Bonnaroo fest opens with Metallica, Chris Rock, My Morning Jacket, Raconteurs, Swell Season & Willie Nelson

By JAKE COYLE, AP Entertainment Writer 49 minutes ago

MANCHESTER, Tenn. (AP) — Bonnaroo began in earnest Friday with the rarest of double bills: Chris Rock followed by Metallica.
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Metallica's Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett introduced Rock, and the comedian in turn introduced who he called "the baddest ... band in the world." Both acts were unlikely fare for the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, which began in 2002 as primarily a jam band event.

But in recent years, Bonnaroo has broadened itself and brought more diverse fans to its 700-acre countryside site south of Nashville. Among the tens of thousands of festival-goers, Rock, Metallica and many other performers were very conscious of their entry into a tie-dyed world they seldom traffic in.

In a bit in his set about Prozac and other medications, Rock chastised the crowd, who he said was likely on "performance-enhancing drugs."

"You all should be ashamed of yourselves for taking antidepressants to see a comedian," joked Rock. "I am an antidepressant!"

Metallica also touted its cheerfulness.

"Do you feel good?" lead singer James Hetfield asked the crowd. "Metallica is here to make you feel better."

Performing on the main stage Friday night, Rock jumped right into his material, much of which he's performed during recent touring. Looking on backstage were many of the other comedians performing at the festival, as well as Jack White, whose band the Raconteurs took the main stage earlier in the day.

Rock worked the giant crowd without missing a beat in his timing, hitting on the election, Anna Nicole Smith and high gas prices despite the war in Iraq, ("If I invade IHOP, pancakes are going to be cheaper in my house," he said).

Metallica had a more difficult time winning over the crowd, which was head-banging but apparently not moshing. Hetfield repeatedly urged the audience to sing along. He asked, "We do have a few Metallica friends here, yes?"

Hetfield occasionally informed the crowd the titles of the songs they were playing and which album they were from. "That was `No Remorse' from `Kill `Em All,'" he said, an annotation that would have normally been completely superfluous for the band.

But Metallica is an exceptionally hard working band — they could be heard practicing backstage in a trailer shortly before their set. Eventually, they won the crowd over with their tenacity, as well as classics like "Sad But True" and "Enter Sandman," the latter of which was accompanied by pyrotechnics.

Like a jam band, Metallica has a fiercely devoted following and Hetfield alluded to this Bonnaroo-ness of Metallica: "We support live music ... and that's why we're here."

The notorious Tennessee heat that has in the past made Bonnaroo a chore was thus far bearable (after midnight, My Morning Jacket pulled out a cover of Sly and the Family Stone's "Hot Fun in the Summertime"). But by then, the rain that had threatened through much of the day finally fell.

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Bonnaroo 2008 Kick Off! The Itinerary

So I'll be landing in Nashville in about 24-hours and volunteer state peeps are emailing and my space messaging their ineffable excitement and I confess it's resonating with this old road warrior. I did extra fifteen-minutes of yoga this morning and haven't eaten a stitch of meat in more than a week. Feeling vegan, pagan…how did Cornell put it? Looking California but feeling Tennessee. Now much as I live the serendipitous way when on assignments that take me into the womb of rock, this particular gathering of the harmonic tribes is so encompassing that I did something quite unusual. I drafted an outline. Rough, of course, because the acts' performance times overlap on disparate stages. But for me, this is a HUGE step toward structure.

I don't get in until around 8pm Thursday and that's pretty close to tip off time for game four of the Lakers/Celtics round ball circus, so I'm quite certain whether I get my shit together for Thursday's talent parade but my daughter will kick my ass if I don't catch at least a slice of Vampire Weekend (set time 11:30 pm), her favorite band from Coachella. After 35 years of wearing the surrogate Dead Head crown thanks to my lifelong friendship with Professor Mark from Berkeley (who will be joining me on Friday in Nashville, our first road trip together in eons) I long to finally see Dark Star Orchestra (11:45pm). Manhattan's Marsy Robinson, musicologist, Conor Oberst freak and earthen goddess, insists I see The Felice Brothers who go on at 10:15 pm but are also doing a 30 minute Soundstage bit on Friday so I’ll try and ensure our paths cross then.

When I used to do the festivals in Europe in the 1990s under the RIP aegis, I just moved about in concert with the acts I was covering, I have no such strings attached to my movements at Bonnaroo. I do plan on spending considerable hang time in the Metallica enclave on Friday, but again, the script is in pencil. There's just too much groovy shit going on to barnacle oneself anywhere at this Herculean hob knob. The next paragraph is my wish list for Friday the 13th, the day M. Knight's The Happening opens in theaters nationwide. Trust me, if I wasn't in Manchester, TN, I'd be at the Arc Light in Hollywood buzzed and brewed for my favorite modern filmmaker's latest celluloid experiment.

Brother Les Claypool at 4:15; a rocker with whom I've had a couple quirky adventures including that Denver, Colorado smoky pre-show bus moment during the Public Enemy/Anthrax/Primus tour of '91when he debuted for me an advanced clip of a new, groundbreaking animated TV
program some odd friends of his had developed-it was called Ren & Stimpy. Les still has odd cartoonish compatriots (what IS South Park without the strains of Claypool?) but to me, he remains a brilliant, eccentric musician who wields the four string with unparalleled abandon and has never really altered in personality or demeanor since the day I met him. Considering he grew up in the east bay bug of El Sobrante, California with Kirk Hammett, I shall organically weave him into the Metallica story. Or not. Like I said, I've no idea on what's ahead.

Back to the itinerary.

Rac-in' Jack White at 5:00 pm post Tegan and Sara at 2:30 pm, ramping up to Chris Rock at 7:45 pm who'll warm up the metal heads for the four horsemen at 9 pm. Somehow (and once again, I defer to my 18 year old) I will break away to catch a taste of Rilo Kiley at 6:15 pm and M.I.A. AT 6:30 pm. 'Tis a land best served by jugglers and shape shifters, Bonnaroo, but you're talking to an 11 year student of Kundalini who has astral traveled and on more than one occasion, found
himself in two places at one time. So if you see me out there, it may be me or my doppelganger. Either way...say hey.

It's the rock around the clock aspect of this festival that sets it apart from the rest. Given that insomniac fact, I have My Morning Jacket 12pm to 3 am set and Crazewire.com's former Friend Jedi intern and jam band savant, Forrest Reda's remarkable Disco Biscuits 2 am to 4 am jam in the margins. Saturday afternoon 4 pm is where I'll commence again with my pal Nick John's Mastodon and old friend Dweezil Zappa at 5:45 pm playing the tunes o' his late great papa on the even of Father's Day. Ben Folds is ON somewhere between 6:15 and 7:45 pm as is surfing' Jack Johnson, another Forrest pick from when the wave running balladeer was strumming his acoustic on the Cali sands to boards and bikinis. Pearl Jam, the band of golden words in my memoir, at 10:15 (speaking of surfers done good) -- I'll have my DVD copy of Into the Wild for Eddie to sign for Megan Rose. Then I can't in my clearest third eye imagine the transcendence of Sigur Rios at 1 am, in the wild. There will have to be a golf cart to get my ass to Phil Lesh and Kanye West for their midnight sets. How did Harrison put it on Yellow Submarine…"It's all too much."?

Depending on my plus 50 heart rate, the Sabbath holds Trombone Shorty at 1: 30 pm, Ladytron at 2: 30 pm, Jakob Dylan at 3:00 pm (getting into the bare bones warmth and rhythm of his new release, Seeing Things), the amazing Robert Randolph's Revival at 2:45 pm, Robert Plant with Mrs. Costello and old mate, T Bone B. but again, here comes the daughter factor on Father's Day, with Death Cab for Cutie at 7 pm. If there are any molecules in brain or body still left
functioning at 8:45 pm, I'll pop a Xnax and float my way into Widespread Panic.

Of course, everything I just spelled out is completely subject to alteration, modification, indoctrination and emancipation based on the universal forces in play at beautiful Bonnaroo '08. I will blog when I can if time, tide and temper permit. Lonnaroo online caretaker Tony Kuzminski has gently brow beat me to post and post often. We'll just have to see where those Tennessee breezes blow. Go Lakers! xL.