Bonnaroo Blog 3

6/13 950am

How am I so awake this early? Actually woke up at around 3am and again briefly at 6am before finally really waking up at about 720am...the tent area gets a little warm when you keep the door zipped up all night! Ah, my first camping experience...I realize being in the guest camping area just steps away from the media/Radio Bonnaroo area isn't exactly roughing it, but by my standards, this is about as close as I'll get. Got to sleep fairly easily last night around 1am...called it a night early (by Bonnaroo standards) in order to be ready for a busy day today...

By the time we got our accomodations and tent situated last night, we had missed MGMT, Newton Faulkner, What Made Milwaukee Famous and Nicole Atkins, but were able to catch Battles and The Sword around 10pm or so. Big crowds for both and the energy is palpable just walking around, let alone as you get closer to one of the music tents. Vampire Weekend seemed to really feed off the energy and played a very spirited set, including some new songs. A lot better interaction with the crowd too than when I saw them in Austin at SXSW..."the punks and the hippies and the frat boys and girls can all get along" and "we're pretty much a jam band...but with short songs" were my favorite quotes from the VW lead singer...

Wandered over to Lez Zeppelin (the female Zep tribute band) and heard accomplished versions of "What is and What Should Never Be" and "The Ocean," but we didn't have enough energy to hang around for a Robert Plant guest appearance that wasn't likely to happen anyway (he's here with Alison Krauss Sunday).

You could definitely still hear the strains for both VW and LZ as we arrived back at the campsite, but it was a dull enough din of noise to get a good night's sleep to before our big Friday the 13th, featuring Drive-By Truckers, Jose Gonzalez, The Swell Season, The Raconteurs, Willie Nelson, and of course the mighty Chris Rock, Metallica and My Morning Jacket!

Will try to call in a report or 2 this afternoon if I can get a cell phone signal out of here...Jaclyn will talk to you from the Radio Bonnaroo studios tomorrow at noon and I'll be on at noon on Sunday! Cheers!