Bonnaroo completes bounce-back weekend with Foo Fighters, Jacob Collier, Peach Pit, Girl in Red and more
By Bill Foster and Rusty Odom • Photos by Bill Foster
One of the features that distinguishes great music festivals from others is the organizers understanding that the most important aspect of a great festival is fostering a sense of community. Considering that we call these events “music” festivals and not “community” festivals, that’s an easy thing to miss, and a lot of festivals concentrate on the lineups instead of the culture. Bonnaroo, with its “radiate positivity” motto, has always gotten that balance right, even through all the changes over the years. For instance, when BLANK arrived at our campsite, we found a friend from Knoxville there and merged our sites. Next to arrive were seven college students from the Northeast. And after that, the bass player for a band that played Thursday arrived. We again merged all our campsites so that our tents surrounded a common community area, and we all hung out all weekend and exchanged numbers and are now friends. Like, lifelong friends. We learned about a lot of new bands and new slang, and hopefully they got a couple Bonnaroo tips. It was a wonderful weekend.
Mostly, this is a roundabout way to explain that we spent Sunday morning and early afternoon playing a college drinking game that involved drinking various concoctions from a communal bowl, and as a result we don’t have pictures or reviews about acts that we were really looking forward to – Drew Holcomb, Makaya McCraven and Franz Ferdinand (although we could hear that one) – and didn’t leave the campsite until about 4 p.m. But you know what? We had a blast, and making memories and friends like that is every bit as important a festival experience as catching the latest act, and we are all guilty sometimes of not remembering that. That’s not to say we didn’t see anything, though, and we quickly made up for lost time. Here we go. – Bill Foster
Hermanos Gutiérrez
There WAS one early act we caught before we started bowl-chugging. And, boy, am I glad I drug myself out to catch Hermanos Gutiérrez for their 1:15 p.m. set. This is the smooth musical collective of brothers Stephan and Alejandro, and it was the perfect beginning to the last day of the festival. The brothers were born to an Ecuadorian mother and Swiss father, which helps explain the hard-to-pin-down style the two exude from onstage.
This was by far the sexiest and most calming show of the weekend, and it wasn’t much for theatrics. It was just two brothers, sitting beside one another, playing guitar as if they were on their front porch. I try to leave my phone in my pocket at these things, but I couldn’t resist the urge to relive this at a later date. It was the only video I took all weekend. Throw this in the background for pretty much anything, and you’ll be glad you did. – Rusty Odom
Men I Trust
Men I Trust started their show with their biggest hit, “Show Me How,” a trick that always impresses me for showing confidence in their material. The Canadian outfit was correct to be so confident, as the next hour was filled with dream pop and spiky guitar solos, sounding like The Cure with a frontwoman instead of Robert Smith. – BF
Peach Pit
The Vancouverites have been around for seven years and three records now and are really building a following. If I were giving an award for the most enthusiastic fans, it would probably be a a tie between Noah Kahan and Peach Pit, as the audience was huge for the former and filled with signs, crying fans and kids screaming every sad lyric at the latter. They played both “F***boi Blues” and “Shampoo Bottles,” which I’m sad to say is the extent of my knowledge, but I will be remedying that, as this was an impressive show full of action and great melodic guitar-playing mixed with introspective lyrics. – BF
Cecelia Castleman
Nashville native Cecilia Castleman is just out of high school but already has a couple songwriting deals and some cuts placed into TV shows, as well as slots opening for Sheryl Crow and Melissa Etheridge. She played the Who Stage at Bonnaroo in front of a crowd that was too small for her talent, accompanied by only another guitar player. However, her songs cut deep, and I cannot wait to see her back here with a real band, a bigger stage and a bit more experience. – BF
Girl in Red
The future is bright for Girl in Red. The indie-pop project belongs to Norwegian songwriter and producer Marie Ulven Ringheim, and though the lyrical content can be dour, there’s a celebratory filter through which she presents her songs. Her stage presence is both charming and raucous. Ringheim was all over the enormous Which stage and took one of the biggest stage dives of the weekend (pictured above). We can’t wait to see what’s next from this one. – RO
Marcus Mumford
I am not sure what the organizers thought one man with an acoustic guitar who wasn’t named Bruce Springsteen or Todd Snider could do on a stage the size of the Which Stage, but, well, enough said. He played a handful of Mumford & Sons songs, including “The Cave,” a pair of The New Basement Tapes’ tunes, brought Tiny Habits out for a song and concluded with “I Will Wait” in front of the smallest crowd I’ve seen for a closing act at Which. – BF
Jacob Collier
I’ll be honest: In spite of his five Grammys, Jacob Collier had slipped my notice until my young campmates made me go see him. I didn’t see a lot of it, but what I did see was a by-god bona fide musical genius who alternated between guitar, upright bass, piano, keyboard, singing and percussion – often in the same song – all while leading the crowd in pretty complicated harmonies and improvisations. I can’t wait to see a full show soon. – BF
Pixies
This was a bucket-list show for me, and, although Kim Deal is missed, Pixies absolutely delivered. They performed under low, harsh, minimal lighting but delivered a pounding, punishing, 23-song set that began with “Gouge Away” and “Wave of Mutilation.” The band continued through a set of deep cuts and better-known songs with a Jesus and Mary Chain cover tossed in and concluded with “Where Is My Mind” and Neil Young’s “Winterlong.” Francis Black was in fine voice throughout, although he didn’t have a lot to say in between selections. They just delivered the songs perfectly, and that was more than enough. – BF
Foo Fighters
Band chemistry is a funny thing. Like a marriage, no one knows what goes on inside a band except the people in it, but a peculiar alchemy has to happen where two plus two comes to equal six. The loss of Taylor Hawkins was a hammer blow that the band will never be over. (They are playing his favorite song “Aurora” each night and dedicating it to him.) New drummer Josh Freese is a beast of a player, but something was still missing – some sense of fun or style. It was a fantastic show, but Hawkins’ absence was a palpable force. Still, we got Haley Williams coming out to sing “My Hero.” We got Dave Grohl’s daughter coming out for a Father’s Day duet on two tunes. We got snippets of “Enter Sandman,” “Sabotage” and “Whip It.” And of course we got hit after hit, including “Monkey Wrench,” “Best of You,” “Times Like These” and a closing “Everlong.” If it wasn’t quite the same, it wasn’t anyone’s fault, and it was still a great show. – BF
Fin
In many ways, Bonnaroo felt like the old days in 2023. The communal aspect of the crowds was more present than it has been in several years. This lineup seemed to bear fruit in all the right ways, and bad apples were few and far between despite the increased attendance. The production, both on the audio and visual elements, was pristine all weekend. That might actually be a first. Each show we saw looked and sounded according to plan, a true feat considering the short turnovers and the lack of true soundchecks. It was the best-sounding ‘Roo in my 17 years of attendance.
With an event this size, everything isn’t going to work. Bonnaroo almost becomes a living, breathing organism, and with the changeover now firmly in the hands of LiveNation, something’s gotta give. Unfortunately, ADA was a real problem for some this year. There was some last-minute turnover in leadership in this vein, and it showed in a big way for some attendees. Hopefully this becomes a top priority next year, and considering how well most everything else went, it certainly will be.
All in all, the structure in place bodes well for the future. The aforementioned amenities along with newly paved roads, added bathrooms, trashcans and – most importantly – better lineups means good things for the festival landscape as a whole. Many fans who have been in attendance the last several years have said that this was their favorite year, and we can see why. Pulling off a festival this size is almost impossible. It’s one of modern humanity’s greatest feats, and congratulations are in order to those who made it happen. Bonnaroo, dear readers, is back. We can’t wait to see what happens next. – RO
