Print-friendly Version
Ben Folds, My Morning Jacket sing the praises of Bonnaroo
For more than 12 years, singer/pianist Ben Folds has played most of the major music festivals. However, after playing the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, TN, in 2006, he was a changed man.
"For all I knew, it was a coffee house," said Folds during a recent press teleconference. "I had no idea. And then we walked out on the stage and there's, like, 60,000 people.
"And not only that, they were really in tune. They were really in tune with music and I thought, 'Well, there's some hope out there.' I think that people are connected in the music world by different strings than they used to be. You advertise on radio a lot, probably, and you get a bunch of corporate bands out in the place, and you take people's money in the middle of a field somewhere and send them home. That's what the [worst] festivals are. This was really, really impressive and really, really musical."
Folds returns to Bonnaroo June 12-15 to join a cast of others including Pearl Jam, Metallica, Jack Johnson, Kayne West and Chris Rock. Tickets are available at the event's official website.
Comedian Jim Norton, a regular on the "Opie and Anthony" syndicated radio show, is also on the bill. Known for his offensive material, Norton said he does not change up material for festivals, where the crowd tends to be more liberal and less shocked.
"I don't change what I do anywhere," Norton said during the same teleconference. "You'd be surprised, actually. Sometimes, more liberal crowds are more easily offended because it depends on the topic you're hitting with the ideology you're attacking, but I never change what I'm doing."
My Morning Jacket drummer Patrick Hallahan explained his band is using Bonnaroo as a sort of unofficial record release party. "Evil Urges," My Morning Jacket's fifth studio album, is set for release June 10.
"Bonnaroo actually asked us to join on, and we thought it was the perfect opportunity to play right after the album drops," Hallahan said. "So that's actually going to be--I guess--our official, national listening party, between that and Radio City Music Hall." (The sold-out "An Evening with My Morning Jacket" event at New York's Radio City Music Hall is set for June 20.)
Like Folds, My Morning Jacket is a Bonnaroo veteran. In 2006, the band played a three-hour, late-night show, marking its fourth appearance at the festival.
"I think that that was one of the most electrifying experiences of my life, personally--and, I'm sure and within the band's existence; it was just something out of the heavens, that's for sure. I don't think I've ever been more pumped up and more nervous and anxious to hit a stage in my entire life."
