Sorry for the late post, guys…I haven’t had internet since I left for Bonnaroo for more than an hour. But I actually have everything written already, so you’ll be getting my posts throughout the weekend.
Welcome to The Yellow Stereo’s coverage of Bonnaroo 2009! Hopefully, it’ll go better than my coverage of SXSW 2009, right? This is my first time here and I’d never really understood the magnitude of the festival. I’ve been to festival shows…ones that have like, 3 or 4 stages. This one has 7 main stages – and then there’s all the extra dance tents, comedy tent and so on. Most festivals I’ve been to have a couple thousand people – maybe tens of thousands even. Here, there are people as far as the eye can see. And tents. And tie-dyed t-shirts. Seriously, I’ve never seen so much tie-dye in my life…nor have I seen so many camel backs. That said, it was still easier to get into the farm than it was to get into the Nissan Pavilion for the Radiohead show last year. I’ve only seen a few sets so far, and will probably spend the rest of my night getting my bearings, figuring out where all of the stages and the showers are located and playing with some of the fun toys and games like the Ferris Wheel and the Silent Disco. No seriously…everyone dances with headphones on and it’s really a sight to behold. See?
Now for those of you who have never been at the festival, there’s no wondering what stage you’re at or what band you’re seeing because there are signs determining the stage that look like this.
And band signs that look like this.
The first act I had the pleasure of seeing was Atlanta’s Janelle Monae in The Other Tent. She clearly uses up so much energy over the course of her set, but she makes it look easy and fluid. I got in late for her set and still saw her a) create a painting and distribute it amongst the crowd, b) crowd surf, c) drop to her knees and back and d) play a guitar solo that would make other soulful artists jealous. That was about the perfect way to open the festival.
At This Tent, White Rabbits did their best to follow. They did have the misfortune of not only having an interminable sound check but also having a few mechanical problems during the set. During “While We Go Dancing,” the power went out but the Rabbits shrugged their shoulders and led the audience in a group clap-a-long until it came back on. During the following set, one of the stand alone drums took a tumble. However, this was probably the most energetic I’ve seen the White Rabbits and certainly the most energetic I’ve seen their crowd. Between the singing along during “The Plot” and the pounding of hands and feet during “Percussion Gun” as various members of the band took turns playing percussion, White Rabbits had the audience in the palms of their blistered hands. And then for some reason, they decided to finish up the set with two eerie slow burners. Why? Because they had the audience in the palms of their blistered hands.
MP3: White Rabbits :: Percussion Gun
In short, this feels like a huge playground and I’ve already seen fireworks and a guy going around offering people (or asking for?) mushrooms. I’ve also seen someone aspirating and convulsing on the ground and medics called to the scene. Drugs (and heat stroke) are bad, mmkay? Yeesh.
After a short tent break, it started to drip a little bit, and I thought…it’s okay…I don’t need my rain jacket!Bad move. The rain went from dripping to all out deluge for the rest of the night and although I hardly fear being wet, being cold is another story.But I ended up seeing three bands that I’d had no intention of seeing. The first was the Tangiers Blues Band in the Troo Music Lounge who pretty much did blues-inflected covers of everything from “Rainy Day Women” and “Folsom Prison Blues” to “My Sharona.” It was a nice palette cleanser.
Then when I realized that I couldn’t get into the comedy show I wanted to get into without a ticket, I decided to suck it up and go see Passion Pit who had thoroughly underwhelmed me when I saw them back in February. Of course, back in February, they had only released six songs and I’m pretty sure that Michael Angelakos had not been touring much with the band. Now they have a full length release out and four more months of touring under their belt and it showed. For starters, Angelakos’ voice beforehand had one volume (loud) and one pitch (dog whistle high) when I’d seen them before. Although he still sings everything in a falsetto, he seems to have figured out that varying pitch and volume is a good thing. “Sleepyhead” is still the main attraction…and you can tell that, because that’s when the band has the most fun. But now the fans are singing along to other songs too…and clapping their hands and jumping which motivated the band to do the same. That full tent was all about some Passion Pit and now that they’ve finally found their groove, they were able to deliver. I’m still not 100% sold on this band (which I wish I was, I love Frenchkiss Records and I love Q and Not U which is an obvious predecessor) but this at least shows promise that in the future, they could be great.
MP3: Passion Pit :: Sleepyhead
Passion Pit was supposed to close out the night and after their set, about half the tent cleared out, but Delta Spirit had been stuck in the Dallas airport, missed their allocated set time, and therefore, went onstage at 12:30am. I’ve seen Delta Spirit before and I’ve only been but so impressed by them. The Bonnaroo set didn’t really change my mind, but on account of the pouring rain, I stayed under This Tent for almost the entire set, finally giving up after “People, Turn Around,” their sort of “We Are the World”-esque version of a protest song. Their singer made probably the most accurate point about their band. To paraphrase, “We aren’t the most talented band out there and we know that there are better bands with better songs…(cue booing and shouts of “Nooooo!” from the audience)…but we really mean it. And we’re glad you appreciate that.” And that’s really the key to enjoying a Delta Spirit set. If you enjoy the wild facial expressions and gesticulations of the band and appreciate their penchant for multiple band members doing percussion (not quite to White Rabbits’ extent) then it’s a fun experience. Of course, if one has only gotten 4 hours of sleep and then driven for 8 hours, one is DONE by 1:30am.
Or at least, that’s what I thought. I walked over to the Troo Music Tent and watched the last half hour of Tobacco’s set and was more inspired to dance than I’d been during Passion Pit. Wow!
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From her EP, Janelle Monae seems like she’d be a lot of fun live. She’s got that same kind of crazy that made OutKast’s best moments happen…
Someday I hope to make it to some music festival. The sad thing is that the closest I’ve ever been to something like this is a Warped Tour about a decade ago (I was in high school)…
lol Warped Tour