Sex, drugs, and rock and roll

Drugs, nakedness, and loud music characterized this past weekend. We were at Bonnaroo, the premiere music festival in the U.S. I began to know what we were in for when we had to wait in a 16-mile line of cars to get into the festival camping grounds. As we were waiting on the shoulder of the freeway, hippies began to pour out of their cars and vans to take a wizz on the side of the road. And that was just the beginning.

We may have felt a bit out of place among the festival-goers, but the music was worth the hot and dry Tennessee weather, the crowded campsite, and the erratic behavior of our peers. On Thursday we saw The Black Angels and Sam Roberts Band (we really liked SRB).

Friday: Uncle Earl (folk quintet), Alexa Ray Joel (daughter of Billy Joel - she kinda sucks), Kings of Leon, Michael Franti, Lily Allen and The Black Keys. Friday night was one of the highlights of the festival -- the SuperJam, with Ben Harper (Mike's favorite) jamming with John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and ?uestlove of The Roots. It was amazing.

Saturday: Hot Tuna, Regina Spektor, Ziggy Marley, Damien Rice, and BEN HARPER again. His show was amazing; his music has so much positive energy. Ben had special guests John Paul Jones and Ziggy Marley play with him and his band, The Innocent Criminals. My favorite song that they played was the closer, "Better Way." It was positively inspirational. As if Saturday's lineup wasn't cool enough, we also saw THE POLICE. Yep, Sting and company, reunited. They were great.

Sunday: John Butler Trio (a new discovery for us -- someone we want to listen to A LOT more), T-Bone Burnett, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, The Decemberists (weird but interesting), Wilco (AWESOME), The White Stripes, and Widespread Panic.

We had planned to camp Sunday night and leave Monday morning, but I couldn't really take any more sleeping in the tent, so we drove all night on Sunday and got home at about 5:30 on Monday morning.

If you want to see more pictures of Bonnaroo or check out the artists, go to http://www.bonnaroo.com/.

More later on my first day at work, the maze of the University library, and more. . .