Now that things have calmed down...

I think we jumped the gun on the 2010 initial lineup being "lame."

It's easy to jump on the bandwagon when two of your fellow festivalgoers are disenchanted with the headliners, when the message board you're reading is filled with negativity and when you have spent weeks reading amazing rumors and quasi-confirmations only to be handed a Stevie Wonder announcement at the end of an 8-hour wait.

1. Only 90+ artists have been announced so far this year, while there were 148 that played last year (not including comics). If the festival keeps growing, as has been the trend in past years, we're looking at 50+ additions.

2. While Paul Simon is no longer rumored, Neil Young remains on CoS's "expected" list with a bunch of acts that have confirmed their appearances themselves, but were not included in the site's official initial lineup. While CoS has apologized for being wrong about Neil, it appears they're not totally convinced themselves. They haven't taken it down despite numerous page updates. This, along with #3, leads me to believe he is still a possibility.

3. The "confirmation" on Inforoo was hearsay - but it was posted on/around Feb. 4 saying that Neil Young had just agreed to Bonnaroo a day or so earlier. If Neil was a late add, it is possible he will be announced later. One reason for the lineup being pushed back from Feb. 2 to Feb. 9? If so, why wasn't he included?

4. In 2009, we left the Beastie Boys early, missed both Phish sets, and I listened to Bruce Springsteen from the ground, sleepy after a long day. While it would be awesome to have more big acts - it appears the undercard is why I went last year anyway. Plus, Dave Matthews Band being a headliner means no Flaming Lips conflict, and Laura can die a happy woman.

5. The 8-hour long wait made it seem like we were going to get something amazing, but in reality was probably only there to generate conversation, which it did, and very successfully I might add. Good or bad, people are definitely still talking about it. During the release, the festival accounted for at least two trending topics on Twitter.

6. David and I went back and counted the acts we would have liked to have seen from 2007, 2008 and 2009, and surprisingly, 2010 is stacking up nicely. Without exploring any new bands at all, there are already 24 acts from the initial 2010 lineup I'd like to see versus the 21 I wanted to see in 2009's full roster (whether I got to or not), and I thought that was a great year.

I'm looking forward to the additions as much as anyone. I don't know when they might come, but someone on Inforoo noted that the MySpace animation clock is stuck on 2:55 (2/11), so maybe Thursday we could hear something? I donno. Until then, I have plenty of new music to check out so stay tuned.