Another excellent year. Time seemed to go really quickly this year… before I knew it, it was all over.
Wen and I drove out late Friday night, found our not too bad but not great hotel. Didn’t even have a bar. Everything closes at midnight there so it was off to the gas station/am/pm to pick up some beer and snacks. Stayed in, watched some TV and tried to get a decent night’s sleep before day one.
Greg and Anna drove out the next morning, a few beers were had, a little lunch, much slathering of sunblock, and then we headed over to the polo fields around 2-3ish. Not sure if they radically changed the way parking is dealt with (certainly the large numbered balloons were a welcome improvement in terms of finding your car at the end of the night) but we were in the lot within 15 minutes. It took over an hour last year. The line to get in was fairly quick as well; next to no security check for whatever reason.
Once inside, it was time to head to the beer tent. I wanted to catch a few of the bands playing in the tents, so we grabbed a beer near the area and I was able to listen to a bit of Ambulance Ltd while enjoying the sun and brew. A perfect start. Headed into the Sahara tent to catch a bit of Perry Farrel (oh, sorry, DJ Peretz). Boring. But even with a boring act on, the dance tent always has the best feel to it. Greg and I spent most of the weekend discussing how much more vital dance acts tend to be live. Guitar bands have gotta get their shows together - standing up and playing just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Went and saw a bit of M83 - great stuff, but felt a bit weird in 90+ degree heat in the middle of a day. This is a band to see live in Iceland or something like that. Actually, most of the first day was amazingly mellow. Headed over to the other beer tent between the main and outdoor stages, caught a bit of Snow Patrol and Keane (more mellow stuff)… headed over and saw some of UNKLE’s set, which seemed great - again, massive energy in the dance tent, as opposed to polite nodding everywhere else. Back over to catch a bit of Wilco and head into the VIP area for easier access to drinks. Bit messy back there this year - the port-a-potties were worse than the regular area, the food lacked in comparison to the mostly excellent choices in the regular food areas, and it was way overcrowded. The people watching, however, was excellent.
Hung out for Weezer, then headed into the fray for Bauhaus. Started their set with Bela… with Peter Murphy hanging upside down in front of the drum riser. Nice. It was a great set, they were awesomely theatrical. Everything that Greg and I were talking about - everything that’s missing in rock bands today. A real show, with excellent but minimal lighting, really relying on Pete’s charisma, which is ample. Cool shirt too.. but he really should have ditched the gear he had on to hang upside down. Looked like he had a truss on later in the set.
Turnout was pretty weak for them, which was unfortunate, but then again… most of the people at the festival probably weren’t born when they split up. So not much of a surprise. Unfortunately, both Bloc Party and the Secret Machine’s sets was entirely during Bauhaus so I didn’t get to catch any of them. They’ll play LA soon enough, Bauhaus won’t.
Immediately left post-set as the Coldplay massives began to swarm towards the main stage, and headed over to the dance tent to catch the Chemical Brothers, catching a bit of Mercury Rev along the way. Great stuff. A little disappointed that Bernard Sumner didn’t come out and sing the track he did with them, since he was hanging out all day. Oh well. Exhausted and covered with dust, it was back to the car and hotel, and fairly quickly to sleep. After watching Robert Schimmel uncensored on Comedy Central. Fucking funny stuff. Coachella should have a comedy tent next year. Wouldn’t take up much space and it would make a better music break than most of the “performance art” crap they’ve got every year.
Day two… slow morning… drove around Indio to find a nice place for lunch, which ended up not being particularly great. The waiter was fantastically snooty though. Off to the venue, once again, no problems parking and getting in.
Headed straight over to the Gobi tent to catch a bit of MIA and see what all the fuss is about. A DJ and two indian female rappers. Interesting stuff, but not particularly exciting. Going to get the album and see how that sounds. People were getting into it, though. A lot of white girls doing the herky jerky dance.
Time for a beer again, and I was able to listen to a bit of Kasabian’s set while enjoying yet another Amstel Light. Off to the outdoor stage for Tegan and Sara. Real potential there, but man, no onstage charisma whatsoever. Cue another beer and another talk with Greg about the dynamics of playing live. Split up at this point, as Greg wanted to see Gang of Four and my priorities were Junkie XL at the dance tent. I loved his set; Wen though he was a little too showy singing along with the lyrics to whatever he was playing. I see her point, but I think anything that a DJ does is an improvement over just nodding rhythmically.
Missed the Bravery, which I wanted to see since they’re getting a massive industry push yet the scuttlebut is they totally suck and they’re the equivalent of an indie boy band, put together by a smarmy label exec. I’ll never know.
Off to New Order and the VIP tent for drinks while watching the shockingly old looking guys pound it out. They did three Joy Division covers, which I thought was a little over the top. Then it was time for Nine Inch Nails, and Wen decided she was going in to the pit. It’s been years for me, but what the hell. It was pretty fucking awesome, and I’m still sore. Great set. The band needs a little more time together to tighten things up, and there weren’t any visuals yet, but it was pretty fucking sweet. Lots of old stuff. Much pain. We decided to get out about three songs before the end, and he started playing “hurt”. Pretty fucking cool stumbling and pushing your way through 10,000 people or so who are so enraptured they don’t even see or look at you as you shove past them.
Met back up with Greg and Anna and headed over to the dance tent for the Prodigy. They should have followed up NIN on the main stage instead of Black Star, but whatever. Great, GREAT set. Even after the last crap album. Which they didn’t play much of. Keith and Maxim were back, and it was pretty amazing. Went back into the pit, which had a fair amount of people who didn’t want to be in a pit and seemed quite upset about it. Probably shouldn’t be in the front of a Prodigy show then, you morons. Go watch Bright Eyes.
Met back up with everyone at the misting tent, which now had a DJ in it and quite a few people busting their stuff. Which was very funny. Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite was in there, seriously getting down. A nice way to end the evening, and yet another Coachella experience.
The rumors for next year - Depeche Mode and the White Stripes as the two main headliners.
