it’s saturday morning in manchester, tennessee… or more accurately, in the VIP camping section of the bonnaroo music festival. where the portajohns are paneled and air-conditioned, and the wifi is free.
thursday was the pre-festival night and it was a good harbinger of things to come. dios (malos) (or check their homegrown wacky site) was incredible. one of the most disturbing but captivating drummers i’ve ever seen. you couldn’t take your eyes off of him though it often felt like the thing to do. the wood brothers were great too, but sounded better in the small confines of the sonic stage on friday noon. the cat empire from australia was an unexpected killer find. no guitars, just energy and trumpet-driven, DJ-enhanced party music. caught a tiny bit of matt costa which was better than i had expected.
more to come….