Planning a festival of this size is impressive and I don't expect everything to go perfectly. Sound problems, schedule conflicts, and putting bands on stages that anyone should have known would be too small are usually the most irritating issues. But the one big inexcusable problem this year was the Great Bonnaroo Dustbowl. The dry dust gave me major sinus and allergy problems all weekend. It never let up. A look at the Bonnaroo discussion board shows that it kept many people sick a week or more after they got home. Dealing with dust isn't rocket science. After 10 years the organizers should know how not to send thousands of people home with bronchitis.
Now that I've got that out of the way, I can go on about the great day of music I heard Sunday. Friends raved about Railroad Earth and it turns out that my friends have good taste in music. I didn't see that many jam bands considering that Bonnaroo started out as a jam band fest so Railroad Earth filled the bill.
I went to see Mavis Staples on the big stage because I didn't want to pass up a chance to hear a living legend. Her performance was far beyond anything I expected. As she said, her gospel show was the closest thing to church service anyone at Bonnaroo was attending that Sunday.
After singing The Weight she let us know that her backup band was THE BAND. I had no idea they were at Bonnaroo! Then she brought out Patti Griffin and Buddy Miller who were there with Robert Plant's Band of Joy. If she had been the only main stage act that day I would have been happy.
On the Which stage, Amos Lee was very good. I loved Iron & Wine but my girlfriend got bored.
I couldn't miss seeing at least some of the set by Robert Plant and the Band of Joy. It's kind of funny to hear a pillar of British hard rock and metal sing traditional Americana music with a Nashville band.
It was even funnier to hear classic Led Zeppelin riffs done country-style on a pedal steel guitar. I loved it! Band of Joy is a good name. They had one of the most fun, joyful sounding sets this year.
The Strokes lived up to their name. I've wanted to see them for years and I liked what I heard. But they also started 15-20 minutes late and finished 15-20 minutes early. Can't handle playing for more than an hour, guys? I know having a hipster "too cool to care" attitude is part of their schtick but their near-contempt for the audience turned me off. It's Bonnaroo, fellas. Put in a little extra effort before going back to moping about being rich, famous and working a dream job.
Roger Waters seemed to enjoy them from backstage.
Widespread Panic were the visual and musical explosion I expected them to be.
The light show and non-stop jams are something you just have to see. I've never heard a recording that captures anything close to the incredible experience of seeing them live.
And after that I started waiting for next year.