Three full years and two false starts since Bonnaroo’s last installment — thanks, COVID and Hurricane Ida — the ’Roo faithful are, at last, set to descend upon the farm this weekend. How it all plays out remains to be seen, but promises to be interesting. This’ll be my fifth trip to Manchester, so while I may not yet be a seasoned vet, I’m no novice either — and can say with confidence that Thursday and Friday are ideal days for discovering new acts in comfortable environs before everything speeds up and gets wild.
The Dip
On Thursday, the main stages (What and Which) have yet to open. The grounds are pristine, lines are short, and everyone is wide-eyed and excited. Neo-soul lovers can beat the heat with party-starting Seattle septet The Dip (4:30 p.m., This Tent), supporting the band’s Dualtone debut Sticking With It. For early-arriving rock types, Nothing (4:30 p.m., That Tent) is essential. Led by the charismatic, outspoken Dominic Palermo, the Philadelphians provide a tuneful spin on grungy, shoegazey ’90s traditions that consistently hits the mark. In 2020, Nothing leveled up with its fourth LP The Great Dismal. Thoughtfully heavy and crazily catchy, it was among that lost year’s finest records of its kind.
Asheville, N.C.’s Indigo de Souza (9:15 p.m., That Tent) made a major impression with her passionate 2021 Saddle Creek album Any Shape You Take — an apt title for the sonically varied, ultra-dynamic 12-song collection. Over in Centeroo, near the craft beer and coffee tents, Garcia Peoples (10:15 p.m., Who Stage) will attempt to lure in passers-by with kaleidoscopic psych-rock heroics inspired by, but not indebted to, the Grateful Dead. Originals from the New Jersey sextet’s latest, the stellar Dodging Dues, promise to electrify.
Sons of Kemet (11 p.m., That Tent) are the main jam of 38-year-old sax guru Shabaka Hutchings — also one-third of 2018 ’Roo alums The Comet Is Coming, and leader of his own ensemble The Ancestors. A meeting of the minds between Hutchings, tuba virtuoso Theon Cross and a pair of drummers, Sons express righteous anger in stirring, powerful fashion on their recordings — 2021’s Black to the Future, on Impulse!, is their latest — but the quartet’s scorching live sets are the stuff of legend.
The who, what, where, when and why of Bonnaroo and CMA Fest 2022
