For those counting, this was our 11th year at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. It’s always felt like there was a never-ending supply of music. However, in recent years, the festival has taken that concept literally thanks to expanded late-night offerings both in the main Centeroo venue and the new campground venue, Where in The Woods. Even before the music ran all night, the first rule you learn about Bonnaroo is that you shouldn’t go too hard on the first night or you might find yourself dragging the rest of the weekend. Unfortunately, the second rule that most of us learn is to always break the first rule and have an amazing time Thursday night! This was admittedly the state we found ourselves in Friday morning.
In case there was any doubt, June in Tennessee can get…a bit warm. As the sun rose higher for our second day on The Farm, we knew there was no time for regrets about the 5AM bedtime and that it was simply time to get the day started.
[For additional general information about Bonnaroo, check out our Thursday recap where we provide you with a brief introduction to what the festival is all about!]
LARKIN POE
While our first stop Friday afternoon was going to be at the festival’s main even space, the What Stage, it’s important to mention the Who Stage again. Those of you who have read our Bonnaroo recaps over the years know of our love for the Who Stage where the audience gets the chance to hear newer and rising acts. In 2017, one of the bands that we covered on the Who Stage was the folk-blues-rock sisters, Larkin Poe. Flashforward to 2024 and the duo was getting ready to officially open up the festival’s largest stage! The promotion to the huge What Stage is well deserved. The band, fronted by sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell have long enjoyed critical acclaim. This year, that attention helped garner them their first Grammy Award.
Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, the American roots rock band blends blues, rock, and Americana, creating a distinct sound that touches the souls of a diverse musical audience. Listening to the band on record, you’ll be immediately drawn to their soulful harmonies and compelling slide guitar work. When seeing them live, the thing that sticks with you is how much rock they put into their blues-rock shows. We have watched them play several times and have come to expect “rockstar” concerts. Perhaps because they were opening the fest’s main stage or just because they were feeling the anticipatory vibes of the eagerly waiting crowd, the sisters seemed to somehow muster even more energy for Bonnaroo. Early songs in the set like “Summertime Sunset” saw the two leaping and spinning across the stage. The crowd drifted away in a bluesy haze as the sisters jammed on a cover of “Jessica” by the Allman Brothers Band. Sticky blues music filled the vast What Stage field as the band shared “Preachin’ Blues.” For those that complain that there’s too much pop and EDM nowadays at Bonnaroo, we sure hope you didn’t miss this set! Larkin Poe captured the spirit of traditional blues and blues rock and turned it into a memorable show well worth braving that early afternoon heat.
Rest, Rehydration, and Exploring Ceneroo
While we’ll never admit that we are getting that much older, our years at Bonnaroo have taught us that sometimes you have to sacrifice a few shows during the day so you can stay up for the late-night fun,. Something about it being a marathon, not a sprint and such…
With that in mind, we spent most of the afternoon exploring different activities around Centeroo while maximizing our time under any shade we could find. As the sun finally started to disappear behind the trees that encircle Centeroo, the temperature also abated to a point we could once again tolerate the concert crowds. It was time to get back to the real reason we were on The Farm: the music.
TV GIRL
Getting the evening started, we made our way to This Tent where a large crowd had already assembled ready for some indie pop rock from San Diego’s TV Girl. Formed in 2010 (but surging in recent popularity), the band is known for blending catchy melodies with insightful lyrical hooks. Their sound, characterized by a mix of lo-fi production, dreamy vocals, and nostalgic samples, evokes a sense of ease even when the band is exploring darker themes. Throughout their albums such as “French Exit” and “Death of a Party Girl,” TV Girl has explored themes of love, heartbreak, and self-discovery.
As dusk turned to nightfall This Stage was aglow with the band’s brightly patterned backlighting. Sonically, the group’s music paired well with the lingering heat as the evening was infused with their laid-back, melancholic vibe. It was the kind of music that lets you drift away from your thoughts and just connect with the musical experience that is Bonnaroo. While we have used words like “laid back” and “drift away” make no mistake: the crowd was still filled with energy as the band played, especially on their biggest hits. Even the people sitting on blankets rose to their feet to take some cell phone clips as the band played “Cigarettes Out The Window.” Later, as the set was coming to an end, “Lovers Rock” brought us an audience-wide, swaying singalong.
MAGGIE ROGERS
We often say that one of the best things about going to Bonnaroo is finding artists that weren’t on our radar. However, those artists usually don’t already have 10 million+ monthly listeners on Spotify. We of course were very familiar the hit, “Light On,” by Maggie Rogers. It has made frequent appearances on our personal playlists. But we had somehow never truly dug into Rogers’s full catalogue and career. Fortunately, leading up to Bonnaroo, we listen to a lot of music and her songs were among those we found ourselves returning to the most.
Having finally corrected our omission, we had Roger’s set firmly circled on our “must see” list. However, we were not prepared for how dynamic of a show was coming our way. While Rodger’s music clearly falls under the realm of pop music, it has enough elements of folk and singer/songwriter that we fully expected a laid-back, artist with a guitar, songwriter styled set. Instead, as the band’s opening music swelled and Rogers literally rose out of the stage, we quickly realized this show was going to be much more.
For over an hour, Maggie Rogers used every inch of the large Which Stage. She danced, bounced, and fully engaged with the cheering crowd. In a year where there has been a trend by some artists to do what we have dubbed “studio sets” where the entire band sits on stage stoically playing each song exactly as you hear it on an album, Rogers was thankfully the opposite.
Supported by a powerful group of musicians, Rogers’s music truly came alive on The Farm. “Retrograde” was bigger and bolder, adding a bit of rock edge to its pop sounds. “Light On” turned the Which field into a giant sing along dance party. “The Kill” became anthemic. Thanks to all of the extra wow factor added into the set, when Rogers decided to go super minimal on her largest hit, “ Alaska,” it amplified the impact of the song’s emotional punch. The crowd slowly swayed as they sang along.
Rogers perhaps used her set time better than any other artist we saw at Bonnaroo this year. She put on the kind of performance that you take home in your memories and makes you listen to a whole lot more of her music because of that special connection.
POST MALONE
We think it’s only fair to start this out with a confession: we were a bit apathetic about Post Malone headlining this year’s festival. His recorded works have never fully clicked with us for some reason. So, with all that said, we are also fully prepared to admit that he put on one of the best shows of the entire weekend. From now on, when people say “but you have to see ______ artist live to understand,” we’re going to listen!
What set Post Malone’s show apart from so many other acts was that it was indeed a show. It wasn’t just the pyrotechnics or the surprise appearance from Billy Strings or the copious amounts of beer Mr. Malone chugged when prompted by the crowd, it was that special feeling you get when you watch an artist pour every ounce of himself into making the night as memorable as possible.
For those few of you who are unfamiliar with Post Malone, he has carved a unique niche in the music industry with his genre-blending music and personal style. Hailing from Syracuse, New York, Post rose to fame with his debut single “White Iverson” in 2015, showcasing his melodic vocals over hip-hop beats. Known for his distinctive appearance—adorned with face tattoos and grills—Post Malone’s music blends elements of rap, pop, rock, and R&B. His albums, including “Stoney” and “Beerbongs & Bentleys,” have topped charts globally. To say he’s been a sensation in the music industry is an understatement.
His career-spanning, 20+ song setlist was a clear demonstration of the artist’s success. There were a ton of hits and plenty of opportunity for the massive headliner-sized crowd to sing along on hits like “Congratulations” and the aforementioned “White Iverson.” The crowd roared with applause when Billy Strings joined the stage for a special, guitar-forward version of Malone’s mega hit, “Rockstar.“
While we could easily describe Post Malone’s stage presence as theatrical and a bit chaotic, it was done in a way bursting with authenticity. He seems like that one friend that we all have that goes out of his way to entertain everyone else. It was a show that exceeded all of our expectations and clearly resonated with the thousands of fans that had been waiting for those moments.
T-PAIN
We had one more stop that had to be made before it was time to head to Where in the Woods for the late, late night EDM party. There was no way that we were going to miss T-Pain on The Farm!
Known for his distinctive auto-tuned vocals laced over infectious beats, T-Pain has carved a niche in music with his innovative sound. His works span across genres, from hip-hop to pop, often reshaping melodies and setting trends. He’s one of those artists you recognize as soon as soon as the music starts.
One of the challenges of a live show for many hip-hop and pop artists is their most famous songs are often in the form of a collaboration with other artists. On tour, this limits the performance to either only doing part of the song, or having a substitute singer to tackle the collaborative vocals. Some artists work with this better than others. Fortunately, T-Pain is adept at bringing his musical experience to a live audience. For his Bonnaroo show, he chose to do a combination of highlighting his famous lines from shared works in shorter snippets of songs and performing full collaborative works allowing his own crew to fill in the gaps when needed. This allowed the show to feel extremely natural, like we were listening to songs like “Hey Baby (Drop It To The Floor), “Low,” and “Black and Yellow” as they were originally intended. The crowd joined in as he sang his famous lines from The Lonely Island’s “I’m On A Boat.” While these part original/part cover songs hit on all the right nostalgic notes, the audience also sang along with T-Pain as he shared his own famous hits like “Bartender,” “I’m Sprung,” and “Buy U a Drank.”
T-Pain has always been known as a showman and that was on full display as he performed for one of the largest crowds of the weekend. It was one of those sets that felt more like a giant party instead of simply being a concert.
While it was now 1:45 Saturday morning, it was still far too early to think about sleeping. Even though Centeroo closed a bit earlier than other nights on The Farm, there was still plenty of fun to be had at Where In The Woods. In fact, the SVDDEN DEATH Deadroom set we were about to see ended up in our top sets of the festival! We’ll make sure to talk about that more when our EDM coverage comes out later.
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