Whether it's your first Bonnaroo or you’re a music festival veteran, we welcome you to Inforoo.
Here you'll find info about artists, rumors, camping tips, and the infamous Roo Clues. Have a look around then create an account and join in the fun. See you at Bonnaroo!!
Post by Britney's_Fears on Jun 17, 2013 7:56:41 GMT -5
I haven't been to Roo since 2010. I've been 2007, 2008, 2009, & 2010. I decided to sit this year out because of a slightly, not so appealing lineup. In retrospect that was a stupid reason not to attend. (Also I couldn't get time of from work after using all of my leave for other festies)Anyone who says "the lineup sucks" is fooling themselves, there is no way that I wouldn't have had an awesome time this past weekend. I watched webcasts from Friday afternoon until Sunday. Even stayed up untiul 2:00 in the morning to see Conspirator. I was awed by a couple of bands I've never heard of. And some of them just plain sucked, but such is Roo. I wore my Bonnaroo T-Shirts all weekend, and can' wait to hear the stories posted on Inforoo. And next year, I'll see y'all on the farm!
Anyone else who didn't attend but had their head at Bonnaroo all weekend?
Post by Britney's_Fears on Jun 17, 2013 9:24:47 GMT -5
CC, it's interesting that you mention Jim James and The xx as strong undercards. I watched the webcasts of both, the sets were SICK, If I would have been at Roo I would have missed JJ because of Conspirator, and something else was going on during The xx that would have made me miss them. So YAY for webcasts! Conflicts seemed like a huge issue for me too out of the small amount of "can't miss" shows. Some of the acts they booked were downright sh!t, like A$AP Rocky, WTF? some guy with his pants to his knees yelling "What?" "Yeeyah!" while somebody plays some half ass hip hop track behind, maybe it got better after I turned it off. Other shows I thought sucked were Matt & Kim, The Vaccines, Beach House would've been fine if I was on heavy drugs, and A-Trak, who the hell goes to this sh!t?
The best way I can describe what I'm saying is that last year, after the 2012 fest, the most talked-about event wasn't Radiohead, or Skrillybear, or RHCP - it was ?uestlove's Superjam where he brought out D'Angelo and a bunch of insane session musicians. And this year, they just raised those stakes, with the two (allegedly) incredible Superjams. And I really hope this is what they pursue - realize that, based on a number of factors (festival oversaturation, location, etc.) Bonnaroo likely won't ever sell tickets like Coachella or Lollapalooza, certainly not by bending to the whims of the masses who want clanking noises and lazers and a dozen bands with banjos and handclap breakdowns.
While the superjams can sometimes be hit (Gogol-Claypool-Hammett '08, ?uestlove & friends '12) or miss (Dr. John & Dan Auerbach '11), I'd still rather see a unique snoozer than yet another band that sounds just like every other buzz band out there, and which I could theoretically see at another half a dozen festivals. A couple years ago the trend was leaning more towards beardy acoustic folk; now it's all that faux Americana you mentioned. When there are so many fests aggressively trying to appeal to fans of a select few genres, and they're all drawing from a limited pool of touring bands in that genre, which is bad for us and bad for them. Things like the superjam are a big drawcard for me, and are part of what makes Bonnaroo stand out.
AC/Superfly tends to be innovative in some ways and incredibly boring in others. Their electronica choices in particular have been the most questionable. Oh, great, deadmau5 & Skrillex. Tiesto & Paul Oakenfold - acts that are either playing nearly every festival out there, or ones that are incredibly tame choices that peaked 10+ years earlier. Perhaps the best dance party I've seen over four Roos was not at any of the late nights; it was Phantogram into (half of) Mimosa on Thursday night last year. Why can't they get the people who put that together to organize some of the late nights, instead of booking fucking Pedrito Martinez Group? If the festival formerly known as Moogfest taught me one thing, it's that the people behind Roo know how to put on an awesome dance party if they want to; they just choose not to most of the time.
I've mentioned a couple times on this board that what I wished they would do would be to say "f*ck it - let's not worry about selling 85,000 tickets and try to book the "name" acts that we think will move tickets to casual fans, let's just start booking the most musically interesting things we can find and start handing over the reins to these bands." By which I meant, stop thinking that you need a Mumford to headline, and instead give that slot to a smaller but more wildly ambitious band like MMJ or Wilco and just say "here's three hours, get as weird as you want." Trust that these bands which have shown an inclination towards craft and spectacle will put on a captivating show.
I would love this, and i hope they eventually end up moving in that direction. There are only so many headliner-sized acts available to play in any given year that all the lineups start to feel somewhat stale. They mixed it up slightly this year by finally booking a Sunday headliner that's not WSP/Dave Matthews/Phish/The Dead, but I still think they could be more bold in their choices. There are so many interesting bands around the pre-headliner level of fame that would do incredible things if given the bump. Plant & Krauss in '08 is still one of the best shows I've ever seen on the farm, and Widespread afterwards felt so anticlimactic by comparison that I couldn't help but wonder what it'd be like if Roo had just let them headline.
One issue is that Roo keeps trying to simultaneously compete not just with equally large fests like Coachella and Lollapalooza, but also with more jam-centric festivals, too. I know they feel they have to try to cater to that market given the festival's origins, but I feel they're also shooting themselves in the foot with it. Their rivals keep coming in with three nights of popular headliners, and Roo is really only coming into the match with two, plus one of the ever-rotating house bands that will probably have played yet again sometime before the next Olympics. This year was a big step in the right direction, IMO. I wouldn't be surprised if next year is something along the lines of The Stones / Mumford / Neil Young or someone similar (though entirely likely just Widespread).
But the fest can keep making its mark by booking musician's musicians, and giving those acts extended time slots and the freedom to do whatever the f*ck they want. I'd even suggest Bonnaroo limit ticket sales - cut it down to 70K, stop the overcrowding issues, and actually start selling out tickets for real. That won't happen, because more tickets equal more money, but whatever.
One of the things that first drew me to Roo was the difference in set length between it and other festivals - a band that would get 2 hours at Roo might only get 1:15 or so at Coachella or Lolla. That time difference has been steadily dwindling down over the past few years - which is a shame, because it's one of the things that makes Bonnaroo stand out in a very saturated market. The other thing that makes it stand out is the more collaborative atmosphere, and the superjam is perhaps the best example of that. It's part of the whole package that makes it stand out as more of a musician's music festival. I would also really love to see more curated stages, like the David Byrne one in '09.
'08 was one of my favourite years for a number of reasons - and two of the main ones were longer sets and lower attendance. Attendance was only about 70k that year, and I didn't fully appreciate the difference that extra 10k made until I returned in more crowded years. Of course low attendance isn't good for business, but if Roo were to have a 70k cap and a ~$300 ticket instead of 80k and a ~$250 ticket, it would more than make up for the difference. I would happily pay that extra $50 for some extra breathing room, and I'm guessing you and many others on here would as well. The issue is that Roo seems to be aggressively courting the more casual festival-goer, and they know that extra $50 does make a difference to those casual fans.
