Martedì 1 Mag 2007, 21:53

Fri 27 Apr – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The first day of Coachella had officially arrived so my friend and I went to pick up our sweet mini-van we decided to rent and after loading it up with the appropriate mixture of sleeping bags, food and what not began our journey to Indio. We took our time getting there and after sitting in traffic for about an hour and a half to get into the parking lot we decided to just take it easy for a little while and spend some time in our van surrounded by other people bbq'ing and intoxicating themselves through various means.

We then began the walk to the actual entrance, it was probably about a 10 minute walk which wasn't bad even though it was about 100 degrees out. When you walk onto the festival grounds for the first time it takes a minute to just take it all in, not only are there 5 different stages for concerts but food stands, art installations and sculptures and other musical performance areas set up too along with tens of thousands of people ranging from 5 year old little kids to 65 year old guys who are still trying to recapture their Woodstock days. Good times.

Anyway, so the first band we caught was Digitalism, we didn't see the whole set but what we saw was great. Then we went and saw
Peaches, which was awesome. We got close to the stage and it was definitely worth it; the set began by Ron Jeremy coming out on stage to introduce her and was totally entertaining from that point on. Not only did she put on a great show, but she also had a fun stage presence which involved her climbing up the scaffolding on stage and also spraying some of the people in the front row with something from a fake set of boobs she had on. Quality.

After partying it up at Peaches we headed over to catch Interpol, who put on a great show; I had seen them before and had been mildly entertained but they definitely brought it all out this time. They rocked the main stage and everyone seemed to really enjoy it and get into it. Then it was time for Bjork. I really had no idea what to expect from her but all of my questions and non-existent expectations for the show were blown away once she started playing. She came onto stage wearing this sort of leopard looking outfit on with this crazy mushroom hat on but after the first song changed into this very tribalish looking dress with bones that sort of reminded me of a tiki people you see carved into a totum pole on some remote island for her torso and a sort of grass skirt feeling for the bottom. The entire time she was accompanied by about 15 to 20 women who not only were the backup vocals but also played various instruments as well. There was also someone using a Reactable for the beats which was pretty cool to see in action. I could go into details about the show but overall it was pretty much perfect, everything from her performance to the sound setup to the crowd to the shooting star. Best show of the festival in my opinion. After that we headed to the parking lot and passed out in our van with the doors open for a couple hours until we woke up and realized almost no one else was left there with us. 24 hour Del Taco provided a nice parking spot for our nights sleep.

Then there was day two. After waking up at 6:30am we got some food and hung out in the parking lot again before heading into the festival around 3 or so. We started out watching Regina Spektor on the main stage but didn't bother getting too close, she was ok. Then we headed over to see The New Pornographers, they put on a good show, they managed to charm the crowd and get relatively them involved even though a lot of people were sort of in a physically zombie state due to the heat. So after the New Pornographers ended we quickly headed over to catch the end of Peter Bjorn and John. They were playing in one of the tents which was wonderful because of the shade it provided, we managed to catch the last 3 songs but they were 3 of the 4 songs I would have wanted to see anyway so it was perfect. They ended it with Young Folks, The Chills and Up Against the Wall, I think, I was mildly dillusional at this point. Anyway, after they finished up we caught most of The Decemberists which was a good show but then we headed over to see The Arcade Fire who put on an awesome show. As they were finishing up we headed over and caught the beginning 20 minutes or so of Girl Talk, it was kind of crazy but fun and we were ready to head out after we saw that much. Then came the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I can't truly judge how the show was because I'm not that huge of a fan to start out with anyway but it wasn't all that amazing. They played well together but the show was hard to get into and I got easily distracted by anything else, it was sort of a let down. Then we stuck around for the first hour or so of Tiesto, he was entertaining enough. Some of his mixes were impressive technically but as far as sounding good goes they were kind of lacking, and he definitely loves his name. He had a relatively simple but cool stage setup but kept projecting his name everywhere so if anyone had any questions as to who he was they were definitely answered by the massive TIESTO not only in front of him on stage but also on the huge screen behind him. It was pretty good though, no complaints.

The final day of the festival seemed to arrive way too quickly, I’m sure it had something to do with the extreme heat, lack of sleep and other variables but I couldn’t believe Sunday had arrived. We had chosen to sleep in a Denny’s parking lot the night before and had discovered in the morning we were sleeping right by a couple of homeless (?) people’s tarp homes, I guess technically that means they weren’t homeless but their houses consisted of tarps and cardboard and they were in a vacant desert lot by a Denny’s so who knows. After a grand slam and a quick bathroom “shower” we headed over to the Polo Fields for one last day of musical bliss. After, once again, hanging out in the parking lot for a couple hours we headed in to see Grizzly Bear, we caught most of the show and it was pretty good and then we headed over to the main stage to see Explosions In The Sky. Unfortunately for Explosions we were kind of further away then desired but it was still a great show, really chill, we had met up with a couple friends so part of their set was spent talking but from what I heard it was great, hopefully I’ll get to see them again someday. We kind of heard a couple songs from The Roots while heading over to see Placebo, mainly because we wanted to get up near the front to see Air. Placebo was whatever, they played the couple songs I knew from the radio and some other stuff but there wasn’t anything special about their performance, which wasn’t really that surprising. Finally Placebo ended and the excitement for Air began, we got up really close to the stage and along with thousands of other people counted down the minutes until they were supposed to start…then that time passed and we continued counting down for another 45 minutes or so until they finally came out on stage. Right before they came out Paris Hilton a couple of her “friends” showed up and walked to the VIP section on the side of the stage so that was my big celebrity spotting for the festival. When she walked out there was a lot of booing but also a lot of flashes going off so I guess she got the attention she wanted. Anyway, Air finally came on and played for about 20 to 30 minutes and then ended at the exact time it said they would end on the schedule. As far as disappointments for the festival go, this was definitely the biggest one. They seemed kind of out of it and although it was still good the lack of set time and their overall mood was kind of a downer. They ended and that’s when we made the biggest sacrifice of the festival for me, we skipped Ratatat so we could get good spots for the Rage show. We headed over to the main stage and began working our way through the crowd (meaning my friend was leading and I was clinging onto his arm), hearing a few songs from Manu Chao along the way which were pretty good but then we somehow ended up right in the middle of the pit. We were center stage and about 30 feet or so from the barrier, the pit was insane about 30 minute before Rage was even supposed to come on. I lost my shoe, managed to recover it and put it back on, almost lost both of my shoes again, got knocked over and stepped on a couple times meanwhile while having thousands of people’s body sweat and heat surround me and then Rage Against The Machine came on stage and all hell broke loose. The pit was basically the closest feeling to being in hell I’ve ever had. Compared to the pits I’ve been in for Nine Inch Nails and Tool it was intense, that’s really the best word to describe it. So after one and a half songs and realizing there were no other girls to be seen around me at all I decided to call it quits and get out. I finally got lifted up but only made it a short distance before falling back into the pit, luckily some random guy helped me survive another song by protecting me from getting hit in the face or trampled and then finally a couple guys got me up again, so I started working my way toward the barrier on the crowd again and again, I went back in. I actually ended up going back into the pit 2 or 3 more times, each being a struggle to get back out of because by the time I would ask someone to help me get out they’d be 20 feet away from me because the crowd was so insane. Anyway, needless to say I finally made it out of the crowd and enjoyed the rest of the show from further back while drinking a nice $2 bottle of water and letting my body temperature go back to normal. Rage rocked and it was a great show but Bjork still takes the award for best show at the festival, she was freaking amazing.

Overall my first Coachella experience rocked and I have zero regrets about any of the money or time I spent at it. It was awesome. Although it’s extremely difficult to decide for certain, I’d have to say the top 5 shows this year for me were: Bjork, The Arcade Fire, Peaches, Interpol, Rage Against the Machine. Quality stuff. Thank you Coachella.