Almost Home: Bonnaroo Update

I'm sitting at the bar in Nashville Airport waiting for my plane to take me back to NYC as the World Cup game is on the boob tube. I survived the Bonnaroo music festival which was attended by 80,000 music lovers from all over the world. I spent four straight days and late nights partying with hard-core hippies, hipsters, and indie rock kids. I didn't get arrested and magically avoided a trip to the ER. I'm gonna leave Tennessee with thousands of warm memories, hundreds of pictures, a couple of cool videos, and several stories. I will be posting photos and updates over at the Tao of Pauly and on my music blog.

Over the past four days, I caught some of my favorite bands including: I-Nine, the Wood Brothers, The Motet, Electric Eel Shock, Ben Folds, Ramble Dove (country band featuring Mike Gordon from Phish), Oysterhead (Trey Anastasio from Phish on guitar, Stewart Copeland from The Police on drums, and Les Claypool of Primus on bass), Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers with special guest Stevie Nicks, My Morning Jacket, Common, the Disco Biscuits, Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah, Gomez, Beck, Radiohead, the Super Jam featuring GRAB (Trey & Mike from Phish with the Benevento/Russo Duo), The Streets, Matisyahu, Sonic Youth, moe., and Phil Lesh & Friends featuring John Scofield.

All that music cost $185. That's a bargain. The highlights were My Morning Jacket, Radiohead, Beck, and the Super Jam featuring Trey & Mike from Phish. And yes... My Morning Jacket is my new favorite band. Here's a clip of MMJ's Bonnaroo performance courtesy of StereoGum.

I went to Bonnaroo with an awesome crew that featured Change100, The Joker, Molly, BTreoch, and Professional Keno Player Neil Fontenot. We all got along and partied it up hard. We lost Mr. Fontenot for two days as he wandered around Bonnaroo looking for some gambling action. He took over $1K off of the "Three-card Monte" tables in the campgrounds. Yes, he crushed that game. He was also betting $50 a pop on Q-Bert in the arcade tent, which featured tons of arcade classics from when I was a kid. Mr. Fontenot beat several challengers who couldn't pay in cash. He told me that he accepted "kind trades" from hippies in addition to winning five glass pipes, a bag of mushrooms, and a crystal.

We played some poker too. There were four of us for the first annual Bonnaroo Poker Classic. We sat in the field in front of the main stage and played while we waited for the Phil Lesh & Friends show to start. I busted out first on the 3rd hand when my aces got cracked!


Aces cracked at Bonnaroo
Change100 raised my BB with SMTL. The Joker called with Q-J and I smooth called with A-A. The flop was J-8-3. The Joker and I both checked into Change100, who moved all in. The Joker and I both quickly called. I thought I was way ahead and was going to triple up. The Joker turned a Queen to take the lead. The river was no help. I was busted and Change100 got crippled.

The tourney was a quick one. The Joker took it down in 12 hands and is the current Bonnaroo Poker Champion.


The Joker: Bonnaroo Champion
Earlier in the week, I played a couple of tournaments at Spaceman's house. Change100 won both. She beat Spaceman and Mrs. Spaceman heads up both nights.

By the way... congrats to Glyph, who made the final table and won a seat in a $1,500 WSOP event. I was at Bonnaroo at the time and could not play. I sat out and ended up coming in 1083rd place! Thanks again to Poker Stars for setting the freeroll up.

Stop by my other blogs over the next few days for stories, setlists, and photos. I'm gonna try to splice together a video of the weekend.

I move to Las Vegas on Thursday for the WSOP. I have to sober up, do laundry, pack, and write a few reviews of Bonnaroo before I go. I can't wait for the WSOP...