Bad People Can't Spoil a Good Show - Bonnaroo

reblfan wrote:

Yep, that was her. I'll post some pictures later we took of the line and you can point out who you were.

reblfan wrote:

I just returned from Bonnaroo and I must say that it was an amazing weekend. This was my first return to Bonnaroo since 2002 and a LOT has changed since then. This post is kind of a rant/review rolled into one.

My day started at around 11am when my wife and I lined up outside of the What stage main entrance. It was rainy and chilly at the time, but the clouds soon rolled away and the blistering hot sun came out to greet us. It was 2:00 when they finally opened the gates and I made a mad dash, barefoot, across the field to secure my spot in line on Mikes side of the stage.

At this point, the day was just getting started. PJ was set to take the stage at 10:15 so we had a long wait ahead of us. Luckily, we met a lot of really cool people in line and had a lot of fun (but damn was it hot). The drama started about half way through B.B. King. The line to get into the pit for PJ was huge at that point and people started to freak out about others charging in when the gate opened and cutting line. If anyone here was in the first 75 people in line then you probably saw my feisty wife Brandi. Her and a couple of others in line took it upon themselves to try and organize a peaceful structured way of getting everyone into the pit. The security was no help at all however and basically told us that we just had to fend for ourselves. During Jack Johnson shit started to hit the fan. People started trying to cut in line, fights almost broke out, everyone was yelling......it was a horrible situation. When the gates finally did open, everyone just started pushing forward. A girl lost her footing and was almost trampled, and she lost it and started crying when we finally got inside the pit. It was seriously scary there for a bit. Once the show got started a fight broke out between two 6'6"ish guys and one of the dude's girlfriends right behind us.

Ok, enough ranting, but my point is that people are selfish inconsiderate assholes. I think PJ is the greatest band in the world but I would never say or do some of the things I saw to others just to get close to the fucking stage. We waited in the rain and hot sun for 12 fucking hours to get close and motherfuckers think they can just walk right up to the front of the line when the show starts. Ok....now I'll stop and get on with the review.

Even after all the drama we obtained 2nd row right in front of Mike. The setlist was unbelievable and the whole experience was kind of surreal. Due to the long wait in the sun, I was a little exhausted and had some bad back pains that kept me from really getting into it the way I wanted to. Looking back, I think I am more excited about the show now than I was when it was over. This was my 5th show and definitely the best musically, but the 'people' experience left a bad taste in my mouth. I really think PJ impressed a lot of people with this Bonnaroo performance. Hard to Imagine, WMA, Release, All Night, WTF!!

My Morning Jacket was my favorite show of the weekend. 4 hours of complete ass kicking in the rain. MMJ moved themselves into my top 3 favorite bands behind Zeppelin and PJ.

Well, this is definitely my longest message pit post ever.........FUCK KANYE!

djonesr wrote:

That led a bunch of us in harassing those asshole cutters. You are AWESOME dude! I know a bunch of us here know who I'm talking about. I was also in the line at Mike's side about 10-15 feet behind the bend by the bathrooms.

The mad Aussie inspired me to be a flashlight spotter and a "PJ fans aren't cutters, go slice your wrists mother fuckers!" chant.

Hinny wrote:

My first reaction to 'loud mad Aussie fucker' is Randal, but he doesn't really do the whole lining up for a long time thing.

Does he resemble this madman?

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl-rPplKiQM

prljmfan92502 wrote:

My boyfriend, a friend and myself were among those first people. We were sitting right where the line curved away from the wall. I have never seen such ignorance in my life. I really could not believe the nerve of the people cutting in line. As soon as we saw some one new sauntering up like it was cool, we immediately asked them how long they've been waiting in line and they bold faced lied and said since two o'clock. I couldn't believe it! I said to one girl, "boy it's funny how you've been standing next to me all day, yet i don't recognize you." I do believe however though that the people who were cutting line, were definitely not true pj fans. The whole scene has turned me off about going to festivals. Then once we were inside, it was cool for a while. Then when they played crazy mary, all the front rows moved forward in hopes of a drink, when that happened all the people that cut in line started pushing. Why? It's not like you're going to get to the front by pushing the people in front of you. We just turned around and asked them to stop pushing. The one dude looks at me and says "this is a Pearl jam show, this is going to be a mosh pit". I almost fell over! I went off on him about rokslide and told him that he was an idiot." Well, it just got worse. The dude behind my boyfriend just kept pushing and when he(my bf) was trying to jump around and dance a little, the dude pushed him again and he fell back against the dude. Then the two of them were locked together face to face and while i was trying to push them apart, another dude was pulling at my bf's hair. It was ridiculous! I had to slap the second dude in the face to get them off of him. Security saw what happened and he called me over, i told him that it was the idiots behind us and he just said to keep it cool that there were just 3 songs left. I've only been to a dozen PJ shows, but nothing like this has ever happened before. After the incident, my bf and i decided to scoot back a little, but when we did that, the dudes kept looking back at us, so we just walked back to camp. I don't think i will ever go to bonnaroo again. I'm going to stick to regular pj shows from now on.
The best part of the night besides the show, was how all the fans that waited all day joined together and made sure no one was hurt. It was awesome to be part of that group of individuals. Thanks for a great time to all the wonderful fans we waited in line with - Jules, Dan from NY, the nice guy form bristol, liesel, and all the others. It was a blast! And thanks to the band for a great show!
Peace and Love!

MrSmith wrote:

why not stand a few rows back and just enjoy the show? you have to know you are going to deal with assholes when trying to get front row at a huge festival.

just chill in the middle with me! no problems there.

Eliot Rosewater wrote:

Hey, aren't you the girl that was helping my girlfriend all night?? When her feet were about to explode and she sat on your blanket for a little bit??

I wondered where you guys went...I wanted to beat those fuckers behind you that were pushing and shit.

Anyway, I caught the pick from Mike....was gonna give it to you guys after the show but you were gone.

Send me a PM and I'll mail it to you. I felt really bad that you guys left. You were the nicest people in the bunch and really looked out for Holly. So let me know where to send it and it'll be in the mail.