We came, we saw, here’s some of our favorite shows we conquered:
With a show that wasn’t even scheduled to start until 2:15 am (and ended up lasting till sunrise) this was bound to be epic. Our bionic mouse friend came on about 20 minutes late, but the wait was WELL worth it as you can see by this insane stage setup. The video quality is a bit shaky, but you can see the glowing bionic mouse mask that was blowing minds left and right when it started talking.
There are some more videos of the show and the sick stage setup here.
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
It was hard to get too excited for any daytime shows because the heat literally sucks the soul out of you, but Ed Sharpe and the 0’s had no problem getting the crowd hyped up. Alex (lead vocals) was crowd surfing throughout the show, Jade (vocals, guitar) was goofy-eyed and grinning the whole time and the rest of the band kept things going. It was everything you’d expect from this band of happy hippies.
The Dead Weather
They played at one of the larger stages of Bonnaroo, but that didn’t take away from the intimacy of this show. The entire band was dripping sweat halfway through their set. Mosshart and White were seductive on stage. Dead Weather knows exactly what they’re doing.
Jay –Z
After hearing horror stories of Kanye making people wait 2 hours for him last year, we were reluctant to put ourselves through the clusterfuck that Jay-Z would be, but the second he hit the stage (on time) fighting the crowds was worth every bit of it. The stage set up was sweet and Hova sounded great. This was definitely one of the best performances of the weekend.
Check out the video of his encore performance here to try and get a scope of just how many people were there, Hov turned down all the lights, making the crowd a sea of glow sticks and then lit off fireworks to end it all, PIMP.
Black Keys
The Keys were clear as a whistle for their whole late night set and things got even better when they started playing new stuff. These guys sounded so polished live it was like they were playing on my I-pod.
Bassnectar
Bassnectar wasn’t the first on our list, but one look at their tent and we had to check out the scene. We’re glad we did too because it was one of the best late night shows at the ‘Roo. The crowd here was contagious and completely absurd. Not only that, but the Bassnectar stage was located directly beside the Lunar Stage where an equally savage crowd was gathering for DJ Crystal Method which conveniently started right around the same time Bassnectar ended (2 am). Needless to say, the sun was high in the sky by the time we made it home from that one.
The only downside to Bonnaroo (besides baking in the sun and heat for 4 days straight) is that you can’t see every show. So here are some epic shows we missed but wished we could’ve seen
Miike Snow, The Flaming Lips, Hercules and the Love Affair, Thievery Corporation and Phoenix
Ohhh well, there’s always next year!
