Courtesy of westlacnct.com
Bonnaroo is over, and now that we’ve washed off four days of dirt and sunscreen, it’s time to discuss our favorite performances of the long weekend. As with all festivals though, we had to make some tough decisions as to who we saw. Here is a recap of the bands we witnessed and what we though of their sets.
Thursday (by Alexa):
This was an ideal time to get up close to bands, since most people hadn’t yet arrived to the festival. While the lineup included Wavves and School of Seven Bells, we decided to set our sights on Karen Elson and Best Coast. Luckily they were both playing at the Other Tent consecutively so we could see them with ease.
Hayes Carll performed while we were waiting for Karen Elson at the same tent. The band’s mélange of genres, including alternative/folk and country, was a bit too twangy for my taste. However, their set did impress and their songs did set up Elson quite nicely. Can’t say we were completely familiar with her work, but Karen Elson’s range of originals and covers (including one of Lou Reed’s “Vicious”) was impressive. I have to say that I think most people wanted to catch a glimpse of Jack White (which I did, but he remained off-stage). However, Karen Elson is more than just a vehicle through which to possibly see the former White Stripes god, because she is amazing in her own right – and also just adorable. Best Coast came on after Elson and while the media craze for Elson was crazy, the photographer count nearly tripled when Bethany Cosentino got on the stage. While I expected a sweet show, I have to say that Bobb Bruno’s guitar skills were nothing short of fucking awesome. From listening to the album, I thought he would be more unassuming, with Bethany Cosentino shining brighter, but honestly, I was most impressed with Bruno.
By the time Best Coast finished their set, Centeroo was much more packed than earlier. I feel like Bonnaroo should just make every tent like the Which Stage, because there are way too many people to actually see anything once everyone is there (unless you want to sacrifice seeing the end of all the bands’ sets). This issue arose when we went to see Band of Skulls. They sounded pretty sweet from afar, and I could tell the people up front were having fun with their crowd surfing shenanigans. Then we caught part of J. Cole’s set. We headed over after Band of Skulls and it seemed all right. I’m not the biggest rap fan, but the crowd was intense. We also got to catch part of Sleigh Bells set, which was completely packed. The show was intense and Alexis Krauss was running around the stage like she had a fire to put out. We ended our evening by cooling off with Deerhunter. An awesome beginning to our Bonnaroo weekend.
Friday (by Nick):
Friday started (for us) with Jessica Lea Mayfield, who performed a solid set in This Tent. Although her songwriting and voice are solid, her whole show came off as sort of one note – I’m not sure if I heard her work on shuffle I’d be able to distinguish between any of them. Her brother David (from the David Mayfield Parade) stopped by for duet and backing vocals, and was definitely a highlight of the show. Afterward, we stopped by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones with the original lineup, which was impressive musically but (don’t kill me Fleck fans) couldn’t hold my attention.
The day really picked up with Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, who performed on the What Stage and surprised the hell out of me. She performed with unknown veracity and rocked the hell out of the crowd, channeling Stevie Nicks and Grace Slick in the process, even performing an awesome cover of “White Rabbit”. It was one of the best sets of the entire festival.
Following Grace Potter, we went back to This Tent to get a good view for Florence and The Machine, catching a healthy amount of the independent hip-hop group Atmosphere in the process. They played to a packed tent, with songs like “God Loves Ugly” hyping up the crowd. Florence and the Machine took the stage soon after, performed to an (even more packed) tent, proving she should have been scheduled on one of the main stages. She played some of her biggest songs, but we left half way through to catch My Morning Jacket, who was performing on the main What stage before it ended.
MMJ started with some sound problems (Jim James’ voice was almost inaudible on “Victory Dance,”) but they were soon fixed as the show veered heavily into the jam arena. In their 2 hour set, they covered material from many of their albums, including “Highly Suspicious” off of Evil Urges, and “Wordless Chorus” off of Z.
Arcade Fire, however, performed the best set of the night (and possibly, the festival). Taking the stage by storm, they played all of their major hits (“Month of May,” “Rebellion (Lies),” “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels),”) as well as more minor songs like “Intervention,” Haiti,” and “Modern Man.” Their performance of “Rococo” though, stole the show, including incredible emotion and a second-half hit worthy of a Brian Jonestown Massacre song. It was an amazing set, and will probably go down in Bonnaroo history as such.
Oh, and afterwards there was Lil Wayne, who was pretty good, but definitely not as good as he is in the studio.
Saturday (by Nick):
On Saturday, we gave up seeing a lot of the early bands in favor of catching a screening of Garden State followed by a Q+A with Zach Braff. The film was great (as always) but the Q+A was too short and too many people asked the questions that everyone always asks (“How did you write the music into the script?” or “Can I hug you?” or “What have you done since?”) but it was still amazing to see one of my favorite directors in person, who I’m pretty much in guy love with (you need to see Scrubs to get that).
Following Garden State was Mumford & Sons, who played on the Which Stage to an incredibly packed audience. They played a lot of new material and slower songs, but their intimate feel didn’t really match the crowded vibe.
We left Mumford early to get good seats for The Black Keys, who rocked the main stage with full force. Dan Auerbach (who’s Dad I’m pretty sure we met) and Patrick Carney played with full blues force. When they finished, almost half the audience left to go see Buffalo Springfield, while an Eminem fan force pushed themselves in.
Thankfully, we got out of that situation and go to see Buffalo Springfield play “For What it’s Worth” and Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,” something that was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Afterward, we caught some of Eminem (and left when he said something instructing the “bitches to grab their tits” and later scream “fuck you, asshole!” to the guys) and checked out some of the more interesting vendors before splitting.
Sunday (by Alexa):
The fact that it’s the last day of Bonnaroo is completely unreal, as is the crazy amount of bands we’ve seen. We chill this afternoon, as the sun prevents us from sleeping past 8 a.m. The game plan is set and we catch part of Smith Westerns, whose airy feel was the perfect thing to really wake us up. Next we headed over to blues legend Mavis Staples. Though she played while the sun was at its hottest, leaving people in a zombielike state, she was able to rouse everyone to dance with her soulful voice. After watching part of her set, we walked over to the On Tap Lounge to cool off. Shahidah Omar was playing there, and she was a nice surprise. She kind of had a punk look going on, but with a soulful voice I could see Staples hanging out with. After we had cooled off, we headed toward the Other Tent to check out Nicole Atkins & the Black Sea. There set was raucous, though, I think at times they were out of sync. It still made for a good show to pass the time though. When her set was finished, we headed over to see Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses (all of these names seem really similar, I think ampersands are the new “the” before a band name). Their set had that nice bluesy rock feel and I can see Bingham’s gravely voice becoming like Tom Waits’ as he ages. We then headed to the This Tent to check out part of Neon Trees set, and, I have to say that I’m much more impressed with their other songs than the singles (“Animal”) I heard on Sirius XMU. After there set was done, we grabbed some beer and pizza so that we would be prepared to watch the next five awesome bands.
It really sucks that some very awesome bands were overlapping (Robert Plant & Band of Joy, The Strokes, Explosions in the Sky, and Beirut). But, we had to make some tough choices, just like at any other music festival. First we checked out Iron & Wine who surprised with their shift from quiet folksiness to funk-tastic jamminess. I’d probably do the same thing if I was playing to a giant crowd at the Which Stage, but it was weird nonetheless. When we had our fill of Iron & Wine, we check out the res of the Cold War Kids’ set. Their high energy sound brought our energy back up and then we left to get a good position for Robert Plant & Band of Joy. I have to say, I wasn’t too sure how it would be, but as I was soon to realize, Robert Plant will ALWAYS blow your mind. He even played a few Zeppelin songs (“Black Dog”). The Band of Joy was amazing as well, their instrumental virtuosity was something to be in awe of. It was truly sad that we had to leave halfway during their set, and as we headed over to The Strokes at the Which Stage, I couldn’t help but keep looking back.
I was interested to see The Strokes since their recent album conveyed that the band wasn’t getting along too well (the band recorded the music in one studio and sent it to Julian Casablancas, who would then record his voice). They came on a bit late (basically all of the bands came out on time or 5 minutes late) and started their set with “Is this it?” possibly a jab at performing at Bonnaroo. They also then ended their set fifteen minutes early with “Take it or Leave it.” Casablancas didn’t speak much, but when he did, you could tell the band was uncomfortable. He even mentioned that he saw two Beirut songs before performing, which kind of pissed me off because we had sacrificed Beirut for The Strokes, and here he is, late because he wanted to see them. ‘Tis the nature of being a rock star I guess. The Strokes’ set was still awesome, but I’m not too sure how many more shows they’ll be playing together. Since the set ended early, we got to check out the end of the Superjam with Dr. John and Dan Auerbach over at the That Tent. Later on we checked out Widespread Panic, who kept all the potheads interested, but I’m not really into 30 minute guitar solos. I think the technically, they’re awesome, just not my thing.
Overall, Bonnaroo was a great success, and we can’t wait to go back next year. While sometimes the schedule left a little to be desired, the whole festival went off without any major problems.
