Images of Bonnaroo: Day 2

Friday is when things at Bonnaroo really start to coalesce. Most of the festivalgoers have arrived, everyone's learning that you can't just apply sunscreen in the morning and be done with it, and the prestige level of the bands that perform jumps up dramatically. Every performance I saw completely blew me away, and Rodrigo y Gabriela's show on the What Stage was the highlight of my weekend.

A virtual one-woman band, tUnE-yArDs' Merrill Garbus (joined by a bass and two saxophones) performed feats of looped vocal acrobatics, primal drumming and rock-and-roll electric ukulele at This Tent on Friday afternoon.

The indie darling claimed to never have performed so early in the day, but she rallied and gave the audience a nuanced performance that shifted smoothly between animalistic yowls and gentle whispers.

Soul queen Sharon Jones held court at the What Stage on Friday afternoon.

Photographing Jones and her superlative band, The Dap-Kings, is no easy feat, as holding the camera still is nigh on impossible when one's hips feel the pull of their funky grooves.

A former corrections officer at Riker's Island, Jones can quiet a crowd of thousands with a single arch of her eyebrow. 

L.A. soul-pop outfit Fitz and the Tantrums, led by singers Michael Fitzpatrick and Noelle Scaggs, brought incredible energy to a hot mid-afternoon set at That Tent. Truth be told, this photographer wasn't sure if the heat she felt during their set came from the sun or the pair's on-stage chemistry.

Despite their varied styles and personae, every performer I saw displayed unabashed joy at playing the festival on The Farm. 

After playing Bonnaroo in 2009, powerhouse guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela returned to the What Stage with the band C.U.B.A. Billed as some of the finest young players to come out of Havana, C.U.B.A.'s members supported Rod y Gab's already lush sounds and gave the guitarists a chance to rest their fingers with some impressive solos.

And at last we reach the headliners. One of the biggest bands on the planet, Radiohead delivered a sensory-overload of a show that impressed even this moderate fan. Between Thom Yorke's surprisingly frenetic on-stage performance and a beautiful light and video show,  the group lived up to the hype.

And hearing 50,000 people sing the entirety of "Karma Police" together was pretty cool.

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