Bonna-review

Do You Roo?

Fantastic times at Bonnaroo last weekend. Here's what i managed to get to:

Thursday
(8:15 - 9:30) Comedy Tent: (Host Vic Henley) Morgan Murphy, Jon Reep, Tom Papa, Demetri Martin
(10:30 - 11:30) Devotchka

Friday
(2:15 - 3:15) Ben Folds
(4:20 - 5:30) Bright Eyes
(5:45 - 6:00) Robert Randolph & The Family Band
(6:15 - 7:45) Death Cab for Cutie
(9:00 - 11:00) Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (listened from camp)
(12:00 - 4:30) Lyrics Born / Common (mostly unconscious for this one) / Blackalicious

Saturday
(2:30 - 3:30) Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
(3:35 - 4:20) Elvis Costello and The Imposters featuring Allen Toussaint
(4:30 - 4:45) Rusted Root
(5:00 - 5:20) Damian 'Jr Gong' Marley
(5:30 - 7:00) Beck
(8:30 - 11:15) Radiohead
(4:20 - 6:00) Sasha

Sunday
(12:45 - 1:15) Andrew Bird (Sonic Stage)
(1:30 - 2:15) Rusted Root (Sonic Stage)
(2:30 - 3:00) Mike Doughty (Sonic Stage)
(3:15 - 4:45) The Streets
(4:45 - 5:15) Matisyahu
(5:15 - 6:15) Atmosphere
(6:20 - 6:30) Sonic Youth
(8:30 - 12:00) Phil Lesh & Friends (listened to this off and on from camp)

Tom Pappa was the highlight of a lackluster comedy tent experience - Morgan Murphy was absolutely awful. The rest of the weekend it was almost impossible to get into the comedy tent un less you lined up well before the start and i just wasn't down for that. You also couldn't get near the cinema tent for that US/Italy cup match oon saturday. there were at least 3000 people in line more than an hour before hand and the tent couldn't have held more than a few hundred.

Really impressed by DeVotchka on the first night I'd only heard 2 tracks from them ("Venus in Furs" & "This Is How It Ends" - both played) but their gypsy jamming was great.

Ben Folds put on a fine show in the evil Friday heat. Didn't get to his set till a bit of the way in so we was pretty far back but with the crowd singing along it was easy to get into the set. "Army" was one of the highlights.

Ben Folds - Army (Live @ Bonnaroo 6/16/06)

Wandered around Centeroo for a bit afterwards and returned to the Which Stage 20 minutes or so into Bright Eyes's set. Again the heat was nuts but Connor was havin a blast with his big cup of Tequila and a slew of special guests joining him on stage including Gillian Welsh & David Rawlings, Gruff Rhys from the Super Furry Animals and My Morning Jacket's Jim James. I was on the fence about Bright Eyes before this show but i'm a fan now. Highlights include a horn-ed up version of "Lover I Don't Have to Love," a new track "Soul Singer in the Session Band" and the play-along with all the guests on "Sing a Song in the Morning." Check out these soundboard quality tracks.

Bright Eyes - Lover I Don't Have to Love (Live @ Bonnaroo 6/16/06)
Bright Eyes - Soul Singer in a Session Band (Live @ Bonnaroo 6/16/06)
Bright Eyes - Singing a Song in the Morning [ƒ Gillian Welsh, David Rawlings, Gruff Rhys & Jim James] (Live @ Bonnaroo 6/16/06)

Headed off to Robert Randolph for a few tracks before once again coming back to the Which Stage for Death Cab for Cutie. They were in rare form during this set - Ben Gibbard was all over the place and drenched in sweat just like the crowd (this caused some technical issues but...). He also has an 'issue' with a guitar stap that was pretty amusing for the crowd. The engergy was great as the sun set over Bonnaroo allowing the crown to dance some more especially late in the set when they went into a 9 minute jam during "We Looked Like Giants." At one point Ben is playing with his teeth and then (literally) tosses his guitar to John Roderick of The Long Winters (apparently there as a journalist), runs across the stage, hops on a drum kit, and proceedes to drum duel with primary drummer Jason McGerr. This show easilly surpassed their show in Camden earlier this year with Franz Ferdinand - though they didn't play "Marching Bands of Manhattan" at either one.

Death Cab for Cutie - Company Calls (Live @ Bonnaroo 6/16/06)
Death Cab for Cutie - We Looked Like Giants [ƒ John Roderick] (Live @ Bonnaroo, 6/16/06)

After this it was dinner and a nap time so we headed back to camp and listened to Tom Petty from there - you could here pretty well. we were planning on going back for the end of that show, which was scheduled to 12am but he ended just after 11. Instead we went to the late night hip-hop show at This Tent featuring Lyrics Born, Common & Blackalicious. Lyrics was funky as all hell and with the sun safely down everyone was shaking ass. I was drinking heavily (thank you Magic Hat #9) so i kinda passed out on the grass before Common came on. Luckilly the set ups between the 3 took longer than planned so when I regained consciousness Blackalicious had not yet gone on. I made my way toward the front of the tent and got down into the early morning hours.

This is getting pretty long (accidently deleted 1/2 of it once) and there are still 2 days and a new Roots track to get to so Imma break from the review till next post.

For more check this Rolling Stone article that mostly covers the indie aspect of the Roo.
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If you haven't heard yet the Roots have put the first single from their next set up on their myspace page. The track is called "Don't Feel Right" and the disc is Game Theory. It drops August 29th.

Here's a quote from ?uestlove in another RS piece:

"In this day and age, I'm kind of noticing that nobody in urban music really has the balls to just stop partying for one second," says ?uestlove. "I mean, partying is good and whatnot, and it's cool to get down, but I really think that 2006 called for a very serious record. This ain't the Debbie Downer record, or the political, save-the-world record, but this is definitely not the MC-based, battle-themed album that the Roots have been known for. This is our most serious record to date."

The Roots - Don't Feel Right
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A'igit thats it for now. Still got reviews of Radioheads epic set, Beck's puppet-fest, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Mike Douhghty, The Streets and more to come along with a Bloc Party remix and some mash-up fun.

Late-