My problem with the Bonnaroo Lineup

Dear Bonnaroo,
We’ve never really connected. Maybe that’s my fault, but I’m not here to play the blame game. In the past few years your headliners have been pretty stellar! White Stripes, Radiohead, heck even the reunited Police!

Then I read this year’s lineup announcement, and well, you’ve hurt me again. Let me set the scene: late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning a friend who gets all his nourishment in life from jam bands calls to tell me “the ‘roo lineup was announced, and it’s sick.” “Great!” I thought to myself, nothing like a “sick” lineup to ease the tension and nervousness that Super Tuesday brought me. I race over to “the ‘roo’s” website and spy a flyer which is harking the freshly announced lineup, and heartbreak ensues.

Pearl Jam? Metallica? JACK JOHNSON? Is this some kind of sick joke? Are you just trying to make things more painful? How do you go from something as masterful as Radiohead to the hyper-redundant tired sounds of Jack Johnson?

Look, don’t get me wrong Bonnaroo, you have some seriously great artists on the lower half of your lineup! People I would love to see, and probably would if I didn’t know better. See, I’ve been to the terrible, sweat & meth, redneck-filled cesspool that is Manchester, TN, and it’s going to take something I know I might not get to see again to draw me back.

Yours,
Caleb

[mp3] Iron & Wine – Resurrection Fern
[mp3] Broken Social Scene – Late Nineties Bedroom Rock for the Missionaries
[mp3] Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma
[mp3] White Stripes – I’m Bound to Pack it Up
[mp3] Radiohead – Up on the Ladder