On our second day of Bonnaroo debauchery we awoke in a sweaty haze as the first rays of sun broke through the screens of our tent and essentially turned it into an oven. Welcome to the farm.
After failed attempts to shake off the grime, we got a forcibly early start to our day before the masses flocked to the concert grounds. After peeking at the schedule, we realized we would have to split up to see our ideal lineups.
Jaime camped herself at This Tent for eight dedicated hours to see a consecutive run including Electric Guest, TuNe-YaRdS, Two Door Cinema Club, Little Dragon and Ludacris while Marina sampled many stages and caught the entirety of Two Door Cinema Club and Fitz & the Tantrums before dinnertime. We then reconvened for Foster the People, Radiohead and Major Lazer.
Marina: The members of Fitz & the Tantrums deserved all the awards in the world for their sassy, dance-inspiring soul tunes and wicked onstage chemistry. I love my Fitz & the Tantrums album to death, but their sound translates infinitely better to a live show culminating in a hectic, double-time boogie fest in which the singers called out those audience members who were not dancing vigorously enough.
Jaime: The lead singer of Electric Guest is a pretty small fella’, but what he lacked in stature he made up for in sky-high energy levels. At times it looked like he was walking a fine line between euphoria and spontaneous combustion such was his happiness while performing. Their songs are a frolicking blend of guitar riffs and catchy keyboard, but aside from closing number and most-popular song “This Head I Hold” they lack a unique sound. However, I have high hopes for their future work.
Even if the unique cacophony of TuNe-YaRdS doesn’t seem like your cup of tea, it might still be worth your while to see her live. Meryl Garbus and her accompanying bass and saxophone players had the entire audience moving despite their early 1:30 p.m. time slot as she layered rhythms and gutteral calls into the microphone.
Ludacris brought the dirty south bounce to his first-ever Bonnaroo performance and haters gon’ hate, but it was one of my favorite shows of the weekend. The performance was jam-packed with his plentiful chart-topping hits and Atlanta booty poppin’. He even brought a stripper pole on stage for “How Low”—easily my favorite of his songs—and jumped into the crowd at one point to raucous shouts and lusting hands (oh em gee, I touched his finger twice). Luda is indeed the master of Disturbing the Peace.
Both: Two Door Cinema Club blew us both away with their wailing guitar riffs and driving, upbeat percussion. After standing mere feet away from them in the press area earlier, seeing them on the stage was like greeting old friends. They were gracious in their attitude and began each song with beaming grins and infectious energy. They offered fresh arrangements on their songs, such as slowing down crowd-favorite “What You Know” and reducing the melody to a lone guitar until exploding into a frenzied chorus as the rest of the band joined in to bring it home. They also previewed several songs from their forthcoming album, which we are anticipating more highly than ever after the glowing performance.
Of the approximately 80,000 people at ‘Roo, we would scientifically estimate about 70,000 were fixated on the Radiohead headliner show. Radiohead is Radiohead; you love them or you passively enjoy them. Honestly, we fall in the latter category and felt the show was a bit too laid back for our moods last night. However, perhaps 69,998 would beg to differ, since most people seemed enamored with the performance. The light show was mesmerizing and Yorke had a humble attitude and let the music speak for itself.
Our nightcap was a bass-heavy, booty-popping, anything-goes, 128-bpm rage fest as Major Lazer dropped it low and had half the audience sans clothing after only a few songs. He remixed crowd-favorites and original material into a seamless blend of club bangers. The buildups soared sky high before plummeted down to the floor with animalistic roars from the crowd and some dancing that we would politely describe as “interpretive”.
