The second day of Bonnaroo was jam packed with all kinds of artists all of us were anxious to see. The first band of the day on the 2nd stage, the WHICH stage, was one of bands I recently fell in love with called Gomez. They have been around since I was in college, but only recently, after hearing some of their latest albums, did I start to follow their journey. They were so awesome and I was happy to hear they were just as good live as they were on their albums. They played one of my favorite songs called “See The World” which was a perfect way to open their set. Towards the end, they covered Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog” which got the crowd singing at the top of their lungs and lifted our spirits from the muddy remains of day 1.

The next artist I wandered over to see was Kaki King. She is an incredible guitarist with an indie rock style (think White Stripes meets Black Keys with more jazz influence) and heavy chops that would astound any music fan. To my utter amazement, as I was standing backstage and watching her set, she announced who was playing drums and it happened to be a good friend of mine from New York City. It was so awesome to get the chance to run into him there and catch up after their performance. My favorite part of her set was when it was just her and the drummer onstage and they were playing off each other with explosive riffs and drum fills. It was totally epic and I highly recommend catching her at some point.

As I’m walking around this festival, I still feel so blessed and honored to be a part of this incredible lineup. Knowing how far we have come and how much farther we intend to go keeps us all grounded and inspired in this band. Like I said before in yesterday’s blog, I think accomplishing all of this with no label, manager or agent is a heavy task, but anything is possible when your heart and mind is set on reaching your dreams. Back to our 2nd day experience…

After watching Kaki King, a few of us walked over to see Animal Collective, which to my disappointment wasn’t worth the experience. Music is always so subjective, but this band really sounded like organized noise with not much melodic or harmonic sense. We didn’t stay there long because at this festival, if something doesn’t hit you right away, there are plenty of other shows that will.

The next show I saw was Bela Fleck and Toumani Diabate which I was so excited to catch. Last year, I got the chance to meet Bela Fleck at Bonnaroo and to see him front row again while he was playing with one of my favorite artists was such a dream come true for me. The whole show was completely inspiring and bended my mind in some ways because of how Bela was playing one of the songs with no hands on the fretboard and only changing notes by adjusting his tuners. Still pondering how he was able to do that.

Soon after, I had to check out Galactic since Trombone Shorty was sitting in with them and Stanton Moore is one of my favorite drummers to watch. It was a funk explosion beyond measure and one of the MCS rapping even did a stage dive and never stopped rapping. All in all, their set was well worth the trek.

Now, at this point, it was time to get ready for Al Green. I’ve always loved his music, but his performance was by far the most surprising and professional of anything I saw the 2nd day. His band was so polished and to witness such a legendary performer teach us how the “old schoolers” did it was a blessing and honor. Watching that show made me want to step up our game for our set.

A few of us wanted to check out Ani Difranco’s set before we got good seats for the Beastie Boys so we checked the end of her performance out for a few songs. I’ve seen Ani play before so I had high expectations that she would leave the audience enthralled with her show. As much as I didn’t think she had the same kind of passion as before, she still did a great job.

The Beastie Boys have been such a big part of my music catalog since I was in high school so I can’t tell you how excited I was. They came out and from beginning to end, played hit after hit and got the crowd screaming so loud, you knew you were going to hear ringing in your ears the next day. I was most impressed with how well they played their instruments and how solid their arrangements were. These guys know how to throw down when push comes to shove and it was so impressive to see them still kill it onstage after all these years.

The highlight of my night though came with David Byrne’s 2 hour performance. Luckily, because we had passes, I was able to watch his entire set from the stage which few people ever get the chance to do with such a legendary performer. He had 2 dancers, 3 backup singers and one of the tightest bands at Bonnaroo. I was amazed to watch him dance choreographed moves with the dancers and singers while he played guitar including guitar solos. He was in one word: ELECTRIFYING. David Byrne has always been a major influence on my own music so to hear him play so close to me was a dream come true and something I will never forget. The best part too was how all of the NK Band members united on the stage watching him all coming from different stages to see the respectable musical acts of our choice. His set by far was the most inspiring for me as a songwriter and I look forward to seeing what music comes out of me in the future as a result.

As the night ended, the anticipation continued to see the first headliner of the night, PHISH, was so exciting since I have followed them on the road since I was 17 and was so sad to hear them break up. It was awesome to hear them jam yet again and it was even cooler to realize they haven’t lost a step. When we opened for Page McConnell, keyboardist of Phish, I wasn’t sure they would ever get back together, but they did and we are all lucky that they did. They played most of their fan favorites for their 3 hour set and everyone was overjoyed to say the least.

Running down on energy, we made our way to the last performer for us which was Femi Kuti. Following in his father’s footsteps, Fela Kuti, Femi brought the same kind of infectious energy and soul powered african beats and melodies. It was the perfect way to end the day and by that time, exhaustion was an understatement.

Happily though, we all made it back safe to the hotel to rest for Day 3.

Signing out for now. The best is yet to come. - NK

Tags: 2009, Bonnaroo, day2

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 11:53 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.