Bonnaroo Part Duex: It's Friday, Friday

What, what (in the butt)

Friday was another first for me at Bonnaroo - I stayed at one stage for almost the entire day, the main "What" stage. I got some great spots this way, including front row pit for one show and front row general admission for two others. This is where all of the headliners play as well as "bigger" names through out the day. There were some very difficult decisions to stay here - my choices nixed out any plans on seeing supergroups  The Word (Robert Randolph, John Medeski, and N. Mississippi Allstars)  and Spectrum Road (Cindy Black Santana, Vernon Ried, John Medeski), as well as Major Laser, my current female singer idol St. Vincent, 90's jam band Umphrey's McGee, Ludacris, and Foster the People.

Here were our schedules:

Brad:
Steve Bernstien's MTO plays Sly and the Family Stone -> tUnE-yArDs -> Sharon Jones -> back to camp -> Punch Bros. -> Dawes -> Radiohead -> The Word / Black Star split -> split LN

Deryl
The Kooks -> tUnE-yArDs -> Sharon Jones -> Two Door Cinema Club -> Fitz and the Tantrums -> Chappo -> Radiohead -> Black Star -> Flying Lotus (for 15 min.)

Matt:
Michael Kiwanuka -> tUnE-yArDs -> Sharon Jones -> Avett Brothers -> Rodrigo y Gabriela -> The Deep Dark Woods -> Radiohead -> Black Star -> Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk -> Flying Lotus

 But on to  who I did see.

 I started the day off with some soul, as I'm want to do. I chose to nix the opportunity to see keyboard legend Bernie Worell play some Sly and the Family Stone tunes with Steve Bernstein's MTO in favor of catching British soul singer Michael Kiwanuka. Between this decisions and missing Spectrum Road and The Word later that night, I'm surprised nobody came and took my musician license away from me. If you don't know anything about Michael Kiwanuka, he was handpicked by Adele to be her opening act. He's a very pleasant sound, and to my ear sounds a lot like Ben Sollee (think "How to See the Sunrise") with a dash more Otis Redding in the vocals. His set was very good, and his guitar playing was more than I had expected. His set included a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, and his rhythm guitarist looked like Lebron James with a huge LMFAO afro. I had a front row spot for this one, and actually had enough juice in my phone to grab a picture too:

After Kiwanuka, I met back up with Deryl and Brad (Brad had gone to Sly and walked around, Deryl went to the Kooks) for some tUnE-yArDs. We stayed at their set for about 20 minutes - they weren't bad or anything at all, but it was CRAZY crowded at their tent. It looked like a scene from Peter Pan except the lost boys were all teenage - mid 30's women in bikinis with neon paint and Indian head dresses. This was the first evidence of some Bonnaboobies (women who get their breasts painted and walk around topless) as well. We found out through word of mouth that Roo had not re-signed the booth who did it last year (ended up not being true) and that there were campers doing it for cheap in tent city and general admission (ended up being true - there's vids on youtube).

We grabbed some food truck grub from Eat My Box (still the best food truck) and headed off to the What stage for some Sharon Jones.

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings were INCREDIBLE. They have a free show in NYC in August that I'm planning on going to and think you all should too. Jones is about 65 years old, but she has more stage presence and energy that almost any 20 somethings I've seen. They played a full hour and a half set, not stopping once. Each member of the Kings had a solo as well, and being vetereans of the original Motown scene, they were of course fantastic. If you don't own a copy of their live album, stop reading this and listen to it on Spotify at the very least.

This began my stay at the What stage. Deryl and Brad went off on their own (stopping back at camp, seeing some other bands). I ended up camped on the fence of general admission with a group of about 8 kids from NY who were in an orchestra together.


The New Instrument (electric kool-aid) Aptitude Test

There was about an hour to kill between each of the What stage shows, most of which I spent hanging out and trading snacks and Roo stories with the aforementioned NY orchestra guys (at Roo, the bartering economy is pretty friendly - a cliff bar  = a cliff bar, a cliff bar with a well time dick joke = a cliff bar and something harsher, etc.) The boys were big Avett fans, but, like many of the other people beginning to crowd the stage, were camping out for Radiohead hours in advance. While waiting for the Avetts to take the stage, several of their group began taking squares, and I was informed that certain orchestra players have very specific reactions to acid. Apparently, cellists and bassists have the best experience, as they typically 'see the whole page" and "get bored and are generally spacy and on acid anyways", while violinists and violists are too "self aware" or "analytical" to let the experience take over.

Watching the Avetts with them was a ball. It was one of the most fun sing along I have ever been apart of, because we could all harmonize to each other and the band. As far as the performance, I was impressed. The band puts everything out on the stage (especially the cellist with the awesomely stereotypical fu manchu mustache). I heard from others that this was a flat performance from the boys, but I thought it was great. It really helped me forget how flat the Decemberists were last year.

My bladder and feet decided I was not going to camp out at my primo spot for Radiohead, as their shows are enjoyable from pretty much anywhere. So I said bye to the NY croo, headed to the porto pottys and successfully avoided any Poopay Fiascos, and decided to go into the pit for Rodrigo y Gabriela. I ended up getting front row corner spot. I could touch them.

Rod y Gab played with C.U.B.A. orchestra, which is really a drummer, a percussionist,  an insane keyboardist, horns, and bass. The bassist was just as fantastic as Rodrigo and Gabriela. He did a solo where he scatted and improv melody over some pretty insane bass licks. It was incredible.

The skill and grace of the guitar work is absolutely awe inspiring here. Rodrigo gets a lot of the attention because of his machismo and ferocious picking, but Gabriela has so much flexibility in tone and character. Their set included solo work form both. Rodrigo's included snippets of Metalica, and Gabriela's of Stevie Wonder.

Radiohead, Fried Food, and Flea

After a failed attempt to try and meet Deryl and Brad in the crowd of 40,000+ loading up for Radiohead, I grabbed some fried delicacies (loaded potato chips and fried shrooms), grabbed a seat, and rested my feet. I ended up taking a walk to one of the small sponsor tents and watching some band I had never heard of (The Deep Dark Woods). I didn't really like their sound, but it was something to do and they had a pretty crowd.

Radiohead's show was beautiful. The lights and staging they use really emote the music in a very affective manner (although the star lit sky, bonnaboobies and chance to lay down in the grass and soak everything in helped).

While listening, I happened to sit up to let some people by and saw some baldish guy doing crazy yoga like dance moves in the crowd. I got up to investigate - and he ended up being Flea from RHCP. I got a chance to say hello to him (turns out he was doing something yoga like, some kind of eastern dance). Flea is awesome - but he is possibly the weirdest looking man I have ever met. His face proportions are all out of whack, but it's not as disconcerning as it should be.

Black Star Reminds Me - I was way too cool in middle school

For those of you who aren't into hip hop in a big way, let me preface with this: I LOVED the socially conscious rap groups of the late 80's and early 90's, notably A Tribe Called Quest, Arrested Development (but not my cousin, I mean who likes their own cousin, that's not legal. Is it?), and Black Star, aka Talib Kweli and Mos Def.

So their first performance in a decade or so was a pretty big deal for Deryl and I. I ended up with pretty good view as I left Radiohead before their encore (which unfortunately included "Paranoid Android", but alas). Both rappers were on point, although Mos Def was a little bit hazy compared to Talib (which is usually the opposite). They performed all of Black Star's only album as well as a track or two form each of their side projects (Mos Def's Estatic album and Talib's numerous collaborations). No ATCQ covers though. Still an excellent once in a lifetime show.

Latenight Funk
  
After energizing at Black Star, I ended up spending the remainder of my night dancing my ass off with some other honkies with Ivan Neville's dumpstaphunk. Last year, I ended up in a dance off with these kids from Vermont at the String Cheese Incident show, and it really put me in the right place to enjoy the festival. dumpstaphunk did that again after a fun but weird Thursday. After their set, I walked around to Flying Lotus (who played a 5-6 hour set), listened to him mix some Wocka Flocka Flame, and thend headed back to camp wonderfully exhausted.

Coming Soon....
Roo Saturday Edition: Gary Clark Jr., Das Racist gets Weird, Gambino vs. the Which, dogs that can salsa, girls on mushrooms, Da Roots, RHCP, and special guests galore (D'ANGELO!!)