Flying into Nashville, Tennesee for our 2nd appearance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival was nothing short of exciting. About 1/3 of our flight were all going to the prestigous festival to discover new music, get as close as possible to the band(s) they already love and basically have

the best music fan experience possible. One of the coolest parts of the flight to Nashville was getting the chance to meet some of the musicans/bands playing Bonnaroo, one of which was the drummer for Bruce Hornsby whom I have been a huge fan of for years. As well, there were

some big music industry people on the plane, most of whom knew us or the Nikhil Korula Band, which was such an incredible feeling. Once we landed though, you could feel the excitement in the air and it was onto Bonnaroo for day 1.

**SPECIAL THANKS TO MUSIC CONNECTION MAGAZINE**

I’m so thankful to Music Connection Magazine for being such a supportive part of my career from the beginning to the present and beyond by allowing me to write this blog to document this amazing experience for my fans, family, friends and also for myself. Its been a long time since

Music Connection first reviewed one of our Viper Room shows in 2003 and since then, the reputable magazine has reviewed several of our shows at the House of Blues and also featured the NK Band in a full page article to share our success story with their readers on how we have made our way through the uphill ascent. This is the second year Music Connection has asked me to write the Bonnaroo blog so I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone their, especially Mark Nardone, for giving me such a great opportunity.

On to Bonnaroo. So the first day, all of us were extremely ecstatic to witness some of the magic of the music festival so we were all anxious to get in. Some of the bandmembers had never played this festival since they recently joined the band so it was a perfect blend of Bonnaroo

newbies and veterans. Once we got our passes, everyone was both excited (and relieved) that this was all finally happening. I may sound redundant when saying this, but this festival is by far, the most highly organized both in its layout and the logistics of tying everything together. We got our passes without any problems and it was a painless process all together. As we all walked into the festival, it wouldn’t be long until we split up in groups to catch some of our favorite bands of

the day. The first band I was able to see was a band called ALBERTA CROSS from London. They were an excellent group very much in the style of My Morning Jacket. It was fun hearing them jam right when we were walking in ad if you dig the sounds of MMJ, I have no doubt you will dig these guys too.

The next band we wandered over to see were the WHITE RABBITS. Recently, a friend of mine told me about this band and urged me to check them out. To my utter disbelief since I’m a very picky person when it comes to music, I was completely blown away with the WHITE RABBITS. They had a very Franz Ferdinand meets Wilco kind of sound and I absolutely loved it. The best part about getting the chance to play Bonnaroo is also getting an artist pass so you can watch all of the shows from the side of the stage. Hearing the WHITE RABBITS to start off my Bonnaroo

experience was the perfect way to jumpstart the event. As an indie artist with no label, manager or agent, to get the chance to perform here is an honor in itself, but getting to see your favorite bands is an even bigger bonus. In typical Tennesee fashion, it didn’t take long for it to rain. In most cases, I think everyone would have been bothered by seeing rainclouds overhead, but not here. People weren’t even phased by the weather and happily walked from stage to stage to catch their favorite band.

After the WHITE RABBITS finished, a few of us walked over to see the hip hop lyricist, MURS play. One of the funny things about Bonnaroo is how they named the stages. There is the main stage which is called the WHAT stage, the 2nd main stage called the WHICH stage and 3 tents, among others, called THAT TENT, THIS TENT and THE OTHER TENT. Hearing people discussing which stage, what stage and this, that or the other tent is totally amusing. MURS was such a great performer, getting the crowd involved with call and response and running all over the stage in synch with his DJ spinning some classic east coast beats. His message was powerful and positive while his music made you dance inside. Check him out if you’re looking for a new MC to brighten your day and make you boogie.

Getting inspired from seeing MURS, we soon made our way to the tail end of the KNUX set. These guys took any expectations I had as to how they would perform their album tracks, which I really dig, live and threw them out the window. From the first moment, I heard the KNUX, they were full of soul (and people since there were about 30-40 people onstage) to get the crowd up into a high energy frenzy. After their set, I was even able to meet both members of the hip hop duo and got a picture with them as well while talking to them about a possible collaboration in the future which they were open to since I informed them of our set(s) at Bonnaroo on Sunday. [This picture will DEF be posted on my personal myspace and facebook pages when I get back.] All in all, these guys were a class act and it was so inspiring to talk music with them with no ego,

etc involved.

One of the coolest parts about Bonnaroo is also how they have comedy, video game and cinema tents just in case you get overwhelmed with music while you are here. Being an avid Laker fan and seeing a hole in the schedule that I could fit some Laker basketball action in, I made my way

over to the cinema tent to watch the game with hundreds of other basketball fans. Other than the fact that it was like watching the game in Orlando, it was so awesome to get the chance to keep up with my LA LAKERS and watch them win game 5 while at Bonnaroo. This festival really

does think of everything.Soon after the game, we made our way over to see Zac Brown Band who were incredible. I’d met these guys at a recent college conference and discovered we had some mutual fans so seeing these guys kill it at the festival completely made me smile. If you haven’t heard of Zac Brown Band, you are missing out. They are a country influenced band that

incorporates reggae, funk, soul and rock with simple lyrics and sing-a-long melodies. The energy they created from guitar and fiddle solos made the crowd scream so loud, you couldn’t hear the thunder and lightning.

The best part of the night was how we ended Day 1 of Bonnaroo. We all knew the first day was not as jam packed as the other days which was super smart on behalf of the festival production team which they did to prevent everyone from being worn out from the first day for the rest of

the weekend. All of the NK Band members had been in close contact while checking out different bands, but we all ended up catching the entire set from one of our favorite reggae bands called MIDNITE, an outstandingly tight reggae sextet from Trinidad. These guys have been

around for more than a decade and by far, this was one of the best bands, if not the best band, we had heard all day. Their music was infectious and their groove was something that made you want to take notes. You all should definitely check them out as they have the complete package from great vocals and melodies to excellent musicians and songs. Towards the end of their set, the lead singer even came down right next to all of us and sang the last few notes with his wireless mic to dance with everyone at the side of the stage. It was mesmerizing to say the least. All in all, it was such an unbelievable day and to see us all end the day together and leave the festival so inspired just made us feel so honored to be a part of this amazing lineup.

In the words of MIDNITE (from one of their songs), “Live the life you love.”

There is no doubt ALL of the NK Band members are doing exactly that.More to come from Day 2 of Bonnaroo in the next blog….(thanks to everyone for reading this)!

Tags: 2009, Bonnaroo, day1

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 11:23 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.