Coachella has been the talk of the 2016 music festival circuit with a reconvened Guns N’ Roses headlining the Saturdays and a not wholly unexpected return by LCD Soundsystem handling night number one on Friday over both mid-April weekends. That leaves Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, celebrating a 15 years with an unfortunate “15 years of magic” tagline, to deliver something to make the muddy, hot, humid early June destination fest in Tennessee more appealing than the scorching desert heat in Indio, California.
While kinda/sorta tempting, Bonnaroo gives the eastern half of the country our LCD Soundsystem fix, trudges out Dead & Co. (featuring John Mayer!) and Pearl Jam, who we’d much rather see at a ballpark, like the long-awaited gigs at Fenway Park in August.
There’s gotta be something good on the bill though, right? Sure; Daughter is performing, as is Tyler the Creator, Bully and a suspiciously low-on-the-bill Death Cab for Cutie. Oh…and, ummm Third Eye Blind is performing. But prop that up against the aforementioned GNR, Ice Cube going on a show for middle-aged women and teasing an N.W.A reunion, Sia, Disclosure, Beach House and it’s not even a question: Coachella, FTW.
Here’s the whole shebang:
