By Jon Stone | @jwstone

I’ve been home from Bonnaroo for a good 24 hours and am only just starting to feel like a normal human being again. Granted my back still aches, my feet still hurt, and I am still in a haze thinking about the long weekend of amazing music, sweltering heat, and general debauchery that was the 4-day fest. To say that I had a great time would be an understatement. To say that I am glad to be home — also putting it lightly.

Despite all that heat and sweat, I can honestly say it was the best musical experience that I have yet had and, as I have said in previous updates, a large percentage of my favorite bands played the fest so it was incredible to hear them in succession, often one directly following the next. That just doesn’t happen in a regular concert dimension. Bonnaroo is an alternate musical dimension in every sense of those words.

Sunday

The last day of the fest was fairly laid back. We packed up our stuff and wandered around the grounds catching a few songs from Ingrid Michaelson, Monte Montgomery and Japandroids (none really keeping my boat afloat, though Montgomery really plays that guitar). I caught most of Calexico’s set and look forward to spending more time with their catalog this summer. Though I grew up in Tucson, AZ, Calexico was completely off my suburban radar in the 90s. Hearing them play both made me miss the desert, and pine after a less-conventional teenage musical pallet.

Later, we wandered a bit more and saw a few songs each from alt-country darlings Lucero, jazz greats (with stoner appeal) Medeski Martin & Wood, piano-pop princess Regina Spektor, CCR patriarch John Fogerty, and country legend Kris Kristofferson. How’s that for a schizophrenic mixtape?

We closed off the Bonnaroo experience by watching most of the set from They Might Be Giants. For us it was the perfect closer. John Flansburgh and John Linnell were cheesy, silly, and not just a tad over-the-top. After four days in the sun, can you think of a better formula for smiles? TMBG have been making music for a LONG time together — 26 years long, incredibly — and it shows. In addition to the above mentioned traits they are also consummate professionals, and master song-smiths. To be honest, I’ve listened to them more in the last five years since I’ve had kids than I ever did before, but with albums like “Here Come the ABCs” and last months “Here Comes Science,” they make the often-intolerable kid tunes genre enjoyable (with only Dan Zanes doing a better job, I think). We bounced along to “Particle Man” and “Istanbul (not Constantinople),” and when they started shooting big gobs of confetti into the audience, it felt like our party was coming to a tired but happy conclusion.

So there you have it. I can’t thank Ryan enough for giving me the opportunity to cover the fest for the blog. I’ll never forget the experience. Tomorrow I’ll post some final thoughts and try to get some of my pictures up (though you can find some really great picture sets here and here as well).

By Jon Stone | @jwstone

Saturday at Bonnaroo is all about endurance. And pace. And, if you can get it, a bit of rest. I would say that around 5% of the folks here follow those important rules of thumb (which is to say I saw a lot of people passed out today. At 1pm). If Friday was a day of sampling, Saturday was a day of full sets, and I was lucky enough to find most of what I was interested in happening in one place. The fatigue is setting in, so I’ll be as brief as I can (with promises that with Sunday’s report — coming Monday! — to offer some final words on the fest once it has had some time to sink in).

Before parking my aching bones in That Tent for the day, I had a few stops to make:

11:45 – Dawes: I’m quickly becoming a groupie, aren’t I? We showed up early for the Sonic Stage set. I stood on the front row, sung along to every word, frequently yelled “Griffin!” during the set, hoping the drummer would notice me. I’m only kind of kidding. The set was similar to last night’s with a John Prine song thrown in to honor the performance from JP later that day. All day I told everybody who would listen about Dawes. I’m obsessed.

12:55 – The Avett Brothers: Remember that Chase Freedom lounge place I was talking about in the last update? Yesterday the Avett Brothers played that little tent for a handful of fans. It was a very rare opportunity to see one of my favorite bands in what could have easily been my front room. They played their way through a nice eleven-song set and I was charmed, once again, and my brother is their newest fan.

1:55 – Brandi Carlile: After the Avett’s I began my four hour residency in That Tent for what turned out to be a wonderful, indeed, historic afternoon. Carlile got us warmed up. This was my first time hearing her play live and while my tastes are more in line with the kind of stuff Jill Andrews was playing yesterday, Brandi’s songwriting and swagger were great to hear. She has some very devoted fans; several women, I noticed, were crying through some of the numbers.

3:15 – Dave Rawlings Machine: Dave and Gillian Welch are two of my favorite artists, hands down. Seeing them, regardless of who’s material they are focusing on, is a privilege and I was very much looking forward to their set. I should also add that Rawling’s record has been one I’ve played more than most over the last year. Though it took me a while to figure it out, the rest of the “Machine” was filled out by members from Old Crow Medicine Show, who, during “Sweet tooth,” would engage in some synchronized dancing. The band played some great songs, highlights for me included the epic “Method Acting/Cortez the Killer” and the appropriate-for-Bonnaroo “To be Young (is to be sad, is to be high).” Gillian also played “Miss Ohio.”

5:00 – Mumford & Sons: This was the historic part of the afternoon. It began when the major-buzzing English bluegrass (for lack of a better designation) band took the stage. We were already close to that stage since we’d been there for so long, but people packed in to see M&S. I was a little turned off by the huge fan influx, to be honest. That little too-cool-for-school voice in my head wondered what the big deal could be (this, even after loving their record – suppressing that inner hipster is tough sometimes. I’m not proud of these thoughts). The major question I had, and I think it is a legitimate one, was this: does band deserve the hype it was getting? I had to wonder and I kept wondering until about halfway through the first song of the set. It only took that long. I’ll spend some more time talking about why I think that M&S deserves every bit of hype that they are getting when I have a few more minutes than I have now, but I will say now that Mumford and Sons is a band well beyond the years of its young members. I hope they will be around for a long time. The last two songs was a big hootenanny of Dylan’s “Wagon Wheel” and an Old Crow song with a name that evades a the moment (so bad without the internet for these details, folks.)

Here’s the rest of my night in a few words: I stayed in That Tent for about half good ol’ John Prine’s set. Ran into Taylor from Dawes again (who is a big fan). Tried to repress the urge to hug him. Wandered away in a daze. Tried to get into the press seats for Stevie Wonder. Realized I was not even close to cool enough for that. Regardless, however, I had the time of my life (and I’ve never felt this way before) watching Stevie play some of my favorite songs of all time (“Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” “Sir Duke,” & “Living for the City”). I was told by the woman in front of me that I was singing loudly but that she liked it (a passive aggressive move, I think). And, most significantly, I think, had a moment watching Stevie Wonder – Stevie Wonder – play the harmonica during “For Once in My Life” where I had to fight the tears and pinch myself.

Great day.

Tomorrow I’ve got Calexico and Lucero on the agenda with the intention to pop around a bit to see what I can see. We have to leave a bit early tomorrow so I can make it back to teach a class on Monday (Summer session starts at the U of I!), but will look forward to catching Phoenix at Lolla later in the summer.

By Jon Stone | @jwstone

Day two here in Manchester was absolutely fantastic. I think on Friday, everyone starts finding a groove, figures out how to navigate the farm, makes a couple of friends, and – if the typical Bonnarooian is anything like me, hears some favorites on stage. Today three of my favorite bands – played. Almost back to back. I have a feeling I’ll be talking about much of what happened today for a long time—meeting both Bob Boilen (of NPR Music’s All Songs Considered) and Matt Berninger (of the National), for example. Incredible. What a day.

One thing I stressed a lot about before getting here was coping with missing bands because of conflicts. While this is an inevitability, Bonnarro is set up much better than other festivals I’ve been to (Lollapollooza, Newport Folk) to bounce between stages. It’s a little like a live mixtape, or deli tray or whatever– you can hear a few She & Him songs, for example, and be on your way to hear the National. No big loss. And it’s only a five minute walk from one place to the next. Catching one or two songs of a band is sometimes a perfect introduction.

Here’s a quick rundown, of who I heard and what I thought on Friday:

11:30 – Dr. Dog: acoustic set in the press tent. I kind of stumbled into this, as Dr. Dog played for the press assembled for an orientation. They played three or four songs on acoustic guitar, banjo, and steel resonator. Suitcases were banged on with floor pedals and, I think, they made fans of everyone there as soon as they opened their mouths to sing the first three-part harmony chorus. It was my first time seeing them, and that was surely the case for me.

12:00 – Trombone Shorty: As I mention above, sometimes Bonnaroo is best approached as a sampler – I caught the opening song as I walked from the press area to what would be the bluegrass tent for much of the day. Funky! Great horns (that’s the whole point, right?), really groovy wah-wah guitar, and I was dancing as I made my way past.

12:15 – Punch Brothers: Chris Thile’s band is my favorite bluegrass act playing right now, and probably in my top five favorite bands period. Thile has great stage presence –quipping easy one-liners between songs and what a crowd! I loved that there was so many fans there – we nearly filled the tent. They played songs off of all three records and drew heavily from their new record Antifogmatic (which comes out Tuesday and is great, by the way). The best thing about Punch Brothers is that they make technical and masterful playing look spontaneous. The set also included several covers, including “Reptilia” from the Strokes and Radiohead’s “Morning Bell.”

1:20 – Jill Andrews: I missed Jill Andrews when she came through Champaign and immediately regretted it. She played a small stage under a tent, café style with tables and chairs and presented the perfect moment to sit, chill out a bit and eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Jill offers a lovely combination of country infused folk, and I can’t wait until her first record. I couldn’t wait so much that I picked up her EP on my way out the tent.

3:00 – Punch Brothers pt. II: Sorry—I can’t get enough of these guys and jumped at a chance to see them  playing again at the smaller “Sonic” stage. It ended up being an ironic name because the set was marred with audio difficulties, forcing the band to gather old-time like around a single microphone in the middle. They didn’t play any repeats, and I was lucky enough to hear them play their version of Radiohead’s “Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box” – and while the sound problems kept it from sounding as good as it could have, I am still amazed at the way they imitate all those Thom Yorke percussive taps and pops with various parts of their acoustic instruments. Brilliant.

4:00 – Hot Rize from the Chase Lounge: My brother has access to this little non-descript tent they’re calling the Chase Freedom Lounge. It’s for Chase card-holders only and they pipe in video feed from two stages, have lemonade, computers, clean bathrooms – it’s a freaking oasis. We sat and watched Sugar Hill’s incredible veterans of bluegrass joke and jibe their way through a country/bluegrass set . . . in the air conditioning. It almost felt like a sin. Almost.

4:30 – Dr. Dog, regular set: I was so impressed by the earlier set from Dr. Dog that I was anxious to see them again. Their main-stage set ended up being completely different than the morning stuff and showed the versatility of this really great band. I really enjoyed the dirty rock sound countered with sweet Hammond organ and great vocal sound, from both lead singers. I came to Bonnaroo having listened casually to Dr. Dog and will leave excited to see them again and explore their records more intently. This is what festivals should do.

5:00 – She and Him: I really just wanted to catch a glimpse of Zooey and Matt before moving across the farm to get a good spot for the National. They had the biggest crowd assembled that I had yet seen, and I think that this is due to both Zooey’s star power/name recognition, but also to the relative universal appeal of her sunshiny pop. When she (and him) came out she danced through their first song and I was glad that brings a decent presence to her stage, rather than just standing and singing. (It would be great if M. Ward shows up somewhere else today or tomorrow playing, but I doubt it’s gonna happen)

5:45 – The National: Wow, what a set. The crowd wondered out loud if Matt would take the stage as per usual in a suit. When he came out wearing a dress vest, we grinned. It came off after the second song. We grinned again. The National is tough to sum up in a little log blurb like this, so here are a few highlights:

• Matt found his way into the crowd on three separate occasions.
• He tossed his wine glass to the audience early in the set, only to ask for it back, fill it again and then supervise its return to the person who caught it.
• They played a long set, covering songs from their entire catalog with a healthy chunk coming off of High Violet.

It was a great show. Love that band.

7:30 – Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers: I tweeted about how crazy it was to go from the National to Steve Martin. Only at Bonnaroo could such emotional sonic opposites be encountered within minutes of each other. It was fun to see Steve Martin, to play along with his shtick, and enjoy his amazing back-up band. Martin can really play that banjo (it’s not just a gimmick! The Grammy was [probably] justified!]. At one point he talked about how he’s shooting a moive with Jack Black right now and then Jack Black himself, fresh off his Tenacious D set, stuck his head out from back-stage. The crowd went nuts.

8:30 – Dawes: And the awesome music just kept coming. Dawes blew me away once again. Instead of playing to a crowd of Edward Sharpe fans like they were last week when I saw them, this time they were playing to a small but intensely devoted group of their fans. It made such a difference. Everybody was singing along, dancing, and having an amazing time. They closed the set with a really sweet song with the repeated refrain, “I’ve got a feeling it’s gonna be alright” and brought out members of the Magnetic Zeros for support. Notably, Jade and Taylor sang the chorus arm in arm. It was awesome. Dawes is very quickly becoming my favorite band of the moment and I make no apologies for going to see them again today in about an hour on that same small Sonic stage I mentioned before.

After Dawes I made my way back to the camping area to get some dinner, get cleaned up, and sit down for a while. Kings of Leon played a set to what was surely most of Bonnaroo and I was, frankly, happy to miss it.

We went back at midnight to see the Black Keys, and watched about half of their set. It was alright. I love that huge guitar sound, but – and this comes after spending several weeks listening to the records almost exclusively – the set got a bit repetitive and after being wowed by Dawes and the National, it was tough to stick around. We wandered a bit more, saw the massive (and I mean massive) crowd assembled to watch the Flaming Lips spectacle and made our way back to crash. What a day.

Today is going to great too. Hoping to catch Mumford & Sons, a bit of the Avett Brothers, Dave Rawlings Machine(!), and of course the mighty Stevie Wonder. Here we go!

By Jon Stone | @jwstone

After getting off to a rough start (unprecedented line wait in the car – mine ended up being exactly ten hours — 8:30am-6:30pm), the sun eventually went down and Bonnaroo 2010 kicked off in earnest. Yesterday ended up being a bit of a wandering day for me, I sampled as much as I could and, after not sleeping the night before due to the all-night drive in from Champaign, I was in a bit of a daze anyway, so wander was about all I can do. (Another press guy just told me that I got pwnd by the cops by getting diverted into the main line. Apparently there was a press entrance. I don’t even want to think about it though. I had the experience of THE PEOPLE!)  Here is a quick rundown of what I saw yesterday:

7:00pm: Sarah Jarosz – I’ve said a lot about Sarah here on the blog before. I’m enchanted by her sweet poppy bluegrass and hearing her set after my horrible day in my non-air conditioned car was so sweet.  She played her way through a few of my favorites from the record, and threw covers from Patti Smith (“Long Black Limousines”) and Bob Dylan (“Ring them Bells”). I’m gonna see about an interview with Sarah here later today, so we’ll see how that goes.

7:30pm: Local Natives – I popped over to hear the Local Natives just in time to hear my favorite song on the record “Who Knows Who Cares.” It was my theme song of the day. Those harmonies were so sweet. I can’t wait to see them again soon.

8:00pm: me wandering around looking for food. Getting lost deep back stage, and almost inadvertently walked off site.

9:00pm: Dodos – I rocked these guys a bunch in the car in line. The large Bonnaroo stage seemed a bit much for these guys, though. Several times, the beat was lost, muddled, or just plain dropped by the drummer. They play frequently in Champaign, though, so I’ll look forward to that.

10:15pm: Blitzen Trapper – Man, these guys are good live. So pristine, with vocal harmonies so tight they are nearly crystalline. The set included favorites off of Furr as well as the great new record, Destroyer of the Void.

11:40pm: The xx – They left us waiting for about a half hour after set time, but The xx did finally emerge from the light. It was cool – yeah, heavy on the cool. As an aficionado of early records by the Cure, I should like this band more. But, meh. I’d much rather see this band again in a club. So, yes, meh for now. Plus, wow was I tired.

For the rest of the night, my brother and I wandered around the grounds, stopped in to hear a bit of Lotus, watched the ravers at the rave stage (whatever it’s called), and tried to see hip hop act WALE. But WALE was almost 30 minutes late starting, so we left and I slept.

Today is going to be amazing. I’ve got the Punch Brothers, Dr. Dog, the National, Dawes, Steve Martin, and the Black Keys on my list on bands not to miss. More tomorrow!

By Jon Stone | @jwstone

Bonnaroo is less than a month away. And while this isn’t the first year Muzzle of Bees has covered the festival, it is the first time that I’ve covered it for Muzzle of Bees. In fact, this is my first time ever heading down to Tennessee for the epic four-day sun and dirt fest and I’m excited. I have a (large) handful of bands and artists that I’m looking forward to seeing. But still no schedule! There have been rumblings about why it has taken so long to come out. It isn’t typical procedure for it to be this late in May with no schedule announcement. With the Flaming Lips’ Steven Drozd in the hospital, rumors are flying as to whether his recovery before the festival is going to happen — and if, perhaps, the delay is due to the question marks surrounding that situation.

With no schedule, we’re left piecing together the days bands are playing from their individual websites. Here are the bands I’m most excited about on the days they’re playing.

First, the National’s website has them at Bonnaroo Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday. I so hope that’s true. Also, Jill Andrews, who you’ll remember from our feature a few weeks back, is scheduled to play every day. Awesome.

Here’s the rest — and here’s to hoping that there aren’t many conflicts:

Thursday: Sarah Jarosz, Local Natives, The Dodos

Friday: Punch Brothers, Dawes, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers, Dr. Dog, She & Him, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue

Saturday: Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, The Avett Brothers, Dave Rawlings Machine, Mumford & Sons, John Prine, Brandi Carlile

Sunday: Calexico, Lucero, Kris Kristofferson, Medeski Martin & Wood

For those of you going this year, who are you looking forward to seeing most — and who am I missing here? What are some tips you can give a first timer? Guilty pleasures? You’ll be seeing me at Weezer — for old time’s sake — unless they play during Stevie Wonder.  Can’t miss this.

We’re big fans of My Morning Jacket. A couple weeks ago we download a free “Best of Bonnaroo” compilation from Music For Action supporting new legislation for Clean Energy and Climate Change. We can get behind that. The said collection isn’t bulletproof, but does contain some nice gems, none finer than My Morning Jacket’s cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’” culled from their legendary marathon performance at Bonnaroo 2008.

MP3: My Morning Jacket – Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ (Bonnaroo)

Download: Morning Jacket Live at Bonnaroo June 13, 2008 (whole show)