I woke up on the day of our performance as excited a kid on Christmas morning ready to unwrap his presents. I quickly got out of bed to re-string my acoustic guitar and go over some recent additions to our setlists for both perfomances later that day. Playing these songs only added more fuel to my fire to play with my band. All of us called each other in the morning to agree on a meeting time to head to the festival. On the drive over, we talked through the setlist together and tried to all get on the same page by calming our spirits down with incessant laughter. The one thing I truly admire about my bandmates is that they all have this intense zest for life and music which we all share together. Throughout the weekend, the weather was holding out for us pretty well, but on this day, the clouds loomed over us in a very foreboding way.

We arrived at the festival in good spirits and ready to eat our complimentary meals provided to us by the Bonnaroo Music Festival. I have to say, out of every festival we have ever played or attended, this festival has really treated us so well. Not only do they give us backstage passes for the whole weekend, but they also give us breakfast, lunch and dinner on the day we perform as a way of showing gratitude. How fantastic, rt? Anyways, we all ate our hearty meals together and shortly received a phone call to coordinate when we could get picked up to load our gear onto some golfcarts and be transported to our respective stages.

Now this is a real treat for any musician who has been gigging for a while. The “work” part of our jobs definitely includes the loading and unloading of music gear for each show so having our stuff loaded onto golf carts and being chauffered to the foot of the stage is beyond luxury for us. One day, I know in my heart, we will reach the level of having a full time crew load and unload our gear for us, but at this point, we never take it for granted when someone offers help in this department so we can focus our energies on performing.

We arrived at the Troo Lounge and watched the tailend of one of the bands perform ahead of us. They were really great and I wish we got the chance to hear more of their set. As soon as they finished, it was time to set up and get ready for our show.

Once we quickly set up our gear, line checked levels, etc, the crowd slowly started to grow. This was completely exciting for me to the point of feeling lightning shoot through my veins. Without hesitation, we launched into our first song, “Tonight,” an afrobeat inspired pop song with influences of soukous throughout. From the very first beat, the crowd launched into infectious dance moves to show their approval. As we finished one song and led to the next, not only did the crowd grow, but so did the energy. We could all feel our smiles connected to the music that was binding us all and as it was happening, the clouds that loomed over us only minutes before were broken up with sunrays, a visual that gave me chills even when writing about it now. It was so beautiful. Our music was driving itself into the hearts of so many music lovers present during our set. One of the avid music fans who attended our set was Jimmy Fallon, recent addition to NBC’s late night talk shows. This was such a rush for us because we all knew we were opening up for the Roots, Fallon’s house band, next month which could mean the possibility of playing on his show. Regardless though, the NK Band blazed through a legendary set of our world influenced jams which made the entire crowd bob their heads and dance their feet off. We closed our set with a high powered funk tune called “Livin’” which brought the house down and ended the show with a bang. After we finished, several fans bum rushed our merch table to purchase our CDs (we later found out we sold more CDs than bands like Brett Dennen and Mars Volta) and have us autograph our setlists. The experience was WAY beyond our expectations and in fact, one of my friends who traveled with us turned to me after our show and said: “You couldn’t have asked for a better set.” That pretty much summed up the entire performance from our perspective as well.

Desparately needing some down time before our second set, a few of us wandered over to see Andrew Bird perform. This was the absolute PERFECT set for me to put my head together and gather my energy again for our 2nd show which would be in a few short hours. His music was slightly poppy, very indie rock influenced with a style reminiscent of Damien Rice and Sondre Lerche. I definitely dug his set and was intrigued with his use of not so ordinary or conventional instruments within his band. More than that though, it was the perfect way to fall into a musical experience right after playing your heart out.

Shortly after hearing Andrew Bird, we walked over to hear legendary country artist, Merle Haggard play in one of the tents. The cool thing about Merle’s band was they were ALL from the same generation which made me feel like that’s the way I want to be in my 70s and 80s…to be playing music to a new generation to introduce our music to all the while being embraced by the old generation. Watching him perform was so awesome because of how much of a pioneer he is considered to be for country music. As much as we wished we could have stayed for his whole set though, we knew we only had minutes before our 2nd set at the Sonic Stage and therefore, didn’t stay long. From what we saw though, Merle Haggard has definitely earned the status of a country music legend.

Right before we played our 2nd set, Snoop Dogg was playing on the mainstage. We quickly sat on the wall watching his show for a few minutes, loving every minute of it. That was the one show all of us wished we could have watched, but it wasn’t in the cards for us this time around since our set was scheduled in the middle of his.

We quickly set up our gear again on the Sonic Stage to play a short 30 minute set for any fans who enjoyed our 1st set and possibly introduce our music to any new fans walking around the Bonnaroo grounds. This was intended to be a mellower set, but the NK Band pulled out all the stops once again, playing african influenced dance music and even paid tribute to Bo Diddley with an electrifying version of “Before You Accuse Me.” It was the perfect way to end the performance part of our Bonnaroo experience and everyone seemed to love our 2nd set. One of the most inspiring things we saw was how many people who came to the first show decided to come again to our 2nd set (which had completely different songs in it than the first set). All in all, we were all beyond satisfied with the way we played and the response it merited.

Before heading over to the mainstage to watch Phish’s last performance at Bonnaroo 2009, we ran over to watch the last quarter of the Laker game. To our amazement, the Lakers won the championship which was the best way to close out our weekend together, all being die hard Laker fans.

After deciding to celebrate in high fashion from the day’s accomplishments, the NK Band and crew rushed over to watch Phish jam out for their last 3 1/2 hour set of the weekend. No doubt, the biggest highlight was watching Bruce Springsteen come out to jam with Phish, trading guitar solos with Trey Anastasio and just having a blast. They played “Mustang Sally” and “Glory Days” which was so awesome to get the chance to see. After seeing that, we all decided the weekend couldn’t get any better so we decided to make it back to our van to get some much needed sleep.

In conclusion, this weekend was by far one of the greatest of my life and if you are in a band starting out and happen to come across this blog, believe me when I tell you, dreams do happen if you set your mind and heart to reaching your goals and never stop believing in yourself. Connect to your fans in any way possible and dream big. The rest will follow…

Thanks again to Music Connection Magazine for giving me the vehicle to reach more people along our journey. It never goes unnoticed and is always appreciated.

To the NK Band fans - you continue to inspire and push me to accomplish the hardest of tasks to reach and taste the beauty of my dreams. For that, I am humbled by your endless support and know that it takes my breath away to feel that kind of love for our music.

Keeping the dream alive and signing out until next time,

NK

Tags: 2009, Bonnaroo, day4

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 3:00 pm 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.