Bonnaroo Recap Part 1: Thursday June 10, 2010

There’s a lot to say when trying to recap a festival as massive as Bonnaroo, but we’ll do our best to give all of you an idea of what it was like. We’ll be outlining our personal highlights from each day over the course of our next few posts. First up is Thursday, Bonnaroo’s opening afternoon and night. The madness began before we even got onto the festival grounds with a traffic line of epic proportions. Roughly 40 miles of traffic and 7 hours of waiting in the hot Tennessee sun was most definitely not what we had expected coming in, but everything that transpired afterward easily made up for it.

Beitcher’s highlight: The first show I saw after parking my car and setting up camp was Neon Indian. While I was familiar with their music before the festival, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when I walked into the tent to see them live. It’s safe to say they completely exceeded every expectation that I had. Their super-psychedelic brand of pop (accompanied by a killer light show) kept the crowd enthralled from the first moments of soundcheck to the last moments of the encore. They moved through all of their Psychic Chasms album, and every single song drew a loud cheer of recognition from the audience.

One thing I always love when seeing a group perform live is gratitude on the band’s part. When an artist truly feels grateful to be in front of a crowd, they bring an extra energy to the show that can really set their show apart. That’s exactly what happened during Neon Indian’s set, you could just see that they had as much fun playing the music as the crowd had dancing to it. The band’s singer and frontman Alan Palomo acknowledged the crowd before their final encore, telling us how surreal it was to be performing their most recent album for such a big and energetic crowd less than a year after recording it.

Should Have Taken Acid With You (Breakfast Of Champions Remix) – Neon Indian

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Miike Snow at Bonnaroo 2010 - Photo by Alex Broadwell

Claire’s highlight: After a quick stop at Local Natives, I headed over to This Tent to see Miike Snow. By the time I got there, the crowd was huge and dancing, totally engrossed in the music. Since it was one of the first performances of Bonnaroo, everyone was already psyched just to be there. What I liked about the show was that it wasn’t overly complicated. The performances of fan favorites like ‘Animal’ and ‘Remedy’ were simple but incredibly danceable. The only unexpected aspect was the white masks that they performed in for the first half of the set. Since I’ve become accustomed to the more complex arrangements of Miike Snow remixes, I was at first waiting for more intricate beats to drop. As soon as the show got into full swing, however, I forgot about this and was completely swept up by the intense light show and pounding bass. One particular highlight was ‘Black & Blue’; as the first notes played, the crowd lost their shit and broke into some serious dancing. The hour-long set was a perfect example of why Miike Snow have already created such a name for themselves on the Internet. Here’s hoping they’ve got some tour dates lined up for the future. If you’re a fan of dance parties (and who isn’t?), this isn’t one to miss.

The Rabbit – Miike Snow

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Also, here’s a bonus track from another one of Thursday’s standout acts, Local Natives. Enjoy!

Wide Eyes (Suckers Remix) – Local Natives

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Posted by Beitcher