Album reviews: Sheryl Crow, Hot Chip, Air Traffic … New Grove shows: Dimmu Borgir, English Beat, Angie Stone … Classics from Beck, Costello and Jacko get facelifts
I’m hardly the first to express this sentiment - the blogosphere has been overflowing with cynics eager to prematurely clang the death knell - but it’s hard not to wonder if the bottom is falling out of the festival business. Perhaps not financially - that will depend on attendance, of course, and I suspect there are enough notable attractions to go around that all of the weekend mainstays will survive to return with (I hope) superior lineups in the future. But in terms of talent, this year is so far turning out to be a bit of a bust.
Case in point: Bonnaroo 2008, which announced its lineup today.
OK, Pearl Jam, Metallica, Kanye West - those are some heavy hitters, and I wish at least two of them could have been scored for Coachella. But look beyond that and you find a lot of names familiar to both fests: My Morning Jacket, Jack Johnson, Rilo Kiley, the Raconteurs, Death Cab for Cutie, M.I.A., the Swell Season, Gogol Bordello, Vampire Weekend, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, MGMT, Black Kids … and those are just the acts also playing Coachella this year. The list grows if you toss in repeat visitors.
I’m not saying Bonnaroo spit up a bad lineup. It’s roots-rock and jam-band contingents are as savorful as Coachella’s indie and electro fare. Where Goldenvoice seems to want to slightly shift Coachella in a Bonnaroo direction (hence Roger Waters, among others), Bonnaroo, alongside Austin City Limits later in the year, is still leading the way as a true bouillabaisse of international sounds. (Example: It has both Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and Sigur Ros. Also, more names are expected to be announced. Tickets go on sale Feb. 16, if you’re thinking of traveling.)
What I am saying, though, is that maybe it’s time all of us festival-watchers chilled. The more we hype ourselves into a rabid lather over who might be the most incredible headliners ever, the more we’re crushed when Led Zeppelin doesn’t turn up at Bonnaroo … but Lez Zeppelin does. Every year can’t be a knockout. Sometimes these things just have to keep pace.
