Bonnaroo in LIT! [In the center of the page]

This years Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival which is held in Manchester, Tennessee had its share of heat, rain and of course music! The festival covered every genre. From Country to Rap to Classic Rock to Gypsy Punk.

  The first night was kicked off by an Austin band called What Made Milwaukee Famous (I thought it was the beer not the band).  They kicked off Bonnaroo with a 45 minute set but half way through their set an English singer/songwriter name Newton Faulkner was rocking it at That Tent. He had the crowd in awe with his distinctive style of guitar playing. To end his set he had the crowd singing and waving lighters along with Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.
 

After Newton Faulkner was very hard sounding trio named Grand Ole Party. The trio is from the San Francisco area had the crowd rocking out to their catchy and unique songs. Also Grand Ole Party has its lead singer Kristin Gundred multitasking as the bands drummer. This band has a sound so hard to classify that they are perfect! Later that night four bands closed out the night.
 

First was Vampire Weekend kicked off the late night with their afro-beat guitar licks and hipster lyrics. At midnight the all female tribute band Lez Zeppelin had the crowd going with songs from all of Led Zeppelin's albums. This band rocked Roo so hard that you would have thought it was really Led Zeppelin playing. You also would have thought the late John Bonham was rocking the drums because of how fierce and hard they were being played. Defiantly one of the many highlights the weekend had to offer. You also had another tribute band playing till two in the morning. Dark Star Orchestra  had Dead Heads rocking out to classic Grateful Dead songs and also giving the fans they closest things to a real life Dead show that they'll ever get.
 

To finish the night  or early morning, Porter - Batiste - Stoltz were bringing the New Orleans sound to the Somethin' Else New Orleans Tent, which was raising money for repairs in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina hit. The trio rocked it for four hours straight bringing the first night of Bonnaroo to a close.
 

Friday was kicked off by two bands, Steel Train and the Drive by Truckers.  Steel Train had fans rocking out to songs off their new album Trampoline and Twilights from the Prairies of The Sun while the Drive-By Truckers  jammed with their alt-country sound and reminded fans that bands with three guitars can rock as just as hard as a band with two or one guitar. After them Stephen Marley brought the reggae vibe to Bonnaroo while Tegan and Sara delighted fans with their power pop songs and Minus The Bear brought Seattle rock to the fans in Tennessee.
 

During all of that though the Bluegrass masters, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Luke Bulla, Edgar Meyer and Bryan Sutton, brought classic Appalachian flavor to the Other Tent for the Bluegrass Allstars show. But in the middle of the Bluegrass Allstars show the bass wizard Les Claypool shocked and amazed fans with what a man could do with four and five strings. He also told fans that this was his 13th Bonnaroo (there has only been 8!) While in the midst of all of this the Nashville based band The Raconteurs  played the main stage. They played songs from both of their albums, Broken Boy Soldiers and Consolers of  The Lonely. During the show Jack White had a mini freak out and went head first into his amp knocking it over. After knowing it over he finished the song Blue Veins laying there and got up and discovered that one of his microphones came unplugged. He responded by slamming his guitar to the ground and leaving the stage. He came back a few minutes to finish the set and ended on the song Carolina Drama. Which if you really want to know the story of the song go and ask the Milk Man.

When The Raconteurs left the stage every hippie's favorite country sing took the second stage. You could because of the smoke rising from the area where he was playing. Of course I'm talking about Willie Nelson! While this legendary country singer was playing the amazing M.I.A. was have fans dancing to her unique blend of dancehall, hip hop, grime, electro and balie funk. Also at her show Jack White and Brendan Benson were grooving to her funky music and on top of it all the Olsen twins were there dancing away to. Yes I said the Olsen twins!

At the tail end of M.I.A.'s set controversial funny man Chris Rock played the main stage! He had people gasping for air with his commentary on society and politics. Fifteen minutes after he went off metal legends Metallica took the stage by storm! They played songs from all of their albums including their new album which has yet to be named. To kick off the late night shows was Indie rocks favorite My Morning Jacket. During their set Super Jam was being held at the Other Tent in the pouring rain!  Super Jam this year included Les Claypool, members of Gogol Bordello and Kirk Hammett of Metallica playing Tom Waits covers. They brought a new sound to Tom Waits' songs. A mix of funky bass lines and gypsy  influences with the rocking guitar of Kirk Hammett.

To round out the night DJ Motion Potion was have people grooving the night away at the Silent Disco. Now DJ Motion Potion or MoPo can concoct the perfect potion for your motion. He was mixing everything from Rage Against The Machine to Gwen Stefani to Euro Club music and if his mixes don't get you moving then there's something wrong with you!

After a hard nights rain Saturday was welcomed with sunshine and mud! The day was kicked off by one of Jack Johnson's partners in crime, Donavon Frankenreiter. He had people laid back more than they thought they could be to hits off his first two albums and also played a new song from his upcoming album.

When Donavon was over it was time to catch the crazy gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello at the Which Stage! Now if you have never seen this band live you need to! They will blow you away with how much energy this band will put out on the stage! They blew fans away with songs from all of their albums including their current hit American Wedding off of their new album Super Taranta. During the show Eugene jumped into the crowd with a bottle of wine and started pouring it on people! The band also jammed out a Gogol Bordello classic Baro Faro. While they jammed that out they played a mix of other Gogol hits and ended back on Baro Faro to end the show! When Gogol Bordello left the stage BB King went on the main stage to show the younger generation that old school blues can still be just as fresh as the music from today. In the middle of his set this generations Elton John (Ben Folds) rocked the crowd with songs about rocking the suburbs and how bitches ain't shit.  
 

While Ben was playing the ivory, Levon Helm was bringing his private jam sessions in Woodstock, New York to Manchester Tennessee. He played a mix of covers that included Long Black Veil and songs from his band The Band. He had everyone singing during Rag Mama Rag and the well known hit The Weight.
 The highlight of many Bonnaroo goers was the laid back beach bum king him self Jack Johnson playing the main stage. He had the people grooving to his laid back simplistic guitar riffs. During his set he played songs from his new album Through The Static and he had Pearl Jams front man Eddie Vedder to come out and play a song with him. During Johnson's set the rap king, Kanye West, was suppose to play the second stage but had his stage time changed to 2:45 AM but we'll get back to what the egotistical rapper did to piss off everyone at Bonnaroo. Well after Johnson's show Seattle based band, Pearl Jam, took the stage to rock fans with songs from all of their albums. Its unfortunate to say that Metallica rocked harder than Pearl Jam. They Crowd didn't seem like they were really into PJ's set and when Eddie stopped to talk to the crowd you couldn't understand him. I mean you could understand the words but he was making Christopher Walken-esque sentences. None of them were making sense! After a good but disappointing set it was time for hippie/dead head favorite Phil Lesh and Friends to play.

They opened their set up with One More Saturday Night (it was Saturday night folks) which went straight into Uncle John's Band. After jamming out to Phil and friends show most of the people went back to their tents to call it a night. But before the night could end rapper Kanye West had to perform.

Now its well known that Kanye is and egotistical prick but he went to far this time! He was suppose to play at 2:45 AM. Well he kept pushing his show back till 5 in the morning! The theme for his show was him flying in a space ship that crashes and him having conversations with it. Now I bet this sounded good to him on paper when he was high but it was retarded! ( Now if you find the word retarded offensive then you are not retarded! Don't bitch at me about it!) The one line that made this show really retarded was when he asked how he was going to get off the planet because he needed some "pussy". What the fuck! This man has ruined his reputation as and artist and should have never been on the Bonnaroo set list in the first place! This egotistical piece of shit is why people hate him and why he shouldn't be performing music festivals!

Now Sunday was a day of sunshine (to help dry out peoples stuff from the rain from the previous nights) and good southern time music. The Lee Boys rocked That Tent with their Robert Randolph influenced jams. Soon afterwards Robert Randolph took the stage and showed people how a man plays lap steel. Also Robert had the crowd saying "Fuck Kanye!" after what he did early that morning.  During Robert's set the Legendary T Bone Burnett came out and jammed with RR on a Bo Diddly signature guitar. During the show though Led Zeppelin's front man, Robert Plant, was seen backstage have the time of his life! When Robert Randolph was over there were sets from Yonder Mountain String band, Solomon Burke, and O.A.R.

Now can I talk to the person who sets up the set times for bands to play? The main part of the day had Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi's Soul Stew Revival, and Death Cab For Cutie playing at the same time! Of the three bands to play they most exciting to see was Alison Krauss and Robert Plant with T Bone Burnett supporting their album Raising Sand. They played old country songs and also redid some of Robert Plants songs. The highlight of the show was when they played Black Dog in a dark bluegrass feel. The crowd went crazy when Alison was singing line of the song and Robert was stalking her as she sang. Unfortunately during their show Death Cab For Cutie and Derek Trucks went on.
 

Death Cab had fans singing along with every word the Ben Gibbard sang. They played hits such as Crooked Teeth and their current hit I'll Posses Your Heart from their new album Narrow Stairs. As the college crowd was enjoying Death Cab the southern rock fans were enjoying Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi. Derek and Susan played songs from both of their catalogs and jammed them out for what seemed like forever! Derek's playing showed why he is our generations Duane Allman. The man can do no wrong with putting glass to steel! They ended their set with The Band hit The Weight. To end the weekend Widespread Panic played the main stage and had people relaxing to their southern blues songs.

Also at this years Bonnaroo was a program called Clean Vibes which was helping people learn about recycling and how to take care of the environment. Besides the Clean Vibes program helping raise awareness about the environment there was a Timberland booth set up in the Artist Lounge giving shoes made of organic and recycled materials to artist and raising awareness about environment issues with them.
 

So as the 2008 Bonnaroo Music and Arts festival came to a close you felt that you had helped keep the world a little cleaner while having a good time listen to your favorite bands and maybe some new ones mixed in there. Now all the people that went can scrub the Tennessee dust and dirt from them and feel clean themselves.