
Festival season continues this weekend with Bonnaroo‘s 10th anniversary in Manchester, Tennessee, so we’re here again to help guide the 80,000 wristband holders through the tough choices of the weekend’s lineup. (Don’t have a ticket? You’re in luck! Some of the big-tent performances will be webcast at VEVO.) As always, we recommend checking out at least one band you haven’t heard before; might we recommend country-rocker Hayes Carll, (who plays one set each today and tomorrow)?
Jam-band and bluegrass aficionados have a plethora of options all weekend—perhaps too many tough choices. For the more pop-minded among us, here are five big intersection points to break down for you:
FRIDAY AFTERNOON
Choices: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals (3:15 p.m., What Stage) and Matt & Kim (3:15 p.m., This Tent)
Decision: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Both groups are embarking on summer tours in midsize venues with reasonable ticket prices, but Matt & Kim, though they showed at the OMAs that they can play bigger, do have a certain energy that’s amplified when it’s contained in a club full of kids that are ridiculously hyped up. You Oughta Know artists Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, on the other hand, don’t lose any of their power from midday open-air big-tent staging.
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Tags: Bonnaroo, Festivals, Music, Tough Choices, Dr. John, Dan Auerbach, Explosions In The Sky, Beirut, Band of Joy, Bootsy Collins, Loretta Lynn, Wiz Khalifa, Ray LaMontagne, Mumford & Sons, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Florence and the Machine, Matt and Kim, The Strokes, Robert Plant, Big Boi, Lil Wayne