Coachella 2008!
Bands: Architecture in Helsinki, The Breeders, Múm, Goldfrapp, Spank Rock, Swell Season The Verve, Fatboy Slim, Hot Chip, Scars on Broadway, Cinematic Orchestra, Dwight Yokam, Deathcab for Cutie, Rilo Kiley, Kraftwerk, MIA, Portishead, Prince, The Shout Out Louds, Stars, Swervedriver, Does it Offend You, Yeah? Spiritualized, Metric, My Morning Jacket, Love and Rockets, Roger Waters, Chromeo, Justice
Movies: Out of Sight, Margot at the Wedding
Coachella, year 4. Things that were different: Better art. Much better art. We had backstage access, and VIP access, which was awesome for the good bathrooms and vodka. The middle drinking area between stages 1 and 2 was MUCH bigger, and stage 1 was brought forward enough to make the sound better. The whole entry area was re-worked to get faster entry, and that worked awesomely. Much better signage. Better fencing. The frozen lemonades weren’t frozen solid. There was a crappy VIP area behind the dance tent. It seemed like most second-tier bands were in the tents and not on the second stage. The stupid rave in the middle of the festival was still there. The sound was, generally, much better. There was still a ton of pot in the air. No one was wearing any clothes. Man, Coachella is Cognitive Dissonance defined for New Englanders still used to winter. It was awesome to have my sister there, and our friend from Alaska growing up Lila Marley was there, which was awesome. I had randomly run into her at Coachella two years ago, so this was a treat to get to have her with us. Emma’s friends were super nice, and it was hilarious to see Christine and Emma interact and bicker and whatnot. Our vacation house was bigger than last year. Maybe like 5% less nice, but the AC worked, which was awesome. Judi managed to save like $200 on the car rental – I think she should do the car rental every time. Never caught up with half my friends like Laurance and Baily, but I did randomly run into Trammel, which was awesome.
All in all, the headliners are getting bigger and weirder and I have NO IDEA how they’re going to top that next year. Prince, Roger Waters and Jack Johnson were all gutsy moves for an alterna-festival. Prince and Roger Waters delivered. Jack Johnson did not. I’m hoping for Bowie or the Beatles next year. I mean, come on. What can they do? Oh, they do need to get Spacemen 3 together if they can. ha. And Ride. And Tones on Tail. But as you can see, none of these are particularly big. Oh, the Smiths. ha. yeah. This Mortal Coil. Cocteau Twins. Wolfgang Press. The Dead Kennedy’s with Jello. The Knife. Jay Jay Johansen. Man, one day into the next year and I’m already carried away with 2009 Coachella speculation.
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Thursday, April 24 BOS – PSP. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUG! Got up insanely, uncomfortably early and caught a 7 AM flight to Palm Springs via Salt Lake City. Judi and I landed around noon and headed to In N Out Burger, of course. Then we tried to go to our rental house, but there was no key under the mat as there was supposed to be, so we thought maybe it was the unit upstairs, and, um, I walked in on an old man on crutches. Oops. So then we called the rental place and they said we couldn’t check in till 2:30 so we went to Radio Shack and got a cable for the iPod so we could rock in the car, and then we went and picked up my sister Val at the airport. Then we went grocery shopping for the weekend and then got to the house. We ate and debated going and seeing the Salton Sea – something I’ve wanted to do for ages, especially since Judi and I watched The Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea this year – but none of us could work up the energy to inspire the other ones to go. So we watched Out of Sight. Judi went to bed and Val and I drunkenly watched Margot at the Wedding, which is pretty funny to watch with your sister. At the end she said “man I’m glad I’m not insane.” Every bit of the film was great, and the dialogue was solid, but it was just… too much. And with no resolution, it missed something. Which is pretty much how I felt about Squid and the Whale. Anyway, eventually Emma’s friends Christine and Mike showed up, and they went to bed, and then around 2 AM and showed up, and we had one last nightcap and all went to bed.
Friday, April 25 – Got up and I made breakfast for everyone – my absolute favorite thing to do on Coachella vacations. Big piles of breakfast potatoes, eggs, bacon, tortillas, two kinds of home made salsa, etc. Yummy. Then we sort of got motivated and headed to the festival via our secret back-door route. And we passed the Beer Hunter again! Best name for a bar ever. I had forgotten all about it since last year. Funny how all of the Desert Cities roads slowly came back to me over the weekend. Anyway, we arrived at the festival at exactly 4:09 and caught a few songs of Architecture in Helsinki, who were upbeat and fun, before heading over to The Breeders. The Breeders were in good form that day – they can be sloppy. But they nailed it pretty much, and played the hits. And for an old time fan like me, I was happy to see their first album, Pod, represented in Iris and Happiness is a Warm Gun. Pretty awesome. Next up was Múm, who are like totally twinkly and saddle creeky now and not sigur rosy like they used to be. I liked it but it was a bit muddled. Still, though, an interesting change. Up next was the winner for the day, I think, Goldfrapp, who had some sound troubles for the first couple songs but bounced back and was fuckin’ fantastic by the end. She ended with “Caravan Girl” and “Strict Machine” and it just sounded glorious. I shot a video of “Number One” as well, which I gotta put on youtube soon. Next it was over to the dance tent for a quick peek at Aphex Twin, but he was doing exactly what he did in December when we went to All Tomorrow’s Parties, so we moved on. Listened to a song or two of Swell Season while getting dinner, but they had rejiggered the fences so you coudln’t eat and watch the band this year, those meanies. Then on to the main stage for The Verve who were fucking awesome, and opened with This is Music. Other than that, though, they basically played all of Urban Hymns, which, you know, is a good album, but i would have liked to hear something from A Storm in Heaven. The old stuff was represented by a single song – “Life’s an Ocean” which is certainly good but no “Slide Away” or “Already There.” Still, though, they delivered, and “Bittersweet Symphony” was one of those Coachella singalong moments you love. At least up front. Anyway, by this time we also picked up a friend of Catherine’s, Danny, who is the new drummer in Chop Chop. Danny also is friends and he had two backstage wristbands which was pretty sweet. We made much use of these, and man, it’s awesome back there and in the VIP area and now I feel dumb for blowing off my CAA guy to hand out with my friends because by the end of the weekend we had 4 wristbands and five people. The VIP area is a totally different and luxurious and has sushi and video games and an air conditioned bar. We popped back there for the shorter bathroom line throughout the weekend. Oh and red bull and vodkas. Anyway, after the Verve we caught a smidge of Spank Rock , who were fun, and then ended the night with Fatboy Slim, who was big booming techno like you’d expect. Nothing awesome. Good intro, though. Then we went back to the house and watched the two hour pilot of Firefly, which was awesome.
Saturday, April 26 – Woke up, made breakfast for everyone. Mine and Val’s friend from Alaska (though she lives in SF now) Lila showed up at 10 AM so I got up a bit earlier than I’d wanted. In the end, I knew we’d miss MGMT, and there was nothing else I really wanted to see till six, so Christine and Mike and Emma left and I took a nap. Catherine went and drove out to Joshua Tree – she had a genius sightseeing in the day/rocking at night approach that I was impressed with. So me, judi, val and lila headed in round 5 and started the day with Hot Chip who were as awesome as they were last week and sounded AMAZING in the dance tent. Then I took a walk and checked out a bit of Scars on Broadway (not my thing), Cinematic Orchestra (ditto, but in a early Massive Attack kinda way), and Dwight Yokam who was pretty genius. Then I met up with the gang and we caught Death Cab For Cutie who delivered a solid but mildly uninspiring set. Then we popped over to stage two for some Rilo Kiley who were better than one would think. Then Kraftwerk who were AWESOME on the main stage – amazing sound, great visual show. They totally delivered. Popped over to the dance tent to give MIA another chance, but again, I didn’t like her. Checked out a bit of Akron/Family but they were doing their noisy freakout thing and not their awesome mellow “sorrow boy” type thing that I totally dig, so back to the main tent for the end of Kraftwerk. Next up was Portishead who did the same set as I saw in December, but man, it totally worked on the giant stage. AMAZING sound. Visuals looked brilliant. Seriously, Coachella really, finally, worked out the sound problem on the main stage this year. Portishead sounded as perfect as a rock show I’d ever heard. I do with they’d can that dumb rave area in the middle of the festival, or move it away from the second stage and the gobi tent, though. There used to be NO sound bleed problems at Coachella, and ever since they put that dumb rave in the middle, you can hear it everywhere.
ANYWAY, the night was capped by PRINCE. Yes Prince. And man, did he deliver. A 3 song intro that “got the night going” by introducing MORRIS DAY AND THE TIME, and then SHEILA E, who did “The glamorous life.” Then he busts into 1999 and then oh, look, Chaka Kahn’s there too and they all do “I feel for you.” He also does “U Got the Look,” “Cream,” a great version of “Little Red Corvette,” “Musicology” and a bunch more. Judi and I eventually decide we’ve had enough. Prince was phenomenal but the sound was kinda crappy and REALLY quiet: the LA Time theorizes they just started the show at a low volume because they knew it would run late. On our way out he covered “Creep” by Radiohead, and then, apparently, Sarah Maclaughlin and the Beatles before ending with “Purple Rain.” Nice. He was pretty f’n amazing, I have to say. I’m happy to have seen it.
Sunday, April 27: Got up 11 ish, made breakfast for everyone one last time, and headed to the festival. Got in at 3:30, in time to catch the last half of The Shout Out Louds, who I really dig. Then we moved up close so we could see Stars, who were awesome, even if they didn’t play “The Ghost of Genova Heights.” They threw a lot of roses into the audience and started with “Elevator Love Letter,” which made me really, really happy. Next up was Swervedriver, who I LOVED back in the day, but I really loved their first album, “Raise,” and they were playing a lot from “Mezcal Head.” They did play “Rave Down” though, which was pretty sweet. Then Judi and I popped over to see the last coupe songs of Does it Offend You, Yeah? who were not what I expected but were awesome! I’d go check them out. Then Spiritualized, who were doing an acoustic mainlines set, and, sadly, it went about as well as you would expect at a massive, booming festival. Tons of feedback, couldn’t hear the strings, too much noise bleed from the other stage. I kept pushing forward, though, and by the fifth song or so he did “Walkin With Jesus” and the sound problems were worked out and I was in the front row and it was sublime, but after having seen that at the MFA, I am ready for him to go back to rockin. Next was Metric, who were great and energetic and she had some funny silver lamé hot pants on which you can’t ever really complain about. Then I popped over to the main stage for My Morning Jacket, who I listen to a lot but I had NO IDEA they were so good live. Like, man, effortlessly perfect harmonies and solos and perfect sound. I was really impressed. Then I popped back stage to pee and to take a picture of Roger Water’s giant pig. Then over to the second stage for Love and Rockets who were actually good! Weirdly, their best track was “An American Dream,” which I had never thought much of, but man, they nailed it. Their entire set was from their first four albums, which was funny. But it did the job, and nostalgia was running high.
Good thing, too, on the nostalgia front because next up was Roger Waters. Um… Okay. I thought this would be a mildly funny thing to watch but it turned out to be AWESOME. First off, it was billed as him doing Dark Side of the Moon, but he played for an hour and a half before that, doing really solid versions of “Up Against the Wall,” “Mother,” “The Final Cut,” “Wish You Were Here,” “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” one of his solo songs from Radio Kaos (which involved serious explosions which was awesome) and a few others. The finale, though, really took the cake, when he did “Animals” and brought out a GIANT FLOATING PIG, AND HAD A PLANE FLY OVER THE AUDIENCE AND DROP SPARKLES. Oh, and did I mention the whole show was in surround sound? Like 12 point surround sound. Um… Yes. The best part, though, was a the end of Animals, they LET THE BIG GO and it flew up, up and away into the air, never to be seen again. “There Goes My Pig” he said, barely containing his self satisfied glee at the absurdity of it all.
THEN he settled into Dark Side of the Moon. Oh, and it ended with a fireworks display. YEAH. I didn’t think anything could top Prince, but I gotta say, ole Roger Waters pretty much did exactly that. And the SOUND was so much better. Smart man, starting at 8:30 instead of 11. He was done not long after Prince went on.
Then over to the dance tent to end Coachella was Chromeo and Justice. Both of which were a little better than I remember from SXSW, and Justice was particularly solid, but exhaustion was catching up with me, so home I went.
Modnay, April 28 PSP – BOS. Take sister to the airport, back to the house, pack up, and me, judi and emma hit In N Out Burger, and then to the airport and fly home. Landed around midnight.
