Bonnaroo 2023 reminiscent of former lore on opening day
Story by Bill Foster and Rusty Odom • Photos by Bill Foster
It didn’t take long to get that feeling.
There’s a thing that happens only at Bonnaroo – and nowhere else as far as I can tell. It starts with the drive, then continues with entry and the setting of camp. You meet your neighbors. You help stretch a pop-up tent. You drink some water and pour that first drink or open that first beer. Then you gear up and make that first trek into Centeroo, the musical nucleus of the festival.
It’s a communal effort each June in Manchester, Tennessee, and while the festival has had its ups and downs over my 17 years of attendance, I knew immediately that the feeling from those early years was back this first day in 2023.
The artists onstage seemed to share the sentiment.
As The Medium went into its final song of the set, lead singer Shane Perry was overtly joyous. “This is the biggest crowd we’ve ever played to,” he barely got out through an ear-to-ear grin. “This is our last one. It’s called ‘Good Ol’ Days.’”
Pretty Lights protégé Daily Bread debuted a new track or two and owned one of the largest Thursday crowds in the festival’s history. Rich Ruth pleased its loyal participants at the Who Stage while pulling in random passersby by the dozens as the show progressed.
Thursday is not a dress rehearsal. Over the years, it has been a platform for hundreds of up-and-comers, and many have returned to the farm on larger stage in primetime. We can see a few of these bands doing just that, so let’s get into it. – Rusty Odom
Angel Saint Queen
Thursday is the most influential day at Bonnaroo. If the final headliner on Sunday hits, that’s partially due to the groundwork that the artists who performed on previous days planted. Thursday is also a day of discovery, and nothing was more of a pleasant surprise than Angel Saint Queen, a five-piece indie-rock joint from Nashville. Lead singer and guitarist Becca Castle is a star, plain and simple. The former Knoxville resident screamed and crooned and dashed about the stage with ferocious intent, all the while oozing charm and style. Charisma just pours out of her.
It’s not all about Castle, though. Maddie Bouton shares the mischief with her at the front of the stage, while Will Grey, Carson Lystad, Adam Lochemes and Eledy round out the uproariously talented collective. The move to kick off the set with LCD Soundsystem’s “Dance Yrself Clean” was a bold one, but one that worked like a charm. It pied-pipered passersby under the tent, and once they were in, they weren’t leaving. A choice cover of The Faces’ “Ooh La La” was another pleasant surprise.
At the end of this show, we knew it: Thursdays are back. Bonnaroo is back. And at the end of the night, the crown for new favorite band laid on the brow of Angel Saint Queen. – RO
Cimafunk
What makes Bonnaroo so special is the effort the festival makes to blend other elements into its mix of EDM, rock, pop and hip-hop. Thursday’s stunning show by Cimafunk was a classic Bonnaroo booking that led to a nonstop, hour-long dance party. Cimafunk is both the nom de plume of Erik Alejandro Iglesias Rodriguez and the name of his band, which blends Cuban rhythms with hip-hop and funk. Led by Rodriguez’s James Brown-like stage presence, the eight-piece group featuring a horn section and five singers provided an incredibly tight backing for his tenor croon. The show was entirely in Spanish, but the large crowd was there to move and devoured every minute of it. – Bill Foster
Petey
Petey is the stage name of TikTok sensation Peter Martin, who gained 1.5 million followers during the pandemic for his sweet, silly comedy videos. He was always a musician first, though, and is currently parlaying his fame into a burgeoning career. His show in This Tent on Thursday night showed a good showman with a nice four-piece band who writes emo-like songs full of earnest longing and the occasional brave emotional moment. The crowd was mid-sized, but it clearly was there for him, as it seemed to know every word of every song. – BF
Diarrhea Planet
Nashville’s premier garage-punk (or goofy-metal, as I prefer) band has been on hiatus since announcing that it “had run its course” and performing a set of legendary farewell shows at the Basement East in 2018. While the future is uncertain, the group reunited to play a pair of shows in Nashville last year, and today’s much-anticipated Bonnaroo set was its first major date since. It was worth the wait. The band is both comically loud and comically visual, with all four (!) guitar players spending every second of the set on the speakers, leaping and climbing on everything in sight, crowdsurfing and exhorting the crowd to yell louder. The audience was fanatical with screams erupting at every movement, and crowdsurfing continued from the first song to the closer, a spectacular version of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name.” While their future is unclear, for one hour these cats were the best rock ‘n’ roll band on the planet, and we can only hope there is more to come from them. – BF
