The Red and Black

Issue date: 6/18/09 Section: Variety

Media Credit: WAITES LASETER Glowsticks fly through the air during Phish's closing performance at Bonnaroo Sunday night. The festival lasted for four days in Tennessee. [Click to enlarge]

Laseter [Click to enlarge]

Manchester, Tenn. - Like so many of the great things I've done in my life, this one started with my big mouth.

At first it was all talk, something to joke about while hanging with friends. It was almost too silly to take seriously. There was no way I could actually sneak into the Bonnaroo music festival, was there?

When you talk about something enough, eventually putting your money where your mouth is seems like a good idea. So when it was time to caravan to Manchester, Tenn., we had a plan and I had a bag to hide in.

Despite being caught by the cops - who thought the idea of me hiding in a duffel bag to get into camp was one of the funniest things they'd seen - and the fact that I had no ticket, no wristband and no press pass, I found myself in the middle of the madness all weekend.

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the grandaddy of all music festivals, Woodstock. During that historic weekend, beautiful, optimistic people gathered in a field to fight for peace with rock & roll.

Bonnaroo is set up as a "music & arts festival," but don't let the marketing fool you. There was an undeniable electricity in the air, the feeling that anything could happen on this farm.

There were the historical moments. Jimmy Buffett surprised the festival with a noon concert on Saturday, running through an hour-long set of classic hits. Legendary Stax session musician Booker T. joined forces with Athens's own Drive-By Truckers, giving the Truckers' usual ragged Southern sound a fuller, grittier, R&B feel.

There were moments that were strange, twisted and confusing. The entirety of Phish's show on Sunday feels like a technicolor pop explosion in my mind. And I still have no idea why Bruce Springsteen covered "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," but the 70,000 person sing-along will always stay with me.

There were beautiful, tearful moments. Grace Potter from Grace Potter and the Nocturnals sat in with Gov't. Mule during a cover of Neil Young's "Southern Man," sending chills up the audience's collective spine. Trent Reznor's announcement that this was Nine Inch Nail's last show in America was tragic, and I hope he is mistaken. And if you've never had the opportunity to see TV on the Radio, I highly recommend doing so while sitting under a tree and watching the clouds roll by.

I spent most of this weekend trying to figure out exactly why I did this. There has to be some sort of deeper lesson here, some sort of moral to the story. My mind kept wandering back to those folks so many years ago at Woodstock.

Did they know what they were doing at the time? Did they have any idea the impact that weekend would have on our culture?

Probably not.

And maybe that's the point, to not know what you're doing. I'm not suggesting that you should run off on some ill-thought out adventure.

But next time I start into the dark unknown of the future, I'll be using the same big grin that got me through security.

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