The Wayne & Bob Show: (l-r) Wayne Coyne, Britt Daniel, and Bob Weir (Photo By Andy Langer)
Tennessee Waltz
News 8 Austin and the
Chronicle's
Andy Langer had a memorable first trip to
Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tenn., last weekend. Sunday evening Langer visited with
Ornette Coleman en route to see
Mavis Staples sing "The Weight" with the
Decemberists then, during Coleman's set, ducked into the crowd to steal a smoke with
the Dead's
Bob Weir, when the 77-year-old jazz legend and 2007
Pulitzer Prize winner collapsed onstage. "It was the scariest 20 minutes of my life," Langer says. "I thought I was watching somebody die." Coleman was treated for heat-related dehydration at a nearby hospital and released Sunday night. Langer also moderated an artists' panel with Weir,
Wayne Coyne, and
Spoon's
Britt Daniel. "It turned into the Wayne and Bob show," he says. "They can talk for hours on end. Britt got about two words in." Spoon's two-hour set "killed," he says, as did the
Hold Steady and a late-night
Ben Harper/John Paul Jones jam on several
Led Zeppelin songs. Coleman's medical drama caused Langer to miss the
White Stripes, but, he says, "everyone said that was the best thing they saw." The Stripes have been slotted to close Saturday night of the
Austin City Limits Music Festival (
www.austincitylimits.com/schedule).
