What I Missed at Bonnaroo 2009

June 18th, 2009    Posted in Bonnaroo 2009

It may be hard to believe, but there is one bad thing about music festivals: two or more bands you want to see who play at the same time. Making the schedule is obviously a hard task, but maybe not as difficult as picking who you want to see and who you’d have to miss in order to see that band.

Looking back on the festival, and after hearing certain things about certain sets, I really wish I would’ve caught some of these bands, although I’m still very happy with what I did happen to see at Bonnaroo 2009.

Here are some sets I missed:

Al Green
As I was making my way over to the Which Stage where TV on the Radio would be playing, I passed through the field of the What Stage where the legendary Al Green was already on. Because of the size of the field, I was able to catch a couple songs including “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)”, which would later become known as an unofficial Bonnaroo 2009 theme song – if you were there you’d understand what I mean…You could hear this song playing all around the festival grounds, mostly over the speakers before nearly every band took the stage. After seeing Green’s setlist, which included covers of Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles and the Temptations, I wish I would’ve stuck around to see a little bit more. Who knows if I’ll get another chance to see a legend amongst tens of thousands of people.

Erykah Badu

Friday Latenight which included Paul Oakenfold and Girl Talk
After the Phish show I just felt like I couldn’t go any longer, so I backed out and headed back to camp. Dance and techno aren’t exactly my favorite types of music (I”m not much of a dancer anyway), so it’s not like I really missed hearing a couple of DJ’s remix tracks from other artists.

Elvis Costello
Before Bonnaroo even happened, I was assuming that the backing band Costello would be using would be the same lineup who performed on his latest disc, which included the likes of Jerry Douglas and Stuart Duncan. Not so…On Sunday I was talking to the guy camping next to me and was told that Costello was backed yesterday by Jenny Lewis’ band, as well as Allen Toussaint. Meanwhile, as this super jam fronted by Costello was happening on early Saturday evening, I was at the Wilco show. I’ve seen Wilco a couple of times, and they are one of my favorite bands of all-time, but I think I would’ve rather have seen a once in a lifetime chance at Costello’s lineup.

The Decemberists

Rodrigo y Gabriela

Galactic

of Montreal

Jenny Lewis

Femi Kuti and the Positive Force

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

Citizen Cope

Ben Sollee

William Elliott Whitmore

Grizzly Bear

The Low Anthem

Tobacco

Erick Baker