Finally have  a bit more time, so I’ll give a run down of all the bands I went to see.

Thursday:

We first arrived on Thursday around 12pm. Shows started later in the evening, around 8pm or so. There were not many shows this day, but we hit up MGMT, Battles, and Vampire Weekend. MGMT and Battles were both pretty out of control; I really loved the lighting for both of the shows. Vampire Weekend was also really great; the singer was a lot of fun, and made the crowd really pumped about the rest of the weekend.

Friday:

Umphrey’s McGee was this awesome band that combined Jazz and Prog-Rock; they were a lot of fun to just chill on the grass and bob your head to. Definitely a band I’m buying more music of. Stephen Marley (as you can probably guess from the name) gave a performance that was just like Bob Marley; he both looked and sounded like him. Next up was The Swell Season. For those of you who have seen the movie Once, it’s the band from that. They were really great live, although towards the end I got a little bored because all their songs seemed to have a very similar sound. We saw State Radio on a smaller and somewhat intimate stage, and they were really great.

Now for the show I was super excited about today: M.I.A. “I fly like paper, get high like planes” (M.I.A. in Paper Planes). I have never heard anything like her before. She had a great stage presence, and the crowd went nuts when she played songs from her second album. She finished the set with Paper Planes, and some people even threw planes at the stage! After M.I.A. we listed to some of Chris Rock, who was making a joke about how fat girls can diss skinny girls, but skinny girls can’t diss fat girls. It was alright. Up next was Metallica. Yes, Metallica was at Bonnaroo. This seemed to confuse everyone, and it showed as the crowd just wasn’t really into their concert until they played Sandman at the very end. Ending the night we saw My Morning Jacket, who were a lot of fun, even though we left early due to rain. Every time they hit an awesome guitar riff, someone would throw fifty or so glow sticks up in the air, and it looked really neat.

Saturday:

We started Saturday off with Soul Rebels Brass Band. It was early in the day and the crowd was small, so we were right up near the front of the stage. These guys rocked. It was a nice, intimate setting, so all of the crowd was really into it. They really got everyone dancing by the end of the show, and it was a lot of fun. We chilled in the shade for part of Gogol Bordello; I liked the “gypsy-punk” thing they had going on. Up next was B.B. King, who made a lot of jokes about how old he was (82) and got a little over-sentimental on stage. Still, his performance was solid.

In the evening, Jack Johnson was the first one up. I am not really a big fan of Jack Johnson, honestly, but he brought out Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam which was kinda cool. Then came Pearl Jam who played for an extra hour over their allotted one and a half. They were really great, although Eddie Vedder was so bombed out of his mind he could hardly form sentences when he spoke to us.

Finally, ending the night was Kanye West. You may have heard about this controversy. Because Pearl Jam ran late, Kanye’s crew didn’t get the stage set up until 3:30am, but despite this fact the show didn’t start until 4:25am. By this time, Kanye’s Glow in the Dark tour didn’t seem like it was working out so hot. The show itself was great, even despite the lighting; there were craters on stage, and a hot female robot narrated you through the show. The show ended at 5:25, 2/3rds of how long it should have been, which was lame. Even though it was late and short, I still really liked the show. It was probably the best put together performance I’ve seen, so I still give him credit.

Sunday:

The last day at Bonnaroo (sad :( ) began with Rogue Wave. They seemed pretty fun, but I was tired and wound up taking a nap under a tree for most of their set. Up next was the Yonder Mountain String Band, who are absolutely awesome! The crowd was going nuts, and they even covered Crazy Train. Come on! After Yonder Mountain we caught the end of Solomon Burke, who at that point had 50 women on stage. He gave them all roses and sang “What a Wonderful World.” Despite being too old to stand through the whole show, this guy sure sounded great.

After Solomon Burke, we caught a bit of O.A.R. I’ve always sort of liked them but don’t know them that well, and they seemed pretty good live. On the way out of Bonnaroo, we heard a bit of Robert Plant, who was in a duet with Alison Krauss. He sounded great, but most of us weren’t a fan of his slower covers of Led Zeppelin songs.

And that’s about it! Overall, Bonnaroo was a total blast. If you want to hear more about anything in particular, feel free to talk to me :)