The Patchouli Stays in the Picture

photo: Hal Horowitz/WireImage.com

5:30 p.m.

Beck's lively, eclectic, fun-filled set proved to be a highlight of the festival for a lot of concertgoers, among them Rob Derhak of jam-band veterans moe. "I've never been so blown away by a concert," he told us. "It was just phenomenal. I would love to go onstage with him."

He ripped through favorites like "Devil's Haircut" and "New Pollution" with his band before settling into a solo acoustic set while his band sat down to eat dinner on stage. The mini-set included fan favorite "Debra," Radiohead's "Creep" ("I don't think Radiohead's gonna play this tonight," he quipped), and the Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize." The latter cover -- achingly performed -- is particularly interesting since Beck and the Flaming Lips haven't gotten along too well since the band went on tour as Beck's backing band in 2002 (Lips frontman Wayne Coyne recently told ROLLING STONE: "When you're around him and all his Scientologist bullshit and all the fifty different road managers that have to get him his food and everything, yeah, it gets annoying.")

Things really took off when the band starting playing percussion with their utensils and plates during "Clap Hands," building to a triumphant, funky climax. Throughout the set, puppet replicas of Beck and the band danced around them, sitting on their instruments. Down the stretch, the band played a video of the puppets touring the Bonnaroo grounds. "I smell hippies," the Beck puppet sniffs. Hilarious.

7 p.m.

Fans drift from the Beck show to Cypress Hill, who are playing at the Which Stage, which is mounted with a giant blown-up Buddha for the set. They performed classics like "Illusions," "Hits From the Bong," and 'I Ain't Goin Out like That," which all immediately triggered clouds of smoke to rise from the crowd. "You ready to pump shit up right now?" B Real encouraged from the stage. "Do You Like Smoking Bob Marley-sized spliffs?" Backstage, Damian Marley was laughing too hard to give his assent.

By the end of the set the crowd was tossing joints onto the stage, which the MCs lit up, puffed and tossed back into the crowd. "We're Cypress Hill and we say goodnight like this," B Real told the stoned and fist-pumping audience -- mostly tattooed and shirtless dudes -- as his mike partner Sen Dog kicked off "Rock Superstar" from the front row.

8:30 p.m.

Radiohead took the stage precisely at 8:30, opening with "There There" from Hail to the Thief. After two days of anticipation, the thrill was enormous. But as the band moved on and tried out some new material, including "Body Snatchers," the video screens gave out, leaving 75,000 of 80,000 fans little to look at, and the crowd grew listless. When the screens ultimately did return, about eight songs into the set, they flashed smaller images of band members, cut with an arsenal of graphic and visual effects. Such a program might be appropriate for the five- to six-thousand seat venues the band has been playing -- where everyone can at least sorta see the band, but before 80,000 people, it defeats the screens' central purpose: to show fans what's happening onstage.

Over the course of the set, as the band reached set-list high points like "The Bends," "Mixamatosis" and "Fake Plastic Trees," and underwhelmed crowd seemed to come around. By the time the encore came around, including "Idioteque" and "Karma Police," most in the crowd were back to their early state of ecstasy.

Backstage and on the VIP risers, you couldn't throw a laminate without hitting a famous musician or actor. Reviews were mixed: My Morning Jacket's Jim James said the set was "OK, a little sleepy." Drea DeMateo, deceased Sopranos caster and girlfriend of Shooter Jennings, who played the festival, said it was "fucking terrible -- depressing kill-yourself music." The Kings of Leon, who came to the festival as fans, said it was "amazing."

Midnight

Another tough decision as two great sets launched at the midnight hour. In This Tent, New Orleans reigned, as Dr. John donned full Night Tripper regalia, including a feather headdress, and shared the stage with Ivan Neville. Rebirth Brass Band followed, and Neville and his band, Dumpstaphunk, wrapped it up.

In That Tent, the event billed as "Superjam" featured a reunion of Trey Anastasio and Phish bassist Mike Gordon. Proving his dedication to Bonnaroo, after his Oysterhead set on Friday, Anastasio flew to St. Louis to open for Tom Petty, and then flew back for this late night set where the duo debuted new material, giving fans hope for a Phish reunion. Dead bassist Phil Lesh, who would headline on Sunday, joined for "Casey Jones" and "Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad." "They brought me up for comic relief," Lesh said afterwards. "What a gas it is to play with those guys."

Our man Matis was grooving backstage, back from his obligatory shabbos break.

Sunday

1:25 p.m.

Steve Earle was backstage to check out Nashville punk-rockers Be Your Own Pet's early afternoon set. The Tennessee native was happy to finally be playing Bonnaroo. "I've never fucking been asked until this year," Earle told ROLLING STONE. "It's great that it's gotten this big. Coachella, Austin City Limits and this one -- Somebody finally went to Europe and figured out how a festival worked. I play Roskilde a lot, I play Glastonbury a lot and this is what festivals are supposed to be like."

2:30

New Orleans duo Deadboy and the Elephantmen close out their set with a cover of the Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation."

3:15 p.m.

Mike Skinner, aka the Streets, didn't know exactly how many people were going to show up for his set. Arriving in from Arkansas earlier in the day he told ROLLING STONE, "This is my first American festival, but it already feels like a European one. " Skinner, with fellow MC Leo Inewacho, got the This Tent rowdy not only by intermixing tidbits of current hits like the Arctic Monkeys' "I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor" and the Pussy Cat Dolls' "Don't Cha" into their hip-hop and R&B, but by opening a bar onstage.

Skinner passed out red Solo cups with shots of brandy before jumping off the stage and pouring it straight into the thirsty mouths of the front row.

Skinner's set was eclectic, switching between R&B, hip-hop and tropical on the Caribbean-tinged "When He Wasn't Famous." Beachballs kept getting tossed up onstage. One audience member got too much brandy and managed to get up on stage wearing a fluorescent green inner-tube, but Skinner did what anyone else would have -- gave him another shot of the brandy. Skinner in the end shouldn't have worried. Lots of people came and left drunk.

4 p.m.

"I'm so hungry/You're like water for my soul when it gets thirsty/Without you there's no me /You're the air that I breathe," Hasidic reggae artist Matisyahu chanted before closing out his set. "This is the soundtrack for my life," he exclaimed of the spiritual lyrics in his hit single "King Without a Crown." This year Matisyahu graced the event's second largest stage, a step up from the tent he played last year at his first Bonnaroo -- a performance accredited as his breakthrough. As Matisyahu sang "ei-yo"'s and "oooh-yo"s raindrops teased the crowd. A kora player from world fusion group Toubab Krewe joined Matisyahu, who showed his beat box skills, for an improvisational Bonnaroo be-bop jam. During "Jerusalem" Matisyahu jumped into the crowd and bodysurfed before being rescued by his Hasidic entourage and returned to the stage to lead the crowd into a group pogo-jump. Matisyahu delivered a three-song encore that included Youth tracks "Fire of Heaven/Alter of Earth" and "Indestructible," as well as "Exaltation" off his debut live album Live at Stubb's.

5:15 p.m.

"I see a lot of people that are smiling but don't look wasted!" Atmosphere's Slug announced to the crowd during his early evening set. With DJ/producer Ant spinning the turntables, the MC jumped up on stage with fellow Ryhmesayers labelmate Brother Ali. Halfway through performance, which mixed old tracks with new songs off 2005's You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having, the Minneapolis duo was joined by a five-piece band that helped revive the crowd to its usual self: "I smell a lot of weed." Slug applauded toward the end.

6 p.m.

Sonic Youth's set, the band's second time performing at Bonnaroo, was saturated with new tunes off their recently released fifteenth studio album, Rather Ripped. Opening up with "Incinerate" and "Reena," singers Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore refused to act their age, head-banging through the set to a manic crowd that included some bodysurfing. Gordon shredded the bass wearing heels and sang over Youth's signature shoegazing and psychedelic riffs. Former Phish bassist Mike Gordon watched from side stage.

8:30 p.m.

Phil Lesh and Friends took the honor of closing out the fifth Bonnaroo. Joining the Grateful Dead bassist were Joan Osbourne, guitarist Larry Campbell and John Scofield as well as usual band members drummer John Molo and keyboardist Rob Baracco. The lineup mostly jammed through Dead classics like "Uncle John's Band," "Scarlet Begonias," "Shakedown Street," "Fire on the Mountain" and "Not Fade Away." Osbourne gyrated like a hippie flower child onstage, but delivered strong vocals that never disappointed or made you want to say "stop singing," even when she belted out the cover of Jimi Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower." The band also covered the Rolling Stones classic "Gimme Shelter," before closing with another Dead classic, "Franklin's Tower." Lesh -- who received a liver transplant in 1999 that saved his life -- gave his usual speech about becoming an organ donor before the band's one-song encore, "Box of Rain." "Let's make a date to come back next year," Lesh told the crowd before finishing. And those there all mentally marked the third week of June in 2007 on their calendar.