And on the third day the skies cleared and we left for the airport...
Due to a vicious Manchester > Knoxville > Cincinnati > New York 14 hour marathon hellride with no Xanax to speak of, Sunday mostly consisted of us packing up our soggy campsite, polishing off the last of the beef jerky, ducking into the press tent to bring you the Day Two Blog Heat, checking in on the first half of the Dr Dog set ("You may have noticed that it's humid..."), and high-tailing it to the airport. Plus we had to buy new socks.
We were sorry to miss night two of Panic headlining, as well as Modest Mouse, Earl Scruggs, and Bob Weir & Ratdog. We were not sorry to miss Umphrey's McGee or Jim Bruer. The real disappointment though was missing out on Jim James and My Morning Jacket. Last year the MMJ was a Bonnaroo highlight - the sun disappeared behind a thundercloud just as the band was reaching the climax of it's set and it seemed the weather was directly responding to all that reverb. Sure, it was kinna overkill when James dropped to his knees and held his Flying V over his head just as the rain came down like he was praying to the Energy Spirit Of Inclement Weather (so overkill that it ended up being the symbol of this year's festival), but hey - we appreciate the flair for the dramamtic.
Anyway, this year James was like Doctor Bonnaroo - dude's set wasn't until Sunday afternoon, but he was everywhere, just hanging out, having a good time, refusing to take his shades off regardless of how overcast it was. The Jacket has emerged as one of the key bands in the whole Bright Eyes / Monsters Of Folk axis, and from our experiences with those dudes, James is in some sense the figurehead of the whole shit, taking bands like Dr Dog on tour and continuing to support them and others a year later. All of this is just our way of saying that we have a shit-ton of respect for a dude that shows up two days early for his set just to support his people and enjoy the festival.
See you next year, Jimmy.
(First this laminate brought us headaches. Then it brought us beer. Then we noticed that the graphic was of last year's Key Overkill Moment.)