Members of local psychedelic rock band Morningbell were in a daze. They traveled to Bonnaroo this summer as they had the previous two years of the festival. But this year was different. They were not there as fans to enjoy the music of the bands they look up to. They were there to perform alongside them.
Travis Atria, Eric Atria, Stacie Thrushman and Chris Hillman, who together make up Morningbell, were in a whirl of exhaustion and amazement. They camped out for the festival getting little to no sleep. Yet their weariness was drowned out by excitement when they took the stage to perform in front of a crowd they would normally be a part of.
They stepped offstage to let Béla Fleck step on. They mingled and discussed lyrics with Broken Social Scene. They felt like equals to their idols.
Bonnaroo was a dream come true.
"It was really one of those types of things like it just shouldn't happen," said Travis Atria, vocalist and guitarist. "You're just like, 'This can't be happening right now,' but it was. It was awesome."
Playing Bonnaroo was just one of many goals that the band set out to accomplish this year. While many bands' main objective is to get signed to a major record label, the members of Morningbell take a different approach to the future of the band, said Eric Atria, bassist and Travis' brother.
"This tour, we wanted to do more shows than we did last tour. We wanted to go more places," he said, "and we did that."
Morningbell hit the road on June 11 to travel through 19 states in 17 days to play 13 shows. They drove north to Chicago, then east to New York and finally made their way back to Florida.
Along its tour route, the band created lasting memories while visiting various U.S. landmarks and staying with family and friends.
"The tour was the most fun I've ever had in my life, I think not just in the band in my life," Travis Atria said. "There's no better goal than that right?"
His favorite part of the tour was visiting one of his old college professors in North Carolina. They stayed in a cabin built on the side of a mountain.
"We had to make sure the windows were locked because the bears knew how to open the windows," he said. "I didn't sleep at all that night."
On a day off from touring, the members got to see an exhibit in New York City by David Byrne from Talking Heads called "Playing the Building." The free exhibit was a sound installation in an old building in the southern part of Manhattan, Hillman said.
An organ was set up in the middle of a big room with the pipe system run throughout the building, he said. Whenever a different key was hit, it would activate different things throughout the building such as a hammer or the air conditioning compressor.
"It almost sounded like a haunted house," Hillman said. "It was very memorable."
Eric Atria said being on tour was like being in their own little world away from home.
"You're just in your own little universe that relies on gas stations, smoky bars and people's floors," he said.
When they were on the road, their main concerns changed drastically from their comfortable lifestyle at home.
"Your priorities decrease exponentially, wondering where you're going to eat, where you're going to sleep and where you're going to get wireless Internet," he said.
Now that the band is back in town, it has a new set of goals to work toward, including embarking on another tour.
"You really look forward to getting back home, but then after a day or two home, you really want to go back out again," Eric Atria said.
Until then, they will be working on their new album due out in March. Morningbell's objective for the new album is to write more energetic pop songs, which is a change of pace from their previous albums.
"So that's been the goal for me, just trying to do something different and expand, which is scary because you know you could fail easily at that," Travis Atria said.
Morningbell will be playing in The Real Big Deal Festival at the Alachua County Fairgrounds on Sept. 13 from 1 p.m. to 1:40 p.m. on the main stage. Tickets purchased the day of the event start at $35 for a one-day pass. The band also has a free upcoming show on Sept. 18 at the Orange and Brew on UF's campus.
