Headstash

Photo Credit: Julia Rickert

Over 80,000 people headed south to Manchester, TN this weekend with one thing in common: a love for live music. Bonnaroo exceeded modest expectations attributed to a lineup full of genre-spanning music – a key element in the wondrous essence of ‘Roo. With 10 years under its belt, it is obvious how this festival has achieved its level of prominence.

THURSDAY

Most fans finished their long journey and arrived to the campsites on Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Luckily for those who came in late, there was not much music on the festival’s first day.

The group that stole the first night was Beats Antique. Although the crowd wasn’t at capacity, the energy was high, as everyone got their dance on. Beats finished off their fun, sexy set in their usual (unusual) style, with each member sporting a different animal mask (penguin, zebra and bear).

FRIDAY

Grace Potter and The Nocturnals - Photo Credit: Julia Rickert

It was no secret that this weekend was going to be hot. By 10:00 a.m., everyone was sweating and crowding in any bit of shade they could find. Despite its seemingly overwhelming size, the grounds were routed intuitively and confusion rarely occurred since the park was laid out in a circle formation.

The biggest confusion is with the names of stages and tents. It takes far too long for drunk people to find their friends with names like “Which Stage,” “What Stage,” “This Tent,” “That Tent” or “The Other Tent.”

The beautiful Grace Potter and her band The Nocturnals got the crowds to flock to the main, What Stage, on Friday afternoon. At least 100 people screamed marriage proposals to Potter from the shockingly packed crowd. Who wouldn’t be jealous of her drummer, Matt Burr, who has the privilege of dating her?

[FIND complete lineup, ticketing information and analysis on our 2011 Festival Guide.]

Grace was letting loose, dancing wildly across the stage as she wailed some of her most popular songs including “Paris” as well as her classic covers like Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit.” At one point, she grabbed a drumstick and started banging on the bass drum before taking off running in loops around the stage.

At the same time, the Warren Haynes Band played on the next largest, Which Stage, with some sweet Southern-style jams and blues. Warren looked like he may pass out in the heat, but that didn’t stop him from shredding uncontrollably. Ivan Neville, who appears on their new album, sat-in for three songs including a memorable “Hattiesburg Hustle” and “Sick of My Shadow.”

Warren Haynes Band - Photo Credit: Julia Rickert

As the day turned to night and things began to cool off, My Morning Jacket kept things hot with a high-energy performance, tapping into their newest album “Circuital” and working in old favorites from the catalog. While keeping the set tight, MMJ jammed a considerable amount, blowing the crowd away with their versatile musicianship. The oft-closer “One Big Holiday” was not unexpected but still as epic and soaring as ever.

[FIND more information about Bonnaroo on the festival's website. - yeah tickets are already on-sale for 2012.]

Shortly after, Les Claypool’s Primus melted minds with bass lines and oddly amusing behavior. The band played a track from their first new album in 12 years, due in September, which was danceable and hopefully a preview of what’s to come.

The awe of Primus lays primarily in the group’s peculiar live show, which made this an amazing experience and one of the best performances of the weekend. At one point, several ram-air parachuters drifted down from above, filling the sky above Bonnaroo with thousands of glowing lights that floated slowly to the ground by propeller.

After this alien invasion, Claypool changed into his infamous pig-faced mask and played a stand-up bass with a bow.

Recent Grammy winners Arcade Fire headlined the night, playing all their hits and opening with new favorite “Ready To Start.”

[READ Headstash Magazine's Bonnaroo 2011 Review Guide with other highlights, lowlights and surprises.]

Shpongle - Photo Credit: Julia Rickert

Friday’s late-night bill was stacked with performances by Bassnectar, Lil Wayne, Pretty Lights, Shpongle and Ratatat. As is to be expected with so many great artists on the bill, it was hard to pick which groups to catch.

Shpongle was one of the more memorable. The crowd was digging the visual show, which featured hula-hoop dancers and a video that included psychedelic visions of nature, humanity and perspectives from subatomic particles to multi-star galaxies. It wasn’t overly crowded anywhere because fans were spread over multiple electronic acts.

When Shpongle ended, Pretty Lights was still spinning. It was a bit disappointing that a live drummer was not present. However, his new visual show was awesome and showed vibrantly colored geometric shapes moving fluidly on a cityscape of screens.

Pretty Lights spun through the sunrise until about 5:15 a.m., highlighting bits and pieces of his entire discography including favorites, “More Important Than Michael Jordan,” “Hot Like Sauce” and a remix of Kanye West’s “All Of The Lights” that he conveniently played as the sun was scraping the horizon. He also debuted his newest track, "I Know The Truth."

SATURDAY

Friday night’s craziness made it hard to get up and catch the impressive Saturday afternoon acts like Portugal. The Man, Wiz Khalifa, The Black Keys and Mumford and Sons.

The last of that group was joined by members of Old Crow Medicine Show for their encore rendition of “Amazing Grace.” The Black Keys played a solid set, going through their top hits and classic favorites.

A Needy Festivalgoer - Photo Credit: Julia Rickert

Saturday’s first headliner was Buffalo Springfield, the band that launched the careers of Stephen Stills and Neil Young. It was a calming set making it easy to sit, relax and enjoy the breezy rock music like their classic “For What It’s Worth.”

Eminem was the most packed performance of the weekend. It was funny seeing festivalgoers and jam band fans belt out hip-hop anthems from the last decade. Rap music at festivals is always an interesting sight and attendees tend to let loose and eat it up.

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Once again, night fell and a plethora of acts conflicted. String Cheese Incident was a high priority of the weekend over other late-nighters Scissor Sisters, Girl Talk and Gogol Bordello, the latter of which threw down a ridiculous, moshing performance of gypsy punk rock.

From the get-go, Cheese grabbed the attention of everyone watching. They opened out of left field with the Grateful Dead’s all-to-appropriate “Tennessee Jed.” The set then delved into classic Cheese with “Rollover.”

“Joyful Sound” was next and during an intense EOTO jam in the middle, the band showed off their fun side as percussionist Jason Hann spit a rap over drummer Michael Travis’ beats and the rest of the band performed a choreographed dance dressed in orange Adidas sweat suits.

Watching Bill Nershi thrust his hips is a sight that won’t soon be forgotten. Immediately following, madness began to erupt during “Miss Brown’s Teahouse” as 50 huge, white balloons bounced across the audience. In addition to the amazing music coming from the speakers, the performance included a stellar light show, a 30-foot blow-up Tyrannosaurus Rex and a human moth with a flame-torch held by helium balloons floating over the crowd.

Check out a fan video of the wild scene below:

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Cheese then dropped their newest dance tune, “Rosie,” followed by keyboardist Kyle Hollingsworth’s “Way That It Goes.”

The YouTube phenom, Sexy Saxophonist, also joined Cheese for a solo that confused and amazed the crowd as he was escorted off stage by security. To close the set, the band played one of their classics, “Texas” which saw nearly every member of the audience singing along.

The encore shocked the crowd as Cheese played “Outside and Inside” into U2’s “Mysterious Ways” and then back into “Outside.” It was a surprising song selection, but it worked great with the show. The show gave light to a new definition of “cheesing,” – it felt as if SCI had taken a fork to my brain and twirled it like spaghetti.

Yoga Class - Photo Credit: Julia Rickert

STS9 began their long, late night set about halfway into Cheese’s performance. The high energy from the crowd maintained from dark until dawn from the set opener, a “Nine Inch Nails tease > Tooth,” into later highlights, which included “Hubble,” “Rent” and “Abcees.”

They kept it going for a hell of a set, encoring with one of their most gorgeous tracks, “Circus,” which made the crowd continue to move ‘til sunrise yet again as Tribe finished their set at 5:30 a.m.

SUNDAY

The last day of Bonnaroo had a solid lineup for the weary, lethargic festivalgoers to take in. Galactic had a great set on the main stage, Gregg Allman played in That Tent and 90s pop star Robyn confirmed her club scene comeback to a packed crowd in The Other Tent.

Rockers The Strokes played at the same time as an interesting set by indie folkers, Beirut. It was a mellow set making it easy to rest tired legs while listening to the Eastern European folk pop.

Widespread Panic headlined the night as they often do with a two-and-a-half hour evening set. In their eighth headlining show at Bonnaroo, a four-piece horn section dubbed The Megablasters, who rounded out their sound as they jammed nonstop, joined them.

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It was interesting to see them play with a horn section as it gave a bit of a different energy and more of a jazzier sound to the band’s normal solid Southern rock atmosphere.

The set included an amazing “Surprise Valley > Protein Drink > Sewing Machine” as well as the closing “Pigeons > Chilly Water > Love Tractor > Chilly Water,” which saw the crowd spraying water bottles everywhere each time John Bell hollered “water.”

The band hardly took a break during the set, with the only strange moment being an abbreviated “Tall Boy.” Bruce Hornsby joined the band towards the end of the set for “Her Dance Needs No Body” and “Red Hot Mama.” The performance was full of energy and everyone who stayed for the set was able to leave for home feeling complete.

Check out a fan video of "Red Hot Mama" below:

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Despite dirt flying throughout the air and crowded – yet not claustrophobic – festival grounds, it was an utterly impressive and glorious weekend. I can’t say I’m surprised that all this music meant Manchester was the third largest city in Tennessee for the weekend.

Where else can you see the greatest rappers of all time, the biggest names in rock and some of the sexiest music in jam and electronic? I caught some musical acts that I may never get the chance to see again thanks to Bonnaroo. And to many, that’s the appeal of the event. The festival had its share of legends, pop stars and up-and-comers, but a problem with having all this great music crammed into four wild days is that you can’t catch everything. I can’t complain though, this really felt like a complete musical experience and if you know how to keep cool, Bonnaroo is nothing if not an amazing time.

 

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What were your favorite moments of Bonnaroo 2011? Let us know in the comments below.