Saturday Bonnaroo highlights

The best place to make friends at Bonnaroo, aside from your campground, is in the long lines. And there are lines for everything. Wanna go from the campground to the stages? There’s a line. Wanna drinka, drinka couple beers? Get in line. Then you gotta pee? Back of the line, bub.

So what to talk about when standing around waiting? Well, we’re all here for the music, right?

More than 90,000 people and more than 90,000 opinions. Everyone will tell you something different about his or her favorite performance. (Note: Zero people have said to me that theirs was Animal Collective, though many still like the band. I generally have concluded that I don’t.)

With such diverse opinions, sounds and styles, though, one could look at a lineup for any given day and come up with as many different band possibilities as made by the nightly bouncing lottery balls. (Somebody’s gotta jam; might as well be us.)

Del McCoury? Gov’t Mule? Or Wilco?

The Mars Volta? The Decemberists? Or Elvis Costello?

The best bet is to try to catch a little bit of a lot, whenever you can, however possible. When you find something from which you cannot walk away, you know you’re in the right spot.

Bon Iver

OK, so we had planned to go watch Bon Iver. But we missed it. Instead I put up a photo here from Of Montreal’s theatrical set. So why did we miss it? Well, we had to post stuff from Friday to the blog — otherwise it would have been old news. Apparently every journalist had to post stuff from Friday, and they all chose to do it around 3 o’clock in the afternoon. The result: wireless servers crashing, delaying posts. So we missed the show. My buddy Bunner tells me Bon Iver was great. He’s really sorry I missed it. So am I. I hear Drew Barrymore was watching from stage left. And we all know she likes good music and we should trust her, right? Damn. Now I’m Bonna-depressed.

Of Montreal

Wow, can anyone say crazy? At the start of the show, some random voice from the stage called out, “OK Bonnaroo, are you ready to have your minds blown?” Of course this led to everyone cheering, especially the folks already having their minds blown by that little glowy thing floating over there by that dude in the Ninja suit.

Of Montreal played some music, but this weird animals-and-monsters crap they had on stage was way cooler. These ugly, Crazy guys from the Bon Iver photo above, came out first in their underwear. Then the Tiger guy, posted under the Wilco post — what? why no Wilco picture? Don’t worry about that yet. So anyway, this Tiger guy came out and chased off the Crazy guys. Then a guy in a gas mask came out carrying a Christmas tree. What? No, I was not on drugs. I promise this really happened. Following him were his daughters, neither of whom had gas masks. Until, that is, they opened their presents under the tree. Yay, gas masks for all.

But, yeah, these guys play music, too. It’s just as weird as the costume act. It’s all jangly and squealy and meandering. Think the ’80s meet Radiohead-lite meets the circus on acid. Part David Bowie, part haunted house and part college douchery. Yep, that’s Of Montreal!

Wilco

Every album these guys make gets called by the press the greatest album since the last album. Kinda reminds me of how the media treat Bob Dylan. But, that said, both the former and latter are undeniably great. One already is a legend; the other is trying to make its case for that final nod of greatness. Mixing songs of old, medium-old and new, the mellow vibe from the set made for a nice early evening on the lawn — more peaceful than thunderstorms or Beastie Boys from the prior nights.

Oh, and the reason we have no shots of Wilco is once again, taa daa, media relations mishap. The guide who takes photographers to the stagefront to snap shots left the media area earlier than expected, leaving many photographers, including the great Alisha, in the darkroom with no developer.

The Decemberists

Since these guys teed off the same time as The Mars Volta, Alisha and I floated around and caught parts of both shows. Much of the set consisted of The Hazards of Love played sequentially and in its entirety. The project is one of the more interesting things I’ve heard lately, and it transcribed well to the stage. They closed with songs from earlier albums and apparently an intense Heart cover. OK, Christmas trees? Decemberists? Why am I taking about this stuff in the middle of June? Because it’s HOT outside. I need a shower.

The Mars Volta

And you thought only Spinal Tap could crank their knobs to 11? Meet the Mars Volta — jam band meets lightspeed-rock guitar meets screeching vocals of madman lyrics. Have your frontman do cartwheels and flips on stage. Trust me, it’ll impress a crowd. Though not the most spectacular show at Bonnaroo, they’d be a hell of an act for a 50th Wedding Anniversary — because it would stop hearts and prevent the old lovey-dovey bastards from making it to year 51.

Nine Inch Nails

Say it ain’t so Trent. Your final American show? Well, if so, that’s doing it in style. With plenty of angst, plenty of black, plenty of smoke, and plenty of classic ’90s rock (ha, that last part looks like an oxymoron), the band ripped and roared in its set. Sadly, we made it only halfway through, opting to watch late-night closers MGMT. According to the New York Times, Trent later told the crowd it would be its last-ever show in the U.S. At least I got to hear them do a helluva version of I’m Afraid of Americans before they hung up the saddle.

MGMT

Pop meets psychedelia in the middle of the night. After The Boss, those not watching NIN or Ben Harper headed here. And the performance was what Bonnaroo is all about. Spinning lights on the roof synched to tweaked songs from the band’s brilliant debut made for a strong close to a night full of a strong lineup of bands. Near the end of their set, the band jokingly thanked Springsteen, who was rumored to have dropped in to watch the show, for “opening” for them before calling such a statement “sacrilege.” A few new songs, presumably for MGMT’s sophomre effort, were sprinkled into a set that seemed to grow stronger as it progressed. Their sound of 1975 meets 2010 fed the music-hungry crowd like a last dinner before execution. Songs like Electric Feel and Kids had everyone jumping, dancing and singing along. It looked like what a music festival should look like – on both sides of the stage.

And, yeah, I know Springsteen headlined last night. Despite the many options to see many bands throughout other parts of the night, during his set, he was the only option. All other stages were empty. We listened to the start of the set from the camp as we ate dinner, then walked up to the stage for the final portion. The true highlight had to be a rendition of Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town. Seriously.

And, no, I was not on drugs. It really did happen. He played a Christmas carol at Bonnaroo.

More to post today and tomorrow, including an interview with Cage the Elephant, a rundown of some of Sunday’s acts and photos of some of the freakier people at this year’s Bonnaroo.

Photos by Alisha Eli / Words by Joshua Coffman

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