Roo Wrap-up

Well, Bill and I survived the Bonnaroo Festival and we're back in Akron (although I should mention that due to a few incidents involving a tour bus bunk, I nearly didn't make it, and Bill developed a serious addiction to samosas which almost prevented him from voluntarily returning to Ohio).

I know Bill had a lot of cool experiences (hanging out with Alejandro Escovedo and his band was a highlight, I believe) and he's writing about those here.

I've been to the festival four times now, and I've seen a lot of crazy stuff, but I have to say that every year something new and cool happens that I never expected.

Musically speaking, my favorite experiences were seeing Phoenix, Grizzly Bear and Rodrigo y Gabriela for the first time, and seeing of Montreal for the fourth (their stage show is bizarre and always interesting; this time it included crowd surfing, people in pig costumes and instrument demolition).

On Sunday night, we happened to be hanging around the radio camp when backstage passes for Phish got handed out. Having been backstage at the Main Stage last year, I knew Bill and I had to go. Bill was a little doubtful, but when we got up there and looked out over the thousands of crazy Phish fans he understood why I was so anxious to go up there.

Earlier in the day, Bill happened to start a conversation with one of Bruce Springsteen's security guards (apparently the Boss was checking out some live music) and found out that he might be joining Phish onstage that night.

Sure enough, Bruce came out and played three songs with Phish: Mustang Sally, Bobby Jean and Glory Days. We had a prime spot to see the whole thing backstage and got some great pictures.

That was the last show of the festival and a great way to wrap up Bonnaroo 2009. I can't wait to see what kind of stops they pull out next year!



(Don't forget to check out our Flickr page for more pictures)