Let me inform you of Bonnaroo’s dark little secret. It’s the one thing that I hate about the festival. No matter how many great things you experience there, you’re always missing something mindblowingly cool. Whether it’s a breakout band you’re missing for a solid reunion act or an all-star Superjam you’re missing in favor of a band that never plays in the US, you’ll always be missing something fantastic.

MP3: Dirty Projectors – Stillness is the Move

And since I hadn’t learned to bi-locate or read the performer’s mind, I missed out on what was most likely one of Bonnaroo’s best moments. For the second time ever, David Byrne joined the Dirty Projectors to play their song “Knotty Pine.” But I’m getting ahead of myself. What I did see of the Dirty Projectors’ set (which was about 60% of it) was fantastic.

The Dirty Projectors may have been playing fairly early in the day, but they had a sizable and very devoted crowd. Shouldn’t be any surprise, though, since Bitte Orca is one of the year’s most innovative, transfixing albums I’ve heard in a good while. And for once, great innovation has been rewarded with great adulation. The gentle beauty of “Two Doves” performed with just Angel on vocals and Dave on guitar was fantastic, but was soon thereafter topped by the full-band performance of “Stillness is the Move,” a song which has few equals this year. Like the band (and mind) that spawned it, it’s in a class of its own.

More photos after the jump…