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With the demise of Music Midtown in 2005 and 2007’s The Echo Project taking place only once, Atlanta no longer has a big spring/summer music festival of its own. But those who made the three-hour trek to Manchester, Tenn. this past weekend for Bonnaroo might have noticed many local connections throughout this year’s lineup.
In fact, not a day passed at Bonnaroo that there wasn’t at least one Georgia-based act performing. The very first musician at The Other Tent on Thursday, June 11, was Atlanta-based neo-soul songstress Janelle Monae, who, along with her equally stylish backing band, was both visually and musically impressive. Dressed in a classy tuxedo-like ensemble, the petite trendsetter not only performed a set of retro-futuristic pop songs, but even managed to do a painting onstage, which she then handed off to an audience member.
It wasn’t all that long ago that the Zac Brown Band was practically the house band at Marietta’s Dixie Tavern. These days, however, the band is releasing hit country songs and, as evidenced later Thursday night, headlining That Tent in front of thousands of fans at Bonnaroo.
The next day, Atlanta native Kaki King performed an early afternoon set at This Tent. The accomplished guitarist has not only made guest appearances on records by the likes of Tegan and Sara and the Foo Fighters, but has also released several albums of her own and was proclaimed a “Guitar God” by Rolling Stone in 2006 thanks to her inventive guitar stylings. Later that night, Public Enemy, most of whose members now spend much of their time in Atlanta, performed a rousing set at the same tent that included a song-by-song set of their hip-hop classic "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back." The legendary rap group also played other crowd favorites including the anthemic “Fight the Power.”
Saturday at Bonnaroo was dominated by Georgia-based bands, beginning with an early afternoon performance on the Which Stage by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Booker T., backed by Athens’ own Drive-By Truckers. Fellow Athenians Of Montreal performed a surreal set of theatrical synth pop at This Tent an hour later, joined onstage by various trippy creatures and ominous characters. The band’s set concluded with the members smashing their guitars and frontman Kevin Barnes diving from the drum riser into the keyboards.
Back on the Which Stage, Nine Inch Nails, whose longtime guitarist Robin Finck grew up in the Atlanta area performing with bands such as Sik Dik and the Impotent Sea Snakes, played a late-night set that, according to frontman Trent Reznor, would be the band’s final North American performance ever. With thousands of fans watching this historical moment, the band tore through a set of hits and obscurities that included favorites such as "Head Like a Hole" and "The Hand That Feeds," as well as a remix version of "Piggy" and "I’m Afraid of Americans," which Reznor co-wrote with David Bowie and Brian Eno for Bowie’s 1997 album "Earthling."
Kicking things off at This Tent on Sunday was Georgia-based country act The Lovell Sisters, whose hour-long set would be another of many performances with local connections. The band played again on the smaller Sonic Stage later that afternoon.
Erykah Badu, who once spent a lot of time in Atlanta while romantically linked to OutKast’s Andre 3000 in the '90s, got things started on the What Stage at 3:30 p.m. Back at This Tent, Neko Case closed the evening with a set of her signature folky alterna-country with the help of Atlanta’s Kelly Hogan as backup singer.
Aside from musical performances, the artistic collaborative known as the Art of Such n Such had its own compound set up next to This Tent all weekend, where sideshow-like fire performances took place each night. The Fleeble Flobbler, a menacing clown-like metal sculpture created by Atlanta’s Charlie Smith that debuted at last year’s Burning Man festival, was also on display, with nightly tribalistic burns.
Though it takes place on a farm in rural Tennessee, Bonnaroo clearly draws heavily from Atlanta’s pool of creative talent. And no matter what genre of music or art fans took in, there was a good chance someone from the Atlanta area was somehow involved.
