Crib Notes

Overheard at Bonnaroo: “Next time I see Ben, I’m going to punch him in the face.” — A disgruntled camper whose tent mate had apparently committed a punch-worthy offense.

Friday at Bonnaroo was glorious! I saw the best set I’ve seen so far! But then it started raining and poop mud emerged from every portable toilet. I saw several bands yesterday — and there were so many I wanted to see that I didn’t catch many full sets — so here are some wee tiny reviews:

Drive-By Truckers: Patterson Hood and Co. started Friday off right — their sound was strong, the crowd was really into it, and the band’s fierceness totally filled the enormous stage they played on.

Jose Gonzalez: His set was super-chill — he sat in a chair onstage, and many in the audience took a similar laid-back, lay-back-on-a-blanket mentality. And luckily for me, he closed with his cover of Massive Attack’s “Teardrop.”

Tegan and Sara: Although their set was plagued by technical issues — like several bands on Friday, actually — the banter between twins Tegan and Sara Quin won the audience over.

The Fiery Furnaces: Part of the beauty of Bonnaroo is that there is a diversity of venues. Huge acts like Pearl Jam and Willie Nelson obviously play huge stages, but several smaller stages offer a more intimate experience. The Fiery Furnaces played one of these smaller stages (after playing a much larger tent earlier in the day), and I thought their sound made an interesting transition in live performance. Live songs sounded rawer than the album versions, but still had a distinct proggy, experimental sound. Here’s the music video for their song “Tropical Iceland.”
Eleaor of the Fiery Furnaces

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By the time I reached the Earl, signs reading “TONIGHT’S SHOW IS SOLD OUT” were plastered all over the front door. This was bad news for my dumb-ass friends who refused to buy tickets before the show. While they stood outside, devising convoluted plots to infiltrate the venue, I slipped inside, ticket in hand.

The crowd seemed pretty atypical for a Fiery Furnaces show. It was all cargo shorts and sandals. I couldn’t figure out whether the place was packed because of the Fiery Furnaces or the hometown heroes, Deerhunter. Deerhunter took the stage looking like a ragtag gang of world-weary high schoolers (the singer later joked about the guitarist being 12). Under blue lights, the band built up a fog of ambient noise before launching into “Cryptograms,” the title track of its last LP.

The sheer volume of the music sent hoards of cargo shorts retreating back to the bar. The scene reminded me of My Bloody Valentine’s practice of weeding out dilettantes by maxing out the PA. Once the dilettantes were weeded out, the Atlanta natives tore through all of the Fluorescent Grey EP and most of their LP, Cryptograms. The band was able to move from ambient tranquility to freak-out attack mode and vice versa with startling fluidity. The bassist laid down thick, bouncy grooves, while the singer looped and layered his vocals, causing them to swell and dissipate in waves.

By the time my friends had snuck in, vocalist Bradford Cox was dedicating a song to an audience member who claimed it was his birthday. He then proceeded to sing “Flourescent Gray” to the birthday boy, while mimicking Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” dance. The Fiery Furnaces may have been headlining, but the show belonged to Deerhunter.

The brother/sister duo of the Fiery Furnaces was accompanied by a guitarist, a drummer, and a percussionist. The extra percussion gave their tunes a funky, jungle-boogie vibe. The set started with a polyrhythmic version of “In My Little Thatched Hut” and continued in the same energetic vein for about an hour. The highlight was a psych-doo-wop version of their sunny pop song, “Here Comes the Summer.” My only complaint was that the band never gave the audience a chance to catch its breath. By the time the band returned for its encore, most of the crowd was gone. Maybe they were there for Deerhunter.

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