Our initial plan to be able to get tickets for the Hannibal Burress show in The Comedy Theater was foiled when his schedule was altered. This led to 2014 being the first year that I didn’t set foot in the Comedy theater. Once learning of the schedule change we headed to see St. Paul and The Broken Bones’ show at The Other Tent. With big band sound and gospel singer vocal energy, they were a great way to start our second day out with a bang. In addition to their wonderful original material they gave us a cover of Otis Redding’s “Try A Little Tenderness” and a Radiohead “Fake Plastic Trees” cover that brought the song to a place no one imagined.
St. Paul and the Broken Bones
After a trip to the merch table we returned to The Other Tent for Sam Smith. His vocals were beautiful, and the songs I recognized were fun. We watched about 40 minutes of his set, then proceeded down to Which Stage to catch the end of Dr. Dog. Their set moved along well, and the sound (which can really be a problem at Which Stage) seemed good for the moment. As they closed, Ms Twelve returned to camp to make her antlers for the evening, and split the net hour and a half between Jake Bugg (This Tent) and Ben Howard (Which Stage). Jake Bugg played with just himself and a drummer–all that was needed to own the stage. The kid had sparked my interest a couple years ago, and it was nice to get a chance to see him. It was difficult to pull myself away, but Ben Howard was even higher on my wish list. With two extra guitarists, a drummer, a bass player and a cellist who also played bass or drums at times, Ben had more people on stage than I thought his sound required and it worked wonderfully. Little known fact here: I’m a sucker for a girl with a cello, and Ben’s also played bass and drums.
Ben Howard’s cello player, India Bourne
I made my way over to the mist tent at What Stage to meet Ms Twelve to go see Janelle Monae. Oh My God Janelle Monae! Soon Ms Twelve and I will come up with what each of our ten favorite shows were, but we both agree what the top three were, and this was the first of those. Great music, great energy, great setlist, theater elements worked into the show; my only complaint would be that they only gave her an hour. With the Naked and Famous starting 15 minutes after she did and Andrew Bird starting a half hour after she did, there was a time that she wasn’t going to be included in my schedule. Glad I decided to go with her.
Janelle Monae opening in a straightjacket
Instead of running off to the last of Andrew Bird, I stuck with Ms Twelve for a bit, and we went over to see The Head and The Heart. Their set was hurt a bit by the sound problems that Which Stage has. After moving around a bit we settled to the left, where the sound seems best but the foot traffic can be irritating. After about 35 – 40 minutes we made our way over to Vampire Weekend, which was one of Ms Twelve’s most anticipated shows. As we listened to the background music played between sets, we heard “Diane Young” come on and wondered why they would play a Vampire Weekend show right before they came on stage. Turns out they were already on stage. The singer never really seemed on and the live energy didn’t seem to be there. After maybe 4 songs we left to prevent the performance from ruining the band for her. This is Bonnaroo however, so you always have other great options. Now we got to see Chvrches. The pleasant crisp pop sound, adorable ramblings by the singer, plus meeting someone in the crowd dressed as her favorite Magic School Bus character helped Ms Twelve heal from the letdown she’d just suffered.
Ms Twelve moved on to Phoenix as I moved over to the Neutral Milk Hotel show that was already in progress. One of the most important things on my list was to sing “Oh Comely” as loudly as I could, and knew from looking at setlists that they played it later in their sets. Goal achieved! Everything I saw of their set was quite enjoyable. They may never tour again, so it was really cool to be able catch them when I could. When they ended I was able to catch the last half hour of the Phoenix show, which didn’t seem to suffer from the Which stage audio problems that The Head and the Heart did earlier. With zero interest in Kanye West we went back to the tent for rest and to get ready for the late night acts.
Phoenix
Rested up, and with Ms Twelve in her fawn costume, we headed back to find our spot for the Derek Trucks-led superjam at That Tent. Hannibal Burress came onstage first to introduce the jam, and he even tried singing a bit of R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly.” The stage was full of gifted musicians of rock, blues, and soul. Susan Tedeschi started the thing out on vocals, then Taj Mahal took over for one of his own songs, two Otis Redding covers, and an Allman Brothers cover. Ben Folds joined next to play keys and vocals for a cover of Joe Cocker’s “Space Captain,” and then Chaka Kahn took over and covered Stevie Wonder, Led Zeppelin, Aretha Franklin, and did a song of her own. Then it was on to Which Stage so Skrillex could rock us from his spaceship from 1:30-3:30 am.
Skrillex in his spaceship
Mr and Ms Twelve 