Bonnaroo is not for the faint hearted. Everything about this 4-day music festival is extreme and nothing is done in moderation. The size is enormous with more than 10 stages, more than 120 musical acts and an audience somewhere around 100,000. The schedule is daunting with a start time around noon each day and running until nearly dawn the next day. Then there is the oppressive heat, the choking dust, the seeming bottomless beer kegs and the endless campground parties.
Taking place just south of Nashville in Manchester, Tennessee, this year marked the sixth iteration of the festival and it was more extreme than ever before. My wife and I attended the first three years and it took two years of resting up before being enticed back again by this year’s lineup. Bonnaroo truly becomes a city unto itself, with the audience camping next to their cars or in RVs for the duration. Definitely not a family-oriented experience, it attracts a fairly young crowd that is all too ready-and-willing to push the party to the limits (and well beyond in many cases).
Stage names have been carefully selected to mess with the altered mental states of the audience: What Stage, Which Stage, This Tent, That Tent, The Other Tent, Something Else Tent, Yet Another Tent. It’s great fun trying to figure out where you’ve been or where you’re headed after knocking back several microbrews at the Brooer’s Village [ed. You overhear a lot of conversations that sound like an Abbott and Costello "who's on first" routine.]
Music selection runs a wide gamut of genres, from the so-called “jam band” groups like Widespread Panic and Bob Weir & Ratdog (of Grateful Dead fame) to bluegrass, folk, hip-hop, techno, rock, country, blues, gospel, jazz and more. There was even an air-conditioned tent sponsored by Comedy Central featuring various stand-up acts hosted by Lewis Black, though getting inside this cool oasis was near impossible in the 90+ degree heat. Sound quality of course leaves a lot to be desired at a festival this large due to enormous amplification required, and it was common for the volume to be tweaked up much too high for my liking in most instances. But the performances are what we were really there to witness and experience.
Each evening featured a headliner on the main “What” stage. Tool took the stage the first night and, though I am not a fan of their music, I must admit that their performance was very impressive musically as well visually with an extensive light show. Though they are not the typical group for Bonnaroo, which has a decidedly bohemian flavor, the audience enjoyed and embraced their show just the same. I found the darker lyrics and hard-driving sound (as well as the mosh-pit) a welcome expansion of the festival which thrives on diversity.
The Police took over the main stage on the second night and, while it was a solid performance with all the classic crowd-pleasers, I couldn’t help thinking that they were simply punching the clock. There just was not anything outstanding in how they presented their well-known repertoire. Though this may be a bit harsh for a reunion tour, it seemed like Stewart Copeland was relegated to playing second fiddle (snare?) to Sting. Perhaps my expectations were simply too high based on Copeland’s past Bonnaroo performance as part of Oysterhead along with festival regulars Les Claypool (from Primus) and Trey Anastasio (from Phish). Even so, it was great to see a band that figured so prominently in my youth.
Widespread Panic closed out the festival on the main stage Sunday night, which for my wife and I was a major reason we attended. Though off the radar of most mainstream music outlets and radio stations, this band has been churning out albums and touring relentlessly for the past two decades, performing as many as 250 shows a year. We’ve seen many fine performances by Widespread Panic and this was no exception, though it did seem somewhat more subdued than their typical show. I was also hoping some of the other festival artists would join them for a few songs, but that never occurred.
There is usually at least one artist at Bonnaroo who appears on multiple stages throughout the weekend, sitting in with the other acts. This year that honor went to former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. He performed a late night “Super Jam” with Ben Harper and Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson, and then proceeded to show up on numerous other stages throughout the weekend. His presence imbued the entire festival with a Zeppelin undercurrent as the various bands covered those rock classics and incorporated well-known Zeppelin guitar riffs into the performances.
The late night shows are where the real action takes place, starting at midnight and running until, well, whenever someone decides to finally pull the plug (which one night was as the sky started to brighten with the morning sun). Sound Tribe Sector Nine kept everyone grooving with their ambient space jam sounds. Galactic performed a one-of-a-kind show combining their New Orleans infused jazz-rock-funk with a bevy of hip-hop artists. The always over-the-top and theatrical Flaming Lips landed a flying saucer on stage for a spectacular late night invasion which (appropriately) imparted their performance with the feel of a surreal, sci-fi thriller. Gov’t Mule was a real workhorse of the night shows, bringing up on stage everyone they could find including John Paul Jones, Bob Weir, the guys from Hot Tuna and even comedian Lewis Black. The biggest problem was trying to decide which show to see, so we ended up bouncing between the stages and never really took in a complete set.
Two shows really stood out for us at Bonnaroo this year. Wilco delivered an engaging afternoon performance, weaving songs from their latest album with many older tunes into a coherent, flowing presentation. Rather than seeming to just play individual songs, they tied everything together in a way that kept us hooked. That is, until we had to make our way to The White Stripes who put on an electrifying show, though I am admittedly a bit biased being from Detroit. The energy, breadth of styles and full sound that Jack and Meg are able to generate in a live performance always surprises me given that there are only two of them on stage.
Other highlights of the festival:
- The Roots performing a funkified rendition of “Roxanne” sung by drummer ?uestlove (which I found much more interesting than The Police’s straight-off-the-album presentation).
- Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals doing an extended version of “Dazed and Confused” with John Paul Jones.
- The soulful and moving vocals of Mavis Staples.
- The singin’ and strummin’ of Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Charlie Louvin.
- Bluegrass pickers Yonder Mountain String Band.
- Gogol Bordello’s unique gypsy-punk sound incorporating an accordion into their Eastern-European flavored rock.
- And the decked out Wild Magnolia Mardis Gras Indians got everyone up and dancing with their traditional Nawlins style R&B.
With so many stages and so many acts at Bonnaroo, you will definitely miss something and so have to choose your battles. There are a lot of other great performances we saw and many more we missed (visit www.bonnaroo.com for the full lineup). Also, it seemed painfully oversold this year which made getting close to the stages very difficult. Much to our disappointment, because of the crowds we never were able to get into the small (but air conditioned) Blue Note tent to see jazz legends Lou Donaldson and Lonnie Smith, the Stanton Moore Trio or John Medeski and Billy Martin performing as Mago. In the future, my wife and I will probably be sticking to the much smaller and more manageable music festivals … though the right lineup could lure us back again.
On a related note, this trip gave me a chance to start breaking in a new pair of Role Audio Sampan FTL speakers. These sounded great back at the campsite as part of a transportable audio system comprising a Sonic Impact T-Amp and iPod Mini running Rockbox with full-resolution FLAC files. Watch for an upcoming review after I put them through their paces in my main rig back home.
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