Bonnaroo 2023 Review: Best Performances - Rolling Stone

Bonnaroo 2023

One of the U.S.'s legacy festivals delivers spectacle and splash over four days in Manchester, Tennessee

Bonnaroo 2023 returned with some of the festival’s best weather in years, making the good vibes on the Farm especially euphoric. Of course, the live performances provided the bulk of that energy, thanks to engaging sets by headliners Kendrick Lamar and Odesza, surprise cameos by country-star-of-the-moment Jelly Roll, who joined Three 6 Mafia to destroy a fired-up crowd, and Hayley Williams, who sang “My Hero” with Foo Fighters. These are the best things we witnessed in Manchester, Tennessee.

Best Stage Show: Odesza

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Odesza’s fans will insist the group is more than just a cool light show, and the Washington state act’s Saturday headlining performance proved it, enlisting a large ensemble with big band-geek energy — a drumline, a brass section — plus special guests like vocalist and violin savant Sudan Archives, to flesh out its heartstring-tugging EDM instrumentals for super-sized crowds like these. Regardless, people love lasers, fireworks, and bright objects, and core duo Clayton Knight and Harrison Mills never lost sight of this — or made the audience wait long for the next drop. – C.Z.
Toughest Merch Choice: DJ Diesel Jersey vs. Jenny Lewis Tarot Cards

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If you noticed a preponderance of Shaquille O’Neal jerseys headed in the direction of The Other Stage late Friday night, that was no coincidence; that was where the former Lakers and Magic big man and even bigger personality was making his Bonnaroo debut on the ones and twos, spinning an EDM-fan-friendly mix of rap, rock, and house music. (Shaq, fortunately, is better at DJing than shooting free throws.) It was also the first in-person opportunity to cop a jersey — or more apropos of the location, tie-dyed T-shirt — with his alias, DJ Diesel, splashed across it. For the paranormally minded, meanwhile, a set of Jenny Lewis’s original tarot cards could be had for a very reasonable $10, several of which were used as backdrops during her mellow mid-afternoon Saturday set on Which stage — or, as the Rilo Kiley frontwoman-turned-indie-country luminary rechristened it, “the witch stage.” – C.Z.
Most All-Are-Welcome Set: Sofi Tukker

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The dance duo Sofi Tukker drew an enormous crowd to the Which Stage at sunset on Saturday, catching festivalgoers in the right frame of mind to let loose. On a set that looked like a coastal Mediterranean villa, singer Sophie Hawley-Weld moved with athletic grace between choreographed dance routines and wielding her Flying V for some funky electric riffs (as on “Batshit”), while musical partner Tucker Halpern mixed their frothing, danceable tracks — including a drop of the White Lotus theme song in their “Matadora” — and whipped the crowd into a frenzy. “There is no Sofi Tukker community without the queer community, without the drag community,” Halpern said to thunderous applause. “We support all forms of art, all forms of self expression.” They concluded with the throbbing electro funk of “Purple Hat,” mixing Halpern’s cheeky monotone raps with Hawley-Weld’s meaty guitar licks and an explosive, surging finish that left everyone amped. – J.F.
Best Happy Birthday: Kendrick Lamar

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Before Kendrick Lamar took the stage Friday, a grassroots campaign took shape in the crowd to clue in anyone not in the know that come midnight, the Compton hip-hop maestro would be turning 36. In contrast to fellow Gemini and musical iconoclast Sturgill Simpson’s “My midlife crisis is fuckin’ dope!” — his pithy response to a packed house singing him “Happy Birthday” at What Stage back in ’18 — four-time Bonnaroo veteran Lamar’s modest, unscripted “I appreciate that” broke the fourth wall. The acknowledgment came toward the end of a cinematic headlining set that threaded the needle between standouts from last year’s Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers likethe bittersweet “Count Me Out” and material as old as “A.D.H.D.”, a classic West Coast banger off his 2011 debut, Section.80. Like all of Kendrick’s work, it requested a certain amount of introspection, but made sure to bring the party. – C.Z.
Best Tennessee Hip-Hop Heritage Act: Three 6 Mafia With Jelly Roll

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“How many people here grew up listening to Three 6 Mafia? Had sex while listening to Three 6 Mafia? Did cocaine while listening to Three 6 Mafia?” implored Three 6 Mafia’s Juicy J during the Memphis rap legends’ sundown set Friday, each eliciting answers in the affirmative. The late-2000s vibes were strong — and not just because of the static, DVD menu-like visual backdrop. A look around the crowd even revealed a few parents with wide-eyed, elementary school-aged kids in tow being treated to their first-ever listens of “Weak Azz Bitch,” “Fuck That Shit,” and Three 6 offshoot Hypnotize Camp Posse’s immortal “Azz and Titties,” among other X-rated Southern hip-hop standards. But the performance wasn’t just a warmup for Three 6’s core duo of Juicy J and DJ Paul as they take their act back on the road for the first time in a decade, nor a wake for longtime collaborator Gangsta Boo, who died suddenly this past New Year’s Eve and received a mid-set tribute. For its final act, the group brought out Jelly Roll — the unlikely country-singing sensation out of Antioch, Tennessee — whose cameo on Three 6’s surprise Oscar-wining “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” (from 2005’s Hustle and Flow) brought the crowd to a fever pitch and built an unlikely bridge between older and newer, wildly different generations of Volunteer State rappers. – C.Z.
Most Unintentional Mashup: Korn and My Morning Jacket

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The Festival recruiting nü-metal progenitors Korn to bring a little taste of Woodstock ’99 (musical, not behavioral) was in and of itself a whimsical, decidedly Bonnaroo conceit. But putting the Clinton-era band on a tent stage well past the witching hour on Saturday night was a twisted recipe for a bad trip. A bad-ass trip. The spectacle of strobe lights, lasers, and singer Jonathan Davis hitting an oxygen tank between scat verses overwhelmed the second-stage venue like a tidal wave in a kiddie pool. The crowd, the size of which rivaled that of ’Roo mainstays My Morning Jacket on a nearby, much larger Which Stage, spilled far beyond the tent poles and well into Centeroo. And so did the haunted-house guitar leads, bounce beats, and bowel-rumbling bass sounds of mega hits like “Blind” and “Freak on a Leash.” Bonnaroo has long prided itself on bringing unlikely musical bedfellows together for Superjams and guest appearance. And perhaps none was more interesting, organic, and unintentional than the real-time across-the-field mashup of Jim James crooning a sparse, sensitive “Phone Went West” to the distant sound of Jonathon Davis’ bagpipes intro to “Shoots and Ladders,” the ground-rattling stomp of the full band coming in as if on cue to MMJ’s mid-song snippet of Fleetwood Mac’s “Songbird.” The Mac tease was one of many distinguishing features of the Jacket’s eighth appearance at the festival, which also boasted covers of Traffic’s “Feelin’ Alright” and Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” you know, for the kids. – A.G.
Best Rock Hall of Fame Set: Sheryl Crow

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In a wild bit of scheduling, bona fide legend and new Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member Sheryl Crow played a sweltering mid-afternoon set Saturday on the What Stage. The Roo crowd turned up, though, and Crow rewarded them with one of the day’s most joyful, satisfying performances. Her backing band was typically lean and mean, adding muscle to one great song after another, including “Soak Up the Sun,” “A Change Would Do You Good,” and “If It Makes You Happy,” while the enthusiastic crowd sang along with every word. She even tossed in a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Live With Me” for good measure and talked earnestly about the trans character at the center of “Hard to Make a Stand” amid this country’s spate of anti-trans legislation. -J.F.
Most Dynamic: Lil Nas X

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When a DJ unleashed Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” during a break in Cardi B’s Which Stage set on the final day of the last pre-pandemic Bonnaroo, it elicited the loudest singalong of the day. That made Lil Nas X’s appearance this weekend feel four years overdue. Still, Nas was just 19 when he dropped “Old Town Road” — he’s 24 now, and when he performed the ubiquitous, Billy Ray Cyrus collab early on Saturday it felt almost perfunctory. For the diverse and youthful crowd that screamed wildly as he emerged from each costume change and hung on every word of non-“Old Town” material like the punk-rock-inspired “That’s What I Want” and brass-laden “Industry Baby,” it wasn’t about where the unabashedly queer mega-talent born Montero Hill had been — it was about where he’s going. Falling right at the midpoint of Pride month, it made an ironclad case for Lil Nas as the right man at the right moment — the type of set sure to be talked about for years to come. – C.Z.
Best Heroic Surprise: Foo Fighters With Hayley Williams

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Foo Fighters didn’t need any help enrapturing the festival in a moment of collective transcendence with a slow-building, torch-ballad take on “My Hero.” But they got some anyway from Paramore’s Hayley Williams, who shocked and awed the crowd, rocketing onstage at the song’s crescendo, to take the already pound-along, shout-along anthem’s chorus to new vocal heights. It was a classic only-at-Bonnaroo moment to remember — two of rock’s most magnetic stars engaging in an emo charm-off. Williams and Paramore warmed up the crowd with their own scorcher of a set a few hours earlier, while the Foos’ festival-closing Sunday-night set was years in the making. Flooding from Hurricane Ida forced the festival’s cancelation at the 11th hour, two days before Dave Grohl & Co. would’ve headlined what should’ve been the festival’s triumphant post-pandemic return in 2021. There was a field-wide shared sense of dread when raindrops started falling in the minutes leading up the band’s performance. That only heightened the exuberant release as a storm of flags, totems, and glow sticks punctuated the first blowout chorus of an opening “All My Life.” Sunday was Father’s Day, and what better band to have cap it off than America’s most proudly unapologetic dad-rock ambassadors. – A.G.
Toughest Set Choice: Pixies vs. Paramore

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As Gen-Xers settle into their fifties, could one call it anything but ageism that Bonnaroo booked Foo Fighters and the Pixies within an hour of each other on separate stages that were a slog-walk apart? Pairing the two bands back-to-back on the same stage would’ve made more than a little bit of sense, seeing as Foo Fighters literally wouldn’t exist without the Pixies influence, a point Dave Grohl nodded to during his band’s set, and that new Foos drummer Josh Freese winked at by sporting the Pixies’ first names in glittering letters on his shirt. But Paramore needed a large enough space for the tens of thousands of millennials who made their What Stage set one of the biggest crowds for a Day Four sub-headliner, maybe ever. And perhaps thanks to the uncharacteristically balmy June Tennessee weather that graced the festival all weekend, the crowd had more than enough frenzied energy to match the charisma bomb of Hayley Williams — fans gave the loudest sing-along of the festival during “That’s What You Get,” off the band’s 2007 breakthrough Riot!. Meanwhile, back at The Tent stage, Pixies wasted no time locking down their own applause line, opening their banter-free, barnstorming set with “Gouge Away,” and the verse one lyric of: “Some marijuana, if you’ve got some.” Plenty of fans did indeed have some…because Bonnaroo, amirite. – A.G.