Comedy steals the show

Considering artists like Jay Z and Kings of Leon performed, it was surprising that the highlight of this year's Bonnaroo was the comedy. This was greatly due to Conan O'Brien's "The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour."

It was unsettling at first, but ultimately refreshing to hear O'Brien drop an F-bomb. As he pointed out, this tour is the first time people have paid to see him perform live since he began hosting late-night television. O'Brien took full advantage of the freedom offered, taking several jabs at NBC while avoiding naming names for legal purposes, including his classic impersonation of Jay Leno.

"I have lawyers watching, so that's not who you think that was," O'Brien said. "That was my impression of rapper Ludacris."

O'Brien also discussed going through an eight-stage process to deal with his loss of The Tonight Show.

"Stage 2: Blame myself," O'Brien said. "I didn't spend a lot of time on this stage, because what the hell did I do? I didn't do anything! Screw that, on to Stage 3: Blame everyone else around me! I blamed my wife, my kids, everyone."

The show also featured appearances from several of O'Brien's friends, including Andy Richter and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. He also brought back old bits like the Walker Texas Ranger lever.

O'Brien played plenty of music during his show, including parodies of "On the Road Again" and "I Will Survive," which he transformed into songs about the struggles of life without a network television show. He might not have the vocal chops to be a legitimate musician, but O'Brien's guitar solo during an instrumental cover of "Seven Nation Army" was comparable to the original Jack White version.

Comedians Jack Black and Kyle Gass performed Friday night as the comedic heavy-metal band Tenacious D on the festival's main stage. O'Brien introduced the band and jokingly displayed his fandom in rather intimate fashion.

Immediately following the Tenacious D concert, Steve Martin played on another stage with his group The Steep Canyon Rangers. While all three acts are well-versed in comedy, they each possess enough talent to be legitimate touring musicians.

Ingrid Michaelson was the reverse of that, providing plenty of comedy during her musical act. She performed a punk version of her own indie hit "The Way I Am" along with covers of Britney Spears and Lady Gaga. Her act contained as much banter with the crowd as it did music, but the comedic aspects only added to her overall performance.

Fellow indie musician Regina Spektor put on a solid show, as did other Bonnaroo veterans like Norah Jones, Kings of Leon and The Dave Matthews Band.

A pair of newcomers to keep an eye on is Frontier Ruckus and Joshua James.

Frontier Ruckus is a five-piece folk-rock band based out of Lansing who played Bonnaroo for the first time this week.

"It's hot as hell," banjo player David Winston Jones said. "It's dirty and muddy, and there are probably ticks on me. You get over that kind of stuff because of the splendor of what's going on around you."

The band was formed by Jones and lead singer and songwriter Matthew Milia while the two attended high school in Detroit. While the best part of the band is the lyrics, multi-instrumentalist Zachary Nichols is a close second. In a one-hour set on Thursday, Nichols played the trumpet, alto-horn, melodica and musical saw.

"Some people perceive the saw as a novelty or a gimmick, but when they actually see Zach play, that changes," Jones said. "It's weird to say, but he's a professional saw player."

"Zach offers so much texture and nuance and a very slight emotional change from song to song," Milia said. "He really lends a lot to our mood. He's phenomenal. We might be biased, but we're yet to come across a better saw player. His ear is amazing."

The band's next album will be released on July 20.

Joshua James is a folk singer from Utah. He has the technical soundness of Jack Johnson combined with the politically-driven songwriting ability of Bob Dylan. It's difficult to determine whether he is a singer-songwriter trapped in a rocker's body or vice versa.

The late-night pairing on Saturday of Stevie Wonder opening for Jay Z was as unusual as it was brilliant. I spent five hours with zero personal space as one of over 70,000 standing in a field, but it was worth every minute. Wonder played a majority of his hits and insisted on constant audience participation. His performance of "Superstition" was the most memorable song of this year's festival.

I'm normally not one for rap, so I was surprised when Jay Z managed to keep me entertained for his entire set. It was amusing to see the entire Bonnaroo crowd "put their diamonds in the air." Other than a couple of breaks to interact with the crowd, Jay Z performed non-stop without any transition from one song to the next.

Another big surprise was how much I enjoyed Weezer's show. I had planned to just watch a couple songs before heading to see Jeff Beck, but I got roped in and never left. Lead singer Rivers Cuomo moved about the stage like a monkey on a sugar bender, climbing scaffolding and jumping from platform to platform. The band played a good mix of classic hits and new songs.

"I'm from Knoxville, and one of the reasons I left is because there was nothing like this," Weezer lead guitarist Brian Bell said. "There were no opportunities for musicians to do anything with a career in music. Maybe if this was here I never would have left."

After the Dave Matthews Band closed out the weekend with a three-hour set, it was time to leave behind the music, hippies, unforgiving sun and bug-infested campgrounds. At last, it was only an unpleasant 10-hour ride home that stood in between me and being able to shower again.