David Byrne Picks His Own Bonnaroo Lineup

Posted on May 19th 2009 3:00PM by Benjy Eisen
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During the day on Friday, June 12, at this year's Bonnaroo, the performance tent usually designated as "That Tent" (as opposed to "This Tent" or "The Other Tent") may as well be renamed "David's House." That's because all five acts that day -- Ani DiFranco, Santigold, the Dirty Projectors, St. Vincent and Katzenjammer -- were hand-picked by David Byrne himself.

As the tent's curator for the day, Byrne said the acts he went with all had to fit a certain criteria. "I kind of self-imposed a little bit of restrictions," he said at a recent press conference for the festival. For example, he eliminated any act that he hasn't already had a chance to check out live. "There might be somebody's recording that's musically great, but ... you know, outdoors on a hot summer night or late afternoon in Tennessee, sometimes the music is just not going to work, as much as you might love it."

Byrne already proved that his own material (including nuggets from the Talking Heads songbook) "works" at Bonnaroo when he performed there back in 2004. Forty-five minutes after his curated tent goes dark, he's scheduled to close out the "Which Stage" with his own two-hour headlining set.

For Byrne, the festival will still just be one stop in the middle of the latest run of his world tour in support of his latest release, 'Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno.' The current stint begins June 1 in Vermont, and wraps up in California on June 26.