Friday
tUnE-yArDs
Press shot
tUnE-yArDs’ bright, Africanized pop music was a fantastic way to begin our sunny Friday afternoon. Feeding off of the hospitality of the eager crowd, Merrill Garbus, the distinguished mastermind of the project, along with cohort Nate Brenner on bass and two accompanying saxophonists, worked her looping magic, creating vocal harmonies and percussive tracks from scratch. Garbus’s roar was a great jolt for the languid (and most-likely hungover) day crowd. Both of tUnE-yArDs’ releases received equal attention, Bird-Brains comprising most of the earlier set, and singles “Gangsta” and “Bizness” amongst others from last year’s breakthrough w h o k i l l occupying the latter half of the set. There was an undeniable chemistry between the crowd inside of the tent and Garbus and her company. The bright colors of the music coupled with tribal drumming seemed right in sync with the sunlit Bonnaroo atmosphere. I have a feeling this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
– Malcolm Martin
Ludacris
I was excited for Ludacris. I may be the one press kid at Bonnaroo who could truthfully say it (or that would openly admit it), but I genuinely was. Partially, it was just Atlanta pride. I wasn’t born, but I’d been raised since 1st grade, and I could remember listening to “Roll Out,” “Stand Up,” “What’s Your Fantasy,” and all the hits when I was just a kid. Then there was “Yeah!,” “Get Back,” and so on. Essentially, I was old enough to remember Luda’s prime. What happened after was hardly surprising, the half-hearted acting career, and the pop tracks that were a sadly logical extension of his more riotous hits.
I was hoping it’d be the earlier Ludacris attending Bonnaroo this year. I had good reason to hope for it too: just several months earlier I’d seen him destroy an appearance at a Big K.R.I.T. show, it was obvious the man could still rock when he chose to. And for Roo, why wouldn’t he?
I can only wonder. The Ludacris that arrived was practically saddening, seeming to perform for an audience he worried he had to prove himself to. He kept informing us, time and again, that each track he played was a “#1 billboard hit,” busting out lame Pitbull appearances and the like one after the other.
The guy may be past his peak, but the Roo age group was ready for him – we knew all the songs, all he had to do was play them, and we’d be eating out of his hands. Instead, he continued on the war path towards convincing some phantom skeptic. It was a needless display, and essentially ruined what could have been a goofy blast of an alternative to the day’s more serious fare.
– Chase McMullen
Radiohead
How do you finish off the first proper day of the world’s biggest music festival? With the world’s best studio band. Given a two-hour set, this is as good a Radiohead set as you’re going to get.
These big festivals like Coachella and Bonnaroo act like final showcases for these headliners. These are the playoff games or finals: where the band’s skills are perfected and put on display after being tuned and synchronized during the regular season (the rest of the tour dates they play).
You could tell by their set. It was not until their following show on Sunday that they debuted new song “Full Stop.” It was no time to play tracks that were still being developed.
It may be a bit a bombastic to say, but Radiohead is becoming a jam band. No, not all the time. They’re still going to write simply structured rock songs and ballads (eg. “The Daily Mail”) but the addition of a second drummer Clive Deamer and they’re newly found technique of looping layering rhythm parts have allowed the band to improvise and rock out a bit more.
In addition to the mix of King of Limbs and new tracks, we were given a great assortment of tracks from all of their albums asides from Pablo Honey and The Bends. We got (my favorite) Kid A‘s title track just three tracks into the set, OK Computer‘s “Karma Police” and “Paranoid Android” to close off the show, Amnesiac‘s “You and Whose Army” and “I Might Be Wrong” and oh so much more, all played with studio-like precision. Unless you were searching for unrecorded deep cuts, you can’t complain at all.
All of this was accompanied by the the most impressive light-show the festival had to offer. The band had expanded their panel display set up to surround the Bonnaroo sign at the top of the stage, and occupied the two main displays on the sides of the stage to appear as if they were occupied by another six panels. For a majority of the show these screens were filled with phrenic imagery of the band captured by the cameras on stage. Even if you couldn’t see the band on stage from where you were standing the panels would help you piece together what was happening, from Colin’s chagrining face as he ripped a bass-line or Thom’s face as he crooned out the apocalyptic “Idioteque.” It all felt a bit surreal in a way.
All in all it was a fantastic set, and a worthy successor to their legendary 2006 Bonnaroo set (when the band was in the prime, live — go look it up, now). Radiohead have been around for ages now, and with so many classic albums, they don’t owe anyone a damn thing. Thom could go move to South Africa and release afro-pop albums til he dies, regardless of quality, and still be regarded as greats in music history. But as the band seeps into old age, they continue to prove night after night that they’re still the best act on the planet.
– Evan Kaloudis
Black Star
Black Star at Rock the Bells 2011 in San Bernardino, CA. Photo by Philip Cosores
I’d been trying to catch Talib and Mos as a unit for some time. Most recently, I’d arranged to cover them when they come through Atlanta early this year, only to be foiled by cancellation. I’d had seriously bad luck when it came to the backpacking kings, so when they were half an hour late, I feared for the worst, even at a festival as large as Roo.
Fate was on my side, and finally after nearly 45 minutes, the duo clambered out, bursting immediately into a hyped up, old school rendition of a hip hop show. What else would you expect from Black Star? They went through all the essentials from their classic LP, as well as a few of their recent tracks. Both MC’s were as energetic as expected, effortlessly moving the hip hop head side of the show, but due to the relatively brief time allowance and late arrival, the show had a hard time overcoming the approaching Flying Lotus show, and the droves of rave kids simply awaiting his set. All in all, it was a nice moment, if smaller than it should have been.
– Chase McMullen
Flying Lotus
Press shot
After Radiohead’s captivating performance, Friday night marched on with a grab bag of music to choose from, in the face of a schedule pushback. Over at That Tent, Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli were packing up their nostalgia-rich set as Black Star. Techs rushed to assemble controllers on stage to lessen the lapse. At 2:20 AM, the gray hoody that floated up to the center stage revealed itself as Flying Lotus. Relating to the crowd his drunken afternoon hijinks, it became clear that the number one objective was getting everyone out of their bodies. “We’re gonna shake this tent,” he promised the crowd, and he kept good on his promise.
At the helm of his laptop, Ellison recalled only a handful of his original material and scattered them throughout what was essentially a DJ set. Snippets of “Zodiac Shit” and “PieFace” bumped elbows with the likes of fellow electro-weirdo Mr. Oizo, “Idioteque,” “Intergalatic” (presumably an MCA tribute), and an appropriately grimy brostep mix of Waka Flocka’s “Hard in da Paint”. And the crowd loved every minute of it. Being a fan of FlyLo in album form I was looking forward to hearing some of the new material he has been revealing in bits and pieces at other festivals. In retrospect, the energy was so palpable throughout the tent, I can understand why he’d choose Bonnaroo steer clear of material so emotionally involving. As a result of that caution, Flying Lotus’s set was a spirited high point of the festival.
– Malcolm Martin
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