10338

"Let's be clear," said Pusha T. "G.O.O.D. Music makes the hardest records in hip-hop," which could be one of the kindest ways to say that he's only performing one Clipse song in a 60-minute set. That didn’t matter, though, because the Virginia rapper was hard-driving and sweat-soaked, opening with "King Push" ("I don't sing hooks"), […]

In what has to be the first black metal set at Roo (though that "black metal" is in quotation marks), Deafheaven brought a unique level of extreme to the weekend. Live, they're best thought of as four shoegaze/mathrock/art-metal sound-sculptors (yeah, that includes vocalist George Clarke's precise screeches too), all anchored by sinewy drummer Daniel Tracy. […]

Despite only being on the scene for only a year, Disclosure has somehow already attained festival-favorite status, packing the Other Tent before Kanye West even capped off his set with "Blood on the Leaves." "This set is the place to be," Disclosure told the crowd minutes into their midnight set. Armed with one of the […]

Not that you exactly have to prove anything when you're the "Number One motherfucking rock star on the planet" (his words, but we're not arguing it). But after 2008's fiasco — where he hit the stage late (after 4:30 a.m.) and left to "Fuck Kanye" spraypainted on the fences… Well, we'll let the man take it […]

With two songs, Neutral Milk Hotel turned the This Tent into a screening of The Fault in Our Stars. The devastating combo of "Ferris Wheel on Fire" and "Oh Comely" — two poignant, beautiful tunes about destruction and atrocity — had tears pooling in festivalgoers' eyes. For many, it was an emotionally overwhelming moment to see […]

You could sense tension in the air as security streamed into Miller Lite's cozy, cramped New Music on Tap Lounge, bracing for what frantic shred-metallers Animals as Leaders were about to unleash with 20 fingers on 16 strings. However, their set ended up being more like a crunchy, gnashing jazz-fusion record arranged for distortion pedals. […]

The last time Vampire Weekend played Bonnaroo, in 2008, they played a festival-opening Thursday gig at the comfy That Tent. Six years later, the worldy New York rockers have graduated to the main stage and a slot serving as warm-up for Saturday night headliner Jack White. The group was up for the challenge, electrifying the […]

The ArchAndroid singer sure knows how to make a cinematic entrance. After her band took their places to the sounds of "Also Sprach Zarathustra," Monae was wheeled onto the stage Hannibal Lecter-style, wearing a straitjacket. When she was finally freed, she showed her charisma and personality was big enough to fill the main stage, captivating […]

The only place tougher to endure than a hot Bonnaroo Port-a-Potty was the pit at the Danny Brown show. Those kids crowd-surfing to the stage weren't thrill seekers; they were people just looking for an exit out of the suffocating, impenetrable human wall that had formed as the crowd anticipated the rapper's arrival. The pit […]

"This is my first festival in America, I didn't think anyone would show up," Sam Smith told a crowd that was uncomfortably packed with Bonnaroovians, a rarity for any 2 p.m. slot. This concert served as an album release party for Smith: His debut LP In the Lonely Hour finally arrives in the U.S. on […]

Kaskade's late, late Saturday night set was enough to make everyone forget that Daft Punk keeps turning down festival invites: Their dual-level LCD screens, smoke and confetti machines and amazing laser works were every bit the eye candy as the French duo's storied pyramid. At 4 a.m., when the DJ dropped an EDM rendition of […]

The Channel Orange singer packed the Other Tent with thousands of disciples who joined Ocean in singing every single lyric to every single song. The only people who didn't know all the words were those who didn't get the mass text message informing them that Skrillex's Superjam had been moved from the Other Tent to That […]

As tempting to think of this as "the moment that Mickey Hart and Mystikal were on the same stage, briefly," the Skrillex Superjam was really just an all-star salute to the songs that make people lose their minds. The stars got the headlines and they all took turns doing rap (A$AP Ferg handling Biggie's "Juicy") […]

Eager to get their midnight set at the That Tent going, White Denim started 10 minutes before scheduled. They made the most of that extra time as the Austin indie rockers jammed out their usually condensed songs. In the crowd, an exorbitant number of gray hairs filled the air with weed smoke, which makes sense, […]

He's pushing 50, his stage movements are mostly walking around and clapping and his stage banter is "Hello" or "Hey, hey, hey!" Still, the crowd treated Syrian dabke singer Omar Souleyman like a hot superstar DJ. Well, obviously he makes dance music, but his trebly, winding keyboard lines aren't exactly the powerful bass drops coming […]

Basketball fans lined up for hours outside the Cinema Tent to watch Game 4 of the NBA Finals. As the hordes of San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat fans filled the auditorium, the room took on an almost soccer-arena atmosphere as chants of "Let's Go Spurs" and the Heat's interpolation of "Seven Nation Army" were […]

The SNL freshman has some serious stand-up and improv chops. After his hellos, he leapt into a short anecdote: "7.5 hours ago … at that festival … a man's ponytail touched my mouth … So that's what I've been thinking about." 

Just passing by the Silent Disco, you could tell what DJ Logic was spinning by what the raucous crowd would be singing, in unison, into the air — the hooks to "ABC," "Gold Digger," "Rapper's Delight" and "Mo Money Mo Problems." Though he's known for downtempo beats and jazz-scratch excursions, nothing was going to keep […]

If 73-year-old blues funkateer Bobby Rush doesn't get a full Syl Johnson-style renaissance in 2014, someone is dropping the ball. In Take Me to the River, a film where Tennessee and Delta legends explore what narrator Terrance Blanchard calls the "integrated music utopia" of Memphis and pioneers are teamed with contemporary talent, he collaborates with […]

The plainness of the New Jersey indie rockers — their software engineer style with the wire glasses and the polo-and-khakis combo — was popular among thousands of Bonnaroovians, so much so that even our photographer was tricked into believing that the fellows posed here actually were the Atlas crew.

Folk troubadour Cass McCombs provided some much-needed alt-country to the Tennessee crowd, bringout out a lap steel guitar and some intense six-string interplay. McCombs played the type of music we wish Wilco still made, including a beautiful rendition of "County Line."

Before the Allah-Las hit the stage, they had their work cut out for them: The "Hey Ya" sing-along broke out during the pre-set music a somber reminder Bonnaroo is probably the only music festival that the reunited Outkast didn't attend. The Los Angeles rockers quickly overcame this with their brand of psychedelic garage by way […]

This Australia quintet were given the unenviable position of That Stage's Welcome Mat slot — a 3 p.m. Thursday gig when the majority of festivalgoers were still stuck on Highway 24 — but lead singer Isabella Manfredi immediately won the crowd over with her dream pop arrangements. The performance also showed how amped Bonnaroovians were […]

Let's be honest: The Shins, although great in the studio, were notoriously lousy in a live setting. With Broken Bells, James Mercer has redeemed himself. Guided by Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton on bass, Broken Bells perform with a self-confidence and meticulousness that eluded Mercer's other band.

Living in the future is pretty cool.

"I've never played a gig like this in America, it's a dream come true," Damon Albarn told the What Stage crowd during his midday set. Although Albarn is the frontman of two wildly successful bands — Blur and Gorillaz — he'd never performed a U.S. solo show of this magnitude, so he brought a little […]

Ukrainian folkdrone Björkpunk quartet Dakhabrakha went into Bonnaroo as unknowns but ended up with one of the most receptive crowds of the weekend. They got cheers for mournful accordion and apocalyptic cello sawing. Animal noises and bird whistles and howls got the audience to return favor, turning the tent into a happy menagerie. 

Her new reggae-rock arrangements may not please everyone (and the whole 27-minutes late thing never stops being annoying), but when Ms. Lauryn Hill goes into one of the raps from her classic days — like "Lost Ones" or "Final Hour" — she hits them running like Twista, pushing herself to lightning speeds. In the process […]

If you didn't jump on board with Skrillex and Kaskade this weekend, you're gonna find yourself staring back from the wrong side of history, but Jack White's all-analog blues-rock explosion is maybe the best thing going before the robots take over. It was a true testament to human ability — everyone in his band is a power […]

This bluesy singer-songwriter gave the festival its first "passersby stopping in their tracks" moment Thursday when she shared her bouncy, acoustic rendition of Drake's "Hold On, We're Going Home" on an unsuspecting crowd.

Ottawa's A Tribe Called Red are "an all First Nation DJ crew" that "remix traditional pow wow music with contemporary club sounds." Their live show works as the funkiest socio-political experiment around, exploring European relationships with Native American culture … in real time. When they drop the problematic Atlanta Braves "tomahawk chop" into a song, […]

People would lay under it and teamwork would do the rest. Just like gym class without the fear of dodgeball day looming on the horizon.

North Carolina old-time folk historians Carolina Chocolate Drops stopped by the Solar Stage to break down the weighty history behind their songs and talk about breathing new life into old compositions. One of the best ways they do the latter is by playing the bones, the clicking clacking castanet-like wooden sticks that helped power folk […]

Hours before the Flaming Lips performed to tens of thousands of festivalgoers, frontman Wayne Coyne sat down for an interview at the Solar Stage with just a few hundred fans. The topic of the conversation was "Social Change Through Music," so Coyne discussed his work with helping homeless dogs in Oklahoma City and Amnesty International. Coyne […]

If audience reaction is any indication, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson of Broad City are next in line to be Dane Cook-style comedy rock stars. After a flight cancellation grounded them on Saturday, they finally hit the stage on Sunday with a half-baked, nearly half-hour bit about songs to score your life (e.g., Papa Roach […]

The brand new Kalliope Stage wasn't anything fancy — just a large LCD screen, some speakers and a DJ booth — but it was major addition to a festival that keeps improving. Every day during the fest, thousands of soccer fans, a population too big to fit in the still-too-small Cinema Tent, would congregate in […]

Sound-art duo Darkside treated nighthawks to a beautifully doomy set of not-especially-deep bass tones, artificial bursts of synth and ricocheting guitar. House music by the loosest definition (more like "darkwave jazz"), the duo pulsed into the night with serious venetian-blind creep-out vibes while many Rooers were snuggling in their sleeping bags. The mood was enhanced […]

Zedd's blinking, bursting lights looked great from the clear across the festival and looked even better close up. Though he usually makes the kind of house music robot would fight to, it was his gentle hit "Clarity" that provided a peak before his set's final minutes. .

"It's time to get ratchet. Feel free to mosh pit." For his debut Bonnaroo gig, A$AP Ferg pulled out all the elements of a good rock show: Crowd surfing, mosh pitting, stage diving. There was even some Girls Gone Wild-style debacuhery during an interlude where Ferg and his hypeman brought female audience members onstage to […]

We'd potty train 'em but we'd imagine they poop Skittles

Yes, you can purchase a "bacon flight" at Baconland  — that's applewood smoked, hickory smoked, peppered and sugar-cured bacon from five different states. But no one goes ham like the Sparseland collective, who cooked two pigs inside of this flame-shooting steampunk mecha-piggy. "They were torturing us with their bacon this morning," says collective member Scott […]

"OK, real quick. Who's high as a motherfucker right now?" asks Wiz Khalifa's DJ Bonics. "Where my stoners? … We about to get high Bonnaroo." Then Wiz comes out in sandals. "Where my smokers at," he says. "Y'all smoking that good weed out there? … Y'all smokin' with Wiz Khalifa tonight."

The ingredients are simple: warm, cottony dough and glaze so sweet it put Krispy Kreme's to shame. At a festival with big name food trucks, culinary choices spanning from Chinese to Greek to Cajun, and bacon from multiple states, the Amish Baking Company's donuts were the best thing to hit our taste buds all weekend […]

The Sunday night headliner at Bonnaroo is usually greeted with dwindling crowds as festivalgoers rush to beat the traffic. Not Elton John, as it seemed like half of Tennessee packed onto the lawn to watch the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer close out the 2014 Bonnaroo. Even though some of the songs were four […]

Yeah, we were surprised too. With a sense of humor and a backing band more professional than anyone at the fest (not to mention a drummer that could probably dunk on the sticksman for Meshuggah), Richie made soft rock… kind of rock. His set has the tight gags and masterful improv of a good stand-up, […]