Bonnaroo Kicks Out the Jams

06/14/2006 4:40 PM, E! Online


Get ready, Tennessee; here come Radiohead, Tom Petty and 70,000 tour wookiees.

Now in its fifth year, Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival will be welcoming fans back to Manchester, Tennessee, beginning Thursday for its most wide-ranging lineup yet, offering a far more diverse roster from its jam band roots and representing the unofficial launch of the summer concert season and.

In addition to heavyweight headliners Radiohead, Petty and Phil Lesh, festivalgoers can see Beck, Elvis Costello, Death Cab for Cutie, Hasidic reggae star Matisyahu, Dr. John, the Neville Brothers and almost a hundred other bands spread across 11 stages on the 700-acre site. For those fans who need more than music, Bonnaroo features a cinema, a disco, a digital music/Internet village, batting cages and other bacchanalian distractions. Festival organizers deliberately sold 10,000 fewer tickets this year (the fest is long sold-old), feeling that last year's crowd was a little too big for the site.

Friday night will be highlighted by a three-hour set by Petty, who is expected to preview material from his upcoming solo album, Highway Companion. Also featured on the first day will be sets from Death Cab, a reunited Oysterhead (the side project of ex-Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, ex-Police drummer Stewart Copeland and ex-Primus bassist Les Claypool) playing together for the first time in four years, indie singer-songwriters Bright Eyes, Cat Power and Donovan Frankenreiter, and brilliant slide guitarist Robert Randolph and the Family Band. My Morning Jacket closes the night (or opens Saturday, depending on your sleep schedule) with a three-hour set kicking off at midnight.

Saturday features the most anticipated set of the weekend, from Radiohead, which has been playing eight to 10 new songs a night on its American tour. The band has been sticking to small halls throughout North America, making its Bonnaroo appearence by far the band's biggest of the tour. Also performing on Saturday are Beck (whose current stage show features a puppet version of his band, projected on a "PuppeTron" behind the stage), Gomez, Elvis Costello (performing with Allen Toussaint and debuting material from their new release, The River in Reverse) and Swedish psychedelic rockers Dungen.

The festival closes on Sunday with a tip of the hat to its jam band beginnings with Phil Lesh and Friends. The Grateful Dead alum, who is enjoying his own rejuvenation, leads a bill that also includes Bonnie Raitt, Steve Earle and an eagerly awaited Sonic Youth.

While the lineup has drawn praise from most, it has certainly raised the hackles of the fest's core jam-band fans, who have blasted the lineup on the jambase.com Website as being a sellout and a shameless attempt to diversify the audience. Not that jam bands aren't in abundance: Blues Traveler plays Saturday, moe. plays Sunday and powerhouse improvisers Umphrey's McGee will join up with the Disco Biscuits for a four-hour late-night marathon. And if that's not enough for the festival's more furry, heady concertgoers, there's always Beck's puppets.

The comedy tent, meanwhile, will feature Patton Oswalt and Lewis Black, among others, and a version of the Upright Citizens Brigade. And for those not sure what to do at 3:45 a.m. Saturday night, The Shining is showing.