bonnaroo recap

After a rather Fear & Loathing-esque 20 hour road trip from Brooklyn to the middle of nowhere Tennessee, our dusty Cutlass Supreme finally guided us through the gates of Bonnaroo late Thursday afternoon. We arrived to blue skies and unforgiving sunshine, with everyone anticipating the four days of incredible music in store for us while we were setting up shop at our camp.

We finished up just in time to gather our bearings and catch White Rabbits, which got the festival off to a great start. The band played a solid hour-long set, full of new material from their latest release It’s Frightening. Their dual-drum assault brings the group’s live show to life, especially on tracks like the aptly named “Percussion Assault.” I stuck around This Tent after White Rabbits to catch the funky dance punk of Portland’s own Hockey, whose six members turned out a very tight set that had the crowd in a frenzy. I split early from Hockey so I could catch part of Portugal. The Man, a band which I knew absolutely nothing about at the time, but blew me away live. The band plays a raucous mix of soulful indie rock, with John Baldwin Gourley’s dark falsetto providing the perfect complement…definitely a band whose material I’ll be following a lot closer from now on.

After Portugal, I headed back to This Tent to catch my first Brooklyn band of the weekend, Chairlift. By this point the Manchester skies had opened up and were pouring down rain on the swelling Bonnaroo masses. The band benefitted greatly, as people surged into the tent to escape the downpour; the huge crowd fed off the energy, and Chairlift reciprocated with a stellar set of their driving, atmospheric indiepop.

With the storm bordering on a monsoon at this point, I retreated back to home base to rest up for the next few days. I woke up Friday morning thankful our camp didn’t get blown to Oz, and headed back in to catch part of Gomez’s set. Despite the fact that it was early, there was already a large crowd assembled in front of Which Stage, whose Friday schedule read as a veritable all-star lineup of New York artists. Next up was Animal Collective, who played a pulsing set which leaned heavily on cuts from Merriweather Post Pavilion. Despite some minor sound glitches at first, the band did not disappoint. It was during this performance that I really began taking stock of my surroundings, and realized that Bonnaroo isn’t just for the jam band faithful anymore. Hipsters heavily outweighed their hippie counterparts, a fact that didn’t surprise me one bit, considering the lineup.

After Animal Collective I wandered around and caught part of Bela Fleck & Toumani Diabate’s set in The Other Tent; their worldly mix of banjo and violin appealed to the faithful bluegrass fans that had come out to see them. I bounced a little early to run back to Which Stage for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs performance, one I had been excited to see. Karen O & Co. were in fine form, tearing through 75 minute set of new and old material alike, including an acoustic version of “Maps.” I sat tight after the YYY’s so I could catch TV On the Radio, another show that I was equally geeked to see. I’ve seen them plenty of times, but was more than curious to see how they’d go over in front of the now-massive crowd assembled in front of Which Stage. Sporting fresh threads, the band played a scorching set despite minor sound problems at first. TVOTR is one of my favorite live bands; no matter how many times you see them, you always get a unique show that borders on sped up post-punk, where they truly manage to make their music come to life. Highlights for me were killer renditions of “Staring at the Sun,” “Family Tree,” and “Golden Age.” Well done yet again, gents.

I made the decision to skip the Beastie Boys in favor of David Byrne’s set; not an easy choice considering I had just seen Byrne in Prospect Park the week before. But as a huge Talking Heads fan, I couldn’t pass up the chance to see what he would pull out, and I’m glad I did, because he played a set full of Talking Heads classics. I was obviously in heaven, since my notebook and Tweets are mysteriously devoid of any David Byrne-age. I do remember killer versions of “Once In a Lifetime,” “I Zimbra,” and “Take Me To the River,” paying clear homage to Al Green who had just performed at What Stage before Byrne’s set.

After a brilliant “Burning Down the House” encore (wearing a tutu no less), I ran over to What Stage for Phish’s first Bonnaroo appearance. The legendary jam band was slated for an epic 3 hour set, and the boys did not disappoint…they came ready to play. They opened the set with a scorching “Chalkdust Torture,” and proceeded to placate the crowd with favorites such as the jam-heavy staples of “Divided Sky,” “Possum,” and “Down With Disease.” My favorite jam of the night was a raucous version of “Golgi Apparatus” that electrified the crowd. Although a faithful fan of many years, I split early to catch what I could of Public Enemy, Femi Kuti, and Crystal Castles. The bits that I caught of each were great, especially Crystal Castles, whose performance in That Tent was well-attended, with a borderline seizure-inducing light show. It was my first time catching them live, which got me excited to see them in a smaller venue in the near future.

Next up was Girl Talk, who played to one of the most densely packed tent crowds I witnessed the entire weekend. It seemed like every hipster and hipsterette was out in fine form, as the crowd immediately surged forward once Crystal Castles finished up. I opted to hang back a little bit so I could breathe, and Mr. Gillis turned out an awesomely sweaty 90 minute dance party as usual. At one point he had to stop the show in order to tell everyone to back up, since people were practically getting crushed up front, evidenced by his laptop cutting out once or twice. As a native Pittsburgher, it was great to see my friend completely kill it up there for what was his longest set ever. By this juncture, my body was exhausted and sunburnt, but I still managed to trek it down to catch some of Paul Oakenfold, who wound up playing until nearly 6am. I stuck it out for about an hour, until I really, really had to retire for the evening…after all, it was only Friday.

Saturday got started off right with the late addition/surprise guest Jimmy Buffett, who played an hour-long set at noon. Buffett ripped through many of his classics to a growing, enthusiastic crowd at Which Stage. Having been raised by Parrotheads and seeing Buffett far too many times growing up (go ahead, flame away), it was a nice little nostalgic trek down memory lane for me. A friend suggested I check out William Elliot Whitmore afterwards, so I sought out Cafe Where in a remote part of the festival grounds, and was pleasantly surprised with his soulful, whiskey-drenched folk. With Cafe Where conveniently located at the top of the hill in front of What Stage, I got to catch part of Rodrigo y Gabriela. Their lush, Spanish-inflected guitar instrumentals made for fine listening while I munched down a delicious falafel before carrying on.

Bon Iver was a show that I’d been looking forward to for some time. Mr. Vernon played a heart-wrenching set full of material from his critically acclaimed album “For Emma, Forever Ago,” to a densely packed crowd. Although it was a great performance, it left me desperately wanting to see them in a slightly more intimate venue. Of Montreal followed Bon Iver in This Tent, who proved to be one of the crossover performances of the weekend. They seem to be perfectly suited for the festival circuit; their charming psychedelic pop, ridiculous wardrobe and intricate stage (freak)show must’ve appealed to every kid on mushrooms in the place, while wooing faithful fans all at the same time. Unfortunately, I had to bounce a little early in order to catch Wilco, who were playing all the way on the other side of the farm. I was somberly curious to see their set, since former member Jay Bennett had passed away a mere 3 weeks prior to the festival. They played an amazing show which opened with a fun new track, cleverly titled “Wilco (The Song).” Following this was a ripping version of “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” which sure enough, had Mr. Tweedy breaking everyone in the audiences’ hearts. I stuck around for several more, but had to retreat to camp to prepare myself for the rest of the evening’s festivities.

Don’t hate me, but I totally skipped Bruce Springsteen’s set. Yeah yeah, I know he’s an icon, but to be honest, I just wasn’t feeling it. That, and I needed a powernap like no other. I woke up in time to head back down to Centeroo and kill a little bit of time before the epicness of Nine Inch Nails. I had heard NIN’s live shows were heavy on the the performance aspect but I had no idea. Their fog machines started spewing long before the band took the stage, and their strobe-heavy light show put Crystal Castles’ to shame. Mr. Reznor opened the show with “Home,” before tearing through a career-spanning setlist that included “March of the Pigs,” “I’m Afraid of Americans,” “Head Like A Hole,” and topped off with a “Hurt” encore.

In the midst of the NIN madness, a friend and I split off from the rest of the crew to run up and catch as much of Yeasayer as I could, since they’ve added members to their touring band. The band played one of my personal favorite sets of the weekend, choosing to debut some material from their upcoming album. Their short 45 minute set was just what I needed in the midst of NIN; the new songs they played were unlike any Yeasayer I’ve ever heard, and are already making me fiend for their new album. The band closed the set with “Sunrise,” which couldn’t have been a better ending to an incredible show. Like Girl Talk the previous night, right after Yeasayer’s last note rang out into the night, the crowd immediately surged forward, as every hipster in the crowd rushed in for MGMT…way too much for this kid. Luckily this gave me time to run back to NIN in time to catch the last hour, thankfully, as Reznor announced that this would be their last show in the US…ever. Hmmm, do I smell a solo project?

Curiosity got the best of me after NIN, so I headed back up to That Tent to catch what I could of MGMT, opting to watch from a safe distance. In the 15 or so minutes that I caught, I heard “Time to Pretend,” “Electric Feel,” and “Weekend Wars,” which was plenty for me. To their credit, they sounded pretty good, and had every kid in the tent singing along and eating out of the palm of their hand. After “Electric Feel” I felt like winding down, so the inner hippie in me led me over to This Tent to relax and catch the last chunk of the late night moe. show. Perfect ending to an insane day of performances…

Sunday morning found me in dire need of a shower to cleanse myself of the weekend’s sins, so I made my way down to the press area to utilize their amenities before showtime. Best. shower. everrr. Afterwards, we broke down our camp and headed in to catch what we could of Citizen Cope. I’m a semi-fan of Cope; I enjoy some of his more upbeat stuff, but his slower jams kinda make me wanna puke at points…I literally walked out halfway through his show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last year. Luckily, he knew the crowd he was playing to this time, and kept the setlist appropriate. Once Cope finished up, I sprinted over to What Stage to catch Erykah Badu, who managed to keep us waiting a little too long, but was completely worth the wait. I listened to her first few songs before heading back to Which Stage for Andrew Bird, another performance I’d been looking forward to. Bird played an solid set to a very enthusiastic & sunburnt audience. That guy’s got one mean whistle; I’d never seen him before, so I wasn’t sure how everything went down live, but he tore it up. His drivingly rhythmic, violin-heavy set won over the crowd, and was a perfect precursor to Band of Horses, who were due up next.

I made the tough decision to skip Snoop Dogg entirely in order to catch the Band of Horses show, a decision which I don’t regret in hindsight. The Sunday afternoon audience that was assembled loved every minute, as the group tore through favorites from Everything All the Time, including “The Great Salt Lake,” “No One’s Gonna Love You,” and my personal fave, “Wicked Gil.” Sad to say, but this was the last performance I got see; we had to get back on the road to make it back by a decent hour on Monday, so we had to forego Phish’s concluding performance (and subsequent Springsteen cameo) in order to make the 20+ hour trek back.

As for the hippies vs. hipsters angle I was originally shooting for; shit, I abandoned that pretty soon after I got there. I realized there’s not much of a difference whatsoever, except that hipsters may shower slightly more often, and at this point, they far outweigh the hippies in terms of attendance numbers. All in all, Bonnaroo 2009 might be one of the most epic four day spans of live music that I’ll ever see in my lifetime. Once they announced the lineup months ago, I knew I had to make it down. For anyone that’s never done the Bonnaroo experience, I highly urge you to make the jaunt…it’s 4 days of constant music and debauchery where anything goes, with one rule: respect. See ya in 2010, Bonnaroo.

Nine Inch Nails – Full Bonnaroo set download, courtesy of You Aint No Picasso
Girl Talk – Full Bonnaroo set download