Bonnaroo 2012: 10 Must-See Acts
Music fans headed for this week's Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival (June 7th-10th) in Manchester, Tennessee, will face some tough choices as they plot their journey across the fest's many performance spaces. Check out our picks for the 10 acts worth catching, from shock-rocker Alice Cooper to buzz bands like Here We Go Magic, and listen to our Spotify playlist of their standout tunes.
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Alice Cooper (That Tent: Saturday, midnight)
Perhaps the biggest wild-card at Bonnaroo this year is Alice Cooper's Saturday late-night slot, where the O.G. shock-rocker plans to teach a a hard-rock history lesson to festivalgoers. The 64-year-old Cooper recently told Rolling Stone that he plans to bring his guillotine and enough fake blood to soak the first 20 rows. "It'll be the full-out Alice Cooper show," said Cooper. "My band has the instruction: kill the audience."
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fun. (That Tent: Sunday, 6:45 p.m.)
By the time fun. scored a ubiquitous hit with "We Are Young" earlier this year, guitarist Jack Antonoff was already a Bonnaroo veteran, having performed on the farm numerous times before with his former band, Steel Train. Antonoff recently told Rolling Stone that his 2005 Bonnaroo debut is still his favorite live experience ever – but he expects to top it this year when fun. close out That Tent on Sunday evening. Explains Antonoff, "I see it as creating a big, emotional, important send-off to what was probably the greatest weekend in a lot of people's lives."
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GZA with Grupo Fantasma (This Tent: Saturday Late-Night, 2:30 a.m.)
The Wu-Tang Clan rapper will perform his landmark 1995 LP Liquid Swords front-to-back with support from Latin funk outfit Grupo Fantasma, who are best known for backing Prince on the live circuit.
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Here We Go Magic (That Tent: Sunday, 2 p.m.)
Here We Go Magic's festival sets come highly recommended by Radiohead's Thom Yorke, who declared them his favorite act of Glastonbury in 2010. After Yorke's pal Nigel Godrich caught that same set, he went on to produce the band's current release, A Different Ship.
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Gary Clark Jr. (What Stage: Sunday, 1 p.m.)
An appearance on Bonnaroo's biggest stage – right before the Beach Boys' set, no less – could make Gary Clark Jr. the fest's breakout artist of 2012, a title that the guitar hero has already deservedly claimed at Coachella, SXSW and New Orleans Jazz Fest.
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Superjam feat. ?uestlove and ‘very special guests’ (This Tent: Saturday Late-Night, 12:15 a.m.)
A Bonnaroo tradition, the Superjam originated from the festival promoters' experience arranging late-night jam sessions at New Orleans Jazz Fest. The particulars vary from year to year, but it often unfolds as a core group of musicians with a rotating cast of special guests – and some of them have been very special indeed, like Metallica's Kirk Hammett, Primus' Les Claypool and the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh. This year's host, the Roots' ?uestlove, benefits from experience: he's anchored several Superjams in the past, including a super-sized one in 2007 that starred Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones on bass.
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Big Gigantic (That Tent: Thursday, 11:30 p.m.)
Big Gigantic plan to go both big and gigantic on the festival circuit this summer, with stops at all the major ones including Lollapalooza, Outside Lands and Austin City Limits. But Bonnaroo might just prove to be their best match of all, given the duo's improvisational style – they perform on saxophone, keyboards and drums, augmented by a MacBook. It's robot rock performed by humans.
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Mark Foster (Silent Disco: Friday Late-Night, 12:30 a.m.)
What kind of tracks will Foster the People's frontman play when he takes over the DJ booth at the Silent Disco on Friday night, fresh off the band's main set on the Which Stage? Only the lucky fans who get there early enough to snag a pair of headphones will find out. The rest of us will just be onlookers in a tripped-out quiet zone filled with kids dancing to their own beat.
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Pujol (The Great Taste Lounge: Friday, 9:20 p.m.)
Nashville garage revivalist Pujol is prolific, having served up nearly a dozen releases since arriving on the scene just three years ago. His new LP, United States of Being, is primed to take him to the next level, as is his Friday-night set at Bonnaroo.
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Umphrey’s McGee (This Tent: Friday Late-Night, 2 a.m.)
Seeing Umphrey's McGee at Bonnaroo is simply a rite of passage. The Indiana band's set at the fest's inaugural year in 2002 helped launch their career, and like Bonnaroo, the group has since broadened its jam band roots without actually having to give up the jams. Expect to hear jazz chops, heavy metal thunder and clever covers of anything from Daft Punk to Michael Jackson.