Bonnaroo Day 4: ‘Roo Awards Feat. Macklemore, Kendrick Lamar, Edward Sharpe, Baroness & More

By Johnny Firecloud

 

With a positively incredible Bonnaroo 2013 weekend behind us, we can safely say that the Bonnaroo Arts & Music Festival is the single best fest in North America. The reasons are plentiful – and we’ll bring you a full breakdown on the details later today.

For now, however, get down with our coverage from the final day at this year’s ‘Roo, featuring performances and best-of breakdowns from Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Kendrick Lamar, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, Baroness, David Byrne & St. Vincent, Tom Petty and more!

Check out our full coverage of Bonnaroo 2013!

Makin’ It Look Easy Award: Kendrick Lamar

Whoa. Kendrick Lamar took to the main Bonnaroo stage on Sunday with what appeared to be casual ease. Armed with only a DJ on the gigantic main platform, Kenrick pulled from his good kid, m.A.A.d city album during his hour-long set. Lamar got a taste of just how berzerk these kids were for him with the early-set arrival of “Backseat Freestyle,” which found the densely-packed crowd screaming every lyric back at him, bouncing to every beat. He drizzled in his own verses from A$AP Rocky’s “Fuckin’ Problems” and Young Jeezy’s “R.I.P.,” while hits “Poetic Justice” and “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe” were ear-splitting singalongs. Then, the crowd pretty much took over vocal duties for the finale of “Swimming Pools (Drank)”. 

GALLERY: See Kendrick Lamar perform at Bonnaroo 2013!

 

Most Celebrated Set: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Deafening roars of approval met Macklemore & Ryan Lewis as they took to the main stage at a criminally undeserved early slot of 2:30. As evidenced by his wildly-celebrated headlining spot at the Sasquatch festival set last month, 

Macklemore wasn’t sporting his signature “Thrift Shop” prop fur coat, but someone in the crowd had backup: “Dear sir in the fur coat, you are insane,” the rapper told the sweating attendee, asking him to take it off and crowd-surf it to the stage. Correctly predicting that it would smell “like weed and malt liquor,” Macklemore donned the coat (“Tennessee bobcat!” he shouted) before the inevitable smash-hit singalong.

GALLERY: Watch Macklemore perform at Bonnaroo 2013!

 

Best Comeback Award: Baroness

In a moment of pure Bonnaroo perfection, just as the rains begin to tease what would become a full-on downpour later that evening, Baroness delivered an impossibly powerful set as part of their first tour back following a devastating bus crash last year. Bassist Nick Jost and drummer Sebastian Thomson have replaced low-ender Matt Maggioni and drummer Allen Blickle after the incident, and though they’re missed brethren we can now safely say that the current lineup is completely freakin’ badass.

Roaring and riffing their way through a set which was heavily peppered with songs off their 2012 album, Yellow & Green, the quartet raged through opener “Take My Bones Away,” through “March to The Sea” and many others before closing with a brutal rendition of “The Gnashing”. 

GALLERY: Watch Baroness perform at Bonnaroo 2013!

 

Photogenic Couple Award: These guys

 

Crowd Play Award: Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros

Circumventing the VIP section and climbing into the audience, frontman Alex Ebert soaked up the adoration from the thousands of screaming fans at his feet. Unfortunately, however, while the hippie vagabond act is enchanting to those looking for an escape from the standard frontman fare, Edward Sharpe’s whole schtick reeks of a void of authenticity. 

GALLERY: Watch Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros perform at Bonnaroo 2013!

 

Awkward Food Truck Name Award: “Eatbox”

 
 

“I See What You Did There” Award: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

 “I predict you’re going to have an incredible time tonight,” Petty told the audience. “I don’t have to be anywhere for hours.” He kept his word with two hours of timeless gems, as tens of thousands in the rain-soaked audience ate out of his musical hand. Before running through “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” “Refugee,” “I Won’t Back Down” and a slew of other classics, Mr. Petty opened his Bonnaroo finale set with a cover of The Byrds’ “So You Wanna Be A Rock n Roll Star”. In today’s age of decaying power players and burning music-industry rulebooks, the song takes on a revitalized poignance. 

 

Merciful Timing Award: The rain

Downpours, usually a reliable Bonnaroo staple, didn’t arrive until the festival’s final headliner Tom Petty took the stage. Sure, packing up was a wet mess, but sleeping off the weekend’s indulgences to the soothing, chaotic choreography of the raindrops on our tent throughout the night was a fine way to end such an awesome weekend.

 

Day 4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1

 

 
Johnny Firecloud
Johnny Firecloud

Senior Writer

A senior writer at CraveOnline since 2006, Johnny has reported on music culture around the world for over a decade while setting a higher standard of reviews, editorials, photography and interviews with the industry's biggest names. Johnny has conceptualized and produced a wide range of original Crave features such as the long-running Band of The Month series, the CraveOnstage performance feature, the Music History video series and the Passport travel colum, among others. His Crave coverage spectrum has included Lifestyle, Travel, Film & TV, Politics, Sports, Fashion and Food writing.

A jack of all journalistic trades & master of several, you can also find his work on Antiquiet, Filter, Food Republic, Media Roots, The Owl Mag and beyond. His music photos can be seen on Instagram. Keep up with Johnny on Twitter at @JohnnyFirecloud, and on Facebook.

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