Welcome to Day 2 coverage of Bonnaroo! Look at my sweet wristband!
I’d debated on whether or not to even catch the Dirty Projectors or whether to stake out a good spot for Animal Collective. I decided catching the first 45 minutes of Dirty Projectors would be worth it and man, was I right. The set started with just David Longstreth playing guitar and Angel Deradoorian singing “Two Doves” but soon expanded into full band plus backup singer and extra bassist. I was truly moved when they went into “Cannibal Resource” and those harmonies took full effect. I feel like a fool saying this, but I really thought I was going to cry. They were that good. One dude in the crowd yelled out, “You have the voices of angels!” And one of them is named Angel. Convenient. However, it’s Amber Coffman who does the primary vocals on “Stillness is the Move,” and she took full advantage of her moment. She danced around the stage like there weren’t five other people on it and grinned the whole time. They played mostly Bitte Orca songs, but hearing the title track from Rise Above was a nice touch. I left during “Temecula” but I left happy.
Dirty Projectors :: Cannibal Resource
Animal Collective will probably go down amongst a lot of festival goers as the disappointment of the weekend. Bonnaroo was the final date of the American tour and whoever decided to put these guys at 3 in the afternoon really didn’t think that one through. They were obviously tired, and couldn’t be as visual as was necessary to make an essentially electronic album translate into a live setting. No amount of weed was going to make up for the fact that they couldn’t effectively use their lighting rig (and Geologist doesn’t even bother with the headlamp) but on the other hand, no amount of energy usage can make up for the fact that “Daily Routine” should not be made into a 10 minute song. It’s kind of a sleeper to begin with and admittedly, when the band takes out all of the electronics and instrumentation and just lets Noah Lennox sing “Just a sec more in my bed” it was breathtaking and everyone cheered as they should have. But David Portner (that’s Avey Tare for those of you who only pay attention to monikers) actually left the stage for a couple of minutes during that song, which just should not happen. I’ve said it before, he is the heart and soul of their live performances. When he got excited during “Slippi,” everyone else got excited right along with him. When he went into the shouting in the middle of “Brother Sport,” everyone else shouted along with him. Whenever he screeched, period, it was a beautiful thing because I’ve yet to see anyone else change to three different vocal pitches in the course of one breath. Because I’m a huge Animal Collective fan, it’s easy for me to point out the amazing points in their set and squeal but I don’t think most people in that audience were huge Animal Collective fans as this seemed to be the only crowd I’ve seen so far at Bonnaroo that wasn’t intensely loud, energetic and thoroughly knowledgeable about who they were seeing. Which is too bad. Don’t feel too sorry for them though…they’re still sitting on the best show I’ve seen so far this year.
Animal Collective :: Fireworks
Next was one of those unfortunate decisions…go see Santigold, go see Grizzly Bear or stay at the Which Stage for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I opted for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and I can say with certainty that Karen O is a badass. She has this ability to grab a collective attention and hold it in the palm of her hand as she entertains and everyone gives up of it willingly. She comes out in this kimono saying “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Bonnaroo!” and proceeds to give a pretty animated performance, complete with costume changes, smoke machines and a few quick blasts of confetti. The set was a pretty good mixture of all three albums and they even went back to their EP for “Art Star” (although unfortunately, not for my favorite song of the EP, ***, but if that’s my biggest complaint, I’ll live.) Nick Zinner had some tuning problems during “Maps,” so they restarted it as an acoustic number. While this meant no killer guitar solo, it was a nice effective way to hear the song. Had we not been in an open field, it would’ve even felt intimate, but intimacy is one of the intricacies lost to an outdoor summer festival. Another thing that’s lost is the ability to hold your place in the audience for multiple bands. Because the only way not to pass out in the searing Tennessee heat is to drink liters upon liters of water. I probably went through five liters on Friday alone, and actually, I don’t think that was good enough, because I got a headache during TV on the Radio that never quite abated. As such, I actually spent the last two songs of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs set waiting for the port-o-john to get into good position for TV on the Radio.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs :: Heads Will Roll
And good position I got. I’m definitely more familiar with the TVOTR discography than I am with that of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but unfortunately, I never really got into Dear Science and that material comprised at least 40% of their set. “Golden Age” is a cool song, but most of the set didn’t really match up to the “Wrong Way”s or “Wolf Like Me”s that the band had to offer. Tunde Adebimpe still has incredible amounts of energy and can jitter his way across the stage with great speed but seems to have figured out how to do so without losing the correct pitch of the song. Although the best show that I saw them put on was in 2007, this is the best the songs have actually sounded. They’ve definitely smoothed some edges while still keeping some cool effects like the windchime that occasionally appears at the end of David Sitek’s guitar. Kyp Malone also had the most Bonnaroo-appropriate attire of any artist I’d seen, sporting a tie-dye shirt and pants. So some jackass kept shouting “I want your pants! And your beard! I want your beard!” TV on the Radio also had the largest quotient of celebrity viewers that I could actually see (I couldn’t usually see the backstage area.) Yes, the Dirty Projectors had David Byrne…and TV on the Radio had the Dirty Projectors (two of them) and two members of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs amongst their viewers. Awesome. But not as awesome as the fact that they decided to buck tradition and end their set not with their biggest hits but with two tracks from Young Liars. They played the title track and then broke out “Satellite.” Which was the perfect ending to that set. The fact that this wasn’t the best I’ve seen them was all but forgotten after that ending.
Then the most irritating scheduling conflict of the festival. The Beastie Boys were scheduled from 8:30pm-10:30pm and David Byrne from 8:45pm-10:45pm. Not okay. I decided to catch at least the beginning of the Beastie Boys set and decided, okay, if it starts to go south, I can always move over to the Which Stage. Now, when they Beastie Boys played all of their staples (“No Sleep Til Brooklyn,” “Intergalactic,” “So What’cha Want”) and some less familiar cuts off of Hello Nasty, like “Remote Control” and “Three MCs and One DJ,” all seemed pretty much right with the world. I say pretty much, because I could not actually see them for the majority of the set, even via jumbotron. Because somebody decided that getting artsy with the visuals on the jumbotron would be fun. It was not fun, the power kept going out on the ‘tron and I could barely tell what was going on. I was able to tell that the Beasties switched on and off between moving across the stage and actually playing their instruments and I saw that Nas came out to introduce a new song with them. I’m not sold by the new material solely based on the live performance, but since it’s the Beastie Boys, I’m sure I’ll listen to the album in its entirety when it comes out. They finished off with “Sabotage,” which was damn near sabotaged early on thanks to a fuck-up from Mix Master Mike, prompting The King Ad-Rock to make sure the audience understood that this was in fact, a LIVE show, with no ipod or tape playing the music. Yeah, dude, we got it. But when they finally played the song…gold. So, despite my lack of a sight line, I did enjoy the Beasties set and thankfully, they actually ended it before 10pm, allowing me to catch more than a mere 15 minutes of the David Byrne set.
Beastie Boys :: Remote Control
The David Byrne set…holy crap. He has backup singers, he has choreographed dancers, he has a band that also does choreographed moves and he (and the band) all got into tutus during “Burning Down the House.” If David Byrne and co. end up with a Broadway production in the next couple of years, I will be able to say, I told you so. And of course there’s the music. I walked in during “Wild Wild Life” and heard them play their cover of Al Green’s “Take Me to the River” and roughly two encores. The kitschiness fits, and gimmicky though it seemed, David Byrne has the star power to pull it off. In short, I was completely blown away.
Talking Heads :: Burning Down the House
This was the point where I thought, okay, the whole festival is going to see Phish now, I’ll be able to get a good position in That Tent to see Phoenix. Not so much. That Tent was utterly packed. I’ll admit, I’m not totally on the hype wagon with Phoenix. I never listened to the first two albums that much and I think the praise on the new album, which seems like watered down Blur and Supergrass songs with added synthesizers, is misplaced. But when everyone else in that cramped space started jumping around, I’ll admit the energy was infectious and Phoenix, who seemed humble and grateful whenever they talked, seemed bombastic whenever they played. They have the rock star act down and it made for a fun, sweaty 45 minutes. It also made my last show of the night. I attempted to sit down in That Tent after their set and make it long enough to catch either Public Enemy or Crystal Castles, but I started to fall asleep. Luckily, I’ve caught Public Enemy and Girl Talk before, because I was way WAY too tired to continue.
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Thought you might be interested that DiS managed to have a chat with Beastie Boys last week, have a read of what they said here http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4137232-boys-will-be-boys–beastie-boys-talk-hot-sauce-committee-pt-1 . My favourite quote from it is “You could get in the shower one day and, boom, all of a sudden you’re showered with MP3s.”