Saturday was an early start for us because we wanted to go see our new friends that we met at registration perform on the Sonic Stage, an indie band from Georgia called High Tide Blues. Due to the weather, traffic conditions, etc, we only managed to catch the last song of their set, but it was well worth it. Not only are these guys a great hang, but they have tremendous amount of heart that they put into their performance. Their music is very remisent of The Band with elements of Train, The Black Crowes and perhaps Lynyrd Skynyrd. The singer, Paul McDonald, who I hung out with the most of all the guys in High Tide Blues sounds like a young Rod Stewart which is very cool. We have already been talking about playing shows together with these guys so for all of our fans, look for High Tide Blues to be joining us on the road from time to time.

The next part of the day was spent supporting one of Scott’s good friends, Reeve Carney, the frontman for the band Carney, who all originate from Los Angeles and have been playing rooms like Molly Malone’s and other reputable venues around Hollywood, CA. These guys totally impressed me from start to finish with their hard rock/soul/blues infused music. To be honest, I heard quite a bit of Jeff Buckley in their sound and judging from the chord and melodic structure in their crowd pleasing music, I would bet that Jeff Buckley was definitely an influence on these guys. Every single one of these cats was proficient on their instrument as well. The rhythm section really laid it down while Zane Carney, Reeve’s brother, wailed on lead guitar and Reeve’s vocals soared over it all. It was quite a combination that left the listener pumped to just be there to witness the magic on stage. The highlight for me was when they covered the Beatles, “She’s So Heavy” from Abbey Road, which really ignited the audience to new heights. This definitely set the tone for me on the kind of response I wanted to get from our performance which was just 24hrs away. After their set, I got the chance to meet Reeve who was a very down to earth cat. Some of you may know Reeve from playing guitar with Johnny Lang for the past couple of tours. Overall, I left knowing that one day I would also like to share a bill with those guys. Job well done, Carney!

Soon after, I was really curious about what the Blue Room Stage looked like and how the crowds of people would wander into the venue we are playing on Sunday so I quickly made my way to the Blue Room to see Jypsi, a bluegrass sextet that totally blew my mind. The group consisted of 3 beautiful girls who all sang harmonies along with a male lead singer, however each one of them sang lead on a song or two. Their harmonies were phenomenal and their stage presence was seasoned and more than confident. I would DEFINITELY catch Jypsi again someday and hopefully, we all come back to Bonnaroo next year to hang and jam. The girls were dressed up in these sexy superhero-like outfits with all kinds of crazy makeup and what not, but the guys were simply casual which brought about a cool tension visually. All in all, they were super tight and the tent was super packed with people which gave me hope that our set would be quite similar.

Playing on the mainstage after Jypsi was another LA based band that we wanted to support called Ozomatli. This group has been dominating the country with their latin/hip hop beats since 1999 and it was such a thrill to get the chance to catch these guys again at Bonnaroo. Their set was super crowded with fans from all over and the band got them all dancing from the beginning of their set until the end. It was great to also see people singing their lyrics, most of which were in spanish, while feeling energized and revitalized from their dance grooves. It definitely brought a smile to my face and I look forward to seeing Ozomatli again. Perhaps one day we can open for them….I suppose only time will tell.

Once we met up with our merch girl, Sonja, all 3 of us made our way to see one of my personal favorite bands, Little Feat. This band has been around since the ’70s and I love them more and more each time I see them. Little Feat is one of the pivotal bands of southern rock very much in the style of the Allman Brothers, but with a little more funk and country influence. I absolutely LOVE this band and ever since I heard their live album, WAITING FOR COLUMBUS, I knew right then and there that I wanted to become a musician. Watching their set from the wings was truly inspiring and I was a bit starstruck to be honest. They grooved so hard the whole time and to see these old guys killing it on their respective instruments and singing their hearts out was truly inspiring. I want to be playing music as well as these guys are into my 70s and 80s so getting the chance to hear them jam so close to the stage was humbling in the best way possible. Right after they finished, I got the chance to meet the keyboardist, Bill Payne, again who I met with a mutual friend some years past at the Cerritos Performing Arts Center. The coolest part was that he remembered who I was and wished me good luck for our set. We briefly caught up and once again I told him how influential his music is on me as an artist. He graciously thanked me for the compliment and quickly took a photo with me before packing up his gear. I was definitely on a high after that moment. This whole experience has been like the best 3 day dream so far. Could it possibly get any better?? YES!

Backstage at Little Feat, we soon met up with Paul McDonald from High Tide Blues and caught up about which bands he wanted to see. We all agreed that it would be sweet to catch Donovan Frankenreiter play the Sonic Stage so we all headed in that direction together. Ive been a pretty big fan of Donovan since last year so I was pretty ecstatic about catching him live. Once we arrived, people were already singing his songs out loud and dancing in the dirt. It was such a cool visual to see and be a part of. His acoustic dance grooves made everyone sway from side to side and the greatest part was hearing some new songs that I hadn’t heard before. He is even better live than he is on CD which is the true sign of a great performer too. I loved his set and I would highly recommend anyone to catch him while they can. We all wandered backstage, quicky said hello to him and took a picture with him while he was tearing down his gear. He literally put down what he was doing to take a moment with us to document the experience so I have even more respect for him now knowing he is so down to earth. I had to give him my card because I would absolutely love the chance to play with him one day. I told him all the things that were going on with us briefly and told him to check out our music. Once he again, he smiled and told me he promised he would take a listen to our music. How cool is that?

Now we were ready for a legendary performance from BB King so we literally picked up our feet and somehow landed backstage to try and meet BB before he was escorted to the stage. Some of you may think that I may be leaving out parts of my experience out from the way Im leading from one performance to another with my blog, but this is literally how it was experience by all of us so I wanted to paint you this picture as best as I could since it literally felt like we were jumping around from stage to stage to hear all the acts we could. Hope my mission has been accomplished in doing so….now back to the King. The band had already started playing so we assumed that BB was already onstage, but then, out of the blue, there he was being greeted by the Bonnaroo staff to be put into a wheelchair and rolled onto the stage area to perform. Now granted, BB King is now 82 years old, the oldest of ALL of the Bonnaroo artists so everyone there knew it was just an honor that we were able to see him play again. When he rolled by me, I couldn’t resist and so I quickly yelled to him from 4 ft away, “Thanks for the music, BB!” The coolest part was he turned to me, looked me dead in the eye, smiled and waved right back at me. I don’t know what it was about that moment, but I knew it was something special so I literally sat there for a bit completely stunned. I met BB King before about 5 years ago outside the House of Blues in LA where he signed my ticket stub and gave me a guitar pick with his face on it, but seeing him again was just as satisfying. I hope to be as epic a player as he is one day. Ive been shedding so many BB King licks on electric guitar over the past few years so seeing him in the flesh (again) was something I will never forget. Not only did he slay his set with his vicious and musical guitar licks, but he did so with a standing ovation from the audience who had no doubt that we were all watching a living legend play. In my opinion, there is no other King of the Blues….only BB. Bonnaroo, I tip my hat off to you for giving him a time slot on the mainstage which showed how much respect you have for such a blues icon. It was truly magic in the making to see him so happy up there playing for such a big crowd of thousands of screaming fans. Hopefully, I will get the chance to meet him again in 2 weeks when we share the bill with him again at Summerfest in Milwaukee.

Scott really wanted to see Iron & Wine next so we walked right by Ben Folds just enough to hear some songs of his on our way to THIS TENT. The funniest thing about Bonnaroo is how they have named the stages. The mainstage is called the WHAT STAGE and the next biggest stage is called the WHICH STAGE. There’s the THIS TENT, THAT TENT, THE OTHER TENT, SOMETHIN’ ELSE as well as the CAFE STAGES. Did I mention there is a silent disco where everyone is dancing together on a dancefloor with headphones on so there is no sound to everyone watching this, but everyone is jammin’ out. Totally hilarious to watch. Anyways, so while you are walking to each stage you can literally hear people saying “Which stage?” “No, that tent.” “This tent?” “No, the other tent.” Im sure this is the joke Bonnaroo wanted to play on everyone. Done and done. So, we checked out Iron & Wine who I only knew from the Garden State soundtrack. These guys were so awesome and completely blew me away. Their sound was very ethereal, yet melodic and I literally lost myself in their music. It was almost dreamlike to hear. My body, mind, soul and most of all, ears, were quite content to hang for a bit. While backstage, I ran into the 2 stars of the movie ONCE and so I couldn’t resist taking a photo with both of them. I also told the female lead of that movie how moved I was by her Oscar speech which brought tears to my eyes with what she said. It made me happy that I got to tell her that. Unfortunately though, they were leaving that day so they would be missing our set which they seemed genuinely bummed about. No worries though!

I left early during Iron & Wine to make sure I could catch Jack Johnson’s set. He has been one of the biggest influences on me since I first started playing in 2002 so seeing him live at Bonnaroo was something I had on my checklist. I have met him twice before so I wasn’t really all about meeting him backstage, but the funny thing was somehow, I ended up walking into the venue with all of the magazine photographers taking stills of the festival so I got to watch Jack Johnson from the front row for his entire set. He was amazing. I have seen Jack a few times before, but this was definitely the best time I have ever seen him play. In the middle of his performance, he brought out Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam to jam on one of his songs which was a collaboration I was hoping would happen since their sets were back to back. As hopeful as I was about it, I didn’t really think it would happen so when it did, I was on cloud 9. Eddie sounded incredible as he always does and their voices blended so well together. Overall, it was an incredible night for all Jack Johnson fans. That was definitely the closest I have ever seen him live so it was extra special for me as well.

Well, since I didn’t want to lose my place in the front row, I literally stayed right where I was to watch Pearl Jam play. I have been a HUGE fan of Pearl Jam since I was in high school so seeing them so close was a dream come true for me. Eddie Vedder has been a major influence on the way I like to sing so I was beyond excited for their set. For anyone that digs Pearl Jam’s music, if you haven’t seen them live, then you are truly missing out. This band hit the stage ready to electrify their audience of over 80,000 fans. The place was crowded beyond measure and everytime the lights shined over all of us, it looked like a giant sea of faces. There is no doubt in my mind that Pearl Jam came to deliver the goods from the first note to the last. They played the most perfect set a Pearl Jam fan could ever ask for (google the setlist and see for yourself) and every musical nuance was heartfelt and left impressions across the 700 acres of farmland of which these stages laid upon. The highlight for me was hearing “Black” from their debut album, TEN, which brough back a lot of memories for me. It was the BEST version I have ever heard them play of that song and the extended solo and ending made me not want to hear it ever end. They came out for 3 encores the first time around and finally ended with a cover of Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower” which was truly groundbreaking. There was electricity in the air and everyone there knew it. I hope someday I can impact audiences like this one day. It was truly inspiring to watch so close.

So here’s the dilemma, Kanye West is supposed to play at 2:45am-4:15am, but my performance is tomorrow during the day. Do I risk not getting to sleep to try and watch this hip hop legend outdo the last concert of his I caught last year?? ABSOLUTELY. I also made a promise to my friend, who painted an amazing picture of Kanye West, to hand a small lithograph of the painting over to Kanye West himself so this time, I had to go backstage. Unfortunately, while Kanye’s crew was setting up his stage, he was fast asleep in his bus and word backstage was that he was going to get onstage 5 minutes before he played and leave on his bus 5 minutes after he finished. Luckily though, I was introduced to his head of security, Sully, a big thug of a guy with an even bigger heart, who promised me that he would hand the lithograph over to Kanye since he was literally one of the only people that would ever see him that night. I felt good about this so I handed him the lithograph as well as my busines card and told him to tell Kanye that one day I am going to sing a hook on one of his albums. He smiled at this and gave me his word that he would do so. Right then and there at 3am, I called my friend and left him a message of the good news. Im sure he was thrilled. So back to Kanye. The time is now 3:30am and still no Kanye West. The stage is still being built and now the crowd is getting frantic and a bit angry. Soon thereafter, the clock hits 4am and people are beginning to throw things at the stage and booing. This was not cool at all. Scott and I were already so exhausted, but by this point, we couldn’t leave now and miss quite possibly one of the best performances of the festival. So we stayed up, dozing from time to time while waiting in the front row for Kanye to walk onstage. It was miserable to wait this long to be honest. Every part of me wanted to go to sleep, but I fought against it which is something I wouldn’t advocate. Anyways, the time now is 4:20am and still no Kanye. The boos are getting louder and even more things are getting thrown onstage. All of a sudden 4:30am rolls around and the lights go out to huge screams that Kanye is about to hit the stage. From the front row, in the dark (since his tour is called the Glow In The Dark Tour), I see him walk onstage and lie down on one of the platforms. You ready for this?? I am. He opens his set with the first track on his latest album, GRADUATION, called “Good Morning” right as the sun is coming out for real. Are you kidding me?? I was getting chills up and down my spine. Here I was watching Kanye West in the front open his show with one of my most favorite songs while the sun is rising. I couldn’t believe it. How magical is this?? Kanye exploded on the scene with his deep pocket hip hop grooves and lyrical genius with glowing lights, fog and a stage that seemed to rise and fall in complete synch with each song of his set. The whole stage looked like a big planet or moon that a spaceship landed on which was exactly what his vision was apparently. It was incredible. Truly. He played for an hour while the audience danced with everything they had left in them from each song to the next. Even the Olsen twins who were dancing just 3 feet away from us could feel the magic. The day had been born with Kanye West as the soundtrack and I was feeling so high from his performance that I completely forgot how tired I was. When he finished, he turned his enemies in the crowd to his most ardent believers. I was floored with how he topped the last show I saw of his in LA just months before. No matter what anyone says about this artist, Kanye West can back up his arrogance with both his albums and his live performance. Leaving that morning from the festival grounds was one of the most inspired moments of my life. I knew I would only get 3 hours of sleep before my performance that day, but it was totally worth it. Kanye - you are truly a legend in the making.

Off to bed now, but who can sleep?? I just saw some of the best performances of my life in addition to meeting half of them in person. Words cannot express how excited I am now. Sleeping hasn’t been an option over these last 3 days, but I will do my best before the NK Band hits the stage.

All I can say is WOW! Am I awake or dreaming??

Shine on,

NK

Tags: Bonnaroo, day 3, korula, Nikhil

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 11:04 am and is filed under Blogs, Nikhil Korula's Bonnaroo Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.