By Dylan Aycock
Staff Writer
Alternative rock band Phoenix made their third appearance on the farm Friday night with a show that included many audience sing-alongs, abstract visuals and, of course, crowd-surfing.
The band is known for their high energy and remarkable stage presence, and Friday’s performance was no exception.
The French natives rocked out to a fairly predictive setlist which included a mix of songs off their latest release “Bankrupt” and the 2009 Grammy award-winning “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.” The set also included a few older tunes from the days long before their first Bonnaroo appearance five years ago.
It’s been a over a year since the band’s last album release and fans were eager to dance and sing along to more recent material such as “Chloroform,” “Trying to Be Cool” and the dance-infused, fan favorite “Entertainment.”
A video backdrop accented the intro to “Sunscrupt,” a mashup between “Love Like a Sunset” and “Bankrupt!” with a pleasant car ride through Paris. The visuals soon turned into a potential seizure-inducing flash of every color in the spectrum as the band ripped through the exploding instrumental.
Lead singer Thomas Mars never stopped smiling and took several opportunities during the show to express the band’s gratitude to the enthused crowd.
After the crowd sang along to the catchy anthem “Armistice,” Mars jumped down from the stage and into the audience for the opening chords of fan favorite “1901.”
After returning to the stage for awhile, Mars ventured out into the audience once more with the help of a mile-long microphone cord. The frontman traveled far into the audience and returned to the pit long enough to sing the last few notes of “Entertainment.”
It may not be next year, or even the year after, but this French band will be back on the farm once again for another unforgettable performance.
Follow us on Twitter at @mtsusidelines at @sidelines_ae and on Facebook at MTSU Sidelines for galleries of this weekend’s Bonnaroo shows.
