Worst Bonnaroo Audience of all Time

I don't come around too often anymore, but damn, this is good entertainment. Makes up for not going this year.

When Eddie wanted everyone to sing along during 'Better Man', nobody around our crew was singing along...thought this would be great to hear the sing-along on the farm, but nobody sang along...my friend and I looked at each other and were like 'wow, cmon people'...

I was an integral part of the "Worst Bonnaroo Audience of All Time" and I can confirm that my attitude sucked and I didn't dance...on Monday morning.

I'm an enormous Dead fan - one who threw out a bunch of $$$ to attend all three GD50 shows in Chicago last summer - and I didn't stand and dance during Sunday night's show, even though I thought it was killer. I was just too worn out from the weekend.
I will say I saw a ton of dancing and into-it crowds at the following shows:
- Volfpeck. From the get-go, the crowd was into their show.
- Big Grams. I just watched a video I took outside the That Tent, and the huge crowd's still moving, even after 2 a.m.
- LCD Soundsystem. I have a similar video from the perspective of the VIP hill of heads and glow sticks moving as one.
- Lettuce.
- Fidlar. Now, that was an into-it crowd, despite the absurd heat. I was fortunate enough to work my way into the tent for a while.
I could honestly name a bunch of other shows.
Yes, I ran into people talking or sitting at different shows, but different people have different ways of enjoying things. The heat and humidity also was old-school-roo rough this year. By Sunday afternoon, I was worn out. Others, no doubt were, too.

No one was dancing? I walked by this one tent and it was so weird...everybody was dancing and there wasn't any band playing at the time...;-)

Why does everyone think cops run reverse stings at Bonnaroo? Reverse stings are the dumbest way to drum up arrest stats. Busting a bunch of college kids on possession charges doesn't usually resonate well with anyone. Stings are more likely to be set up to bust dealers to put drugs on the table and rack up large fines with possible jail times.

I felt kinda bad for Bob Moses. They were up there killing it, but the crowd didn't hardly halfway fill the That Tent. So I screamed twice as loud trying to make them feel appreciated. Bob Moses and Papadosio were my two favorite sets this year.

My take on the crowd, and a few observations on the bands and vibes at select shows:

Steve Gunn was kind of depressing. Super small crowd, as evidenced by me not really being a fan (still definitely not one) and being able to move right up front during the set. That could at least partially be on him and his music though, or the time slot, since he seemed incredibly flat. First time I've seen him, and my take is that he's a Joe Bonamassa without the soul, or Kurt Vile without the vileness, or something, I don't know. Soundbleed from what he called "the disco band" on Which didn't help, and he didn't do much to drown it out.

The Clutch crowd was also a bit thin. Maybe they're just too old now or not current enough? As much as I love them, and have for 20 years, they also didn't seem to be at their best. We were all into it and loving it up where the mosh pit should have been (thanks for the recommendation of the Etymotics, you guys!), but they played maybe one song from their first two (classic) albums, and attendance was markedly less than their last time at Roo. Neil was as charismatic and entertaining as ever but Tim Sult seemed tired.

The crowd at Claypool-Lennon really seemed to dig the show, and packed That. I have no idea what it looked like from afar because I was all up in it, but it seemed like there was a good bit of enthusiasm, or maybe bewilderment because the performance was so damned good. Les gave us vintage Les, Sean is a better guitar player and singer than I realized (I'd only seen him play bass live), and the other two guys kept up brilliantly, which is no small feat. That was one fun show.

Tam Impala seemed very well-attended to me. I was over on the right sort of near the bleachers, and we were almost shoulder to shoulder. For some reason all the kiddies thought they were in the wrong spot and needed to walk around the whole time, which was extremely annoying, but people were digging it and quite a few looked like real fans. It seemed pretty packed really, and I left a bit early because I was tired of getting bumped around. The Silent Disco really just seemed to be in the way then.

Pearl Jam killed it, and a lot of people up on the left were singing and dancing, despite the bees. Never been a huge fan (they were my mom's band in the 90's, I was into Nirvana and Soundgarden), but they were impressive - Eddie sounded as good as he did 20+ years ago and Mike McCready's guitar solo on Evenflow was both unexpected and awesome. great energy, on stage and in the field.

Fidlar = pure awesome. I didn't know them going in aside form a couple songs on Youtube, but they ROCKED. Really fun, energetic performance, and the crowd was probably the best I saw all weekend, even if not the biggest. I'd love to see them play with a band like The Black Lips.

Vulfpeck were fun, and everyone seemed to love them. Super jazzy and upbeat, lots of folks were dancing, even outside the tent.

Overall, I can say it seemed like there were definitely less people around, but it was more or less just a smaller rather than one that was inherently different than what we saw in 2014 or 2015, at least. It wasn't like the farm was empty though, as there were still some lines and packed shows. High bro quotient but for the most part a respectful bunch that just wanted to have fun. I hated the lineup going in but found enough gems (add Bully, Roman Gianarthur, Margaret Glaspy, and Chicano Batman to the above) to really enjoy myself, which was not totally unexpected. My favorite Bonnaroos were 2010 (first), 2012, and I loved the 2013 lineup, but even if this was the worst it still wasn't bad. The utterly unprepared Michigan juggalo that latched onto me in TO and kept extolling on his mushroom-growing exploits and jail time was a bummer, but he didn't ruin in for me as much as Kanye might have or not bringing my anxiety meds did (sorry I didn't stick around long at brunch). I'm certainly not buying presale for 2017 or booking the vacation time before the lineup drops, but I also can't rule out going back for #8.

I felt like Bonnaroo as a whole was more mellow this year (NOT A BAD THING AT ALL!) and the sets I caught, while smaller attendance, everyone was energetic. The music sounded great at every set I attended and I honestly do not have any bad stories this year from roo. No bad crowd experiences... nothing. This was just an overall good year!

Also, just referencing OP, no one came to rage at grateful dead. Maybe a few of you, but Sunday night is when all the old timer hippies came out and shirt started getting crazy.