Bonnaroo - June 13-16, 2013

[Teh Dingo]

It's impossible for a crowd to be the best if I'm not there

[LovelySortsOfDeath]

OK! Sup, everyone? It's me, weirdojace. I have a new account since my old one got banned or something!

Anyhow, I was at this show and it was marvelous. Bonnaroo was some of the most fun I've ever had in general. When I met Al at the show in Nashville in April, he expressed concern that the crowd at Bonnaroo wasn't gonna like him. But he didn't need to worry about that. This truly was the best crowd he's had. Out of all the times I've seen Al live, I've never seen an audience so incredibly enthusiastic as the Bonnaroo audience was.

I know Al was reluctant to do festivals ever since he had a bad experience at one a while back. But honestly he fit in so well at Bonnaroo. I hope it made him reconsider and I hope he does more festivals in the future. I got the feeling that a lot of the people there weren't necessarily big Al fans, but just people who decided to see him because, hey it's Weird Al, why not? And in that respect, I think he fits right into music festivals.

[TMBJon]

It's so great to hear Al finally got the type audience he has always deserved.

[WeirdMary0427]

I think he gained a good chunk of new fans by doing this. Maybe not HARDCORE fans necessarily. But, you know, it was just good that he really got himself out there in front of completely new people (with the exception of the few of us forum people who were there).

ALSO! I think it's time we say goodbye to "WE WANT AL!" and make "LET'S GET WEIRD!" the new chant. At first when the crowd started doing that I got all snobby and was like "THAT'S NOT THE RIGHT CHANT", but then it grew on me, and I joined in. It was refreshing, even though I know it has a double meaning, and I think is a reference to something else besides Al.

[LovelySortsOfDeath]

I liked "LET'S GET WEIRD" way better, yeah.

[Orthography Enthusiast]

I was there too (not absolutely up front, I only got there 2 hours early but well within range of the streamer cannon) and I agree that the crowd energy was amazing. Lots and lots of sing-along too. I was talking to the guys on either side of me beforehand, and if I can extrapolate from 2 guys to 10,000 I think there were a lot of people who were huge Weird Al fans as kids and somehow never got to see him live. Now they're grown up, know more about music, are big enough fans of music to pay a bunch of money and camp out with the porta-potties for four days. They finally get their Weird Al concert and, seeing it through their adult eyes & ears, it's excellent!. Al rocked it. They were ecstatic.

I also got to see Al with Portugal the Man (and yes I stayed for the whole set, no sneaking out after Al's appearance). Sorry I missed Comedy Bang Bang.

[Alinite27]

Have to absolutely agree with everyone's sentiments here. That crowd seemed to absolutely be thrilled to see a Weird Al show. Comments I heard throughout the day were along the lines of, "I wonder what the Weird Al show is like...". I withstood my constraint of being the crazy fan and didn't talk to these people about the show or anything, but it really exuded excitement to me. I didn't hear anything along the same lines for any other act.

So, once Al took the stage, thousands of them who were in the tent, it was an amazing sight to see. They all seemed to get it. Since, I was at Jack Johnson and after the awesome fireworks, I came in kind of late. There were a few spots in the tent, but I eventually decided to kick it on the outside. It kind of surprised me how many were even waiting around for Al outside of the tent. The show ended up going over great with many of them, as well. Some comments however were, "I listened to Al growing up through my childhood. It's not what I expected, but I'm sure my parents would love this". There were also some people that after a couple songs decided to go somewhere else, but that's very typical of musical festivals.

Even with that, the majority of the crowd was amazing and was exactly the kind of crowd that is perfect for Al. I LOVED the "Let's Get Weird" chant. A huge grin came across my face upon hearing the huge crowd chant that. I think I'm going to try to get that adopted as the chant a few minutes before the show. I can, at least, try to start it and see what happens. "We Want Al" works better as an encore chant.

[LovelySortsOfDeath]

Haha, the only comment I heard before the show was some girl who said "It is a total sausage fest in here."

[Orthography Enthusiast]

Spin Magazine: The 50 Best Things We Saw at Bonnaroo 2013

Guess who #35 is?

And Paul McCartney is #2???

[Elvis]

Spin Magazine: The 50 Best Things We Saw at Bonnaroo 2013

Guess who #35 is?

Should have been #27.

Dave