The Spin headed down to Manchester this year expecting something a bit different from our typical Bonnaroo experience. This is the festival’s 17th running, and happenings are spread out all over the farm, with organizers touting a focus on “experiences” for festivalgoers. We got to sample a bit of the extracurricular activities on Thursday, but we saw plenty of music too, catching up with a bunch of locals and making a few discoveries while we were at it.
Tent stakes secured and sunscreen slathered on, we started our ’Roo at This Tent, where Nashville’s own Blank Range greeted a sizable crowd — decked out in glitter and tie dye and a few already looking pinwheel-eyed — with rocking country-Western tunes from their LP Marooned With the Treasure. About 30 minutes into the set, a parade of volunteers emerged from backstage and threw heaps of inflatable pool toys into the audience. “Hoo boy,” we thought, “are we in for a lot of cruise-ship business this weekend?” But then, as the group dipped into a pitch-perfect cover of The Band’s “Ophelia,” we saw a gangly skater kid go surfing across the crowd on a blow-up sea turtle, and we felt right at home.
Ron Gallo
We continued the local theme across the field at That Tent, where Ron Gallo and his band (augmented by Alex Collier on keys) were deep into the self-deprecating performance-art portion of their show. They played the title cut from their EP Really Nice Guys, whiffing solos and botching cues and generally being as awkward as possible. (Gallo also wore big over-the-ear headphones.) It was a ballsy thing to throw at a festival crowd who might not be in on the joke, but the band showed that they know how to do a set that questions the idea of a rock show while also playing a kickass rock show. They maneuvered quickly into thrashing songs that got the sun-baked crowd bouncing along, and wrapped with “Young Lady, You’re Scaring Me,” featuring a guest appearance by a young woman from the audience whom Gallo pulled up to shred on his guitar, which she totally nailed.
The Brummies
Meanwhile, also-locals The Brummies were making a rich racket at the OnTap Lounge. Cuts from their new LP Eternal Reach draw substantially from a heap of British pop wizards of the ’70s — think ELO, Badfinger and 10cc. They filled out their crisp sound with outstanding harmony vocals, which lent extra dimensions to the motorik rave-up “Do It Tomorrow” that they ended on.
With the sun finally down, we meandered around Centeroo and were lured into the Who Stage by the soulful sound of Victory’s final song. The quartet brought some stellar funk, and promised a return trip to Nashville soon, which we’re eagerly awaiting.
Over the top of the hill at The Other, we had a Clozee encounter of … whichever kind it is that involves the French dance producer performing in front of projections of dramatic thunderstorms and warp-speed space travel while the light rig strobes Morse code signals through a bank of fog. A new feature we noticed amid the sea of swirling bodies: The speakers at the back of the field point inward toward the crowd. We couldn’t quite tell if it was a separate surround-sound feed or just the same sound coming from the front speakers on a slight delay at the back, but it made us the good kind of dizzy.
It didn't take long to realize we were in the wrong place when we mistakenly ended up at This Tent. We couldn't run away fast enough from Australian band Chase Atlantic’s seriously grim, feel-bad AOR mall emo, and breathed a sigh of relief when we got where we needed to be — which was at That Tent for Louisiana native Durand Jones and his Bloomington, Ind.-based ensemble The Indications. They deal in the kind of pleasant, timeless soul tunes that younger festivalgoers and those old enough to be their parents can both love. Their Motown-inspired style is pretty meat-and-potatoes, but Jones is a natural frontman and entertainer, filling the stage and the soundscape with his voice and presence, putting his body into his songs as he belted them out. He serenaded us as we left with a sped-up, set-capping cover of Curtis Mayfield's 1970 psych-soul classic “(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go” — a nod, perhaps, to the Superfly reboot hitting theaters today.
Jade Bird
We made it to the Who Stage just in time for the ’Roo debut of Jade Bird. The 20-year-old English songsmith played solo, digging in hard on her incisive and anthemic tunes, many of which the appreciative audience seemed to know word for word. She sat down at the keyboard for a cover of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” and an original called “If I Die” that show her commanding ability to convey powerful, dramatic emotions quietly and with nuance.
R.LUM.R
Then, back at That Tent, R.LUM.R wowed a packed house with his nimble R&B-schooled pop. It was a treat to watch him turn the original version of “Close Enough” into what he called the “Grown ’n’ Sexy version,” which included a wicked jazzy solo that he sang along with in his impeccable falsetto. He also took time out to thank the sign language interpreters at the side of the stage and to deliver an inspirational message. “Ten years ago, I was out there,” he said, “watching Adele on this exact stage. Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do whatever the fuck that you wanna do.”
As far as rock is concerned, our best find of the night wasn't even listed on the schedule. We were stoked we made it out early for Nashville-by-way-of-Bowling-Green rockers Cage the Elephant’s surprise pop-up show in Plaza 9 of general camping (that’s the one called Happy Roo Day! and curated by Cage frontman Matt Shultz), because that meant witnessing Dan Luke and the Raid’s brilliant, blistering, unannounced opening set. Fronted by Daniel Shultz, younger brother to Matt and Cage rhythm guitarist Brad Shultz, the band may not look like it features any members a day over 21, but they have their shit down. On one song, aptly titled “Golden Age,” they switched deftly from a confident, comfortable, midtempo gait to a gritty, soulful slow dance (think Screamin' Jay Hawkins' “I Put a Spell on You”), then a wide-eyed prog-psych section, then back and forth several times over, twisting these seemingly disparate parts into a remarkably fluid whole. On “Exoskeleton,” another set highlight, trebly At the Drive-In-style post-hardcore noodling collided with surf-rock riffs and ’verbed-out vocals à la garage-punk god John Dwyer's Thee Oh Sees. Seriously impressive stuff. The foursome is currently working on its debut full-length at East Nashville's Battle Tapes — good news for us, as it means we'll hopefully get to catch them again sooner than later.
As for the headliners of this not-so-secret show — with its college-house-show vibe and Nashville’s own Spice J on the turntables between sets — Cage's populist, ’70s-via-’90s sound is generally a well-known commodity. Save for the occasional one-off at The Basement East, though, the boys from Bowling Green aren't playing gigs of this size much nowadays, which meant a line stretched into the neighboring campground long before anything even got underway. Chants of “Let us in!” echoed from the teeming masses outside the barrier. The frazzled security staff deemed the room filled to capacity, unfortunately before our photographer could make the scene — not that that stopped a few fleet-footed die-hards from hopping over and darting into the pit. “Thanks to Bonnaroo,” the ever-charismatic Matt Shultz said with a laugh, following “Cold Cold Cold,” a set standout. “I'm still trying to figure out how they trusted me enough to let me throw a party, but here we are.” Kentucky's already repping hard, and we still have Sturgill Simpson and his hotly tipped protege Tyler Childers to look forward to on Friday.
Elohim
Back at This Tent, we caught our third wind for Elohim’s psychedelic roller coaster of positivity. As when we saw her at Exit/In in March, the singer-producer came in wearing a trenchcoat and Yoko Ono shades, with her hair across her face and her between-song banter handled by computer voice processor — all of which shifts the focus away from her and onto her expansive, uplifting R&B- and hip-hop-inspired pop. Her song “Love Is Alive” serves as her thesis statement, and we took it in two ways: Love is present, and it’s also a living, evolving thing. It was an affirming explosion of posi vibes, and it felt like a good place to call it a night. Or at least to try and get some shuteye to the four-on-the-floor beat radiating through the ground from the Kalliope dance stage.
See our first and second slideshows for more photos.
In The Spin — the Scene's live review column — staffers and freelance contributors review concerts under a collective byline.
