13, I was stoked to get on the road to live music paradise and was wide awake with excitement…One can’t but help think of Sal and Dean zoomin across the country in their jalopy, with no regard to speed limits, anytime your making a midnight run…Highlight of the road trip was a stop sometime after 3AM at a nondescript gas station on the Illinois/Kentucky border…As I’m coming out of the bathroom I hear Ryan yell “They’ve got it Justin, they’ve got it” and then notice he’s holding onto a box which contains a cowboy bobblehead with two six shooters drawn…Needless to say with Ryan being a collector of bobbleheads, Lonesome Cowboy Bill joined the us on our road trip and was lonesome no more.

9. Silent Disco. For the first time we donned a pair of headphones and grooved in silence around us as a small, but sweaty group got down to a DJ that was better than the both of us expected.

8. The people and the things they would say or do. Enjoyed watching two mounted police stroll up to someone sleeping in about 6 inches of shade at 12:30 PM on Saturday. The horses were obviously just as concerned as the police as whether or not this individual was still alive because the horses started sniffing the sleeping hippie. Said individual did eventually did get to his feet after about 10 minutes and was on his way, even though it was apparent he was trying to remember how to walk.

The following are some memorable quotes which we were lucky to overhear:

“I spent all of last night trying to figure out how a straight-line becomes a circle”

In response to a question from a friend on what he thought of the show the night before “What do you think I thought?”

“Ice cold five dollar fatties” Great salesman to throw in the ice cold part on a day when it was 90+ degrees.

“Magnum P.I.” This was uttered from someone who was quite incoherent so the randomness of this reference was extra special.

7. Brazilian Girls…The trio of musicians that make up the Brazilian Girls could easily hang with the best DJ’s in the world to put out beats that make you move…Having Sabina Sciubba as their lead singer takes them to another level altogether…Not only was the music great but it was one of the more entertaining shows I saw all weekend.

6. Michael Franti & Spearhead…Even though we only caught the last 4 or 5 songs, ever since I saw Franti & Spearhead at Bonnaroo in 2003 I’ve been a Spearheadhead…I don’t know of any other performer who captivates and controls his audience as easily as Franti…as we were walking up to the “Which Stage” you could see a sea of hands moving to the music and you’d be lucky to find one individual among thousands who wasn’t moving to the music…For a funky good time, catch Spearhead next time they’re in your town and I guarantee you won’t be let down!

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5. Xavier Rudd & John Butler Trio…I lump these two together simply because they’re both originally from Australia and they both shred as musicians…Xavier had a great set which was made for the sun…He played several songs off his new album, White Moth, which I’d definitely pick up…John Butler also amazed…Highlights were “Daniella” off his new album, the instrumental Ocean, and a new song called “Gov Did Nothin” which was in reference to the governments disastrous response to the Katrina disaster

4. Old Crow Medicine Show…I was taken to this set by a friend of a friend whom I had just met so I think it helped to go with no expectations because I was pleasantly surprised…I had heard of Old Crow before and assumed they were strictly bluegrass but that is definitely not the case…They can also play the blues with the best of them and they put on a great show…I recommend checking out their new album Big Iron World, it reminds me of Dylan’s Basement Tapes with then yet unnamed, The Band.

3. Lou Donaldson & Dr. Lonnie Smith…At first when I realized there was a line for the unfortunately small Blue Note tent I railed against the stupidity of the Bonnaroo organizers to put Blue Note in such a small tent and because of this I was unable to catch the Stanton Moore Trio which I was looking forward to seeing…However upon entering the tent for the midnight set from the two legendary jazz cats, I understood the organizers logic and forgave them for putting them in such a small tent…It was a cozy red light tent which instantly brought to mind the quaint Green Mill in Chicago and it was a perfect setup for Blue Note, with cocktail waitresses to boot…Watching the show I delighted by the realization that I was two degrees of separation from Miles Davis, with Donaldson having played with him the past…What I wasn’t expecting was the humor of Donaldson who threw jokes as easily as notes from his sax…to watch Dr. Lonnie Smith was like watching a magician but instead of pulling rabbits out of his hat he was pulling out incredible chords and notes on his organ.

2. Hot Chip…I can honestly say I was blown away by Hot Chip and if it weren’t for Galactic bringing an all-star crew, this would have been number 1…Maybe it was the sun, maybe it was beer, maybe it was the drinking of beer in the sun for a good five hours but there were several times I stepped outside my mind and thought “that beat is incredible.”…I was expecting more of a traditional lineup, possibly from seeing LCD in Chicago a month ago, but when the five guys all stepped up to keys/synthesizers I knew this was going to be something different…Their new songs were as captivating and entertaining as their best stuff off The Warning but memorable moments were the new untitled opener, “Breakdown,” “Over and Over,” and of course “The Warning” which I got a whole new appreciation for…The chorus for The Warning, “Hot Chip will break your legs, snap off your head/Hot Chip will put you down, under the ground” became an ongoing joke for the rest of the weekend where you could say “Hot Chip will (then insert horribly violent or crude action. The popular one being something done to your mom)”, i.e. “Hot Chip will shoot your dog”

1. Galactic…Hands down, one of the best shows I’ve seen in a while…I get annoyed by the term “jam band” because it pigeon holes so many diverse bands but anyone at that late night Galactic set would laughed if they heard that’s how someone described their music….It’s already a known fact that they drop the New Orleans funk on par with The Meters but they can play anything under the stars and showed they could not only imitate some DJ’s beats but also improve upon them…Their guests included a whose who of California/underground hip hop, Charli 2na, Lyrics Born, Lateef the Truth Speaker, Lyrics Born, Gift of Gab, Mr. Lif and Boots Riley…Gift of Gab and Lateef opened under the name “The Underdogs”…The Gift of Gab came back out for Galactic to open the show…Basically one of the guest MCs would do 2-3 songs and then Galactic would 2-3 of their instrumental songs and so on and so on…Highlights included Lyrics Born doing “I Changed My Mind,” Lateef doing “Lady Don’t Tek No” (which he also did with DJ Shadow the night before so hearing that song twice live was quite the treat), Lateef and Lyrics Born on the stage at the same time as Latyrx and played a new song off the upcoming Galactic album which was the best song I heard from the new album…I was also excited to hear Lyrics Born tell the audience to look forward to a new Latyrx album…Mr. Lif and Charli 2na were also fantastic but from a long day and even longer night my memory of shaky of what exactly played but I know I was moving my feet….Having gone to the first three Bonnaroo’s and then taking two years off before going again this year has me already looking forward to next years Bonnaroo!