Battles Bring the Space Funk on Bonnaroo's Opening Night

Battles may be one of the stranger acts to play at Bonnaroo, the annual Tennessee festival that has a tradition of hosting jammier bands like Phil Lesh and Friends and Trey Anastasio. But with the lineup more diverse than ever this year — thanks to headliners like Metallica playing alongside acts like Jack Johnson — Battles were a solid choice to perform on the first night of the fest. The New York-based four-piece — fronted by Tyondai Braxton, the son of jazz musician Anthony Braxton — turned out a killer hour long set of tricked-out, prog-rock grooves, which ranged from avant-garde electro-jazz to freaked-out space funk. The clear highlight of the group's set was "Atlas," a fantastic piece of robo-rock that mixes Daft Punk-style electro-grooves with industrial atmospherics. Last year, Battles were a blip on the blog-buzz radar, thanks to their debut disc Mirrored. But based on the crowd's insanely enthusiastic reaction, these dudes have deservedly developed a huge cult following.

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Song Stories

“Tonight's the Night”

The Shirelles | 1960

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."

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