If you are reading this and you don't know what Coachella is, it is safe to assume that you have been living under a rock for quite some time. That being said, I can start my review... well I personally don't want to go into extreme detail for each of the people I saw, because there were just too many good bands to review. But I will give a little blurb for most of em'.
We can start with the camping situation. It was fairly organized, and wasn't too bad, our neighbors were pretty chills for the most part, but a few of them were morons, but nothing that I didn't expect. Showers were actually pretty nice, and I was surprised to get some hot water. Although it was so bloody hot that I honestly didn't want to use the hot water. I think for the majority of the weekend it was a 100+. I drank seriously 30 waters/gatorades in 3 days. The prices inside the festival for food and water was a rape, but I there was nothing to be done about it. The Hawaiian BBQ place kept giving loads of chicken to fuel me through the arduous long dancing nights.
The crowd was mostly younger people in their 20's, but for some of the bands there were some people who showed up who were like 15yrs old, and then there were some urban cougars on the prowl...
F R I D A Y
Arctic Monkeys:Really good show, the lead guy is very talented, but they need to work on their band-banter. It was pretty boring banter, that was basically "I'm Britt-Ish, blabla". Regardless it was a great show, and was nice considering they came on around sunset Friday evening.
Jesus & the Mary Chain:
Wow, not impressed at all. It wasn't horrible from technical standpoint, but their lyrics were horrible. Stupidity spouted from the mic would be a simple and concise way to sum them up.
Interpol:
Way good band! Their performance was awesome. Very impressed and was pleased!
Bjork:
First impressions were this chick is Icelandic, and she's insane. It was very upbeat, and interesting. I gained a new respect for her, because before I have seen her I just thought she was straight-up weird. I classified her in the same group as aliens, magicians, carni-folk. However, my opinion is changed! I have a better appreciation for her weirdness and she actually is one of the most creative artists I've seen. I didn't stay the whole time for her stuff, because I wanted to see
DJ Shadow:
Started off playing his older stuff--which I love--but then started playing stuff off the newer album. I had to bounce back to camp to hop in the shower, so I didn't get to catch all of his set unfortunately.
S A T U R D A Y
Paul Van Dyk:The Fratellis:
Fun fun fun! Was really having a blast dancing to them, met some 日本人 and we spoke Japanese for a while. I was impressed that they came all that way for Coachella. Unfortunately none of the girls were interesting =( but it was still fun to chat for a bit!
Regina Spektor:
Got bored listening to her, plus she was on main stage, and it was incredibly hot, so I didn't have the stay power to listen to everything, and I bounced over to Mojave tent to see
Hot Chip:
Superior. Hot Chip owned me pretty bad, I couldn't make it in the tent just because it was sooo hot inside, it was at least 10+ dgrs hotter because of all the dancing people going crazy. I have never been a big fan of the rock+EDM bands (like Infected Mushroom, not my thing); however, I really seemed to dig Hot Chip. I caught like 4-5 tracks and they were rocking and upbeat but nothing too intense like InfMshrm.
MSTRKRFT:
Caught the first half of their set, and holy wicked basslines everywhere. It was disorienting when I first went in... I was feeling a bit dizzy and I'm it was because of the heat+bass. They are an interesting group, but I wasn't able to stay for the whole set.
Arcade Fire:
What a fun band to watch. I love it when people demolish their own equipment... NOT! Man, at least you could toss it into the crowd to please some fanboy, and fulfill his life's dreams instead of smashing it on stage. Very fun to watch though I guess...
RHCP:
Definately the performance of the night! When the back LCD came on, I was pretty starry-eyed, it certainly was very cool to look at. They are definitely a band where you can tell that they are veterans at the concert thing. Fly told some lame jokes, and band-banter was entertaining and engaging. The performance was awesome, lighting, sound, vocals, guitar solos galore, it was a stew of coagulated music juices, where sweet and sour, salty and spicy, combined to provide a most enjoyable musical experience! Hah! What a lame description!
Tiesto:
Wasn't expecting to be blown away, but WHY do you have to play the two worst tracks on your album. Dance4Life sucks, nobody likes it, should have dropped some wicked remix of Driving to Heaven or something... bah. I was pleased that he closed the set with Adagio for Strings, that was cool, very reminiscent of Tiesto in concert. The lighting was sweet, but the visuals in the back were absurd! Since when did people jumping around in leotards become aesthetically 'cool' I must have missed the memo on this one.
Fun fun fun! Was really having a blast dancing to them, met some 日本人 and we spoke Japanese for a while. I was impressed that they came all that way for Coachella. Unfortunately none of the girls were interesting =( but it was still fun to chat for a bit!
Regina Spektor:
Got bored listening to her, plus she was on main stage, and it was incredibly hot, so I didn't have the stay power to listen to everything, and I bounced over to Mojave tent to see
Hot Chip:
Superior. Hot Chip owned me pretty bad, I couldn't make it in the tent just because it was sooo hot inside, it was at least 10+ dgrs hotter because of all the dancing people going crazy. I have never been a big fan of the rock+EDM bands (like Infected Mushroom, not my thing); however, I really seemed to dig Hot Chip. I caught like 4-5 tracks and they were rocking and upbeat but nothing too intense like InfMshrm.
MSTRKRFT:
Caught the first half of their set, and holy wicked basslines everywhere. It was disorienting when I first went in... I was feeling a bit dizzy and I'm it was because of the heat+bass. They are an interesting group, but I wasn't able to stay for the whole set.
Arcade Fire:
What a fun band to watch. I love it when people demolish their own equipment... NOT! Man, at least you could toss it into the crowd to please some fanboy, and fulfill his life's dreams instead of smashing it on stage. Very fun to watch though I guess...
RHCP:
Definately the performance of the night! When the back LCD came on, I was pretty starry-eyed, it certainly was very cool to look at. They are definitely a band where you can tell that they are veterans at the concert thing. Fly told some lame jokes, and band-banter was entertaining and engaging. The performance was awesome, lighting, sound, vocals, guitar solos galore, it was a stew of coagulated music juices, where sweet and sour, salty and spicy, combined to provide a most enjoyable musical experience! Hah! What a lame description!
Tiesto:
Wasn't expecting to be blown away, but WHY do you have to play the two worst tracks on your album. Dance4Life sucks, nobody likes it, should have dropped some wicked remix of Driving to Heaven or something... bah. I was pleased that he closed the set with Adagio for Strings, that was cool, very reminiscent of Tiesto in concert. The lighting was sweet, but the visuals in the back were absurd! Since when did people jumping around in leotards become aesthetically 'cool' I must have missed the memo on this one.
S U N D A Y
Explosions In the Sky:
Awesome! I love the instrumental rock, and they are so so SO talented!
Awesome! I love the instrumental rock, and they are so so SO talented!
KILLED IT! WOW! The beginning of the set had sooo much potential, but the energy kinda decreased a bit during the middle and then picked up at the end. 1.5hrs is really just too short to accomplish anything decent. There were a few new tracks of his new album that got played. "Stormy Skies" actually is a lot better live than I heard on the radio rip that was circulating around a bit ago. Everyone had a good time, met a really cute girl but her friend kept interrupting when I was talking to her... anyway, all in all VERY FUN!
Rage Against the Machine:
Everyone started pushing to the front about 30min before Rage was supposed to start, and so it was getting really crowded (unfortunately there were not a lot of females =(, which I don't blame em' it was a ruff crowd), but we were packed like sardines and we were still by the main stage tech box (i.e. not too close, but not very far away from main stage). They come running on stage and this HUGE Rage flag drops in the background and that is when the Rage vortex started. I swear I pushed, carried, time-warped, whatever it was, 60ft closer than where I was in a matter of a few seconds. The gravity of the band, was sucking all the people closer and closer, and I was feelin' a bit uncomfortable, but I couldn't help buy smile. The show was great, people were going nutz, I had like 3 people dropped on my head because there was so many people crowdsurfing, and I was bouncing all over the place (although, I tried my best to steer clear of the mosh-pits, too old for that stuff).Renegades of Funk (a personal favorite...):
Other Cool Stuff:
The tesla coils were sweet! The fire machine, the wierd clown guys that cooled everyone off with the water mister guns, the girl that took the hook and sinker, the Japanese Kook fans LOL!, the guy who ripped his pants wresting the girl in line for gatorade (better leave the wrestling mask at home next time), and much more!
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