Nobody ever has a more bizarre experience at the Bonnaroo Festival than the Smoking Section. In just three days on site — the 700 acre, steaming-hot cow pasture in Tennessee — we hung out with Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy in the backstage batting cages, sat down with Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, ripped a couple Js with the Kings of Leon, ate paella prepared by world-music superstar Manu Chao, caught insane sets by the Police and Tool, and kissed the gospel-soul legend Mavis Staples (on the lips)!
It was the Smoking Section’s fifth trip to the ‘Roo in the festival’s six-year history, and, we must admit, it’s been crazy to watch Bonnaroo transform itself from a straight hippie-fest into America’s deepest and most diverse outdoor music events.
Within an hour of arriving on site, we found ourselves in the company of greatness, sitting on a couch backstage next to John Paul Jones. JPJ — it’s cool to call him that, he assured us — had just stepped offstage after playing mandolin with Uncle Earl, an all-lady bluegrass team from Nashville, whose album, Waterloo, Tennessee, he had recently produced. JPJ was sweating profusely, and while the Uncle Earl girls hung around him — including the young bassist Mary Lucy, who didn’t even know what instrument he played in Zep — JPJ told us about that night’s SuperJam, in which he’d play alongside Ben Harper and Roots drummer ?uestlove. “I can’t wait,” Jones said, adding that, at that point, he had yet to hash out a set with his new bandmates. “In fact, I’ve never even met them.”
On the other side of the festival, in the artists’ area, we caught up with Ben Harper, who, unlike JPJ, was nervous about what to play at the SuperJam. We assured him that if he ripped out some Zeppelin riffs, the band would surely follow. “I’d love to do ‘Good Times, Bad Times’ and ‘When the Levee Breaks,’” Harper said. Hours later, at the late-night set, his dreams became a reality. For good measure the trio also jammed on “Dazed and Confused” and “Immigrant Song.” Look out for that bootleg. “It was a jolly good time,” JPJ said in the van, on the way back to the artists’ compound after the show. “I should like to do that again.”
The five main performance areas (two big stages, three tents) at Bonnaroo were buzzing all weekend. And the crowd of 80,000 was as bizarre as ever. Scores of tie-dyed hippies danced around, hula-hooped, and a few even bathed under an enormous, mushroom shaped shower. Skinny hipsters sought out sets by the White Stripes and Regina Spektor. Bare-breasted babes on stilts cruised the dusty site, and out in the sprawling campground — which were divided into little hamlets, such as Camp Chewbacca — folks bought and sold drugs on Shakedown Street.
The Cold War Kids gained hundreds of new fans during their sweaty, high-energy set at That Tent, while Feist dazzled with cuts from The Reminder at This Tent. Wolfmother debuted their newest cut, “Pleased To Meet You,” on Which Stage and Kings of Leon played in front of 35,000 — and busted out their new single “Fans” — on the What Stage. Ween — who were welcomed into the jam band scene after Phish began covering their song “Roses Are Free” — performed for more than two hours, bustin’ out classics like “Spinal Meningitis,” “Bananas and Blow” and “Baby Bitch.” Seeing Ween again reminded us of the inaugural Bonnaroo, when guitarist Gene Ween taught us hotel golf: Find the longest hallway in a hotel; place a plastic cup on one end of it; whack the ball down the hallway into the cup. (Of course, heavy drinking, lots of Marlboros and gambling were also involved.)
This year, we also learned a lesson from Lily Allen: That it’s possible to pop a Xanax, drink a half-bottle of Jagermeister and still deliver a killer set. The cheeky Brit sang her heart out, and when the S.S. caught up with Lily after her set, she was suffering from the drunken munchies, victimizing a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos.
Beyond the SuperJam — which was quite super — we were blown away by Gogol Bordello, the Gypsy-punk freaks from New York City. Jeff Tweedy took some cuts in the batting cages, but the Chicago native wouldn’t cop to the S.S. whether he favored the Cubs or the Sox, though he wore a Sox helmet). Later, Tweedy joined Wilco for a memorable set on the main stage, offering new gems like “Impossible Germany,” “Sky Blue Sky” and “Side With the Seeds” and older faves like “Jesus, Etc” — as well as a revamped, psychedelic-plus version of “Spiders”. But the killer set of the weekend was Mavis Staples, slaying the crowd at the Other Tent with versions of “For What It’s Worth,” “Respect Yourself” and “I’ll Take You There.” Her new album, We’ll Never Turn Back, is a catalogue of tunes that the Staples Singers once performed at freedom rallies alongside Martin Luther King, Jr, and cuts like “Eyes on the Prize” deeply resonated with the crowd at Bonnaroo. Staples was in such a playful mood that, later in the day, she joined The Decemberists onstage for a rousing rendition of “The Weight,” and planted a kiss on one of her biggest fans, Yours Smokingly.
[Photo: Gentner/Getty]
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- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
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