Each year at Bonnaroo, music fans flock to a rural farm in the middle of Tennessee to not only get a chance to see major headlining acts perform, but its also quite the venue for lesser known up and coming bands to be able to spring board off the buzz generated by performing at the most diverse festival America has to offer. With bands like Kings Of Leon, My Morning Jacket, Ray Lamontagne, Lily Allen, MGMT and Back Door Slam all still feeding off their past Bonnaroo success, 2009 featured the next generation of bands looking to utilize the festival to further their musical careers at a faster pace. Just a few of the bands that drew praise and turned heads at Bonnaroo in 2009 were performances from Cage The Elephant, Hockey, Bon Iver, Portugal. The Man and Girl Talk.
Artisan News caught up with
Cage The Elephant, who have generated a lot of buzz with their self titled debut album to get their thoughts on hoping to spring board their performance at
Bonnaroo into future success.
"We've been to Bonnaroo as fans and then we played Bonnaroo back in 2007 and when we were playing Bonnaroo again everybody was really happy. The first Bonnaroo we did was in a really small tent. Yeah we did the Troo Music Lounge so there was like 500, 600 people so it was definitely a different experience playing that in 2007 to playing 'That Tent' this year was nuts. Every festival you feel like you're getting to reach people and hopefully reach new people. Especially here at Bonnaroo where it seems like people are very open to hearing new stuff. It's a very free spirit here."
Gregg Michael Gillis, who goes by the stage name Girl Talk, talked about 2009 being a more intense Bonnaroo performance after continuing to build on his fan base after performing at Bonnaroo in 2007 and inviting up hundreds of girls to the stage during Bonnaroo thus having to end his set a little early in 2009 due to the intense fan reaction.
"I thought two years ago was surprisingly potentially my favorite music festival of that summer so I was very excited to come back. A couple of people on my crew help out visuals and everything. We all had a blast two years ago so we were all pretty stoked to make the return. Looking out into the festival crowd, it's hard to gage size because it's all very massive to me but I definitely think last night seemed a lot bigger than two years ago for my set at least. Also just in terms of intensity, people wanting to get onstage and be a part of the show. I thought it was a lot more intense and crazy this year in a very cool way."
Just a few of the other up and coming bands that will look to build on their success after performing at Bonnaroo included Kaki King, Brett Dennen, Chair Lift, The Low Anthem and The Ting Tings.
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Cage The Elephant On Reaching More Fans At Bonnaroo In 2009
