This was my question to the girl in the center of this photo. “Get peed on!” was her answer. That’s right, the fan on the left of her is relieving himself into a water bottle while waiting for Ben Folds to go on stage on Saturday afternoon.
I’m just glad he found some relief a while all the photographers slowly backed away from him. Just another reason to never go barefoot at Bonnaroo.
Oh ya, Ben Folds rocked the stage once again for the adoring fans with a full band to round out his sound. I love Ben, but I just feel his music has so much more power with drums and bass (sometimes guitar). So I was glad to see the full lineup.
Last leg of the road trip for the Jeep, ‘cept for the 2 hour trip from Columbus to Kent to be done at the end of the month. The Jeep ad boat in tow will be left in Columbus while the house is packed up and I drive the truck to the new house in Kent.
Rudeness, over-ego, disrespect, call it what you want, but that’s the feeling of the late night that lasted until sunrise on Saturday. I wanted to check out Kanye West, something entirely different for the Bonnaroo crowd. He was first to go on around 8:00, at the same time jack Johnson was to go on. That didn’t fly with him so he was moved to the first late night show on the main stage to go on at 2:45 AM. Late, but reasonable for most of the Bonnaroo crowd. While everyone was waiting it was moved to 3:00…..3:15….3:30….3:45 (announced at 4:00 A.M.). I made two trips back to my tent, came back and he still wasn’t on. Finally at 4:20, fairly appropriate, though still uncalled for, Kanye took the stage. Well, It looked more like a giant laptop that he rapped to pre-recoded music. The music wasn’t great, the stage show was worse, and for all the hype and waiting, it was easily the worst show I’ve seen from my 6 years shooting ‘Roo. If I want to see a performance of someone walking around to a cheesy lights and “storyline” side show, I’ll watch my 4 year old niece’s DVDs. I was willing to give Kanye a chance even though he refused to make any changes in his show and had to move his time/stage throwing the schedule of the entire festival off. His disrespect for artists that played around him and common courtesy to the (few) fans left standing tells me more then enough about Kanye West. I won’t be stopping for his show at Lollapalooza, not worth another sleepless night when I have work to do covering the rest of the more talented artists.
I took in about 4 songs, had enough, and a few of us went to the Farris Wheel and actually caught sunrise at the top. I guess one good thing came from it.
At that point it was time for sleep. Hope I have enough energy to make it through one more Sunday after such a disappointing night. Death Cab for Cutie should be awsome, as with a few others, but slow day overall.
You you know this is nothing new. It’s hot every year. But I do have wireless at the campsite, which just rules. I’ll prob blog a bit more with it here. There was the normal lines of cars waiting to get in, and there was already a parade, kind lame though, about 10 people.
We’re set up behind the Comedy Tent which is very nice, about the same place Paul and I had a few years ago against the wall. The neighbors are cool (literally) as they are letting me hang out in their camper that has air conditioning.
I’ll throw a few more in there as well. Full coverage with a real writer and my photos will of course be on Spinner, they have some cool free MP3s of bands playing this year as a ramp up to our coverage.
So tomorrow I leave to my 6th year of Bonnaroo. Fully shooting and being directly paid from old employer, AOL. Coverage will be mostly on Spinner.com but also on AOL Music. All this means I’m being paid more because I can also resell my images as stock as well as being paid form AOL. Better all around for myself and my freelance business.
Downside? Hmmm…might be the line up. I had to go through it today to decide what we are going to cover. My list was….lacking. Please feel free to suggest any bands I should shoot, my 1st pass list is below. Thursday and Sunday are really lacking. Other downside, this will be the first year I don’t know of any of my friends going. I couldn’t even give away my extra pass. Though in many ways it makes it better, I can actually get an assistant to help carry all my gear and help upload photos.
I have a feeling this will be the first year Bonnaroo will not sell out. It should still be a great show, just not quite it’s been in the last few years though.
Thursday (please add some bands)
Vampire Weekend
Friday
Tegan & Sara
Les Claypool
The Raconteurs
Willie Nelson
Rilo Kiley
Chris Rock
Metallica
My Morning Jacket
SuperJam
Saturday
Mason Jennings
Gogol Bordello
Cat Power
B.B. King
Ben Folds
Jack Johnson
Pearl Jam
Sigur Rós
Kanye West (2:45 AM!!! sheesh)
Sunday (please add more bands!)
Aimee Mann
Death Cab for Cutie
So I applied for press passes for Bonnaroo 2008 today. For the first time on part of the application it was stated:
“Only photographers with SLR, interchangeable lens cameras will be allowed into the photo pits. There will be no ‘point and shoot’ cameras permitted.”
I have to say THANK YOU. The pits over the last few years have been getting so crowded you can barley move. When I’m shooting I want to move around, and not get the same shot over and over again. I’ve seen an over amount of ‘point and shoot’ and even disposable cameras in the Roo’ pits. Talk about annoying to those of us trying to make a living at being there and making great photos. I walk in to the campsite with more then $10k worth of equipment, I don’t need someone who spent $100 on a crappy camera that isn’t going to get much of a good photo standing in my way and holding up their camera blocking me. Anyway, looking forward to a good year. Should be another fun year, no matter who is playing.
Interesting line up. Not exactly was it’s been in the past, but great names in the list. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Metallica, great musicians, and they have alienated much of this type of audience with the backlash against music sharing. The video from Lars (at the bottom of this post) helps explain alot, but I still feel there will be people complaining . Pearl Jam is a great fit, since the success of their last album, I expected to see them at some point on this stage. Kanye West, while I don’t listen to him too much, is a great addition, bringing more diversity and bigger name into the mix. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, great addition also, too bad Led Zeppelin isn’t on the list, but hey, maybe they will play ‘Roo is they announce a US tour, here’s hoping anyway. Lez Zeppelin is on the list, but it’s just not the same. Nice to see Jack White back with The Raconteurs. Willie Nelson will make his 2nd headline, but hopefully first appearance, he was slated to play back in ‘04 or ‘05, but had to cancel due to carpel tunnel. I did shoot him at Farm Aid back in ‘03 and he was great. The rest of the list speaks for itself. I hope to see a few more ‘name’ additions, but overall a great lineup I hope to be shooting again in the hot June TN weather. Here’s the list & I put the comedy list first, cause damn…. What’s everyone think?
Bonnaroo Comedy:
Bonnaroo Late Night Chat About with David Cross
Janeane Garofalo
Zach Galifianakis
Jim Norton
Brian Posehn
Mike Birbiglia
John Mulaney
Michelle Buteau
Lineup:
Pearl Jam
Metallica
Jack Johnson
Kanye West
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss featuring T Bone Burnette
Phil Lesh & Friends
My Morning Jacket
The Allman Brothers Band
The Raconteurs
Willie Nelson
Death Cab for Cutie
B.B. King
Sigur Ros
Levon Helm and the Ramble on the Road
Ben Folds
O.A.R.
The Bluegrass Allstars Feat. Luke Bulla, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Bryan Sutton
M.I.A.
Umphrey’s McGee
Iron & Wine
Yonder Mountain String Band
The Swell Season
Talib Kweli
Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Soul Stew Revival
Gogol Bordello
Broken Social Scene
Robert Randolph’s Revival
Rilo Kiley
Mastodon
Lupe Fiasco
Against Me!
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
Pat Green
Ozomatli
Tegan & Sara
Solomon Burke
Drive-By Truckers
!!!
The Avett Brothers
Israel Vibration
Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet featuring Bela Fleck
A Very Special Acoustic Performance by Larry Campbell, Jackie Greene, Phil Lesh & Teresa Williams
Aimee Mann
Ladytron
The Fiery Furnaces
Orchestra Baobab
Ghostland Observatory
Jose Gonzalez
Dark Star Orchestra
Minus the Bear
Donavon Frankenreiter
Lez Zeppelin
State Radio
Battles
Jakob Dylan
Two Gallants
The Sword
Vampire Weekend
Little Feat
Nicole Atkins
The Felice Brothers
Mason Jennings
MGMT
The Lee Boys
Black Kids
Serena Ryder
Steel Train
Grupo Fantasma
Back Door Slam
So I’ve started re-editing my 5 years of photos from Bonnaroo. In 2003 I borrowed work’s digital camera, which it’s longest lens was a 70mm, really not great for some shows. But it actually worked fairly well for the most part. My second camera was my old Pentax film camera with a longer lens and I decided to only use black and white film. I really have not done much with the film I shot, cept print about 4 or 5 images in my dark back when I lived in Columbus. I’ve started going through the 10-12 rolls I shot and I’m finding some nice stuff.
The Flaming Lips was a show that actually made me a fan of them. I only shot them in B&W cause it was a late night show, I didn’t want to risk work’s camera while under certain “circumstances” (Paul knows this story). I wish I shot them in color, though I did get a chance last year, so I’m happy. But I’m really happy with some shots I got of them.
I have a few more images I’ve scanned and there will be more coming. Take a look at what I have so far, let me know what you think. Maybe I’ll start a contest like Woody and maybe give a book away, unlike Woody..cheap bastard. Eh, he does have to save for the wedding after all
Led Zeppelin will be everyone’s favorite I’m sure. John Paul Jones was exciting to see at last year’s Super Jam. I have been thinking since their performance last month Led Zeppelin would be a great fit for ‘Roo. Rock and Roll’s beginnings coming to America’s premiere music festival. A much better fit then a rusty Police and more in the blues/jam band feel that started Bonnaroo.
It’s hard to tell the reaction Metallica would get. Great musicians, but the controversy over music sharing may not sit well with traditional Bonnaroo fans.
Hopefully I’ll be back again this year shooting. Already looking forward to it.
Ok, this is the 5th year I’ve shot Bonnaroo. I threw together all of my photos from this year into one movie. This is everything unedited from 4 days of shooting. It includes out of focus, over/under exposed and bad shots as well as the good ones. It’s fun though, I think.
Ok, with all the hype around The National these days, I have to put up a video of theirs. I shot them at Bonnaroo, though I need to add in a few more images to the gallery. Video is pretty cool, check it out.
Ok, I really didn’t know much about her until about a week or two before Bonnaroo. But, if you haven’t heard of Lily Allen, you will. She put on a hell of a show at Bonnaroo (click for my photos) and she seems to keep being compared to Amy Winehouse as the rising stars coming out of Britain right now. She’s not giving into the media created feud, as she stated, “Enough about me supposedly hating Amy … its boring and untrue.”
OK, I heard this term while at Bonnaroo. Basically people who have been to Bonnaroo. Kinda funny and odd, yet fitting. This year I spent more time this year shooting the crowd then I have in the past, trying to get a sense of the atmosphere of the festival and not just the musicians playing. Here’s some of the shots I got.
Fans dancing to Franz Ferinand
Fans watching the “Which Stage”
Body Painting with glitter at Centeroo
Body painting
A fan take a photo of Pete Yorn on Sunday at Bonnaroo.
This shot is for Holly: A fan watching The White Stripes in 96 deg heat.
So there are different levels of passes for Bonnaroo. Everyone has something, including the general concertgoer. You either have a wristband or two or a lanyard. Wristbands are good, red gets you into the concert grounds, VIP, I think was blue, you get special camping, food, parking, though you pay for it. I had a guest pass so I got back stage camping and access to guest areas with “nicer” food and beer. Though the beer was the same price as everyone else and the food was not so nice. Or at least what Chris and I had for breakfast on Saturday morning. Runny scrambled eggs with limp bacon, a croissant, and a Coke (since there was no fucking coffee in the morning) for $9. Ouch.
Anyway, I’m off subject. I also had a Photo pass, which got me into the pit for the first 3 songs at the What and Which stages and most of the time at any 3 songs at the tents. It also counted as a media pass to get into the media area backstage which had Internet access for uploading my photos to Spinner/AOL Music and Retna, press conferences (I’ll have video soon) and most often free water.
Lanyards are much better passes, the “Why” pass is an all access pass. I saw a ton of these running around and people who probably didn’t need them with them. It’s all about who you know. The best pass is the “Infinity” pass. It’s all access, plus you can take anyone you want wherever you want with you. These highly regarded passes where pretty much only given to the publicity company for Bonnaroo. They need the passes to bring the photographers to and from the stage shows and various other duties. Pretty much the people that should have these passes had them, which is good. Security was pretty tight around the stages. But there was one woman who ran the gate to the “Which” stage, who each time we came in with our Infinity escort, would yell “ Where’s my INFINITY?” Every time. Once Steven, one the very nice publicists who I’ve gotten to know over the 5 years I’ve been shooting Bonnaroo was talking to another security person at the gate and this woman started yelling “Where’s my Infinity!” Steven, standing right next to her very calmly stated “right here” rolled his eyes and gave me a look. All the photographers started commenting on her and it really started to become a joke with us all.
So over all, it’s good to be a guest, better to be media or photo, great to be Why, but best to be Infinity when your trying to get to What, Which, This, That and The Other.
