All Roads Lead To Manchester
by Jon Wetter
For the second year in a row, I participated in what Rolling Stone magazine designated as one of the 50 moments that changed the history of Rock and Roll, the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Bonnaroo is a four-day music festival held in the middle-of-nowhere town of Manchester, TN, held this year from June 15 to June 18. This year’s head-liners, while controversially more "mainstream" than the past years of hippie jam bands and world music, still had no problem packing the event and the stages. (Each stage gets its own clever name of Which Stage, What Stage, This Tent, That Tent, The Other Tent.)
The three main head liners played on the same stage, with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Friday night), Beck (Saturday afternoon), and Radiohead (Saturday night), each playing wildly different music with radically different shows, only demonstrating the diversity of an event where dreadlocks, flower crowns, and patchouli are the norm.
Tom Petty played a typical Tom Petty show, which barely left me entertained but seemed to have the audience enthralled. The true excitement came from the middle segment of his show, when Stevie Nicks came out and sang "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" and "I Need to Know," by far the most exciting and passionate part of his show.
Beck on the other hand injected his own sense of uniqueness to the event, complete with look-alike puppets who played when the band played, bear costumes, a dinner table and wine glasses being used as instruments and a scrawny robot-dancing 20-something male clad in skinny black tie and button-up tee-shirt. However Beck refused to play his earliest (and sadly most widely-recognized) hit "Loser." Instead he and his band went backstage while their puppet look-alikes strummed along to a recording being played over the speakers. The crowd happily cheered and wiggle-danced their way through the recording until Beck came back on stage with his band to finish out their set.
Radiohead, in their typically minimalist yet poignant style, had a geometric color coordinated light and video show projected behind them as they played from a refreshing array of their greatest songs from The Bends to Hail to the Thief. However, the most exciting moments for Radiohead fans came when they chose to share two songs off of their yet-to-be-released album. This newest album has been kept in secrecy to an extent that has never been seen with any of their previous releases. Both of the new songs had every bit of the neurotic, angry energy Radiohead has come to capitalize on while still having a fresh sound, distinct from any of their previous recordings.
Seeing these three bands together in one concert only gives a hit as to the diverse musical tastes represented at this festival, which once was homage to every Grateful Dead influenced jam band. But as the popularity of the concert grows from where it stood in its inaugural year (2002), so does the array of music to be found. Imagine having to choose whether to go see world famous Euro-DJ Shasha spin until dawn or the German cabaret-inspired Dresden Dolls or the Mardi Gras masquerade parade and ball or any of the numerous smaller stage mini-concerts and interviews happening all at once.
Now this rise in the festival's popularity and increase in the genres of music offered has been somehow said to be harmful to the original intent of the event. With the bringing in of bands as mainstream as Tom Petty, Beck, or Radiohead, many said that the death knell was sounded for what was once a hippie jam band fest, a safe haven for those needing a weekend of music, the outdoors, and possibly, mild recreational drug use. But I spoke to a couple who was actually at Woodstock back in 1969, have been coming to Bonnaroo every year since it started, and who feel that the look and feel of Bonnaroo is the closest to Woodstock they have seen in all their years of attending music festivals. They said the sense of community and freedom, and the euphoric rushes of living in a sort of anarchistic utopia is what truly makes this festival an event worth coming to year after year. They seemed to have no qualms about "mainstream" bands being introduced to the lineup.
Overall, it seemed to change little to nothing about the whole feel of the weekend. If anything, it opened up another group of individuals to an experience they might not have otherwise had. And in another sense, the bands that were introduced to the festival which strayed from the original mission of Bonnaroo, give another dimension to the true meaning and purpose of 80,000 people camping out in the fields of Tennessee to see a weekend's worth of music.
This whole production is, undoubtedly, a throwback to Woodstock, the 60s, and any festival of its kind. However, being held in the decade that it is, Bonnaroo is not without its resonances of 1990s Gen-X irony and self-awareness. With the introduction of 90s classics such as Beck, Radiohead, and Sonic Youth, the connection of 1960s hippiefest and the fashionableness of modern day hipster-chic, this festival begins to take root as a place where two different eras, two different worlds can come together and make for one of Rolling Stone's very well deserved ‘50 moments that changed the history of Rock 'n Roll.’
The state of the nation in the 1960s and today can be compared in numerous ways. Both then and now there was and is a "culture war" going on between social conservatives and social liberals. The citizens of both found themselves stuck in a frustrating, poorly planned, seemingly impossible war. To the citizens of both, the world was becoming an increasingly hostile and confusing place. In 1969, many of these exact worries, frustrations, and ideas were expressed and vented through the legendary weekend freakout that was Woodstock.
Bonnaroo is not Woodstock, but it doesn't have to be. It is our modern response to and escape from age-old problems. Bonnaroo calls upon many Woodstock-like elements, from the sometimes psychedelic performances of artists like neo-folk singer/songwriter Devendra Banhardt or up and coming Indie band My Morning Jacket, to the do-what-you-feel attitude of the whole place.
There is no shortage of swirly interpretive dance, John Lennon look-alikes,
or recycling and compost centers. But Bonnaroo is making its own stamp
on the world as a statement about where we are now, politically, socially,
and musically, and how we are dealing with the events that go on around
us. We do need a way to have freak-outs and peace-ins. Bonnaroo is both
in one. But Bonnaroo also allows for an _expression of self-awareness,
glib ironic humor, and general apathy. With Beck telling us "Soy
un perdedor/Im a loser baby/so why dont you kill me?" and Radiohead
crooning softly "Just cos you feel it/doesn't mean it's there,"
we were consistently reminded that, while peace, love, and happiness
prevail at Bonnaroo, it isn't without its modern twists and commentary.
And, if anyone is going to speak to our modern condition through music,
I am most comfortable with allowing Radiohead do so.
