@ZackTeibloom Snoop Dogg was already 15 minutes late when the announcement came that Mr. Dogg was still 5 miles from the campgrounds. Snoop’s late a lot.It’s to be expected. You actually know almost what to expect at a Snoop Dogg show. And it’s getting old.

He comes out as the air gets thick with smoke to “Who am I (What’s My Name)” as he encourages the crowd to chant his name over and over. The thing is, Snoop somehow hasn’t gotten the hang of when enough is enough. Snoop plays the hits. Even if they aren’t his hits. Read the rest of this entry »

 @AndyShore In the pantheon of guitar gods, Eric Clapton is Zeus. It is quite possible that he is the best guitar player on the planet. Whether or not you believe that Clapton is a deity, I would like to thank the higher power that brought him and Steve Winwood back on stage together.

Formerly of the rock supergroup Blind Faith, these two have a rapport unmatched by most musicians. Whether playing rhythm guitar to Clapton’s lead or tickling the ivories, Winwood just knows how to make Clapton shine. Winwood’s voice provides the perfect compliment, as Clapton’s wailing guitar soars over the stadium. Having a plethora of bands and songs to choose from, the duo of superstars had the crowd eating out of their hands and begging for more all night. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom Covering Bonnaroo is a challenge: The inconsistent internet connection and carrying a computer around in 90+ degree heat during 15 hours a day in the mud are just a few obstacles.

This Bonnaroo coverage has been brought to you by my fancy, tiny new HP DV2. It’s extra light thanks to an external Blu-Ray drive, making it much easier to schlep around. I’ve been a dedicated Mac user for a couple years, but the transition to a Windows and Vista has been seamless.

At half the price of my Mac, it does everything I need it to and I’ve just started exploring it. The best thing about Vista is that it comes naturally. The search bar at the top of the screen took me right into the web. I had never used Bing before, but it’s an interesting alternative to Google.

As I’d start new projects, Vista would pop up with boxes asking my preferences and testing me to see if I wanted those choices to be the way it would always run. At first it was frustrating, but they soon went away and my DV2 was soon picking my brain, knowing what I wanted.

For an inexpensive, light-weight, highly funtional laptop, check out the HP DV2.

@ZackTeibloom I’ve been grading bands for a while now. Maybe I had a past life as a teacher. Maybe I was too into The Count from Sesame Street. Maybe I just like to put numbers on things so you don’t have to decipher between my various positive adjectives.

Anyway, here’s the list. Let me be the first to admit I’m an easy grader. Take it like a school grade instead of a Pitchfork grade. Most bands pass and I give out a lot of A’s and high B’s.

It’s a living document and I’m sure I’ll update it as I see bands again (or if Andy or one of you convinces me I have a band way too high or low.) Feel free to let me know who I have ranked incorrectly and remind me of shows I forgot to list.

Without further ado: Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom With no Super Jam at Bonnaroo this year, there was hope that Phish would have a sit-in. Maybe David Byrne to play “Cities?” How about a horn section?  No one could have guessed the Boss. OK, Laura did, but we all thought she was burned out when she said it.

As Phish wound down a spacier first set than Friday night, Trey said, “We’re having such a good time here, I can’t even describe it with words.” He then told us of his first concert 30 years ago in a small venue and how he thought all concerts would be that incredible and was sad when they weren’t. Read the rest of this entry »

@AndLauraSays Justin Vernon has loved and lost, and thank goodness for that. If it hadn’t been for a bitter breakup and his decision to relocate to a
cabin in his native Wisconsin for three months, the driving force behind Bon Iver would never have recorded For Emma, Forever Ago, one of my favorite albums of 2008 and one that makes me tear up every time I listen to it.

With its hauntingly beautiful layered melodies and lyrics of lost love and heartbreak, I cherish this album a great deal. But when I first tried to see Bon Iver live at Pitchfork Music Festival last summer, I was immensely disappointed. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom “If anyone boos us tonight, we have a built in excuse,” Wilco lead singer Jeff Tweedy told the crowd. “They’re just yelling ‘Bruuuuuce.’”

After he said he wouldn’t mind booing, the crowd jokingly chanted a mix of “boo” and “Bruuuce” back and Tweedy responded, “I worked on that one all day. It’s a joke.”

Wilco sounds like they’ve been working as hard as ever. No joke. I was more apt to chant Jeff than Bruce after their high-powered show. I’ve seen Wilco five times and can’t remember them ever rocking that hard.* I even had to throw up too much rock for one hand signs. Read the rest of this entry »

@ZackTeibloom You can’t deny the power and swagger of a Springsteen show, but once the luster comes off, you have to decide how you feel about the songs themselves.

The band is first rate all the way around. From Stevie Van Zandt to the powerful guitar of Nils Lofgren and even Max Weinberg and his son trading off on drums, they’re a tight, well-oiled machine. It’s just not a machine I want to see again. Read the rest of this entry »

 @AndyShore The first two people to tweet @ZackTeibloom and pimp Festival Crashers in their tweet gets a Port-O-Pong inflatable beer pong table. They must be at Bonnaroo.

Check out the Festival Crashers iPhone app and follow Zack on Twitter from Bonnaroo: @zackteibloom

@ZackTeibloom Some voices age like a fine wine, some age like the remnants of a jagerbomb. Thankfully, Al Green is firmly in the fine wine catgeory. The Reverend was a charmer, sashaying across the stage in a red breasted suit, throwing dozens of roses to the crowd as he led them through classics. And that voice. Oh, lordy. It’s never sounded so pure. Read the rest of this entry »