Greetings from Manchester, Tennessee, where the sun is shining and the restaurants are closing way too early. As they’re saying in Centeroo, Thursday is the new Friday: Bonnaroo has gone from a three-day fest with a “pre-night” to a full-on four-night extravaganza, cemented in our minds by seeing the National play to an amped, massive crowd. Maybe it was their delay taking the stage, maybe it was just Alligator‘s slow-burn ignition, but Boxer had early arrivers hanging on our boys’ every note, supporting like true Nationalist zealots. More bands we were psyched to see on night one: Georgian Westerberg-devotees the Whigs, who turned out the TROO tent with their woozy alt.country; a midnight set by virtuoso guitar duo Rodrigo Y Gabriela at That Tent; and Mute Math (’cause we heard there’d be nudity involved, and in TN, skin is in). Take the jump for pics from the Thursday night acts, including a shot from the Silent Disco (people dancing to their own private headphones — think Legion Of Rock Stars for the MDMA set).
For this field trip, Jon Bahr (from ASCAP and the Slip crew) is lending his talents and excellent lenses, so take the jump to enjoy some of his shots of the night, More will be mixed in with Amrit’s shots all weekend. The on-site daily rag Bonnaroo Beacon will be running our best shots too.
So we’re off to hit the fields, fend off sunstroke, and take in some Tortoise and Hot Chip. You can join us from the comfort of your cubicle by streaming sets at AT&T blueroom, where they’ll have Cold War Kids (2:15PM), Brazilian Girls (3:15PM), Kings Of Leon (4:45PM), Paolo Nutini (6:00PM) Gillian Welch (7:15PM), Tom “The Nightwatchman” Morello (8:45PM), Lily Allen (10:00PM), and the most fabulous Roots crew (11:00PM) — all times EST. Have fun with that, and feel free to suggest some sets; we’ll do what we can to please. If you’re down here, look for the sweaty Jew and his sidekick Indian sporting Stereogum tees. Especially if you’re kind. (Also, we’ll probably be looking at Blackberrys).
THE NATIONAL
THE WHIGS
RODRIGO Y GABRIELA
MUTE MATH
SILENT DISCO
A MUSHROOM FOUNTAIN
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snippets of new radiohead at http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace
um…they headlined last year’s fest so, um, it’s kinda related.
WTF is that at Mute Math?
i want people to paste that naked guy into all the other photos and post them, and i want it now
Very confused to the nudity w/ Mute Math. They do not seem like the people to loose their clothes. Esp. planned out. And I’m pretty sure that guy’s not even in Mute Math? Bizarro!
i try not to use this word but FUCK FUCK FUCK att blue room and microsoft. no matter how many times i try all their fucking updates it never fucking works. FUCK.
I’m with you on that one, Tommy. They’re Christian guys (some of them previously played in Christian band Earthsuit) so I’m pretty sure that guy randomly ran onstage like that. Needless to say, I’m pretty sure they were none to happy about it either.
What no love for BLACK ANGELS or LITTLE ONES?? two of the best bands that played thursday night…
I’ve tried to find a way to contact Mute Math and apologize for what happened. I had eaten an unknown amount of LSD and regardless of who/what was playing all the music sounded the same. I do find it funny that my pictures are strewn all over the internet however, but I do realize that it was rude for the people watching as well as the band playing.