Kylesa @ Bonnaroo 2011

August 1, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrIAidNea14

“Crowded Road” (live @ Bonnaroo 2011)

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Large, campout-style music festivals in America have historically not been friendly to metal, but Bonnaroo is the exception. The festival has hosted Metallica, Mastodon, Shadows Fall, Pelican, Primus, Opeth, The Sword, and Isis. Bonnaroo is also friendly toward extreme music outside metal: Flogging Molly play fast and heavy, Sigur Rós flirts with Neurosis as well as The Beach Boys.

In my experience, neither metalheads nor festival junkies appreciate Bonnaroo’s open-mindedness. When I’ve brought it up in conversation with headbangers, the discussion has inevitably dissolved into pining for European festivals like Wacken or Download.

On the flipside, when I attended the 2008 Bonnaroo, my compatriots called Metallica’s headlining gig an invitation for violence and stupidity and refused to watch. Those same people thought The Sword were fantastic and dug Mastodon’s Crack the Skye material. I described both bands as “psychedelic hard rock” to coax them into watching. It’s a miracle what verbal framing can accomplish.

Those elements of classic rock and psychedelia are a prerequisite for a metal band making the Bonnaroo cut. (Metallica is perhaps exempt, but their mainstream rock-star status could probably land them a gig at any festival.) In addition, all of these bands are relatively family-and-hipster friendly – nothing violent, satanic, or controversial about them. Long songs are an asset, but harsh vocals are curiously not a deal-breaker. Other necessary prerequisites seem to be healthy record sales and critical acclaim. Bonnaroo is still a popularity contest, just an open-minded one.

In such esteemed company, Kylesa is the odd band out. Even their most commercial aspects are strange and defiant. They draw more from ’80s alternative than from the ’70s prog rock Mastodon and Opeth adore – are Sonic Youth and The Pixies now classic rock?

Oddly, Kylesa may be the Bonnaroo metal band with the most pop sensibility. During “Crowded Road”, when Phillip Cope trades his guitar for a floor tom and the camera pulls back, showing the entire band at once, I am reminded of the Talking Heads. Both bands craft big hooks out of multiple percussion instruments, keyboards, and mixed male-female vocals.

I anticipate more metal will show up at Bonnaroo and, hopefully, other major festivals. I have listed some possible candidates from least to most likely:

Kvelertak – Raucous party attitude, classic rock worship, dance beats, critical acclaim, flannel, hipster-friendly punk

Nachtmystium – Psychedelic overtones, dance beats, critical acclaim, songs about drugs, lack of satan

Wolves in the Throne Room – Signed to Hydra Head, hippie-friendly save-the-earth attitude, long songs, fuzzed-out guitars, flannel, lack of satan

Arch Enemy – Big sales, good-looking female singer, crowd-friendly mob mentality, harmless “rebellion rebellion oy oy oy” lyrics, melodic riffs, lack of satan