Bonnaroo 2006 Awards
Highlights from the parts of Bonnaroo 2006 that I made it to.
- Best activity
- There was a chunk of metal shaped somewhat like a flipped canoe with poles and plates randomly jutting out of it. Wooden sticks, for hitting this percussion sculpture, were on the ground. I was lucky to get to it on Thursday afternoon, since it started breaking by Thursday night, and was closed off by Saturday night.
- Worst activity
- Dealing with Greyhound. Yes, this beats shitting in a porta-potty under the Tennessee sun.
- Best gimmick
- During the Beck show, a small puppet stage was on the main stage, with marionettes carefully mimicking each band member. The only thing missing from the puppet stage was its own miniature stage.
- Worst gimmick
- Matisyahu: “Baruch atah adonai … do you know what these words mean? … I’m talking about peace and love, yo, peace and love …”. His music is great, but the shtick is so transparent.
- Best bands discovered at Bonnaroo
- The Cat Empire is a two-singer Aussie party band. They played on Thursday, before the first official day of the festival, but the crowd was large and wild.
- Andrew Bird makes you rethink the violin.
- Band I came to see and was as awesome as expected
- The best thing Radiohead did during their show was be Radiohead.
- Bands I came to see and rocked even harder than I expected
- Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers played the classics along with unreleased new music, improvised songs, and brought Stevie Nicks out. Over 30 years, Petty has perfected the art of crowd-pleasing.
- I found out about Bonnaroo by looking at My Morning Jacket dates. Their midnight to 3 am set, which ran half an hour over schedule, reminded me why they became one of my favorite bands in the short year that I have been listening to them.
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