Bonnaroo 2019 Begins on a High Note With Caroline Rose, Saba and More

Thursday has traditionally been the slowest-paced day at Bonnaroo — the lineup is a little lighter, everyone’s still getting their bearings and the crowd is still filtering in. For 2019, the festival officially sold out on opening day and Great Stage Park was already packed on opening day. The weather was gorgeous, which certainly didn’t hurt. And there was a kaleidoscopic array of music to dive into from the word “go.” 

Once Camp Cream was established, Caroline Rose’s set at That Tent was the first thing on the agenda. Just a few hours earlier, she’d been barking orders like a five-star general, rallying her band outside the convention center. Here, in her all-red-everything stage gear, she led the group with a similar kind of command as they burned through tunes from her power-poppy, New Wave-y second LP Loner (which had been a hard left turn from her minimal, introspective Americana-fied debut album I Will Not Be Afraid). When she came by The Basement East in April, she mentioned she’d be working on new songs soon. She introduced one number as a new song … but it turned out to be Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” arranged for solo kazoo. 

Up next in the same spot was the second run of the Grand Ole Opry broadcast at Bonnaroo. As announcer Bill Cody (and his sidekick for the night, Old Crow Medicine Show's Ketch Secor) reminded us multiple times, the show wouldn't still be going after 93 years if programmers didn't embrace lots of different traditions within country music. And the engaged audience got quite a few of them in the Opry’s traditional bite-size segments. 

Molly Tuttle was up first, playing tunes from her masterful debut LP When You’re Ready. They were a grand showcase for the superb guitar chops that have earned her recognition from the International Bluegrass Music Association and the Americana Music Association as well as the nuanced lyricism she’s been cultivating. 

Morgan Rivers played a rapid-fire medley of his contemporary commercial country tunes, including “Day Drunk,” “Young Again” and “Kiss Somebody.” They may have not been that impressive to folks who aren’t into radio-friendly country, but you’d have to be trying to not be won over by his infectious enthusiasm. He made it a point to spotlight his loop station pedal, which he used to build his own rhythm section on the fly during his performance — nipping in the bud any impression that he was using pre-recorded backing tracks.

Country and Western standard-bearers Riders in the Sky received a massive ovation for their clean-cut, self-effacing cowboy songs. They were followed by Steve Earle and the Dukes, who got just as strong a crowd response for taking the show in an entirely different direction — several directions, really. They led off with the swampy rocker “So You Wannabe an Outlaw,” followed by the poignant ballad “The Mountain,” with violinist-singer-keyboardist Eleanor Whitmore bringing tears with the part sung by Del McCoury on Earle’s album The Mountain. Earle & Co. wrapped it up with Guy Clark’s “New Cut Road,” which appears on GUY, their recent tribute to the late songwriting legend, who Earle referred to onstage as “my teacher.”

Wendy Moten, widely known as a backup singer to a panoply of country stars, took center stage next with a stunning Memphis-style arrangement of “Nails in My Coffin.” “The first artist I knew by name was Patsy Cline, and the second I knew by name was Tammy Wynette,” Moten said, as she introduced a soulful rendition of Wynette’s “Till I Get it Right.” 

Ashley Monroe followed with “Hands on You,” “Hard on a Heart” and “She Wakes Me Up (Rescue Me),” three songs from her outstanding 2018 record Sparrow. One of the only things keeping that album from being on more year-end lists was Interstate Gospel, the album released by Pistol Annies (the trio of Monroe, Miranda Lambert and Angaleena Presley), and it was good to see songs from Sparrow getting the spotlight.

There was much more Opry to see, but it was time to shift gears for All Them Witches over at This Tent. Having primed the crowd with a sing-along to a recording of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” the Nashville-bred heavy-blues heroes took the packed house on one hell of a dazed, confused and cannabis-infused journey into the vortex of groove. Kicking it as a power trio without their usual keyboard accompaniment, they paid equal allegiance to Sabbath’s dark fuzz and the eclectic blues of The Yardbirds, laying down hypnotic, simmering grooves that boiled harder and harder. They played a good chunk of their 2018 LP ATW , and dug deep into the catalog, all the way back to “Charles William” from their 2013 LP Lightning at the Door. 

The sun was down and there was a chill in the air as German-Canadian pop ace bülow took the Who Stage. The Juno-winning singer and songwriter and her two-piece backing band performed the trap-schooled electronic compositions live. The emotionally intense post-Drake-ian songs came across something like Purity Ring produced by Mike WiLL Made-It, and the space, maybe a little bigger than The High Watt, was packed out. It seems that eliminating the tiny OnTap Lounge from Centeroo is a win for bands and audiences — it’s just the right size to feel full even with a smaller crowd, and the stage puts artists up high enough to be seen from the back. All the same, while bülow’s songs drew the audience in, it felt like the energy might have been higher if more folks knew her material going into the show.

Over at That Tent, fresh-faced super-sized band The Nude Party banged out a highly energetic set of ’60s and ’70s-indebted rock ’n’ roll. There were plenty of moments that recalled The Rolling Stones and ? and the Mysterians, though a faithful rendition of the Stones’ “Sweet Virginia” didn’t totally seem to land. However, “Chevrolet Van,” the group’s rollicking ode to devoting their lives to music, got the whole tent getting down.

"Since we arrived here, everyone has been the friendliest fuckin' person on the planet," said The Comet Is Coming keyboardist Danalog to a full but not overflowing This Tent. For a band whose name suggests gloom, the psychedelic jazz trio was extraordinarily energetic. Danalog played bass and harmonies like he was two or maybe three people, while drummer Betamax Killa was as dynamic and agile even when the beat gets heavy. And tenor saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings is one of the best and most interesting players of this generation, moving effortlessly from caustic, explosive riffing to floating gentle melodies like smoke rings. If only all jazz got people to move this much, and if all dance music was this creative and interesting.

Chicago MC Saba’s stellar 2018 LP CARE FOR ME covers heavy topics. It was inspired by the death of his cousin during an altercation on a train, and its songs offer close looks at intense pain. But his focus is on not letting that pain overwhelm him, and his 1 a.m. set at That Tent was a blowout party, a celebration of being thrilled to be alive. Aided by DJ Dan Dan, he kept the crowd moving with an energy reminiscent of Bonnaroo frequent flyer Chance the Rapper (who Saba has worked with — he appeared on Chance’s “Angels”). 

Despite a rocky start due to technical difficulties, the bass-worshipping trifecta of EDM faves Space Jesus, Eprom and Shlump took the stage at The Other to a massive crowd getting deep into the futuristic madness of the weekend. The three producers started with a minimal combo of bombastic beats and squelching, morphing bass while the massive LED screens that flank the stage were alive with tripped-out, face-melting visuals. The three took turns on the decks to put their own spin on the party. With all that bone-rattling low end, blinding light and late-night body shaking, it was tough to tell who was playing what. It didn’t really matter: The aforementioned bass would build into an apocalyptic crescendo, which the three DJs occasionally cut with some hip-hop-inspired beats. This crowd came thirsty for bass, and at set’s end around 3 a.m., some of them were still headed over to Kalliope for the dance party that kept bumping until sunrise.

See our first and second slideshows from Thursday for more photos.