popwreckoning

I was incredibly nervous and intimated when I went in for a pre-show meet and greet with Julian Casablancas. Why? Well, wouldn’t you be about ready to wet your pants too if you were about to meet a musician you idolized, a guy that was about to headline the main stage at one of the US’s biggest festivals, an SNL sensation, a brilliant singer and songwriter and as if all that wasn’t enough, I was warned that Julian might be a little touchy if you brought up that “the “S” word band he sometimes performs with.”

In fact, in a soon to be posted interview with the California opening act Funeral Party, I was told that one of the guys in that band tried to bring up that “The ‘S’ word band” and got a death stare. Eeks!

Excited, but nervous, we were hustled into a hallway to wait while sound check finished up. A Julian Casablancas song melted into…yes, my ears weren’t deceiving me…a The Strokes song. It made me feel bolder and ready to meet the esteemed performer (and it made feel bold enough to finally type out ‘Strokes’).

Once Julian finally came over to us, I was completely taken aback by his genuine niceness and relaxed vibe. He shook hands with our group, his leather jacket riding up just enough to show a glimpse of a treble clef tattoo on his right wrist. A feather clip bounced around on his dark hair as he tried to make awkward small talk. This was the man I was so afraid of? The one I thought would bite my head off if I slipped up or proved not cool enough?

As the meet-and-greet wrapped up, Julian even jokingly quipped, “Don’t worry about sticking around for that second act. Funeral Party is where it is at. Does anyone even know the name of that second guy?” Modesty from one of the US’s biggest performers? Refreshing.

Funeral Party was an enjoyable set. Sparkly, reflective ‘F’ and ‘P’ cutouts adorned the stage as the guys danced around to their Head Automatica-esque grooves. They’re a fresh act from Cali, so there were a few moments where the identity got lost (um, not sure I was ready for that slip in of the Beatles), but I think if they tighten up some more they’ve got some potential to really explode int the scene.

Now, as much as I love Julian, I ignored and I stuck around for that no-name second act he told us to skip: him. He didn’t disappoint and now that he’s sobered up and gained more control over his performance, he even topped out that the time I saw him with the Strokes.

A lot of people like to criticize the Strokes for not having worked for their success, but the more I learn and see about the side projects, the angrier I become at those that would dare call these performers unworthy of their fame. Julian’s solo album is catchy, with fun dance riffs. It is similar enough to his other band that it doesn’t alienate all his old fans, but it adventures off into synth land enough as well as some other styles that it is a great push to test what he’s capable of. Live, he stands up to the album’s solid recording sound. Now, with him touring backed with a new band that includes two drummers, while he downplays his the Strokes connection, I don’t know how you could argue that he isn’t talented and working hard to establish himself.

Julian’s solo show is hard to stand still during. He is a confident performer: his vocals never waiver as he cups the microphone close. He is an obliging performer: he thanks the crowd, treats us to a new one, two songs by the Strokes and of course, the song we all wanted to hear even though it was April: the SNL Christmas cover. “Hard to Explain” was done acoustically and was a great sing along to with his signature yowls. It really get the crowd vamped up before exploding into single “11th Dimension.” This song even had extra quirks to make it stand apart from the rest: when he got to the line, “mind full of blank…” a cymbal crash filled in his next word, while he cocked his head to the side. Before announcing, “I Wish it Was Christmas Today,” Julian said, “I don’t know. We just do it. And people like it. So we do it. It’s the Christmas song,” and the crowd absolutely exploded. I can’t even get over how excited people were for this.

As much as the audience seemed to love that song, the tune I thought was unstoppable was the encore performance of “Out of the Blue.” Fittingly shadowed in blue lights, Julian finally stepped out from the microphone stand and reached out to the audience. For the first time this whole show, he not only came out of the blue, but out of his shell – he moved around more than I had ever seen him move. The crowd fed off his energy making this song extra fun.

I must say that I’m glad I ignored Julian’s advice during the meet-and-greet and I stuck around for that second performer. There’s still some dates left on this tour and if you don’t already have tickets, get them. You’ll probably never get a chance to see him in such an intimate setting again.

Julian Casablancas’ Set List:
New One
Ludlow Street
River of Brakelights
H2e (Hard to Explain – The Strokes)
11th Dimension
I’ll Try Anything (The Strokes)
Left and Right in the Dark
Xmas (SNL cover)
–
Out of the Blue
4 Chords
(Tourist)

Bonnaroo Day 1: Thursday, June 11…

Bonnaroo, or the Roo as some like to call it (although Colin Meloy will tell you that anytime anybody calls it that, a kitten dies), is unreal if you have never been to a camping music festival. The festival is just as much about what happens off the stage as what happens on it. In fact, sometimes what happens out in the crowd or the campgrounds is even more interesting than the music you hear on stage.

I’m not sure you can even properly prepare for something like this fest. After having checked the weather 800 times and all the lists of what to bring and what not to bring, I thought we would be more than prepared. We even left a day early to make sure we’d get a good campsite. However, Mother Nature had other plans for us. A hailstorm caused us to crash outside of St. Louis and we weren’t the only ones who had problems. Delta Spirit didn’t make it to Manchester in time and had to crash land outside of Dallas. Fortunately, the festival promoters, Big Hassle Media, and crew, were flexible and quickly helped find a new time and a stage for the band to play after their struggles to make it successfully to Tennessee. Unfortunately, for us PopWreckers, we couldn’t very well ask the festival to hold off on some of our favorite artists playing Thursday until we got there so we missed acts like Julia Nunes and White Rabbits. Not that arriving in Manchester in time for those acts meant anything. To claim a campsite and get into Centeroo, the main grounds for the festival, you still need to get there like 8 hours early. Also, there are several entrances, and somehow we beat some of our friends in after they had been sitting in line for hours. Granted, I would not be surprised if they weren’t accidentally behind a parked car somewhere and didn’t realize that it wasn’t moving for that reason. So that brings me to lessons 1 and 2:

Be patient. You will be waiting in a line of cars for hours just to get in for camping and you will see many give up and start walking into the grounds. It helps if you already have car snacks so you aren’t tempted by the overpriced vendors lining the streets.

Don’t pick up hitchhikers. People will try to hitch a ride with you into the campgrounds. Don’t let them. You don’t know what they’re carrying and they do search your cars before letting you in the campgrounds.
Now, I’ve never been camping in my entire life and here is where I made my other major mistake. I thought tents took like 5 minutes to set up, but after Joshua and I struggled with my family tent, an army guy took pity and tried to help, and I called my father who annoyingly asked if we had tried looking at the instructions, we finally gave up. Fortunately, our kind neighbors from Alabama took pity on us and loaned us a far easier tent to set up. The festival has people from all walks of life, but the one thing I can say that everybody I have met here have in common is that they are all super nice. Lesson 3:

Practice your tent or camper set up before you come. Trust me, it will save you from looking like an idiot later.

A camp somewhat set up, we were finally ready to venture into the actual festival portion. Walls of RVs and tents soon broke into new walls of port-a-potties and vendors selling everything from tie-dye to arepas (a delicious, but greasy, fried corn and cheese sort of patty). A giant ferris wheel served as our navigation point to an entrance where we saw our first real signs of drugs and the nastier side of the festival. A bad trip had a man seizing already by the entrance to the fest and security struggled to keep people moving past. So, lesson 4:

Drugs are bad. I know, I know, this is supposed to be stoner fest, but that shit was scary. So don’t do it. Seizing on day 1 does not look like fun. Also, you should not be surprised like the girl in front of me at the check-in was when security takes away your shrooms. This fest is actually trippy enough without the aid of drugs.

Security took awhile to get through, but so far that has only been an issue for Thursday. Once inside Centeroo, we learned that it wasn’t much different than the campsites with the exception that there were now stages. There were still walls of port-a-potties and vendors and people were camped out already at their favorite stages. We wandered for a bit and saw a lot of people throwing their hands up for Murs as we made our way over to This Tent for our first band: Hockey.

Hockey was a band I didn’t know much about, but after watching their singer dance around with a sweatband singing tunes that would make fans of Hot Hot Heat, Head Automatica and Hellogoodbye go crazy for, I was hooked. Throw in a huge instrumental build up with extra drums and keys and you have a great set. Hockey even surprised by throwing in some jazzier elements and they are definitely one band I can’t wait to hear more from in the future.

We jumped from Hockey to catch the crew in Portugal. The Man over in That Tent. It was a bit of a walk, but considering these guys came all the way from Alaska, it was worth it. This band’s unique vocal blend that I almost want to compare to Zeppelin without actually saying they are Zeppelinesque. There’s a yowl quality and some crazy guitar riffs. They also had this really cool effect made from unplugging and replugging the guitar that almost made it sound like a strange accordion.

We quickly learned lesson 5:

Wear good shoes and be ready to walk. We spent most of Thursday navigating through the throngs of vendors and people going from This Tent to That Tent and wearing out really quickly.

We went from Portugal. The Man back to the hipster-loving Chairlift. The usual the threesome were sometimes joined by a fourth person giving them the freedom to have more backing vocals or more guitars. Once the singer let down her hair, the set really turned into a dance party as she sang popular tunes “Bruises” and “Evident Utensil.”

For those under the tent, the party was non-stop. For those not as lucky to be a part of this set, they were battling the greatest problem of having an outdoor festival: the weather. As foretold in the forecast, it was if all hell broke loose and rain just poured down on the grounds, quickly turning the sandy grass into a muddy mess. As I began sinking into the ground even under the comfort of the tent, I was forced into taking off my flip flops for fear I lose them and standing in the mud. I somehow worked my way up to the side stage area where the ground was a little more firm before watching my final act of the night. But lesson 6:

Pack a poncho. I know they’re a silly looking, but they are handy.

Crappy weather couldn’t keep spirits down and the hipsters (and the hippies) continued to dance when buzz band Passion Pit took the stage. This band owned the night as lead singer Michael Angelakos jumped between vocal ranges and got the audience singing along. Highlights of the set were “Live to Tell Tale” and my personal favorite “Sleepyhead,” which sounds like the Shins if they had tons of caffeine. Angelakos and the band claimed to be nervous in front of their largest crowd ever, but with how confident they sounded once performing, it was hard to believe that just moments before, Angelakos was nervously pacing backstage with a towel over his head.

Passion Pit Set List:
Better Things
Make Light
Let Your Love
I Got Your Number
Little Secrets
Live to Tell Tale
Fold in your Hands
Moth Swings
Sleepyhead
Smile Upon Me
The Reeling

In an attempt to beat the second wave of weather, we left after Passion Pit only to discover Bonnaroo at night. Immediately outside of the tent were large flames coming out of a strange mix of a seesaw wickerman. Further along, giant lightning bug decorations guided our way to the fountain in the festival’s center before a violin solo from the Zac Brown Band distracted us into watching another band for a few moments. After the guy finished flying across the strings we decided to jet as well, but alas. All these distractions proved to be big time stallers and we soon found ourselves trapped in another monsoon. This is when we learned our final lesson of the day. Lesson 7:

Know where your tent is located!!!

I can’t even begin to stress how important this lesson is. We thought we knew how to get to pink balloon 8, but they had lowered the balloons in the weather and we had left through a different exit and didn’t know any of the streets through the campsites. We could have taken one of the golf cart taxis, but didn’t know how to direct them to our camp. After wandering through mud, rain and tents we finally discovered our camp much later than we intended and crashed after our the crash course that was Bonnaroo Day 1.

And so ends our first day at Bonnaroo. Look for Day 2 and photo posts to be added soon!

Bonnaroo: website

Photos by: Joshua Hammond