Coachella Recap

Man, what a weekend! After a somewhat late-ish start (I HAD to stop off and get me some Del Taco on the way to Coachella), I arrived at the Polo fields with my girlfriend Kathy and the rest of the group (Jessica, Kathleen, Kelly) just in time to catch Animal Collective. I seemed to be the only one into the set, as was evidenced by somebody in the group saying, "this fucking sucks." Subtle. As much as I like the group, their expermental tangents admittedly didn't hold my attention for very long. The sun and heat also didn't help matters.

Onto the Coachella stage.

We got there in time to catch Common, who's set was a mix between old and new tracks - "The Light," "Go," "Be," "On The Corner." Most entertaining about the performance was Common's breakdancing during the middle of his set. As a person who's perfected the robot, I was very impressed with his moves. He also brought some girl onto the stage, sang to her, and kinda danced with her. By kinda danced, I mean they were half-heartedly rubbing their privates against each other. She was a skank.

Next up, Kanye. I've never been a big Kanye fan and all the hype surrounding him propagated by the media and well...himself, haven't helped matters. But I have to admit that he put on a great performance. He had a string section accompanying him and he blew through his hits - "Jesus Walks," "Testify," "Diamonds From Sierra Leone," "Gold Digger," "Heard'em Say," "All Falls Down," and even "Slow Jamz." During "Gold Digger" he told the crowd, "C'mon everybody, this is the only time it'll be ok for white people to say 'nigga.'" As hard as I tried, I still couldn't say it (even with Mr. West's approval). The most I could muster up was a very softly spoken "ni" which I quickly changed to nisper, a nonsensical term I came up with on the spot. During the set, Kanye also referenced and had DJ A-Trak play some oldies but goodies from his past. These included Al Green's "Let's Stay Together," Michael Jackson's "Rock With You," and A-Ha's "Take On Me." This got most of the crowd singing along, including myself. Note to self: you are a shitty singer.

After K.W., Kathy and I proceeded to the Mojave stage to catch TV on the Radio right as they were closing with "King Eternal." From the crowd's response, it seemed like they put on a great show. Wish I could've seen more of it.

A quick walk to the Outdoor Theatre brought us to Damian Marley. In usual stoner fashion, he was late and kept the crowd waiting an extra 15 minutes. After only a few songs, we left and headed towards other bands. The combination of me not being high and suddenly realizing that I don't like reggae music was the kicker.

Back to the Mojave stage for Ladytron! The theme for the day seemed to be only catching partial sets and this was no different. Luckily, we had some success pushing our way into the crowd and caught "Destroy Everything You Touch" and "Seventeen." The band sounded great and left me wanting more. Too bad I didn't do my research, otherwise I could've caught them tonight at The El Rey Theatre. Damn sold out tickets.

Franz Ferdinand was up next on the main stage. They sounded great but I've never been a fan. I don't know what it is about their music, I just can't seem to get into it. Oh well.....

Back to the Mojave stage again for Cat Power. She looked gorgeous up on stage and had a string quartet (or was it quintet) as well as a pianist backing her. She opened up with "The Greatest," all the while flexing her arms, and then proceeded to play other tracks from her album including "Living Proof," "Lived in Bars," and "Could We." Awesome.

In order to get a good spot for Depeche Mode, we cut out early and headed back to the Coachella stage. The stage was set up with a giant disco ball looking thing that flashed different words (none of which I can think of at the moment, damn alzheimer's) and gigantic panels on the left and right of the stage that projected live footage and a montage of images. The band opened with material from their most current album and classic "World in my Eyes." Overall, the performance was solid but my interest in them wasn't great enough to warrant staying for the entire set. Kathy, who's a MUCH bigger fan, didn't object to us leaving for a bit since she caught them in San Diego back in 2000.

Atmosphere, here we come! As we rolled up to the stage, we could hear the beginning of "Trying to Find a Balance" and immediately got amped. We started half running, jumping over things in the dark, all the while rapping and butchering the song lyrics. Slug was onstage with Brother Ali (the palest and pastiest Muslim you'll ever see) and one of the dudes from Los Nativos. They tore through the more recent hits "Panic Attack" and "CatsVansBags," and dipped into older cuts like "Modern Man's Hustle," "God Loves Ugly," and even a track from the Overcast album. The icing on the cake would've been hearing "Fuck You Lucy," the ultimate eff you song in response to breaking up, but it didn't happen. For all I know, they might've played it before I got there or before I left, but either way, I didn't hear it. Poop.

We raced back in time to catch the very end of Depeche Mode and heard the band close with "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy the Silence." It made me feel like I was back in 6th grade all over again - God, I am fucking old. As the band exited the stage and people started to disperse, there were rumblings in the crowd and YES, encore. Martin Gore kicked it off with a solo rendition of "Shake This Disease" which was followed by "Stripped," a song I didn't recognize, and "Never Let Me Down Again." As usual, people hung around for a possible second encore but no, the band was done.

In a stupor after such a compressed day of music, we all headed back to the car with She Wants Revenge playing in the background, appropriately signifying our departure back to L.A. I wouldn't have minded catching some of their act, but beating the crowd to the freeway was far more important to me at that point. All in all, it was a great day for shows and I escaped without any sunburnage.