Bringing the heat in the Tennessee sun

Bonnaroo tends to bring out the best in most bands. It's a broad generalization, but it's true - the festival is famous for breakthrough performances, unique collaborations and career-defining sets. For 2008, things seemed a bit different, however. With Metallica and Kanye West on the bill, it was clear Bonnaroo had shifted far from its jam band roots had dipped into pop music, of all things. But headliners aside, Superfly Productions had assembled one of its best lineups yet, with a vast range of genres, musical legends and even some only-at-Bonnaroo groups.

But despite the great overall lineup and standout performances, one artist and one performance shrouded the entire festival: Kanye West. The West drama began when Bonnaroo scheduled him at 8:15 p.m. Saturday on Bonnaroo's second stage, Which Stage. Because this is his Glow in the Dark tour, West had his set moved to 2:45 a.m. Sunday on the main stage, What Stage - the first performer to ever play late-night on said stage. But apparently that wasn't enough for West. After announcing delays until 3 a.m., then 3:15 a.m., then 3:30 a.m. - by 4:15 a.m., fans were still waiting for West to take the stage. For perhaps the first time ever, Bonnaroo fans were angry. Boos erupted sporadically, as did chants of "Kanye sucks!" and "Asshole."

Finally, at 4:30 a.m., after all other performances at the festival had stopped, West finally took the stage, to a depleted crowd and a rising sun. He didn't glow in the dark, he didn't acknowledge the crowd, and he didn't even give a good performance. Instead, West talked to his spaceship as he stormed around, rapping in a spacesuit while a band hidden below backed him up. It was West's version of musical theater - an unfortunate mash-up of Spinal Tap and The Simpsons' imagined Planet of the Apes musical. Fans who stuck around got an hour of West's show as the sun rose, no encore, no explanation, nothing impressive. West's performance will go down as Bonnaroo's biggest blunder, but it doesn't eclipse the dozens of fantastic performances throughout the four-day weekend. West's ego may be bigger than the sum of all other Bonnaroo performers, but his antics shouldn't be.

Because we can't be everywhere, Diversions picked eight of our favorite sets to break down. But trust us; this is only scratching the surface of the Bonnaroo experience.

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Vampire Weekend

It may be June, but the buzz on Vampire Weekend still hasn't dried up. And its headlining set at This Tent on Thursday night solidified the band's potential, assuming it learns to grow a bit. The band's pseudo-Afro-pop and punk was a delight to the packed tent full of hipsters and hippies alike, all trying to ride the good vibes emanating from the stage. The band seemed a bit nervous to be playing to a primarily jam happy crowd as singer/guitarist Ezra Koenig joked, "We're like a jam band - we just play shorter songs." And both the songs and the set were brief - VW finished 10 or so minutes early, but the band put on a good show, though it was not much different from its February headlining tour.

The band ran through the album, scoring raucous applause and sing-a-longs during "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" and "Oxford Comma." The band could loosen up a bit more often, and when it did at one point during a new song, the results were headed to an interesting place until Koenig cut things short by stepping up to the mic. It would have been nice to see the band attempt a cover or two - it was Bonnaroo, after all - but, hey, there's always next year. - R.G.

Umphrey's McGee

It's remarkable to think how you could go to Bonnaroo this year and not see a single jam band during the four days, yet still have a packed schedule. In fact, it wasn't until 2006 that Bonnaroo really started to branch out, so it's fitting to see a few bands from the early years still bringing the Tennessee heat. Progressive jam rockers Umphrey's McGee made its fifth Bonnaroo appearance this year, with an early Friday afternoon slot on the Which Stage. The band ripped through one of its proggiest, darkest and most aggressive sets, perhaps in anticipation of Metallica's looming performance that night.

After the band segued from the trance-based "Wappy Sprayberry" into newer song "The Floor," things turned dark as the clouds overhead foreshadowed the night's eventual rainfall. Once the three-part, 10-minute instrumental "Wizard Burial Ground" hit, it was clear the band was set to shred and it wasn't going to stop anytime soon. Guitarist Jake Cinninger's soaring leads continued with a set-closing sequence that featured "Bridgeless," "Miss Tinkle's Overture" and an experimental "Higgins" with Jeff Coffin (Béla Fleck and the Flecktones) sitting in on saxophone. Later, UM played a shorter, much more relaxed set to a few hundred fans (and two members of the Disco Biscuits) at the smaller Sonic Stage. Coupled together, the band proved jam still has a place in Manchester. - R.G.

The Raconteurs

Let it be known - The Raconteurs are rock 'n' roll stars in every good sense of the word. Sporting an Elvis Presley haircut (or was it more Ronnie Spector?), Jack White commanded the stage from the opening notes of "Consoler Of The Lonely" through the hushed close of the fabulous murder ballad, "Carolina Drama."

No mere one-man show, The Raconteurs is most definitely a sum of its individual parts, borrowing pages from the main acts of all its contributors. Brendan Benson, though not quite a guitar virtuoso in the league of White, traded tasteful licks with his counterpart throughout the show. As witnessed in the rousing lead-in jam to "Blue Veins" or in the extended "Broken Boy Soldier," The Raconteurs have only grown tighter in the last two years, begging the question of whether The White Stripes will in fact continue to be White's top priority. - Z.H.