Bonnaroo Grows Up
The Rebirth of the American Festival Down on the Farm
by Jon Latham
 Manchester, Tennessee - Nestled comfortably between the shadows of Chattanooga and Nashville lays the sight that gave birth to the resurgence in the American festival circuit. Every year, the Coffee County back roads that tuck behind a modest commercial front of car dealerships, diners, and Wal-Mart become the quaint city's main traffic outlets, all signs pointing to the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. This June, with the line-up boasting such diverse headlining names as Metallica, Kanye West, and Pearl Jam alongside Bonnaroo mainstays such as Phil Lesh and Widespread Panic, it was apparent that the festival's organizers were stretching Bonnaroo's legs. Starting in 2002 with a make-up consisting heavily of jam-oriented acts, the festival has become increasingly more adventurous with the lengths at which they have diversified the musical pallet. The chances taken in the past paid off in a big way, specifically with Radiohead's epic headlining appearance in 2006 and the appearance of Tool and the Police in 2007. This year, blogs and message boards went haywire with concerns about bands like Metallica infiltrating and demolishing the easy-going, "love everyone" vibes that have always gone hand-in-hand with Bonnaroo. Such speculation and animosity towards the unknown made for a very interesting turn of events as Bonnaroo hit puberty, made more complete with a Kanye-sized growing pain.
Friday arrived with a comfortable partial overcast shielding the sun. "The weathers' way better than it was [in 2005] when it was like 103 degrees or something crazy like that," claimed Drive-By Truckers front man Patterson Hood, who kicked off the music on Friday. The Truckers' blistering set on the second stage set the pace for a day rich in "rawk". Jack White and the Raconteurs main stage performance was certainly a fan favorite, with White thrashing on his guitar like a man possessed. Roo favorites, My Morning Jacket dominated the late-night roster with a monstrous, four-hour set, complete with horns, freakout jams, surprise collaborators, and even a Kool and the Gang cover for good measure. Of course, the truly wondrous occurrence of the evening [if not the whole festival] was Metallica's headlining set. Amidst the growing fears among regular attendees that Metallica would turn Bonnaroo into a Woodstock '99 Reduxe, expectations were high for something big to happen. What nobody seemed to expect was for the metal icons to be as good as they were, delivering a tasty, career-spanning sampler to a crowd made up partially of Metallica's fan elite and partially of skeptics like me. Frontman James Hetfield made their intentions known clearly very early on in the set, "We support live music and kicking ass live. That's why we're here." By the end of the adrenaline-pumping set, the massive crowd of fans and skeptics alike could not help but welcome Hetfield and company into the Bonnaroo fold with open arms.
 Saturday will go down in infamy as the night when Kanye West played possum during his late-night set for nearly two hours, making fans wait 'til almost sunrise to see him go through the half-assed motions of a cut-short set. The real loss in the coverage of West's antics is the lack of coverage of the superior firepower brought to the Roo on Saturday by the hands of the many old-timers who graced the stage. B.B. King dominated the afternoon with his terrific set, during which king of the blues was handed the keys to the city by Manchester's mayor. Levon Helm of The Band had the kids packed in tight for his show at one of the three tents, rocking through some of that legendary ensembles priceless catalogue. Hearing Helm and his Ramble on the Road Band perform "The Weight" at sunset was a true highlight for the fans in attendance, but it was also apparently a thrill for Levon himself. "We've waited so long to come and play for you," said Helm to a crowd the majority of which wasn't even born when the Last Waltz took place. Pearl Jam, with the help of the emotional tug of Eddie Vedder's wide-open convictions, blasted through a marathon show that mixed rocking fan favorites andobscurities into a narrative, comparable to the legendary Springsteen shows way back when. The late-night line-up spanned numerous genres, highlighted beautifully by Canadian-based dance duo Chromeo, the Dead-heavy set by Phil Lesh and Friends, and the unquestionable gift of rhyme from Lupe Fiasco. The night's emotional peak came from Sigur Ros, the enigmatic quartet from Iceland. Complete with a full string section and marching band, Sigur Ros brought their atmospheric, dreamlike soundscapes to their fullest potential, and it made for a night that this particular attendee will never forget.
Sunday morning came with the last booming echoes from the wreck of a show that Kanye West delayed into the wee hours. Walls along the festival's central grounds were lovingly marked with "Fuck Kanye" and "Kanye Sucks". Comments from Sunday's artists openly echoed the audience's distaste for Mr. West. Sacred steel rocker Robert Randolph brought the crowd to a roar as he let loose on the tardy rapper. As Randolph preached about the "B.S.", the legendary T-Bone Burnett, who joined Randolph for an encore jam, nodded in agreement. King of rock and soul Solomon Burke told the audience flat-out, "I wish I could have been here at 4 in the morning," referring to the time at which Kanye graced Bonnaroo with his presence. "We would've rocked this place. That's my kind of hour."
While Kanye left a bad taste in the mouth of many, overall the festival was a success. Metallica, along with support from great sets from Austin's The Sword and Atlanta's own Mastodon, proved beyond all doubt that even hard rocking metal had a place at Bonnaroo. As more genres gain access to this ever-growing festival circuit, it becomes clear that the potential for American festivals to rival the European gatherings that served as a primary influence is closer than one might think. One is left to wonder where the Southeast's largest festival will take us next. Reports of Robert Plant saying "See you soon," as he made his exit with Alison Krauss leaves many open to speculation the Zeppelin may fly again over Tennessee someday. Of course, such speculations and hopes will be in the back of the minds of every Roo attendee, as the countdown begins for the next trip into the field in Manchester.
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