True Roo: Bonnaroo Friday Report (June 12, 2009)

Posted 4 months ago

Artist:

Beastie Boys

TRUE ROO: BONNAROO Friday (June 12, 2009)

Think about your two absolute favorite bands. OK, now, how did these two bands happen to enter your musical life? For me, one of my favorite bands happened because some people who had the power to influence me told me to start listening to that band, so I did. For my other favorite, I stumbled into one of their shows completely by accident and was hooked immediately. I would bet most of your stories out there are similar if not the same. We find music either by being influenced or completely by accident. Rarely do we find music through gritty old-fashioned research. Such is the beauty of Bonnaroo. Whether someone you trust tells you, “You gotta see this band” or you just happen to walk past when somebody is playing, you can find something new in addition to the shows you know you will like and have the most complete musical weekend imaginable.

After taking in 14 consecutive hours of music yesterday, only the true highlights are going to make it into this Fabulous-Friday review. We’re trimming the fat and getting straight to the meat here at Bonnaroo. Here we go!

Started the day around 3pm with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. They were perfect for the timeslot because they’re a great act to listen to while sitting down. This pays huge dividends later at, say, 4am when you’re still going and need every drop of energy you can find. Unfortunately, I didn’t really think about this until 4am, so I was standing up during Grace Potter. Whoops. At least Grace can belt those country blues, so although the time was used imperfectly, it was far from wasted.

Following this was a failed attempt at seeing Bela Fleck and Toumani Diabate. I got as close as I could to the stage but sadly could not hear the music. I only knew they were even playing because some people down in front seemed to be jamming out a little bit. Gotta turn it up Mr. Sound Man...I know it’s a very mellow show but people who got there mid-show deserve a chance to listen too. NEXT!

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were up on stage two. I like them because their song “Maps” was the first song I ever scored a 100% on expert in Rock Band. So they earned over an hour from me, a solid Bonnaroo investment. They dropped nice pop tunes that were easy to digest. On top of that, I give them a lot of credit for never really stopping, but instead going into these 2-3 minute psychedelic vignettes between songs and then seguing. Their set had a nice flow and the crowd was very responsive.

Figure out this lineup: King Sunny Ade has a 13 member band, 7 of whom are dedicated to playing percussion. I can just imagine the conversation between band and fest management now:

King Sunny Ade manager: “We’ll need 13 passes please.”
Bonnaroo management: “I’m sorry, you’re on the 5th stage at 5:15, you cannot bring your entire entourage. Springsteen only got 8 passes.”
King Sunny Ade manager: “We have 7 percussionists.”
Bonnaroo management: *stunned silence*

In all seriousness though, I’ve never enjoyed a show so much where I didn’t understand a single word of any of the lyrics. They had great Nigerian beats and very complicated vocal arrangements that seemed to exist in space with no time signature. I have no idea how they were nailing these complicated vocal harmonies with no beat and no instrumental backing. Great show.

TV On The Radio was another band that came recommended that I haven’t gotten into yet, so I figured this was my shot. They were funky and creative and just left-of-center enough to be intriguing. I stayed for their entire show and found them fun but I think their fans were enjoying it more than I was. Just a personal preference thing. Can’t win ‘em all, but I’d give them another shot!

Sound like a full day? Think I’m done yet? It’s only 8:30 folks, the day is just starting. Viva Bonnaroo!

I want to preface this next paragraph by saying that it pains me to write what I am about to write. I take no pleasure in bashing this band at all, but I have a duty to report the facts. This band has been with me for about 15 years and for others even longer. They are one of the most influential hip-hop acts of all time and they’re even brilliant instrumentally on top of that. Oof, this is going to hurt....gotta do it...here we go....

The Beastie Boys put on one of the 5 worst concerts I have ever seen.

There, I said it. What a letdown. No energy at all. They sounded and looked tired and unrehearsed. They left out lines sporadically in many songs. You know when you sing along to a song that you know well and you sing maybe 90% and fudge those few lines that always get you? Well, that’s fine if you’re you. If you’re the original artist of that song and you’re being paid to perform it in front of tens of thousands of people, you better know the whole tune. Furthermore, there were 2-3 minutes in between every song where they just talked uncomfortably into the mic about nothing. Come on guys, it’s hip-hop, cut a few songs together, you should not have 3 minutes of song followed by 3 minutes of rest for the entire show! They’ve dropped The Sound of Science for the sound of silence. To close the show, they completely trainwrecked the opening to Sabotage and had to start over. Then in the part where the song pauses and restarts into the scream, they trainwrecked that too and you could hear the scraping sound of the energy level hitting rock bottom. I’m sorry I went. I like the Beasties a lot and it will be hard for me to ever think of them the same way after this performance.

Next up was the evening’s main attraction, Phish. It was the biggest show of the fest so far, the biggest crowd, the most anticipated, their own huge light rig...basically every advantage conceivable. That being said, believe me when I tell you that within the first 3 minutes of the Chalkdust Torture opener, Phish had completely blown every other act clear out of Manchester, TN. It was all over like when one of those mixed martial arts guys knocks someone out with a ridiculous move in the first 5 seconds of a fight. The crowd energy surpassed that of every other show I had seen all day put together. They seemed to take their Bonnaroo show very seriously, as every band should but not all do. They acted like they had something to prove, which is quite a notion for a band as established as Phish. Holistically, the current Phish package is that of a band possessed. They’re playing a huge chunk of the classic catalog flawlessly night in and night out now. Their new material sounds very good and there’s more of it than anyone could have expected. Phish didn’t get to be the kings of the jam scene by taking their music lightly, and I have a suspicion that, somewhere inside, they have a competitive spirit and still want everyone to know who the champs are. They’re the same age as the Beastie Boys, and the juxtaposition of seeing Phish kick ass on the same stage that the Beastie Boys had just polluted an hour earlier was incredibly glaring. What a show. I cannot wait for Sunday.

It’s now 2am and Bonnaroo gets turned over to the ÜNTZ! I caught all of Crystal Castles while waiting for Girl Talk. Crystal Castles rocked excellent techno weirdness. They successfully blended some good house beats with psychedelic electronica that had no beat but could still own your mind.

Following this was the most devastating conflict of the entire weekend for me: Girl Talk vs. Paul Oakenfold. Certainly a case of the challenger vs. the champ, the young savant vs. the established veteran, Little Mac vs. Mike Tyson, etc. I started with Girl Talk. As per usual, the stage was packed with fans within 1 minute of the show starting and Girl Talk lost power a couple of times as people tripped over his wires, but the party was instantly insane. People just eat this shit up, it’s unreal. The beats, the crowd surfing, the stage rush, the inflatables, the visuals...this party had it all. Just crazy.

After about 45 minutes of that I made the obligatory trek to pay my respects to Paul Oakenfold, one of the godfathers of electronic music and a show I consider to be potentially once-in-a-lifetime. I stayed with him for over an hour as he traced a very cool theme of taking a common song riff that everyone knows (such as the opening guitar lick to The Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and expanding it via an electronic turbine of seemingly infinite sonic possibilities. I felt like he had just taken the best sampling and beat-making skills of Girl Talk and combined it with the freakish ambiance of Crystal Castles and combined them to make something even greater. Of course, Paul Oakenfold needs not answer to either of these acts, but I just thought it was cool how he could do what both of those acts were doing at the same time. I enjoyed his set a lot. The only thing is...his tent had half the people and 1/4 the energy of Girl Talk’s tent. Granted his tent was full with about 2,500 people grooving around, but this was nothing compared to the unbridled near-orgy happening at Girl Talk, so I went back for the end of Girl Talk. GT blew the tent completely apart in the last 20 minutes, busting out new mixes and also a huge balloon drop from the ceiling. This was one of the singular most insane shows I have ever seen. What an act Girl Talk has going.

So there you have it folks. 10 bands, 14 hours, and there are still two days to go!

Before I go, big ups to the awesome people at the Bungaloo tent for furnishing use of their computer and internet and allowing me to write and you to read! Bungaloo is the official color provider for Bonnaroo 2009, check out their website.

Back to the fray today for full doses of The Mars Volta, Of Montreal, Nine Inch Nails, and MGMT, among others. Let’s Roo it!