BONNAROO 2015 FRIDAY RECAP – Royal Blood, Alabama Shakes, Kendrick Lamar, Earth Wind & Fire (FESTIVAL RECAP/PHOTOS)

Friday morning is when Bonnaroo really springs to life. The headliners and featured late night shows loom ahead, and the enormous What Stage field is opened for the first time. The scope of the event comes into focus not only via the sheer mass of humanity on the farm, but the endless array of possibilities for diversion. What’s better to start a hot day – the reggae stylings of SOJA, who “radiate positivity” just as the festival’s branding calls for, on the grandest stage? North Carolina prog-metal veterans Between The Buried And Me in a sweltering, dusty tent? Perhaps the utter oddity of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard in the far northwest corner of the venue at The Other Tent? Or maybe show some love to lesser-known bands like Mini Mansions, who stood against the sun and delivered an off-kilter version of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” while Moon Taxi threatened to drown them out from a few hundred yards away.

pressconf

This day, my answer was Royal Blood, whose music is practically made for sweating oneself silly.  They‘re a drums and bass duo, with heavy effects on the bass making for churning, distorted rushes of rock reminiscent of everyone from Queens of the Stone Age to The Black Keys. Their setlist, however, is as dependable as the beloved Amish Donuts sold at the festival – it never changes. The crowd began to thin out after the band played their biggest hit, “Figure It Out”, probably because they had already “figured out” the rest of the show. Dawes, a band at the other end of the sonic spectrum, also takes few chances with their shows. Their earnest, folky sound didn’t seem to be what the masses were looking for, despite the band’s clearly increased energy as a result of their first main stage appearance. Sylvan Esso proved far more memorable on the other end of the farm, at a much smaller stage, but with way more people enjoying themselves. It’s nearly impossible not to enjoy the Durham, NC duo’s jubilant songs and entrancing, energetic performance style.

Alabama Shakes followed them and promptly squashed any sense of apathy. The always arresting Brittany Howard was resplendent in a regal dress, and her caterwauling vocals and guitar have evolved well past the ubiquitous “Hold On”. The intolerably overexposed song has been removed from their show, giving much deserved attention to their newer material and other, far better songs like “Future People” and ‘Sound And Color”. A lot of people probably made their way from Alabama Shakes to Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals or Tears For Fears, veteran acts who know how to knock a gig out of the park. Tears For Fears led singalongs of their gargantuan hits, and the guys sound as good as ever. The dramatic opening of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” set the tone, and they worked their way through all of the good ones – “Mad World”, “Sowing The Seeds of Love”, “Break It Down Again”, “Head Over Heels”, “Shout”, and even a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” for good measure.

alabama5

The schedule for the giant What Stage eventually got wild enough to satisfy the kids looking to rage away their weekend, as Deadmau5 lit up the night with the festival’s first true main stage late night spectacular. His presence neatly split the tens of thousands of attendees into two camps: Camp Yay Deadmau5 and Camp Anything But Deadmau5. The scene will certainly be different on Saturday, but on Friday Kendrick Lamar also drew a considerable mass of bright-eyed party people to the field. The show was an exploration into why he’s been touted as the next huge hip hop superstar. It’s tough to bestow such a mantle on an artist with such a new career, but there’s something to it. Thousands rapturously recited the lyrics to “Swimming Pools (Drank)”, “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe”, “King Kunta”, and pretty much every other song he and his remarkably proficient band could muster. Lamar, who never stopped moving around the stage, had to be as exhausted as a Bonnaroo camper by the time his powerful show ended.

kendrick1

In the weeks leading up to Bonnaroo, one of the most discussed shows was Earth, Wind and Fire’s late night set at weirdo central, AKA The Which Stage. Known for hosting post-headliner spectacles too large for any of the tents, as well as more sprawled-out ground sleepers per capita than any other stage, it’s also the festival’s quirkiest spot for a show, with loads of pedestrian obstructions, poor sight lines, and sound that rarely matches up to the rest of the venues. This all affected the enjoyment of an otherwise magnificent effort from one of the most important bands to ever visit Manchester, TN, but not to the point of complete ruination.

ewf7

Mega-influential hits like “September”, “Serpentine Fire”, “Boogie Wonderland”, and “Sing a Song” were buoyed by the band’s carefully orchestrated routines on stage. Sax and guitar soloists rushed to the front of the stage to take the spotlight and soak up the adulation of the crowd. Bassist Verdine White and his compatriots sung in luxurious lines, forming and re-forming in the most appropriate fashion via choreographed spins and struts. A couple of weeks ago, White mentioned that their set would hopefully be a “generational merging”, and his hint came to fruition when Kendrick Lamar and Chance The Rapper joined in for a loose and funky collaboration. The 14th Friday in Bonnaroo’s history proved to be a typically grueling and satisfying entry into the rapidly expanding legacy of the event, and it’s hard to believe that the event is already halfway over.

Related Content

One Response

  1. It is good to see Kendrick smiling, despite the horrific acts of child abuse he, his siblings, neighborhood friends, elementary and JHS classmates were exposed to, causing Kendrick to rap about being a depressed adolescent in his 2015 Grammy Award winning performance of ,”I”.

    In a January 20, 2011 LAWeekly interview Kendrick, born in 1987, the same year songwriter Suzanne Vega wrote a song about child abuse and VICTIM DENIAL that was nominated for a Grammy award, he told the interviewer:

    *”Lamar’s parents moved from Chicago to Compton in 1984 with all of $500 in their pockets. “My mom’s one of 13 [THIRTEEN] siblings, and they all got SIX kids, and till I was 13 everybody was in Compton,” he says.”*

    *”I’m 6 years old, seein’ my uncles playing with shotguns, sellin’ dope in front of the apartment. My moms and pops never said nothing, ’cause they were young and living wild, too. I got about 15 stories like ‘Average Joe.'”*

    I grew up enjoying the sounds of Earth, Wind and Fire.

    Had EW&F written music that characterized females, aka moms, sisters, grandmas and daughters, as witches and bhores, as many of today’s music performers characterize women, I’m pretty certain I would have thought these guys were troubled human beings, much like I believe many of today’s performers are troubled victims of early child abuse that causes them to demean females.

    Good to see Kendrick rubbing elbows with peaceful composers and talented musicians who write music that makes a large segment of our human population want to smile, dance, love and respect women.

    *#protect-kids-from-irresponsible-caregivers*

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

New to Glide

Keep up-to-date with Glide

Twitter