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Post by coastalconrad on Feb 13, 2012 23:00:16 GMT -5
Best: Neil Young & Crazy Horse 03 Sound Tribe 03 ABB 03 Widespread Panic 03 (not really, but they're my fav band of all time) Umphreys 04 String Cheese 04 Dave & Friends 04 Trey 04 (minus that terrible first set of classical music) Robert Randolph 04 Jazz Mandolin Project 04 moe 04 Futurebirds 11 Band of Heathens 11 My Morning Jacket 11 Panic 11 Grace Potter 11 Warren Haynes Band 11 DR JOHN AND THE ORGINIAL METERS 11 John Bell solo 11 Bruce Hornsby 11
Worst: Jason Mraz 03 Keller Williams 03 Bassnectar 11 Buffalo Springfield (due ONLY to the sound levels) Mumford and Sons (due ONLY to the sheer size of the crowd in relation to the larger stage that had Wiz Kaliwhateverthefucka)
Best 2007: Tool, The Black Keys, Superjam, Xavier Rudd Worst 2007: The Nightwatchmen (only caught a song and half, but it was pretty lackluster), Hot Tuna (Knew that members were a part of Jefferson Airplane, but the set was pretty forgettable)
Best 2008: Nomo, My Morning Jacket, The Wood Brothers w/ John Medeski and Kenny Wolleson, B.B. King, Sigur Ros Worst: MGMT (I seriously remember little from the show, not that my mind wasn't there, but I think this is the only show I've ever talked through the entire time, I was so not into it.)
Best 2009: Portugal. The Man, King Sunny Ade, David Byrne, Femi Kuti, The Mars Volta, Dillinger Escape Plan Worst 2009: Robert Earl Keen (Wasn't much I wanted to see during this time and decided to go to get a good spot for Merle Haggard, and it was a bit boring.)
Best 2010: Baroness, The Punch Brothers, The National, The Black Keys, Galactic, Isis, The Melvins, Stevie Wonder, John Fogerty, Medeski, Martin and Wood. Worst: None. To be honest, the quality of sets I saw over that weekend had to be best out of the five years I've gone, which is funny because a lot of people ragged on the line-up.
Best 2011: Corey Chisel and The Wandering Sons, The Walkmen, Deerhunter, My Morning Jacket, Arcade Fire, The Black Angels, Buffalo Springfield, !!!, Dr. John and The Meters Worst 2011: Pretty Lights (Not so much the music, but his banter was pretty off the wall and stupid. I think we was E'd out or something.)
Just out of curiosity, how many of you were actually at the Kanye set in 08 and saw him perform? I know a lot of people are listing it as one of their worst (for obvious reasons), but when I finally gave up waiting and left to get some sleep (about 4am, I think) there weren't that many people still standing there. Even at 3:15 when I left the also barren cinema tent after Christmas on Mars to see what I thought would be the tail-end of the Kanye show, the What stage was like a ghost town and I was able to walk right up front to see the non-event.
I'm just wondering how it was whenever he finally went on and how many people were still there.
If laying on the ground about 100 yards from the front of the stage, watching 2 people dressed as a vagina and penis dance around while asking myself "why am I still here?" counts, then yes I was there.
BEST (This is in chronological order after the first one, which, if you were there, I'm sure you will agree was the best set ever performed down on the farm):
MY MORNING JACKET - 2008 (The greatest concert I will probably ever go to. It was 4 hours, in the middle of the night, in a torrential rainstorm, that somehow was in sync with the intensity of the music. I don't want to get lost in hyperbole, but this was as close to a religious experience as I'll ever come)
My Morning Jacket - 2006 Radiohead - 2006 Phil Lesh & Friends - 2006 Rodrigo Y Gabreila - 2007 The Black Keys - 2007 The Flaming Lips - 2007 The Felice Brothers - 2008 Levon Helm - 2008 Broken Social Scene - 2008 Wilco - 2009 Girl Talk - 2009 Yeasayer - 2009 Deerhunter - 2011 My Morning Jacket - 2011 The Black Angels - 2011 Mavis Staples - 2011
WORST:
Kings of Leon - 2007 (Played the main stage when their skills weren't quite up to par just yet. Kind of funny that as this band actually became more talented musicians, the music they made diminished in quality)
The Police - 2007 (I'm pretty sure Sting actually thought Bonnaroo was a city in Tennessee and not a music festival. He kept referring to us as "Bonnaroo, Tennessee". It was embarrassing)
Wolfmother - 2007 (Stale riffs, stale show..... the exact same set list, note for note, that I saw them play over a year before)
KANYE WEST - 2008 (This is one incidence where you can believe the hype, it was as bad as you've heard. Worst show I have ever experienced, not only on the farm, but in general)
Animal Collective - 2009 (This is more due to the fact that it was in the middle of the day, at the worst stage for sound that Bonnaroo has)
MGMT - 2009 (They didn't play a particularly bad set, they just got way overshadowed by Yeasayer who played right before them, plus the crowd way too overpacked, consisting mainly of a bunch of jocks and hangers on that had only just recently discovered them because of 'Electric Feel'. Their set in 2008 was so much better in every way)
Best Coast - 2011 (Much like Kings of Leon, they just didn't have the talent to command such a big stage. I saw them a few months previous to this in a club setting and it was a much stronger show)
The Black Keys 2011 (I can't believe how much their show has diminished in quality over the years. They absolutely blew me away at Bonnaroo in 2007, and having seen them five times since then, I can confidently say they've lost the intensity that they used to play with. They're almost just going through the motions now)
Post by Guiitar Man on Feb 14, 2012 1:09:52 GMT -5
Favorites (in no particular order) 2008 - 2011: Pearl Jam '08 Conan O'Brien Kenye West* '08 Chris Rock -> Metallica '08 MMJ '08 Tenacious D '10 Bruce Springsteen '09 NIN '10 The Black Keys '10 Childish Gambino '11 Primus + Mission Icefly Gogol Bordello '11 > '08 Superjam '08 Broken Social Scene '08
Most Disappointing: Snoop Dogg '10 She & Him '10 Yeah Yeah Yeahs '09 Eminem '11 Superjam '11
*I left my friends at Kenye for Ghostland Observatory...BEST.DECISION.EVER.
BEST (This is in chronological order after the first one, which, if you were there, I'm sure you will agree was the best set ever performed down on the farm):
MY MORNING JACKET - 2008 (The greatest concert I will probably ever go to. It was 4 hours, in the middle of the night, in a torrential rainstorm, that somehow was in sync with the intensity of the music. I don't want to get lost in hyperbole, but this was as close to a religious experience as I'll ever come)
Agree 100%! I wanted to try to describe it myself, but I think you worded it perfectly.
Best Phish (Sunday) Pearl jam Portugal the man 09 Rodrigo y Gabriella 09 LCD soundsystem Jay-z Flaming lips 10 Mars Volta 09 Stevie wonder Sword 08 (my first bonnaroo show) Portugal the man 09 (sonic stage) My morning jacket 11 (I'm a retard and went to tiesto in 08)
Worst Eminem Arcade fire (probably will get shit for this one but was not into it) Kings of Leon 10 Superjam 11 (mostly because they were so late and I missed explosions in the sky) Girl talk 11 (my friends made me go, and i missed most of string cheese)
Best: Radiohead 2006 (possibly the best show I've ever seen) MMJ 2006 Tom Petty 2006 (so sue me. Loved it) The Roots 2007 Tea Leaf Green 2007 Flaming Lips 2007 (before their live show became borderline unwatchable) MMJ 2008 (most memorable experience, in the rain, with Kirk Hammett..) Chris Rock 2008 (I always forget how amazing this was) Sigur Ros 2008 Broken Social Scene 2008 (what a fucking show!) NiN 2009 Phish 2009 w/ Springsteen Wilco 2009 (on the rail) Scissor Sisters/SCI/Girl Talk/STS9 2011 (easily the best 12am-7am I've had at Roo)
Worst: Buffalo Springfield 2011 (entirely due to sound) The Strokes 2011 (I love the Strokes, but they completely mailed this one in) Beirut (Like their music but they just aren't polished enough yet. Lots of mistakes and didn't sound great. Saw them a few weeks later and it was better) Black Keys 2011 (they're not bad but definitely not headliners... music is too samey. Was bored.) Animal Collective 2009 (seen them three times, don't get it) Beastie Boys 2009 (not the worst set but a huge let down) Kanye West 2008 (ugh... the sun was coming up and it was just the worst) Franz Ferdinand 2007 (legitimately awful)
Post by stallion pt. 2 on Feb 14, 2012 4:00:58 GMT -5
Limiting myself to 2 best and 1 worst from each year:
Best 2002 Ween (The reason I came to some farm in TN and it was worth it) Les Claypool Flying Frog Brigade (1st Bonaroo show I saw, first time seeing Les play and still my favorite non-Primus Les show)
2003 Neil Young and Crazy Horse The Flaming Lips
2004 Ween (I've seen Ween 20 times and this ones in my rotating top 3)-->last half of Primus (delayed by rain)=maybe my Best Bonnaroo latenight to date Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra-Sunday Morning Which Stage (missed their latenight set for the one above. a great way to start Sunday after staying up all night)
2005 Galactic Krewe de Carnival The Word
2006 Beck---->Radiohead--->Dr. John the Nightripper Buddy Guy
2007 Manu Chao-->Tool-->JPJ Superjam Ornette Coleman--->The White Stripes
2008 Pearl Jam Zappa Plays Zappa
2009 Beastie Boys Nine Inch Nails
2010 The Dead Weather Stevie Wonder-->Jay-Z
2011 Chris Harford and the Band of Changes--->Karen Elson Black Keys-->Buffalo Springfield
Worst: 2002: String Cheese Incident 2003: Widespread Panic 2004: Steve Winwood 2005: Widespread Panic 2006: Phil Lesh & Friends 2007: The Police 2008: Kanye 2009: Phish 2010: Margaret Cho and the dude with he with the wigs (*Worst show I've ever seen @ Roo) 2011: Eminem
John: We don't even understand our own music Spider: It doesn't, does it matter whether we understand it? At least it'll give us . . . strength John: I know but maybe we could get into it more if we understood it
I don't know why everyone is putting weezer '10 as worst? Although I did only catch the last 5 or 6 songs of their set, they were playing all classics and had a huge crowd and had everyone singing. They were one of my all time favorite sets at roo last year. Do you guys just not like weezer?
pinkerton, etc
my theory is that rivers is just trolling everyone. songs from the black hole will come out next year or something and everyone will love weezer again
best (sorry i'm not looking up what year they were): phish dave and friends wilco reggie watts ween zappa plays zappa fiery furnaces battles trey band ghostland observatory the dead gwar hall and chromeo mmj david byrne ani difranco pearl jam nin
worst: bob dylan mgmt's late night set kanye (i did stay up for it) kings of leon grace potter