After a smashing 10th anniversary, Bonnaroo has officially become part of the fabric of Tennessee. Press members are being offered tours of Nashville, as the powers that be endeavor to tie the state’s old musical history in with the new; most locals have embraced the event, or at least the residual dollars; and the proprietors are planting trees, building structures, and basically settling in for the duration of whatever time we have left. And they’re gonna throw a party every year, just in case that time isn’t long.
This year’s edition is a bit more intensely musical than last year’s mainstream maelstrom, fully stocked with the kinds of oddities, unknowns, and rising stars that make for a most interesting weekend. Thursday night’s toned-down festivities – only the tents have music, and the main stages are silent – are typically populated by those sorts of acts, and the competition for the rested (for now), eager audience was fierce this year. At Planet Roo, the festival’s environmental center, Rubblebucket wowed a crowd of about 1000 enthusiastic early birds. With four sets spanning two days, the Brooklyn group is certainly one of the busiest bands this year. Their first performance showcased the energy and infectious style they’ve become known for, skewing heavily toward danceable material with a pronounced afrobeat twist. Their majestic, percolating “Bikes” has lyrics that relate nicely to the setting (“So I go home to a place I’ve never been before”), and the crowd simply ate up a lengthy jam that featured a cover of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” and a riff on Grandmaster Flash’s “White Lines.” (Other choice covers made an impression on Thursday as well – Yelawolf took on The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” and explosive Nashville quintet Moon Taxi tore through Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing in the Name.”)
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West coast funk/fusion act Orgone drew a few of their devoted fans and slew of converts to That Tent for a hardcore ethnic funk party. Charismatic, curly-haired and cute singer Niki Crawford drew the masses in with her powerful soul shouts and sultry stage presence, and the band ambushed them with percussive, brass-heavy funk rock that had every head moving. The surprise of the day for many attendees, Orgone isn’t going to be gone from the memories of Bonnaroo any time soon. They hit all the right spots for the ‘roo crowd and Crawford laced the lyrics of their final two songs with cheer-inducing Bonnaroo references. Over at The Other Tent, White Denim dished out heaps of bombastic rock and roll with a million different personalities. They flew through moments of surging stoner-rock, fiddled with frenzied garage-prog, and achieved flashes of synergistic near-improvisation worthy of the crunchiest jamband. Of course they obliged the denizens of the farm with the knotty instrumental knockout “At the Farm,” which, along with the rest of the material, took on an especially snarling tone in the live setting.
After a couple of disappointing visits to sets by Kendrick Lamar (Airhorn blasts? “Put your hands up?” Really?) and Phantogram, I joined most of the population of the farm at This Tent for a look at the buzziest of buzz bands in the land – Alabama Shakes. Led by another curly-coiffed female soul singer, Brittany Howard, this bluesy quartet from the Heart of Dixie has accomplished an awful lot on the strength of a couple dozen songs and one album, and the anticipation for their set was palpable. 2012 music-fan favorite “Hold On” appeared after a smoky opener, the sinister “Goin’ To The Party.” The energy of the gathered crowd couldn’t be harnessed for long, though. Perhaps the set was too predictable; after all, they just released their first album, and they currently lack the catalog depth to surprise anyone. Howard can wail, which she easily proved on the scorching blues ballad “You Ain’t Alone,” and the band is beyond capable, but there’s a hollow ring to their neo-Muscle-Shoals sound that can only be countered by time and experience. Hype only goes so far, especially under the microscope of Bonnaroo. Road-tested bands like Rubblebucket and Orgone, who have built their reputation on unforgettable shows, won Thursday.
