If you’re thinking of heading to Bonnaroo 2016 next year, do yourself a favor and get in touch with any scientist friends you may have. Cloning yourself is the only way to catch all of the magically delicious experiences throughout the four-day run of musical magnificence at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Case in point: We packed as much dance-rock-blues-metal-sunshine freakout as we possibly could into Saturday’s adventures, catching performances by Mumford and Sons, Bleachers, Childish Gambino, SBTRKT, Slayer and many more, but still managed to miss goodness from D’Angelo and the Vanguard, Belle & Sebastian, My Morning Jacket and others.
While Thursday is (supposedly) a soft-start to the festival, and Friday kicks events into gear, Saturday is the stride-hitting day for Bonnaroo each year. Despite immensely killer, reserves-draining sets from Kendrick Lamar, Jungle and so many more, a high-energy dose of sweaty excellence was on point all day – check out some highlights and power points of Day 3 at the Best Festival in America.
Phox
A gentle start to Saturday found us in good graces with Phox, a folk-pop sextet from Baraboo, Wisconsin, lead by quirk-chic singer Monica Martin. The band’s self-titled LP hit last year, and they’ve been supporting it on tour with everyone from Blizten Trapper to The Lumineers. While Martin may still have a bit of kink to iron out in stage presence, the band in entirety has promise – which took an endearing turn with a heartfelt cover of Blink 182’s “Miss You”.
Bleachers
While their daytime set was met with spunky enthusiasm from early-twenties dormrats, Bleachers hold very little gravity for anyone who’s seen mediocre songwriting lathered with boisterous energy. All the same, a kill is a kill, and these cats delivered in the sweltering This Tent to a packed house of scream-along souls. Later, frontman Jack Antonoff was faring even better on the Superjam crossover, taking vocal duties on Springsteen’s “Dancing In The Dark” and Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer”.
Gary Clark Jr.
Austin guitar hero Gary Clark Jr. was flat-out depressing in the first ten minutes of his Which Stage performance, faking us all out as the sun raced to the horizon before unleashing an electrifying set of soul-driven blues.
Staying Cool: Mandatory
Beating the heat with a giant slip & slide, or better yet, a huge-ass water slide, is a perfect way to beat that midday sluggish feeling after baking in the sunshine for hours on end.
In Passing: SBTRKT
We’ve been excited to catch SBTRKT at Bonnaroo for quite some time, but lines and long-overdue showers had far more of a say in the schedule than we would’ve preferred. Unfortunately, all we were able to catch from the masked man at the Other Tent was a trance-inducing cover of Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes” – which, oddly enough, the crowd seemed entirely oblivious to.
Childish Gambino
“This song is about sex. If you like sex, I hope you like this song,” Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino shared as a preface to “The Worst Guys”. The pheromone-hunting screams were deafening.
Alone onstage in a wash of LED lights, Gambino commanded an impossibly dense, ecstatic crowd more thoroughly than those we’ve seen with hype men, dancers and backup singers. Soon enough, the lights parted to show a full live band backing him, with every girl for what seemed like miles screaming along to “3005”.
Then all hell broke loose: Slayer
Deep reds. A blur of hair. Snarling scowls. welcome to thrash metal legends Slayer, finally granting the horned wish list of ‘Roo based metalheads for years. Through 70 minutes, Tom Araya led his merry band of shredders through “War Ensemble,” “Season in the Abyss,” “Dead Skin Mask” and beyond. Extra points for Gary Holt’s beyond-awesome “Kill The Kardashians” shirt.
Headliner Heroes: Mumford & Sons
Chasing the excitement of their new album Wilder Mind, Marcus Mumford & friends delivered a two-hour set of crystalline greatness. The band played heavily off the wild enthusiasm of bassist Ted Dwane, whose emergency blood clot surgery caused a last-minute cancellation two years ago (he was replaced by Jack Johnson). His maniacally ebullient appreciation for every moment shone through as the boys pulled evenly from new and older material, integrating the banjo-less tunes seamlessly into the more suspender-pandering sounds of old.
Strongest reactions to the new material were for singles “Believe” and “The Wolf,” matching the more beloved selections off Sigh No More and Babel. But it was the all-hands-on-deck finale that proved the most heavily cheered – the band brought My Morning Jacket, Hozier, the War On Drugs, Danny Clinch, and Ed Helms onstage for a cover of “With a Little Help From My Friends” to close out a stellar victory-lap performance.
Yeah, there was a Superjam afterward, and we’d like to tell you that we rocked out with the weird butterscotch hybrid of Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, Oteil Burbridge, Pretty Lights, and Chance the Rapper, among others. But we were dead on our feet, and ready to collapse by the end of Mumford. The final blow came from weirdo Michael Jackson disciple Corey Feldman, who we heard was taking part. Wherever that dude is, we’re in the other direction.
On to Day Four! Can’t wait to see Florence & The Machine, Robert Plant, Twenty One Pilots, Billy Joel, Awolnation and so many more to round out Bonnaroo 2015.
All Photos: Johnny Firecloud
