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i've been on a 2 week roadtrip back east to visit family and to hit up the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, TN which took place 2 weekends ago. Sorry if anyone has posted about the festivities, but i havent had a chance to jump on here and check. A quick search for "bonnaroo" turned up nothing - so maybe noone even knew this was happening in the first place.
Bonnaroo has been around for 6 or 7 years now and having grown up on the east coast USA i never made the effort to get out to it. Now that i live in Colorado i somehow felt the need to drive across the country with some friends to experience it. But after seeing the initial lineup consisting of some of my favorites from all over the spectrum - Xavier Rudd, Rodrigo & Gabriela, The White Stripes, The String Cheese Incident, Michael Franti & Spearhead - as well as some i was dying to check out and it paid off like Kings of Leon, Tool, the Police, Widespread Panic and a million other acts - not to mention Sasha & Digweed were closing a tent on saturday night.
Now i've been to see each of these guys about 8 times each on their own, probably 4 times spinning together and been to see them all over the world. Some of the best sets i've ever heard were Diggers new years set in LA @ Avalon and a Diggers set @ the Beach in Brighton, England as well as a Sasha set back in the heydey at Buzz in DC. Let me just say that this set blew every one of those out of the water and then some.
Their set time was 1:30 - 3:30 on saturday night....which i was sort of upset about because 2 hours and they're just getting started. Every other act in the festival kept to their set times, and some cut it short. Its too hard to see every hour of every set you want for 4 days so we tried to catch the tail end of both Tool & the Police sets due to being dead tired....both of these acts cut their sets 45 minutes or 30 minutes short. The only 2 acts i heard that did this. So we didnt get to take in what we wanted with them.
So Sat. night we go in to see The Flaming Lips who were playing for an hour and then the S & D set started. We took in an hour of Wayne Coyne's craziness and fun and then jetted over to the tent which was already rockin. It seemed like in a festival of 100,000+ hippies who mostly came to see bluegrass and jambands, those who knew their stuff or just liked good dance music gave this tent the best vibe and buzz i've ever had during a S&D set. I got dead center of the tent and made my way a little up front and danced my ass off for 2 hours during some of the most evil & twisted and perfectly placed tracks back2back i've ever heard. The mixing was insanely good and they never played more than 2 tracks in a row before handing off the reigns. It was sort of hard to see their workings due to this huge light structure behind them that made their energy that much sweeter. Needless to say at 3:30 i was expecting a big track and then the the close but never got it. The tent just got stronger with people and the cheering and good vibes persisted and the guys looked like they were having a great time. Sasha had spun the year before and probably loved the crowd then and decided to do it again. When it was all said and done - they kept up that evil peaktime digweed experience between the 2 of them for 2 more hours, ending at 5:30AM just as the sun was peaking up over the trees. The crowd wanted more, the guys wanted to spin more - but i think someone in charge finally put the word out. I've never seen a more fulfilled crowd in my life and walked back to the tents as my friends were getting up with the biggest grin on my face from what they had missed.
I'm no trainspotter - all i know is i havent been keeping up with the transitions sets for about a month and every track was new to me......except - the boys always like to drop one of my favorite artists it seems when i see them. Sasha did his remix of Chemical Brothers - out of control which i love - and then, after stopping the set at 5:30 - diggers puts on a twisted evil remix of the new chemical brothers tune - Do it Again (which i'm still warming up to) which blew the place up. This remix is what the boys should have put on their new album. Anyways - it was a killer night and a helluva set - and for anyone that made it out and didnt stop during the whole thing i know they would echo my feelings. Just thought you should know - 2 guys from across the pond rocked out a tent in redneck heaven USA - i never thought i'd see that happen.
Bonnaroo has been around for 6 or 7 years now and having grown up on the east coast USA i never made the effort to get out to it. Now that i live in Colorado i somehow felt the need to drive across the country with some friends to experience it. But after seeing the initial lineup consisting of some of my favorites from all over the spectrum - Xavier Rudd, Rodrigo & Gabriela, The White Stripes, The String Cheese Incident, Michael Franti & Spearhead - as well as some i was dying to check out and it paid off like Kings of Leon, Tool, the Police, Widespread Panic and a million other acts - not to mention Sasha & Digweed were closing a tent on saturday night.
Now i've been to see each of these guys about 8 times each on their own, probably 4 times spinning together and been to see them all over the world. Some of the best sets i've ever heard were Diggers new years set in LA @ Avalon and a Diggers set @ the Beach in Brighton, England as well as a Sasha set back in the heydey at Buzz in DC. Let me just say that this set blew every one of those out of the water and then some.
Their set time was 1:30 - 3:30 on saturday night....which i was sort of upset about because 2 hours and they're just getting started. Every other act in the festival kept to their set times, and some cut it short. Its too hard to see every hour of every set you want for 4 days so we tried to catch the tail end of both Tool & the Police sets due to being dead tired....both of these acts cut their sets 45 minutes or 30 minutes short. The only 2 acts i heard that did this. So we didnt get to take in what we wanted with them.
So Sat. night we go in to see The Flaming Lips who were playing for an hour and then the S & D set started. We took in an hour of Wayne Coyne's craziness and fun and then jetted over to the tent which was already rockin. It seemed like in a festival of 100,000+ hippies who mostly came to see bluegrass and jambands, those who knew their stuff or just liked good dance music gave this tent the best vibe and buzz i've ever had during a S&D set. I got dead center of the tent and made my way a little up front and danced my ass off for 2 hours during some of the most evil & twisted and perfectly placed tracks back2back i've ever heard. The mixing was insanely good and they never played more than 2 tracks in a row before handing off the reigns. It was sort of hard to see their workings due to this huge light structure behind them that made their energy that much sweeter. Needless to say at 3:30 i was expecting a big track and then the the close but never got it. The tent just got stronger with people and the cheering and good vibes persisted and the guys looked like they were having a great time. Sasha had spun the year before and probably loved the crowd then and decided to do it again. When it was all said and done - they kept up that evil peaktime digweed experience between the 2 of them for 2 more hours, ending at 5:30AM just as the sun was peaking up over the trees. The crowd wanted more, the guys wanted to spin more - but i think someone in charge finally put the word out. I've never seen a more fulfilled crowd in my life and walked back to the tents as my friends were getting up with the biggest grin on my face from what they had missed.
I'm no trainspotter - all i know is i havent been keeping up with the transitions sets for about a month and every track was new to me......except - the boys always like to drop one of my favorite artists it seems when i see them. Sasha did his remix of Chemical Brothers - out of control which i love - and then, after stopping the set at 5:30 - diggers puts on a twisted evil remix of the new chemical brothers tune - Do it Again (which i'm still warming up to) which blew the place up. This remix is what the boys should have put on their new album. Anyways - it was a killer night and a helluva set - and for anyone that made it out and didnt stop during the whole thing i know they would echo my feelings. Just thought you should know - 2 guys from across the pond rocked out a tent in redneck heaven USA - i never thought i'd see that happen.
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