Bonnaroo has come and passed this year, but for those of you who didn’t go, or even those of you that did, I’ve compiled my two cents on the best of the best out of each genre of artist that performed this year.
Let’s start with electronic, my expectations were set pretty high with RL Grime, and he definitely delivered. His show was unreal, playing old stuff, new stuff, hard stuff, some intermediary softer stuff, all with a perfectly programmed light show which was mindblowingly perfect. Although I may be biased because I absolutely love some festival trap. Griz was also amazing, despite his mid-day set.
As for the more alternative-tinged pop shows, my personal favorite had to be Halsey, who is just a great performer with catchy and well written songs. She had a huge crowd, and involved them often, interacting with them frequently, and giving it her all during the performance. A close second was Two Door Cinema club, who also killed their performance.
As for rap, you probably won’t expect my pick, but it was Chance the Rapper. This guy wasn’t even billed on the lineup, but he showed up to multiple shows as well as doing his own thing on Sunday at the Silent Disco. If I wasn’t kinda cheating by picking him, I would definitely go with J Cole, because his set was constant fire the entire time, I had to leave close to the end of it, but I could hear him as well as the crowd from anywhere in the campgrounds.
Also here’s a quick list of honorable mentions, who weren’t the best of the best, but were still certainly great performances:
BORNS
Cashmere Cat
CHVRCHES
Ellie Goulding
Third Eye Blind
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Snoop Dog
Keep an eye out for posts by my co-host Will, who was also covering the festival, I think he’ll be posting some awesome pictures we took at the festival soon!