Possibly deemed as my favorite holiday, ranking over my birthday, Christmas and Thanksgiving combined, we have now entered Bonnaroo week! I would say that the third time is the charm, but I’ve got a feeling that nothing will top my second venture to the festival. After sleeping at What Stage’s main gate from 4 A.M. to 10 A.M., nearly peeing myself once the lights when out and crying like a 10-year-old girl when they played “2+2=5”, no one, unfortunately, will top ‘06’s Saturday night headline of Radiohead. Sorry, Sting. And to my friends’ dismay, I still sort of, kind of, really have my fingers cross that Radiohead will secretly surprise us all and make an encore appearance this year. I know it’s not going to happen (or will it? Okay, fine it won’t) but Thom Yorke’s jive to “15-Step” has been looping in my head ever since that glorious night.

This year’s headliners: Tool, The Police and Widespread Panic, leave me wondering how those three bands ever got into the same sentence. But the spirit and care-free attitude of Bonnaroo has already sent a “whatever, man” to my brain. As I try to figure out how exactly I’m going to dance to Maynard Kennan’s quivering growl, my focus since the lineup was announced has been on The White Stripes. And while I have to wait until practically the last slot of the festival to do some air-guitar to (hopefully) “Hello Operator”, I understand that Cold War Kids, The Black Keys, Dr. Dog, Wolfmother and way more will keep me entertained up until the point where it will be respectable (or at least acceptable) to scream “You can’t be a pimp and prostitute too” as loud as I please.

So now my tent is packed along with some sundresses, approximately two pounds of granola and four large tubs of SPF 45 accompanied by some serious aloe vera action. And I’m praying that we don’t spend over $300 on gas this year, as we make the long-haul from New York to Tennessee. This year I’m hopefully running around to 19 shows, which will have topped last year’s record of 17, which topped ‘05’s record of 14. Can I up myself? Who knows?

Actually, you’ll probably just find me in the Guitar Hero II tent.

>>>Kristen Chiucarello

This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Concert Reviews & Photos, Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.