Stepping onto the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival’s 700-acre farm is a lot like entering an alternate world – one where conventional wisdom goes out the window. For four days last weekend, 80,000 music fans flooded into Manchester, Tenn., turning the normally small city into the sixth-largest city in the state (if only for a few nights).
But this city isn’t like any other in America. Instead, it’s as if the dreams of the ’60s generation came true – for four days the farm becomes a land of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.
At Bonnaroo you enter a world where everyone lives next door to one another in tents; where only a few people shower on a hygienic basis, and even fewer go to sleep before 4 a.m. By 9 a.m., everyone wakes to the scorching Southern sun, drenched in a puddle of their own sweat, ready to take on a 16-hour day of music.
Before the average Bonnaroo-goer walks to Centeroo, the venue area, they have to walk down Shakedown Street. Affectionately named after the Grateful Dead song of the same name, Shakedown Street offers unofficial – see: bootlegged – T-shirts, grilled cheese sandwiches, and oh yeah, just about any drug you could desire. It doesn’t take more than a few minutes to walk past the first guy with a backpack muttering, “doses, rolls” (LSD and ecstasy), “shrooms, boomers” (psychoactive mushrooms) or “nuggets!” (marijuana). And after you walk past the first guy, you hit another, and another, and another. At Bonnaroo, you’re not berated by a guy in a hot dog suit trying to sell you his wieners, you’re berated by a man with a backpack trying to sell you drugs.
But Bonnaroo isn’t all about the drugs – or at least it doesn’t intend to be. No, Bonnaroo is about cramming as much music as possible into a four-day weekend. With over nine stages of music, a comedy tent, a cinema tent, an arcade stocked with Xbox 360 games and various other activities, there was always something musical, or otherwise, to do at Bonnaroo.
And this year, Bonnaroo certainly drew in the hippies (or at least, those who came to Bonnaroo brought out their pseudo-hippie tie dye and patchouli). No, not even the festival’s unofficial indie-outreach program could keep Bonnaroo from its stereotype: a modern Woodstock, minus the politics and plus a corporate spin. Despite Tool, The Police, The Decemberists, The White Stripes, Regina Spektor, Franz Ferdinand and the like, you were still more likely to see hemp, Birkenstocks, Crocs and Grateful Dead T-shirts than an outfit plucked straight from American Apparel’s shelves.
Bonnaroo’s biggest surprise came in the form of former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Jones managed to steal some of The Police’s nostalgic thunder with his various appearances during the festival, turning Bonnaroo into a Zeppelin-themed party. He immediately made his presence felt with Friday night’s Superjam, a midnight performance also featuring Ben Harper on lap guitar and vocals and hip-hop drummer Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson of The Roots. The band gelled fairly well and jammed the entire set, which was filled with Zeppelin covers such as a blistering “When the Levee Breaks” opener and a slow and meandering “Good Times, Bad Times.” Although Harper’s vocals sometimes came across overdone – as if he was trying too hard – all three musicians appeared to be having a great time on stage.
Jones re-emerged Saturday during Harper’s set to play bass on a set-stealing “Dazed and Confused,” which featured a brooding dual bass jam with Harper’s bassist Juan Nelson. Late-night Saturday, Jones was at it again, playing four songs (two on bass, two on keyboards) during Gov’t Mule’s guest-laden set. Jam-turned indie rockers The Slip paid tribute to Jones’ presence with a cover of “Heartbreaker” during its Saturday afternoon slot.
While Jones managed to steal some attention from The Police, Bonnaroo’s highest-touted act, Sting and company was still on everyone’s mind. Even Thompson, who played a set with Jones, said during a Bonnaroo press conference that he mainly agreed to do the Superjam because he wanted a photo wristband to shoot The Police.
“The truth was I wanted to make sure I’d be here for The Police,” Thompson said. “I told them I’d do anything … garbage cleanup, whatever.”
Thompson showed his love for the ’80s icons when he sang “Roxanne” as part of a medley during The Roots’ Friday afternoon set on the What Stage, the festival’s main stage among many. Gov’t Mule also paid homage to The Police, teasing the opening licks of “Message in a Bottle” during “Soulshine,” the band’s second encore.
As for the newly reunited The Police, the band’s Saturday night headline spot was a mixed bag of nostalgic sing-alongs, experimentation and a sense of slight disappointment. While the band gave its classic songs justice – including an energetic one-two punch of “Message in a Bottle” and “Synchronicity II” to open the show – the set left much to be desired. Sting’s vocal’s were fine – for slower songs, that is – but his inability to hit the high notes caused many of the band’s faster songs (“Truth Hits Everybody” and “Next to You,” as examples) to lack the punch of their recorded versions.
Drummer Stewart Copeland had previously said in interviews that The Police was planning something special for the Bonnaroo show. But, other than what seemed like some slight attempts at jamming (most of which flopped except for the exceptional “Walking in Your Footsteps,” which featured Copeland on a variety of percussive instruments) and Copeland announcing, “Sting will now take off his clothes and dance among [the crowd]” as Sting removed his shirt during the second encore, the set seemed like normal fare. If anything, it seemed less than a normal show, as the band only played for a paltry 1 hour and 45 minutes, instead of their 2-and-a-half-hour time slot. Unsurprisingly, many Police fans were left wanting more.
Peter O’Halloran, a junior and first-time Bonnaroo attendee, said he thought the crowd’s lack of enthusiasm kept The Police from filling out its set time.
“If the crowd had been more into it, they probably would have come back out,” O’Hallaron said of The Police. “They were yelling back and being loud, and the crowd wasn’t responding.”
Other festival highlights included Mute Math’s breakout opening night set; Wilco’s perfect for a hot and lazy afternoon Sunday set; and Gov’t Mule’s aforementioned late-night party, which, along with Jones, featured appearances by Bob Weir, members of Hot Tuna, Michael Franti, Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars and even comedian Lewis Black. Black, who came out during an instrumental to tell a joke, was hit in the head with a beer can, which prompted a furious Black to threaten the crowd that he would sing.
Bonnaroo’s single failure came in scheduling White Stripes on Which Stage, the second stage at Bonnaroo, instead of the much roomier What Stage. And because White Stripes were the only musical performance going on at the festival during their time span, tens of thousands of concert-goers crowded to the stage – preventing most from having a good time during Jack and Meg White’s set.
“That stage was ill-equipped to support the crowd and band in general,” said Adam Powell, a sophomore sociology major who almost had an asthma attack during the performance.”It wasn’t loud enough; there wasn’t enough space; there was no air; there was dust everywhere and I couldn’t breathe. You couldn’t even choose where you wanted to sit. You’d either have to go to an open space or not come.”
Despite the confusion during the Stripes’ set, artists who have appeared at previous Bonnaroos said the festival was up to the high standards it has cultivated for years, in addition to building on its solid foundation.
“It started out as a jam band festival and each year they branch out a little more,” said Warren Haynes guitarist and vocalist of Gov’t Mule. “Its for audiences that search out real music as opposed to being force fed bullshit.”
Even indie-comedian David Cross, who has openly criticized hippies and jam bands during his stand-up, was able to wrap up the sentiments of most festival attendees.
“Its great to see new bands I haven’t heard of,” Cross said. “Make new friends. Keep the old. Silver and gold.”
Contact reporter Rudi Greenberg at rudi.greenberg@gmail.com.
