Bonnaroo X Lineup: From A to Z

D is for Dr. John and Desitively Bonnaroo – The good Doctor will be pulling double-duty during the fest as he’ll be on hand to not only honor the festival’s namesake by performing Destively Bonnaroo with the Original Meters in its entirety, but Mac will also co-host the Return of the SuperJam with Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys.

E is for Eminem – Superfly continues its string of landing top-flight headliners from the world of hip-hop with the booking of Marshall Mathers, who has top billing on the impressive lineup. With 80 million copies of his albums sold world wide, we’re pretty confident that you’ll be able to hear the crowd  singing along loudly with Slim Shady all the way in Tent City.

F is for First Timers – The lineup is again full of artists that will be making their debuts at the variety of performance areas on the festival grounds. Eminem, Arcade Fire, The Strokes, Big Boi and Florence & The Machine are among the bands that need a good hazing from the vets.

G is for Global Gypsy Punk Revue – Superfly is handing over the keys to Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello to curate a tent for the day. The enigmatic Hutz will DJ in between sets from his band, DeVotchKa, Beirut, Beats Antique and others.

H is for High Rollers – How sweet does the Total Access Bonnaroo package look? As we get older and make more money, we dream of purchasing one of these bad boys one day.

I is for Mr. Irrelevant aka Hayes Carll – The singer-songwriter, who as our friends at The Weight dutifully pointed out has the distinction this year of having his name currently listed last on the bill.

J is for Jamband Roots – ‘Roo producers did a good job of honoring the event’s jamband roots by putting Widespread Panic, the String Cheese Incident, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, STS9, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals and the Warren Haynes Band on the lineup. Plus, there’s always a jamband or six added in the months leading up to Bonnaroo.

K is for Know Before You Go – Ten years into the Bonnaroo experience, there’s plenty of information to be had which will make your ‘Roo experience much more comfortable. Be sure to check out HT’s Festival Survival Guides and the Info Guide section of Bonnaroo.com.

L is for Leaks – The producers of Bonnaroo did a really good job of keeping the lineup a secret until the morning of the announcement. While the folks at the Live Music Blog leaked the bill that morning, guesses by a number of other blogs were way off base.

M is for My Morning Jacket – This band started towards the bottom of the lineup in 2003 and return as conquering heroes in one of the headlining slots for Bonnaroo X.

N is for Nighttime – While there are loads of bands to see while the sun is still out, nighttime is when the festival really kicks into high gear with the headliner and late night sets, which are typically the buzz of the weekend.

O is for the Original Meters – One of the biggest surprises from this year’s announcement was that The Original Meters would reform to back Dr. John’s performance of Desitively Bonnaroo. Keep in mind that Art Neville, George Porter Jr., Cyril Neville, Zigaboo Modeliste and Leo Nocentelli haven’t performed together in over three years.

P is for Plenty More Acts –  What was announced last week is only the initial lineup. We can’t wait to see who else ends up at Bonnaroo X.

Q is for Quintessential Bonnaroo Band – In Ashley Capps’ interview with Jambands.com, Capps mentions that the first Bonnaroo might not have been a success without Widespread Panic’s involvement and knew they had to be involved in the tenth anniversary of the fest.

R is for Return of the SuperJam – 2011 marks the return of Bonnaroo’s SuperJam after a two year absence. We expect that Dr. John and Dan Auerbach will be joined by a few other killer musicians.

S is for STS9 – We were thrilled to see STS9 included on this year’s lineup considering the band recently canceled its Winter Tour due to Murph’s illness. A few days later, we found out the bassist is recovering more quickly than expected.

T is for Talib Kweli – Kweli responded to a tweet asking if he’d perform at Bonnaroo X by saying that he’d be there with Blackstar, yet neither Talib or the seminal hip-hop band can be found on the current lineup.

U is for Unveiling – Thank god ‘Roo producers had the good sense to get rid of last year’s nonsensical method of revealing the lineup one artist at a time through MySpace. This year, we knew exactly when the announcement was coming and even though Bonnaroo.com was crushed by traffic, you could find the lineup at any one of 700 sites listing the lineup.

V is for Vevo – Bonnaroo has set up an official page on the video portal, which currently includes vids of artists reminiscing about their favorite ‘roo memories.

W is for White, Jack White – All signs point to Jack White stopping by the festival grounds, as not only are Wanda Jackson and Loretta Lynn on the bill (Jack produced albums for both), but his wife – Karen Elson – is scheduled to perform as well.

X is for Ten – The Roman numeral of the number of years that Bonnaroo is celebrating. Hey, you try to think of a better X!

Y is for YouTube – Since YouTube was made the exclusive provider of the Bonnaroo Webcast last year, the festival’s official channel has been populated with plenty of outstanding clips from Roo’s past. Let’s hope this trend continues and that YouTube will once again offer a free webcast of this year’s festivities.

Z is for Zero – Zero members of Phish and the Dead – we don’t count Hornsby – are on the bill for the 2nd year in a row.

Scott Bernstein and Jeffrey Greenblatt

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One Response

  1. Thanks for the link. Great list guys. We’ve only missed two Bonnaroos and we’re still debating whether to attend again this year. Dr. John and the Original Meters alone is almost reason enough to venture back to Manchester.

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