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Tents To See In Tennessee:
The 2007 Bonnaroo Festival
Saturday’s highlights were scattered. In the Yet Another (Comedy) Tent, Dave Attell openly acknowledged his difficulty connecting with his audience. “I’m an alcoholic in a sea of potheads,” he yelled at the crowd. “Let’s find some common ground!”
Meanwhile, the Hold Steady raced through a batch of songs from their latest album, Boys and Girls in America. The set was received with genuine interest from the newcomer crowd. Craig Finn’s heartland snarl struck a chord with Bonnaroo beer-drinkers, especially during a raucous take on “Stuck Between Stations.”
Disappointing is the best way to describe Spoon’s lackluster onstage perfomance. It was difficult to tell if Britt Daniel was battling technical difficulties or just couldn’t recreate the fuzzy guitar chaos made so effective on 2005’s Gimme Fiction. The good news? Several tracks from their upcoming release Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga were previewed, and if “Don’t Make Me a Target” and “Eddie’s Ragga” are any indication, the Austin-based four-piece may well have a hit on their hands.
In the most anticipated moment of the festival, the Police took the main stage a little after nine o’clock. They were unchallenged by another act, making the prospect of getting anywhere near to the stage an impossibility. Luckily, the Police probably were as underwhelming up close as they were from far away. New arrangements by Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland, along with vocal meanderings from Sting, all but ruined every good Police song. Despite bouts of precision and creativity from Copeland and Summers, the show could not escape Sting’s aging vocal range and horrible stage command.
The Flaming Lips had no problem connecting with an equally large crowd during the early portion of their midnight set. Flying saucers, space bubbles and thousands of lasers distributed throughout the crowd before the show made for a stunning visual experience, but fan interest diminished significantly when Wayne Coyne went into his preaching routine, criticizing the war, its political leaders and everyone who voted for them. What began with the excitement of intergalactic communication dwindled into an extended C-SPAN lecture that made Saturday’s conclusion anticlimactic.
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