Video: The xx – Backstage at Bonnaroo
ZEN | XRT Staff Writer

http://wxrt.radio.com/2010/06/11/audio-the-xx-backstage-at-bonnaroo/

• 12 June 2010

The XX Play Bonnaroo 2010

bonnarooblogs — June 10, 2010 — Check out the XX close out That Tent on Thursday night For more exclusive content visit Bonnaroo.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZUWIBfwS0c

• 11 June 2010

The xx, Blitzen Trapper Launch Bonnaroo 2010

Romy Madley Croft of The XX performs at Bonnaroo, June 10, 2010.

FilmMagic Inc By J. Edward Keyes Jun 11, 2010 8:54 AM EDT

If there is one thing that remains, eight years on, from Bonnaroo’s neo-hippie roots it is a sense of community. There’s an area called “The Beach” where festival-goers engage in impromptu games of volleyball and cruise down a nearby communal Slip ‘n’ Slide. In early evening of the 2010 fest’s first day, a circle of attendees sketched a live model after a brief art workshop, and anyone weary of walking the campground’s 700 acres could sit in on a yoga class.

But the centerpiece of the ‘Roo has always been music, and Day One ended with a killer set fromthe xx. On their debut, the British trio whittle back R&B and post-punk to nothing but whisper and filament, leaving bare skeletons over which Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim murmur pillow-talk lyrics about ache, longing and endless romantic setbacks. But they quickly proved their small songs could scale festival-size within the opening seconds of “Intro” as their melting-icicle guitars and fluttering percussion seemed suddenly enormous and imposing. (Check out a bit of the band’s set in the video below.)

Check out photos of Bonnaroo’s hottest sets.

Like their music, the xx’s setup was minimal: Occasionally, the stage would be drenched in a single-color light, but mostly it was monochromatic, as stark and severe as the sound. Croft and Sim trade verses like a couple worn down from arguing — their lyrics are pleas and protests, but they’re delivered in an empty, forlorn tone. But if the songs weren’t designed to be anthems, the crowd was determined to treat them like big moments. They clapped along to invisible beats on “VCR” and sought out opportunities to cheer anything: a wisp of guitar, the heartbeat drum machine — at one point even cheering for a moment of dead silence. “Would you like to spend the night? The whole night?” Croft and Sim cooed in their quietly aching cover of Kyla’s “Do You Mind?” The answer was apparent.

For the bulk of their set, the Oregon group Blitzen Trapper engaged in a spirited conversation with the past. With their ambling acoustic guitars, warm harmonies and vocalist Eric Earley’s ragged growl, they seem to imagine a fusion of Bob Dylan and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Occasionally, their debt to the past was a bit too obvious — like when Earley nicked a lyric from “Masters of War” to sing over and over, “When the fire falls/and the fast bullets fly” — but their harmonies were crystalline and soaring, gleaming against the music’s ragged backdrop. While classic American music is their source material, the band is devoted to radically rearranging it, scuffing it up and refitting it to serve their own purposes.

Mayer Hawthorne & the County channeled the past, too. His set played like an old Motown Revue, all smooth moves, percolating bass lines and cottony falsetto. Like the soul singers he emulates, Hawthorne’s primary conversation was with the audience. He slipped whip-crack asides between verses (In “I Wish It Would Rain,” he lamented, “I wished it would rain earlier today — it was hot as fuck out here”) and cajoled the crowd repeatedly into following his dance moves. He also gently chided the festival organizers, lamenting, “There’s a shortage of hip-hop at Bonnaroo this year,” before playing a verse of Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend.”

But the best moment of Hawthorne’s set was his sudden transition from his own speeding soul number “One Track Mind” into a dizzying and unexpected cover of ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky,” complete with noodling guitar solo and sci-fi vocoder on the bridge. As befits Hawthorne’s M.O., it was a note-perfect replica of the original. Why tamper with perfection?

Keep up with all of Rolling Stone’s 2010 Bonnaroo coverage here.

[asset]Manchester Orchestra practiced a kind of churning post-grunge, where wide-open verses suddenly gave way to walloping choruses. Frontman Andy Hull, with his trucker’s cap, robust beard and healthy frame, looked like the kind of guy who would be more at home fronting a country band than navigating the shadowy streets of the heart. But over the course of their set, Hull’s agony became the hook: his voice went from pinched Neil Young croon to tortured screech, and his dialogue remained largely directed at the sky. During “In My Teeth,” he seethed, “Jesus don’t come ‘round/unless we pray each day for 500 days,” the band rushing in to follow that sentiment with the appropriate crescendo.

Earlier in the day, Georgia metal band Baroness’ two guitar players, Peter Adams and frontman John Baizely, spent the majority of the group’s blistering set standing inches away from one another, perfectly mirroring each other’s movements. Those exchanges got higher in pitch on the thundering “The Birthing,” a song that requires Adams and Baizely to steadily work their way up the fretboard until their notes become a series of quick, jabbing squawks.[asset]

What makes Baroness so special is their ability to combine metal’s fury with a surgeon’s precision. Baizely and Adams construct a complicated latticework of guitars, every sixteenth note carefully placed and perfectly executed. On the marauding “Jake Leg,” they answered each others’ phrasing note-for-note, broad smiles breaking out across both of their faces with each fevered, flawless run. It felt like a particularly heated exchange in a Mamet play — long, rambling chatterbox leads that gained in determination and intensity as they went on, setting the stage for a day of dramatic, giddy musical conversations.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/17386/113943

• 11 June 2010

Tent Posts: Interview With Romy of The XX

Alex Frank

The xx headlined the first night of Bonnaroo, a pretty big event for a band that has exploded in popularity in only one year and one album. It’s a testament to the group’s cross-genre reach that they were booked for Bonnaroo at all, a festival more inclined to summer folk than the colder R&B that is The xx’s trademark. But they killed it on stage, probably converting about a million festival goers into fans. Before the madness of their 11:30 PM set, we caught up with Romy for a quick chat about who they would book for their own personal festival, making mixtapes, the places they’ve gone, and the crazy places they’ve yet to go. If this next year is as life-changing for them as the last, they’ll most certainly be exactly where they like.

• 11 June 2010

The XX - Outro

Bwilliamson30 — June 09, 2010 — The XX live @ the House of Blues San Diego 6/8/10. Song: Outro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dkE7KOynjU

• 10 June 2010

The XX “Do You Mind?” Live 6/5/2010 @ the Fonda Music Box in Los Angeles

nosaintinla — June 08, 2010 — The XX played the Music Box in Hollywood on June 5, 2010. Great sound on this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QC4Ih4yhq0

• 8 June 2010

Infinity (The Ending)(LIVE @ The Wiltern) - The xx

Romy and Oliver’s back and forth, The end.

cuuhriss — June 07, 2010 — Infinity - The xx June 6th, 2010 The Wiltern, Los Angeles Oliver going crazy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPj__GzgkeI

• 7 June 2010

The XX

Islands into Heart Skipped a Beat, not all of it, but it’s a good video.

CarlVanNess — June 07, 2010 — The XX @ The Wiltern. 06/06/2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4ZPjjNNRHY

• 7 June 2010

Intro/Crystalised @Henry Fonda Theater Music Box (06.05.2010)

Check out simplyannaeeee’s video’s from The xx last night!!! They rock!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/Licona1219

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxez2RreG4I

• 6 June 2010

Do u mind - The XX Live @ Primavera Sound 2010

petyaraykovska — May 30, 2010

This is the second video I’ve posted from her @ Primavera

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KoHtcY0hCU

• 6 June 2010

The XX “VCR” Live Henry Fonda Music Box Hollywood, CA 6.5.10

moviebruin — June 06, 2010 — The XX in their first L.A. headlining set at the Music Box in Hollywood

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQBEsKmCNyQ

• 6 June 2010

The xx - Heart Skipped A Beat (live in LA @ the Henry Fonda Theatre 06.05.10)

mysugarspun — June 06, 2010 — Live at the Music Box at the Henry Fonda | Los Angeles
June 5, 2010
(The xx play their first ever headlining gig in LA.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o90bi0vhG-0

• 6 June 2010