Bonnaroo Band of the Day: The Orwells

As we’ve been doing for the past several years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorites acts from from Bonnaroo‘s impressive 2017 lineup. As we dig through the entire schedule, we’ll highlight a spread of performers spanning across genres and stages, big and small, new and old, to bring you some of the most interesting, lesser-known, or most highly-reccomened among this year’s crop of artists. Though we’ll be jumping around, we’re loosely working our way through by day, and we’ll also be bringing you some special features and longer guides along the way, to help you plan your weekend before the fest. While these previews won’t span every performer, and might omit some more obvious must-see acts, we hope they’ll serve as a way to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s gargantuan lineup, and to make the most of your busy weekend on the farm!

Grab your tickets right here if you haven’t already, and keep reading to learn more about our Bonnaroo Band of the Day…

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We felt it fitting to kick this year’s Band of the Day series off with a returning act who delivered one of the most memorable Bonnaroo sets of the last few years, and one who’ve graduated to much higher billing than last time around. Rewind to 2014, and garage punks The Orwells, who hail from the Chicago suburbs, were inexplicably scheduled on Bonnaroo’s Club Stage lineup, despite commanding a pretty healthy buzz already. Their On Tap Lounge set went exactly as expected, quickly descending into chaos, with fans crowdsurfing into the tiny stage, climbing the scaffolding, and getting into confrontations with security, which briefly led to the plug being pulled as things simmered down. Needless to say, they brought some much-needed punk spirit to a fest that is a little lacking sometimes in that department, and their Thursday night return this year should be enough fuel to get us amped for the whole weekend.

Formed while still in high school, The Orwells caught the eye of Aquarium Drunkard’s Justin Gage early on, who helped them rise to broader recognition with their snotty, skater-punk skewing debut Remember When in 2012. Five years and countless high-profile tours, festival, and television appearances since, and the band are still coasting on a considerable amount of hype, even if still they’re just short of being a household name. As they’ve gotten older, their music has also evolved, and, though they’re harboring more of an indie and garage rock bent these days, with their most recent and third LP, Terrible Human Beings, out earlier this year, the band are just as wild, weird, and punk rock live as they’ve ever been (which we witnessed again firsthand last summer at Shaky Knees). In a year where the louder, rowdier, heavier music is in the minority, The Orwells are a must-see addition to Bonnaroo’s lineup.

LISTEN | “Southern Comfort”