Bonnaroo

The Paste Summer Festival Preview 2007

June 14-17 Manchester, Tenn.
bonnaroo.com
Selected Acts: The Police, Widespread Panic, The Flaming Lips, Franz Ferdinand, Wilco, The White Stripes, The Hold Steady

Of all the big festivals available for summer consumption, Bonnaroo has arguably the biggest buffet. In an attempt to mirror the cultural significance and popularity of The U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival, Bonnaroo’s founders (some of the biggest music aficionados this side of Pluto) set out to create the best fan experience imaginable. Beside programming a line-up that reads like the ingredients to the world’s most nourishing musical smoothie, art installations that gnaw at tethered minds, and a utopian infrastructure of amenities, the organizers recently capped the number of tickets sold to keep the event easy to navigate for those who made the pilgrimage every year. Addition by subtraction: Yes, the fans are finally running the asylum.

The quaint tourism-board brochure could read, “Once a year, nestled in the fertile fields of South Central Tennessee a stone’s throw from Music City and the Jack Daniels Distillery, Coffee County welcomes the migrating Bonnagroovians, a colorful species of musical zealots who worship an assortment of eclectic idols. 96-hour tours are available and all are welcome (Please bring comfortable shoes).”

Originally known more as a jamband festival, Bonnaroo’s greatest strength is its sonic diversity. While always offering turnstile-friendly headliners such as The Police, Tool and The flaming Lips, the festival’s real treats are found on the Abbot and Costello-sounding side stages of This Tent, That Tent, and The Other Tent, where you’ll be lucky to witness soul upstart Ryan Shaw, psychadelic Apollo Sunshine, string-band balladeers Uncle Earl or even the aptly named Wild Magnolia Mardi Gras Indians. And if your feet need a break, hit the stand-up-comedy tent, the beer garden or even plop down into a bean bag under the film Tent and watch Star Wars—all six of them. There is a reason Southerners are famous for their hospitality, and Bonnaroo is no exception.

Spotlight: Wilco
BLUE SKIES AND GREEN GRASS
The last time Wilco played Bonnaroo, frontman Jeff Tweedy had a complete fan moment with Bob Dylan. “Yeah, it was like, ‘You’re awesome!’ Like the Chris Farley character on SNL. ‘Remember when you were... Bob Dylan? That was awesome. Remember Don't Look Back? That was awesome.’ You know it’s kinda like meeting Jesus, Abraham and Walt Whitman all rolled into one.”

Perhaps the same reverie will befall some newer act when they meet Tweedy backstage, especially since Wilco’s new album, Sky Blue Sky, is chock full of live fodder ready to be unleashed. “It’s the first record for me in all kinds of ways in terms of where I am in my life; I’m much healthier than I have ever been, so this feels like a beginning for me.”

Lyrically the album rumbles like a train car shuffling between the glorious melancholia of suburbia and vibrant metro angst. In “Hate It Here,” domestic chores and longing reign supreme. “I just laugh when I hear that song,” says Tweedy. “I think it’s funny. My wife calls it one of my “liar songs.” ‘You don’t know how to work the washer/dryer, what are you talking about?’”

Like beautiful moments of emotionally unguarded sleep deprivation, Sky Blue Sky’s turns of phrases and simple melodies can wreak havoc on your tear ducts and funny bone simultaneously. “It’s an emotional record, but I feel oddly comforted by it,” says Tweedy. “Just the fact that it exists after the bargain I was willing to make to get healthy, I think I’m just happy that any record of mine exists. It’ll work live because we made the record sitting around in a circle, no headphones, just looking at each other, which is what we literally set out to do—sit down, play some songs and press, ‘record.’ I mean that’s always been good enough.

“Plus, this lineup of the band has, oddly enough, been together longer than any other Wilco lineup and certainly within that amount of time we’ve played way more festivals than we ever had before. Therefore, I think it’s gotten a little bit easier and, speaking for myself, a lot more comfortable. I feel like I can hop on stage and really enjoy it and actually be bemused by the whole spectacle of it. I don’t know if [festivals] would ever be my ideal environment for playing music, listening to music or watching music. But I certainly have grown to enjoy a nice day out in a field somewhere.” Bonnaroo (6/17)

Spotlight: Fountains of Wayne
MEETING PEOPLE IS EASY
New York quartet Fountains of Wayne has released another album saturated with ironic and artful tales of average Janes and Joes trying to navigate this mortal coil. The lyrical wit and grappling-hook melodies of Traffic and Weather co-mingle in the frontal lobe like Pop Rocks and Pepsi, which will translate well to the Bonnagroovian throngs amped up on sunshine and hoping for some air guitar and lighter-held-high, sing-along pop mastery. In fact, just the thought of seeing “’92 Subaru” live should have you dropping some extra butane in the Zippo.

Having played the U.K.’s Reading Festival and Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival, FOW’s stop at Bonnaroo will be among the band’s first of the American biggies, and they’re anxious to unveil the new material on their home soil. Co-founder Adam Schlesinger says, “Weirdly, we all find it less intimidating than sometimes playing to a small-club audience where you can see every face. When it’s a big sea of people, it almost looks like the crowd was added in with special effects. But we’re already working on how the new tracks will work live and thinking up set lists.”

The greatest thing about a live FOW show is perhaps the band’s penchant for timely cover tunes. You never know when you’re going to hear a Billy Joel cover or a few choice cuts off Thriller or Quadrophenia. A complete music geek, Schlesinger is excited just to join the crowds at Bonnaroo.

“One of the best parts of the whole festival thing is getting to see all these amazing and diverse bands and sharing a stage with them,” he says. “I mean, I’m the biggest Police fan in the world, and the fact that we’ll be playing festivals along with them is a thrill. In fact, in the case of Bonnaroo we’re changing our routing so we can get there a day ahead of time just to catch their set. You just get to meet musicians you wouldn’t ordinarily get the chance to meet. I remember getting a chance to meet Joe Strummer backstage at Fuji Rock, I mean what other time are you going to be lounging around in a catering lounge with Joe Strummer? It just doesn’t happen out of the festival context.” Bonnaroo (6/16), Fuji Rock (7/27)