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04/19/2011

Mini 2011 Coachella Recap

Another Coachella has come and gone. And while I consciously made the decision to just sit back and enjoy the festival instead of taking tons of picture and videos to share with all of you (since readership has gone through the tubes and I’ve kind of stopped caring), I still thought it might be worth mentioning a thing or two that stood out from the rest this weekend. So let’s talk about a few of those right now.

I took a few pictures (all on my mobile device), mostly of sunsets, so I will share a few of those as well. I mean, after all, it’s the scenery that’s a huge part of what makes this fest so special. And here’s a tune combining two of my favorite acts of the weekend.

Yelle – Ce Jeu (The Twelves Remix)

Favorite performance: Tough call, but I gotta go with Cut Copy. The entire Mojave tent was 100% into the performance and it showed. You can usually tell the energy of the crowd by how far back the hands in the air and jumping up and down go, and this crowd was all energy from the front to the very back.

Biggest surprise: Each year there’s that performance that you go to not really knowing anything about the artist and hoping for the best. This year, that performance was Yelle. I only knew that she had some dance tunes but nothing more. And it turned out to be a ridiculously fun dance party that was almost on par with the Cut Copy dance party mentioned above. She turned the Gobi Tent upside down.

Thing I wish I would have seen: The Ariel Pink meltdown. With his set time conflicting with my favorites, Tame Impala, I knew I wasn’t going to see much of his set and left after about 3 songs, but from what I hear he totally lost it, including singing with his back to the crowd, causing crazy mic feedback, finally storming off stage and then returning but refusing to sing. Props to the rest of the band who tried to keep the show going even without their lead singer. I predicted that this set would be legendary (in a good way) or a complete disaster, and it sounds like I was right. Although, I really wouldn’t have given up that Tame Impala set (which finished stronger than strong) to see Ariel Pink throw a hissy fit. Honorary mention to the glowing orbs at the end of Arcade Fire.

Best sentence overheard: “No! You’re going to get splinters in your vagina!”

Best art installation: Hands down, the Tesla Coils. That shit was cool. Honorary mention to the swimming sharks. Basically they took these plastic sharks and outlined them with glowsticks (Tron style), hooked them up on top of remote control cars and drove them through the walkways at night through the crowds. That’s what is so great about this fest, all the little things and the attention to detail that’s all around.

Best freebie: As I mentioned in my pre-Coachella article, my fest footwear of choice are Sanuks. I wore them this weekend and as I walked through the beer tent, someone stopped me and asked if I liked my Sanuks, to which I responded yes, and then he said, “Well, the next pair is on us” and handed me a gift certificate for a free pair of Sanuks. Best customer appreciation program EVER. Those bad boys are about $70 a pair, so by far the best freebie I ever got at a fest, and all just for wearing comfortable footwear!
Most elaborate set design among non-headliners: Daedelus. This shit just looked complicated. He had three huge panels with 16 mirrors each, all individually wired to moved in all directions. There were then a bunch of lights and projectors pointing at all the mirrors, and you can figure out the rest. Daedelus also dressed like a 17th century Brit looking proper as hell and dropped an awesome mix of tunes including James Blake, Tame Impala, Bjork and Siriusmo. Solid.

Unexpected musical theme of the weekend: Pop. So many of the best sets that I saw this weekend were all straight up legit pop tunes. Robyn, Yelle, Ellie Goulding, Two Door Cinema Club, etc were all on top of their game. It just makes me realize how much good, authentic and creative pop music is out there in the midst of all the manufactured crap.

Best hangout spot: the 5gum Sensory Tent. Besides the air conditioning, this place had a funky projection screen ceiling, video screens with the webcast (we watched some of The Kills from in there) and these huge digital graffiti screens. It was a nice place to take a load off and lie down for a few minutes of rest. I usually thing these sponsored tents are somewhat cheesy but this one seemed kind of legit.

Most annoying thing overheard the entire weekend: Everyone singing “Barbra Streisand”. People were singing that damn song the entire weekend as if they’d just discovered it and I now officially hate it. I mean, I like Duck Sauce too, but it was just a little surprising that so many people were more excited about their set than any other.

Some comments on Coachella fashion: This was the year of the slut. Gals were wearing thongs and hot pants that may as well have been thongs, and a lot of them just wore bras in lieu of bikini tops. Not that I’m complaining, but have a little dignity people. However it was nice that I didn’t really see anyone pass out this year (probably just because I spent way less time at the Sahara tent), although I did see vomit at least 4 times.

Post-fest best thing ever: the hot tub at the rental house.

MVP stage: Mojave. There were just too many great shows that I saw at this stage this year. Cut Copy, Foals, Robyn, Two Door Cinema Club, Twin Shadow, CSS, etc. Honorary mention to Gobi tent. Sahara tent was sick as hell with the hanging lights, but I just didn’t spend a ton of time there this year much to my surprise.

Favorite “moments”: Those brief moments in time that stick with you. Like the end of the Twin Shadow set when they threw in that key change and George sang that final chorus a few keys higher than before with so much emotion. Priceless. And the ending jam of the Tame Impala set. And the explosion at the first chorus of “Lights and Music” during Cut Copy.

Favorite “can’t believe he/she/they are playing this song” moment: Robyn singing “The Girl and the Robot”. I commented earlier that day on how I hoped she’d sing it but never thought she actually would, and it was great.

Overall, I have almost no complaints about the festival and the way it’s run, but there were just a few minor items that could be improved upon. First off, two of my friends lost their phone and/or ID so we went in search of the lost and found tent. That shit is so inconveniently located that if I were to find something, there’s almost no chance I would make the 15 minute trek into the campgrounds to deliver it there. The parking situation is also still really grim. They need to figure out a way to not be sitting in stand still traffic for an hour and a half before finally moving an inch. And last but most certainly least, out of all the delicious food options, there were no succulent potstickers to nosh on this weekend. That needs to change. And finally, there seemed to be a pretty big issue with acts starting late this year. I don’t know if its the artists or the fest that were responsible, but I can think of numerous occasions where acts were 20 minutes late to start or more, which causes havoc with personal schedules. But all in all, these are extremely minor complaints and everything else about the entire weekend is pretty well in check and meets or exceeds expectations.

In summary, I hope to be back next year and the year after that and the year after that. Now I’ve got some pooling and sunning to do, so I’ll catch you all on the flip side. Here’s a bunch of scenery pictures.

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04/20/2010

coachella 2010: the video! (and final thoughts)

For the last three days, you’ve all been hearing about the video. I’ve never made a video before, so I was a bit worried about it, but just tried to capture as many moments in time as I could in hopes that they could be spliced together into something not terrible. And now that the video is complete (thanks to iMovie being super easy to use), the time has come to share it with the world! I’m mostly happy because normally I would talk about doing something like this and find myself with 15 seconds of video at the end of the weekend. So I was happy to learn that I can, in fact, sometimes follow through.

WARNING: This was all shot on my old point and shoot camera, so the quality is going to look extremely grim in comparison to any other Coachella videos you’ve likely already watched. But I think it gives mine a more “authentic” feel to it. The everyday man’s Coachella recap video.

The theme of the video, much like the weekend, is night and day. And this seemed to be the perfect song to use for such a theme.

Wasn’t that fun? Did it make you a little nauseous? I hope not, but I can see how it could.

Here are some other final thoughts on the weekend, and then I will stop talking about Coachella, except for constantly and incessantly referencing it.

- This was my first Coachella ever, so I have no frame of reference, though it seemed like a lot of people were bitching about how crowded it was. Compared to other fests I’ve been to, this was by far the least crowded, and not only that, it was extremely easy to get relatively close up for almost any show, minus maybe a headliner or two, without camping out all day. It seemed that for the most part, this crowd didn’t really stick around from one show to the next, so if you were in position as soon as the previous show ended, you could usually get within the first 15 or 20 rows without a problem. Major plus.

- Favorites of the weekend. In no particular order, Fever Ray (queen of darkness), Local Natives (killer afternoon set. Just killer), Miike Snow (they always bring the heat, but it got even more broughten in a packed tent as the sun went down), Aeroplane (of all the fantastic DJs I saw all weekend, their mix of songs was the most right up my alley. And they saved what started out a miserable day). Honorable mention to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. I loved everything about it but I couldn’t get over the vocal issues. That being said, they got huge bonus points for happiness, quirkiness and energy and general fun. But really, I enjoyed most of the acts I saw quite a bit.

- Wish I would’ve seens. Thom Yorke, not sure what I was thinking on this one. Hot Chip, because I don’t know when I’ll get to see these guys again. Deadmau5, despite conflicting with Fever Ray and even though I just saw him recently, mostly because of this video I saw of his SIIIIIIIICK dj table. Shit looks crazy!

- I said it before, but the Sahara tent is off the hinges. The crazy lights and all day dance party are not to be missed. The only downside, the kids and their drugs. I’m not juding anyone based on what drugs they want to take, but I am judging people who are stupid and irresponsible about it. I had at LEAST 5 people directly surrounding me throughout the weekend just collapse and pass out. It was really gross to see. At the Gorillaz show, the guy behind me collapsed right on his face and didn’t wake up for a solid ten minutes. His friends’ response? “He’s done this a few times today, but he always gets right back up.” Like I said, I’m not juding anyone’s recreational drug use, but at least try to be responsible about it, and look out for your friends. It didn’t help that most of these people looked like they were barely old enough to drive a car.

- Cancellations. Shit happens, and it sucks. Nothing anyone could have done about any of it, but still grim to say the least. But overall I was happy with the acts I did get to see. And the people who are like “I maybe saw one good performance this weekend” on the message boards need to stop going to shows, because what’s the point if you never have a good time?

- The overall ambiance of the fest is the best I’ve ever experienced. The Chicago skyline as the backdrop of Lollapalooza is pretty spectacular, but being surrounded on all sides by endless palm trees and mountains is both spectacular and extremely relaxing.

- The layout of the fest is also one of the best I’ve seen. The long and narrow Lolla setup leads to inevitable clusterfucks left and right. And Bonaroo’s circular setup is a better alternative. But it seems like it only takes 10 minutes to walk from one end of Coachella to the other. A major plus when you’re trying to catch consecutive shows at opposite stages. The setup does lead to some issues, however, like when the whole world was trying to see MGMT and the crowd was essentially surrounding the Outdoor Stage (where the band was performing) and extended all the way back through the Gobi and Mojave tents.

- Cameras. What do people think about bringing their nice cameras? I saw millions of them and it seemed like security was allowing them for some reason, so I was debating all weekend if I wished I would have brought mine. I think that I wouldn’t want to have to worry about it getting damaged, a very distinct possibility in those crowds, but I was also pretty underwhelmed with my shots, so I guess it’s a trade-off. I think a small handheld video camera may be in order for my next fest, however.

- Diplo got some major props this weekend. Aside from what I hear was an absolutely bonkers Major Lazer set, both David Guetta and supergroup Club 75 included “Pon de Floor” in their sets. Not too shabby.

- The tents. The tents are good and bad. If you are inside the tent, they are amazing. I love the enclosed feel, the shade they provide, and the great sound. However, when the tents start to overflow and you find yourself on the outside, they kind of blow. But as long as you can arrive a little early to the show you’re seeing, this is usually not an issue.

Misc.
- Throw away your garbage, people.
- Children, stop trying to get to the front 5 seconds before (or after) a show starts with all 45 of your closest friends hand in hand. Spend more time making sure your 45 friends aren’t on course to have a drug-induced death scare before the day is over.
- What’s with all the feathers and face paint?
- There’s going to be traffic whenever tens of thousands of people are in one place. Deal wit’ it. Or drive over the fence like the guy in front of me did, saving me at least a half hour on the way out.

Thanks to Beta Mike for the rad pic above that I stole from him.

Here’s to a great Coachella 2011. I leave with a few remixes by Aeroplane, the act that really kicked things off for me this year.

Robbie Williams – Bodies (Aeroplane Instrumental Remix)

Au Revoir Simone – Another Likely Story (Aeroplane Remix)

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04/19/2010

coachella day 3: all good things must come to an end

Our bodies tired and a little sore, it was time for the third and final day of Coachella to begin. I’d been looking forward to the strong day 3 lineup ever since it was released and was glad that there were not too many conflicts today. Since Delphic had to cancel thanks to Icecanogate, our day was going to start out with an early afternoon set by Local Natives, a band that I didn’t know was among my favorites until today.

There’s really something special about a nice early afternoon set in a tent. It’s a great atmosphere (especially when palm trees can be seen behind the tent) and can really set the tone of the whole day. All I can say after this performance is that I am beyond stoked that I will be seeing them twice more this summer (including a tiny show at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor). The energy was almost incomprehensible at times and their songs took on a whole new life on the live stage. Anyone who has the chance to see these kids live need to do it. As my friend Peabs said, Local Natives justified the price of his ticket and everything else was just gravy. The vocals were spot on (and harmonies are such a huge part of their music, so this was a good thing) and a lot of songs turned into big singalongs, namely the crazy parts of “Sun Hands” and the “oh oh oh oh ohs” of “World News”. Oh boy, I almost can’t imagine my head not exploding had Delphic nailed a set right before this. Here’s two bad pictures of the band. I believe the second was during the insane section of “Sun Hands”

Local Natives – World News

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We sat around for a bit until 3:45 because my friend Sarah was going to be spinning at the Green Stage, you know, the stage that has giant hamster wheels, a see-saw, hand cranks and stationary bikes, all used to create energy to run the stage. Her set was great and she gathered a pretty nice crowd, but I have to say it was pretty difficult riding that bike for more than ten minutes on a 90 degree day on the third day of a music fest. But it was pretty fun anyway, and it was great to see a long lost friend, especially since we’d been talking Coachella for so long.

Next up was another highly anticipated act, Club 75 (who I often mistakenly refer to as Beat 75). This DJ supergroup is made up of Busy P, Cassius (who I must say looks exactly how I envisioned him to look….extremely French), Justice and Mehdi. The set was pretty fun but I think in my head I envisioned this to be a Justice show, which clearly is not what it ever was advertised to be. And apparently when you’re 15 it’s still cool to start a mosh pit. After sweating up a storm we headed back out to take another breather, because next up was Miike Snow. Sorry for no pics. The bright backdrop sort of washed out all of the people. But video footage has been obtained.

This marks my third time seeing Miike Snow live. The first was at Lollapalooza last year, when I had no idea who or what Miike Snow was (maybe back when I thought it was a person, not a bad) and only knew that they had something to do with this Vampire Weekend remix that I really liked. Then I was blown away by their live show at Lolla and by mere chance got to catch them in Chicago a few weeks later at a tiny show at the Empty Bottle. So I pretty much knew what was in store for me. And even so, it was one of the rip-roaringest good times I had all weekend. I can’t quite describe what it is, but there’s something so cool about the way they combine great catchy pop tunes with heavy electro in a way that is completely organic and not forced one bit. And the extended electronic jams are just “the whip”. At the end of the set, lead singer Andrew Wyatt again reminded us that if we didn’t know, Miike Snow is the name of a band, and not a person in the band. And then he implored us to tell our friends.

I’m not sure what it was about this performance, but it was by far my favorite of the three that I’ve seen. It just seemed that the jams were harder and the beats were heavier.

It was time to get some food in mah belly (a slice of pizza that was much inferior to the one I devoured on day 1) before heading over to the Pavementhomyorillaz extravaganza. I’m not the hugest Pavement fan in the world (I like them, but just haven’t really listened to them in depth) but it was still great to see them and hear a few tunes that I really enjoyed like “In the Mouth a Desert” and the classic “Range Life”. In fact, “Range Life” offered up one of those surreal weekend moments where you kind of just look around at the whole scene and the mountains and palm trees that surround the grounds and smile a little bit.

After that, we decided our priority was Gorillaz so we sort of camped out there. We could hear some of Thom Yorke’s set, but I heard his encore was “Everything in its Right Place” aka one of my favorite Radiohead songs ever, solo on piano. So that was a definite fail on my part. I also hear that Flea is a ridiculous addition to Yorke’s music, so was a little sad to miss that as well, but we can’t make it to everything at these festys, now can we. Especially if we want any sort of line of vision for Gorillaz.

Just before Gorillaz took the stage, I noticed quite a few chairs and music stands on the stage. Were they going to have some sort of orchestra accompanying them tonight? The answer was yes, via a 6-8 member string section. They started out with, appropriately, the Orchestral Intro from Plastic Beach followed by “Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach” with a special appearance from Snoop Dogg (if a prerecorded video of Snoop Dogg playing on the big screen counts as an appearance). They played a few older tunes and then hit up some of my Plastic Beach favorites, such as “Glitter Freeze” (which was for sure off the hinges), “Empire Ants” (with a guest appearance by my girl from Little Dragon) and “Melancholy Hill”, among others. Other guest appearances included De La Soul (during “Superfast Jellyfish”) and Bobby Womack (during “Stylo”).

The stage setup was pretty simple but pretty entertaining. There was a large “GORILLAZ” near the bottom just above all the musicians and a giant movie screen showing all kinds of crazy video content, much of which included the cartoon version of Gorillaz, but have no fear, Damon Albarn and company were on stage in the flesh as well performing live.

The group came out for an encore and played “To Binge” (again with vocals from Little Dragon) and a great version of “Feel Good, Inc” that the crowd really got into. And then in a strange turn of events, they brought out Bobby Womack to sing the final song, which I’m not quite sure what it was. And then the weekend was over, just like that. After 5 or 10 minutes when the crowd realized there wouldn’t be a crazy festival ending dance party to “DARE” as so many of us were hoping for at that point in time, we walked back to our cars, most of us completely satisfied with the fantastic weekend we had just experienced, with heavy eyelids and aching feet.

Gorillaz – To Binge feat. Little Dragon

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I know you’re all sick of hearing about Coachella from me, but I think you’ll be getting two more pieces of awesome this week, one of them a recap of the festival as a whole (highlights, misses, etc). And the second, the much talked about video. I definitely have lots of clips (it was all about catching little moments in time and connecting them to tell the full story of the fest), but now it’s just a matter of whether or not I can figure out how to edit them together. Although there are 118 of these moments and I haven’t looked at any of them yet, so they may all be scheisse. Wish me luck.

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04/18/2010

coachella day 2: low expectations lead to huge success

Day 2 started out with extremely low expectations. I was up really late the night before and couldn’t sleep in that late, so I thought I would be a little out of sorts all day. But luckily after 3 breakfast burritos (the third with extra jalapeno and hot sauce) and a few bottles of water, I was feeling a little more like myself again. I took a look at the set times for the day and while I was looking forward to a few acts, I hadn’t made any decisions about the night, and nothing really struck me as must see.

And I think its because of these low expectations that day 2 of Coachella was one of my favorite festival days of all time. It started out simply enough, with us sitting outside the Mojave tent to listen to a few tunes from Camera Obscura. I’d decided that since I just saw Beach House, I would head over to the Outdoor Theater to see The Temper Trap, but not until I met up with my cousin who was also in town for the fest. By the time he and his friends were ready to head to the Outdoor Theater, we could only catch “Sweet Disposition”, which was good and kind of made me wish I’d seen the rest of their set.

But up next was one of my festival must-sees, none other than Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Their album is a favorite of mine, and it’s one of those that I just love every single song so much, so I couldn’t wait to see it live on stage, complete with their huge cast of characters. They opened up with “40 Day Dream” and went into “Janglin’” and their performance was exactly what I’d expected (though this was one part of the day that I did have high expectations for). About 10 people on stage, all playing various instruments from trumpets to pianos to guitars to washboards, and some of the happiest music on Earth. The love and energy up on the stage really carried through. My personal favorite was “Up from Below”, which really came to life on stage. A few songs after that were a bit out of key at times, but the set finished strong with perennial favorite “Home”. Various members of the band jumped in front of the stage to crowdsurf at various times, and Alex Ebert lent his shirt to a young man in the front who had a cut on his head. Hopefully that young man doesn’t have any sort of infection now. Just kidding, Alex, we love you kids. And special thanks to girl on guy’s shoulders #2834 for taking a few pics for me from up there.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Om Nashi Me

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At this point, my two highlights of the weekend were hilarious because they were COMPLETE 100% opposites. The upbeat, free-love Edward Sharpe et al, and the dark, haunting Fever Ray. The mere fact that I got to experience both within just a few hours of each other said enough about this weekend.

Next up, we decided since we were already at that stage that we would just stay for the XX. I wasn’t particularly excited to see the XX mostly because I thought that it would not live up to the happiness of Edward Sharpe, but I gave it a shot and really enjoyed it in all its minimalist glory. I was surprised to see that they didn’t have a drummer, but rather a sort of live beat-maker. And Jay-Z even showed up, since he loves the indie rock now. Also notable was that during their set, the top of the main stage seemed to catch on fire, with black smoke billowing away. But it stopped after about a minute fortunately.

After stocking up on water for the rest of the night, we headed back to Mojave to catch some of the Dirty Projectors. It was great to see them again with their interesting compositions and incredible and versatile voices. We didn’t stick around too long because we all needed to stock up on some food and water before spending some time at the Sahara tent.

Now, let’s take a minute to talk about the Sahara tent. If you recall from my Lollapalooza recaps, I spent a lot of time at Perry’s last summer. Perry’s, which was expanded last year and I believe is being expanded again this year, is the DJ section of Lollapalooza. It’s all open air and under the trees, and the crowd forms a sort of semi circle around the DJs, and there’s always some great dance music going on. It’s the perfect place to spend some time when there isn’t really another act going on that you want to see.

The Sahara tent is the same concept, only it is in a humongous tent which has a crazy light setup both on stage and throughout the whole ceiling. I described it on twitter today as Perry’s times a million on crack. Just unreal. I can’t wait to get this video put together next week so I can show some of the radness that goes on there.

After devouring a delicious falafel wrap and some garlic fries, we headed into the Sahara tent to catch the rest of Kaskade’s set. It was fun beyond belief and we had such a great time that we decided to stay for David Guetta, who, as you may recall, I had a ticket to see in Rio last summer before we unexpectedly cancelled the trip. So it was sort of fate that I was going to see him on this night. And wow, did he deliver. Some of the hotter drops that I can remember were Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek” (she seems to be a positive recurring theme this weekend) and with Major Lazer performing at the same time next door in the Mojave tent, Guetta paid tribute dropping in “Pon de Floor” at one point.

On the walk back to the other stages, I noticed the large string of balloons again in the air that stretched from basically one end of the fest to another, blowing violently in the wind, which had changed in color from white the day before to purple today. They were also flying free in the morning and tied down in the evenings, or so I thought. I’d been wanting to check out the pot of gold at the end of the balloon rainbow, basically to see how this thing was held in place without going away. And today I found out. There is a human being who literally holds this GIANT string of balloons down all day. I was so shocked that I had to take a picture. And all the while he’s just chatting up a storm with whoever’s around, as if it’s no big deal. But believe me, it’s a big deal, and crazy.

So, I skipped Hot Chip, MGMT, and Faith No More, but it was all worth it. We danced our behinds off for hours between Kaskade and Guetta, but the best part was, Tiesto was still to come. We made it back to the main stage in time to catch the end of Muse’s set, which I wasn’t planning on since I’d just seen them, so that was a nice added bonus. Then, like salmon swimming upstream to fertilize their eggs, we fought the crowd leaving Muse to see just how close we could get for Tiesto’s night-closing set. Amazingly, we ended up nearly dead center, about 20 rows back. This is not that impressive unless you’ve been to a night-closing set at a main stage of a major music festival. I’ve never even been remotely that close before in a similar scenario, so I was pretty pumped.

After the 40 minute wait between sets, it finally began. I couldn’t believe that the day had turned into a straight up electronic music festival, and had not planned on that at any point throughout the day, but as Tiesto killed it over and over again (man, those lights/lasers were intense!), I was glad that this was the way the day had turned out. Some of my favorites were his take on Editors “Papillon”, a song I didn’t particularly care for when it first came out but that I loved on this night. The other songs I recognized that found their way into the mix were Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Heads Will Roll” as well as “Feel it in my Bones” and Tiesto’s Adagio for Strings remix, which he introduced by saying “Here’s the old Tiesto classic of the night”, or something like that. Once energy had reached a fever pitch, the set ended with a Flaminglipsian touch, with gobs upon gobs of confetti being thrown into the crowd. As we walked out of the show, the ground was pretty much completely covered.

Then we left the parking lot with no wait, again driving over the fence that someone had knocked down the day before, and proceeded to blare fantastic 80s tunes the whole way home. A great ending to a great day and night.

So, the moral of the story is, sometimes music fests turn out exactly the opposite of how you expected them to, and sometimes that’s for the best. Looking forward to day 3, which features some of my favorites. Plus I get to see my friend Sarah spin at 3:45 in the green zone area, or whatever it’s called, between Mojave and Sahara.

I probably forgot a lot, but I’m glad I’ve been able to get down in writing whatever I can remember from each day, and I hope you’re enjoying it too. How I wish, how I wish you were here.

Again, sorry for the lack of pics, but I promise you I will make up for it with my video, if I can figure out how to use iMovie once this fest is over. My goal is to get a full glimpse of all aspects of the fest, and I think I’ve done a decent job at capturing lots thus far. But I really really like the picture below of the girl on the guys shoulders. So I’ve got that going.

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04/17/2010

coachella day 1: the good, the bad, the ugly.

Its 2:42 am and I just arrived back at our lovely vacation rental after my first day of Coachella ever. It was an interesting and exhausting day to say the least. Here’s what’s gone down thus far:

- Good: My uncle gave us directions to take the scenic route through the mountains from San Diego. It was pretty nice, to say the least. Here’s a picture from the airplane on the way to SD, as well as a nice panoramic shot from our drive overlooking all of Palm Springs

- Bad: We finally arrived to the festival gates around 3:30 PM. We knew we already were going to miss Sleigh Bells (sad) but thought we would be inside for Yeasayer for sure. Because they weren’t supposed to go on til something like 4:20. But then there was a huge gathering of people outside the gates, and we weren’t quite sure why. Especially since the line wasn’t moving at all. Word on the street was that they ran out of wristbands at the gate. Don’t ask me how that happens. All I know is that it was about an hour before we finally got inside.

- Ugly: As soon as we finally got inside, we went immediately to the Mojave tent to see Yeasayer, and of course it was bursting from the seams. So we stood outside, and not two minutes later, a girl collapsed and landed RIGHT at my feet. Her friends tried to get her to respond to anything, and after a few minutes the medics came in and carried her out on a stretcher. Not a good omen.

- Unfortunate but unavoidable: Quite a few bands have had to cancel for various reasons. Mew (one of my must sees) had to cancel for health reasons, and quite a few other bands have canceled because they were unable to fly out of Europe due to the Icelandic volcano. I learned just before Fever Ray’s set began that Delphic was one of those bands. Delphic was perhaps the second most anticipated band on my list, mostly because I LOVE exciting, high energy early afternoon sets and I knew they would throw it down. I know there’s nothing anyone could have done about it, but it was still kind of saddening.

But then the day got substantially better and stayed that way.

Met up with my internet friend Julia and her friend Libby. It might go down as the easiest/least complicated meet up ever. I’m rather happy that I recently made the switch to Sprint, because I was able to send/receive messages all day, and the folks with AT&T weren’t so lucky.

Then we went to check out Aeroplane for my first taste of the famous Sahara tent (on the way stopping into the Mojave tent again to catch Peabs and Mrs. Peabs, another far too easy meet up). And boy did it live up to all expectations. Aeroplane was playing maybe some of the best tunes ever, including a few recent dailybeatz favorites. As we approached the tent, I heard the familiar sounds of Tensnake’s “Coma Cat”, which was shortly thereafter followed by Flight Facilities “Crave You”. Other notables were Phoenix “If I Ever Feel Better”, a sick remix of “Girls & Boys” by Blur (perhaps an homage to Blur/Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn?), and that song from the 90s that goes “La da di la da dai”. You know the one I’m talking about. Maybe today wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Next up we went to check out the areas we hadn’t really seen yet, which included about 10 minutes of The Specials and Passion Pit, before deciding to get some grub and head back to Sahara for Pretty Lights, where I was supposed to meet my friend Sarah. We grabbed a DELICIOUS slice of pizza, and after I couldn’t find Sarah I decided it was time to try to catch up with our housemates for the weekend/friends I haven’t talked to or seen since high school. We had a quick rendezvous in the beer garden, and it was getting close to the time I’d been waiting for all day. Staking out a spot in the Mojave for Fever Ray’s day-ending performance.

We got there a bit early with enough time to catch the end of Imogen Heap’s set. I have to say, I was really impressed by her. She might be the hardest working musician in the biz when she’s performing, wearing a sort of headset microphone and literally running around the stage throughout her songs going from piano to keyboard to keytar to even drums, all the while continuing to sing. Very impressive Ms. Heap, you’ve won me over.

We got pretty darn close after that set ended and sat on the ground for the hour wait that stood in front of us. In the meantime we met some cool kids from all over the place whom I thought at first we were going to get in a fight with. It was a great metaphor for how awful our day began and what it turned out to be. There was Sophia and Buster along with the guy from the UP (that’s “upper peninsula” for you non-Michiganders) and another friend whose names escape me. We talked Michigan and even Michigan football for a while before one of the weirdest/greatest hours of my live music life thus far. It’s this meeting strangers who are really cool that is what music fests are all about.

Finally. My girl Fever Ray lived up to and surpassed all of my expectations on the live stage. I expected it to be an exercise in dark sounds and visuals with occasional rockin beats. But seriously, this chick threw down some next level dark shit on that stage. There were old fashioned lamps all over that would light up with the beat (it was very Disney Haunted Mansion looking) along with the whole band dressed in what I would describe as zombie tribesman outfits. And, oh, the powerful color changing laser beams. They get me every time. The best way I can describe her performance is that it was sort of a totally over the top and avant-garde performance, but perhaps rather than it taking the form of a bird’s nest around one’s face (a la Lady Gaga), the avant-garde manifested itself in a sort of beautiful nightmare, both musically and visually. And I do mean that in the very best way. I walked away just saying “Wow, that was…wow.” And I heard others saying the same all the way to the car.

The only bad part of Fever Ray’s set was the weird kid who showed up in front of me near the end. When the last song began, he was turning to everyone around us screaming, “I WANNA FUCK TO THIS SONG!!” multiple times. Have some class, good sir.

Then, more ugly. After making a wrong turn walking back to our car (leading to probably an additional half mile of walking, at least), we finally got back to our car at 1:30, only to sit in non-moving traffic for a while. Luckily someone had taken down a piece of the fencing so there was an additional exit and we finally got out around 2.

So here’s a summary of my thoughts thus far.

- Things that were good: The whole overall atmosphere. After being used to festivals in big cities, it was so great to look around and see nothing but mountains and palm trees as far as the eye could see. And then at night, wow, that place really transformed. Besides all of the huge art installations being illuminated, the outskirts of the entire Coachella grounds are surrounded by huge spotlights which occasionally all converge overhead, forming a sort of blanket over the festival. It sounds really lame, but it’s really cool to see in person.

Also good were several of the cool people that I’ve met already, and I look forward to meeting some more.

- Things that were bad: The fest running out of wristbands and schedules. It’s really hard to be at these things without your trusty pocket schedule. And the traffic situation at the end of the night needs to be fixed somehow.

- Regrets: Not doing everything in my power to make sure that my camera was still functional for Fever Ray.

Ok, that’s all I’ve got right now. Here are a few pics (very few). Mostly of the festival grounds/atmosphere. I was trying to obtain random pieces of video footage to splice together a nice recap video at the end of the fest (I already have the music/theme/cadence figured out in my head), apparently taking video is a massive drain on this camera’s battery. I’m using my roomates for various reasons, and I didn’t really take the time to figure it out, so maybe I can fix it for tomorrow. In fact, I killed most of the battery during Aeroplane I think. Today I will make sure to save battery power for evening shots, because that’s the real good stuff. But I wanted to give you an inside look at what went down today for those of you who could not attend. Hopefully I can keep up the next two days as well.

Diagnosis: So far I really like Coachella.

Fever Ray – Triangle Walks

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04/12/2010

so you’re going to coachella?

In case you haven’t read this blog in the past 3 months, I’m going to Coachella. I consider myself a seasoned festival attendee at this point, but I’ve never made the trip out west until now. And it just so happens that I haven’t talked about much else since I purchased that ticket way back in January, but now the day is almost upon us, so I figured I would share some tips and tricks I’ve learned over time in hopes that it can make your Coachella experience a bit more enjoyable. A lot of this is probably common sense, but it’s still nice to have a reminder.

** Since this list is somewhat lengthy (but hopefully useful), I’ve inserted a few rad tunes from Coachella artists throughout to listen to while you read.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – Up from Below

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PACKING

So it’s time to pack your bags. But what do you need to bring? Well, aside from the essentials, here are a few items you may not have thought about. I’m not camping for this fest, but a lot of these items are much more essential if you will be camping.

- Mini-flashlight: There is nothing more frustrating than dropping something in the grass at your campsite and trying to find it with your cell phone. You can get a powerful and compact mini-Maglite for about $10 and it’s worth it.

- TICKET! Do not be the guy who flies all the way across the country only to realize that you’ve forgotten to pack your ticket, rushing to arrange ridiculously expensive overnight shipping so you don’t miss the first day of the fest. I know it’s been sitting in a drawer out of sight for months in my case. Out of sight, out of mind.

- Car chargers: Unless you can wait in long lines to use recharging stations on site, make sure you have car chargers for your phones and ipods (for all that campsite rockin out). Plus I just read that even charging your Blackberry for 10 minutes will give you about a 25% charge.

- Small backpack: You will likely want to bring a few things into the fest with you so you don’t have to go back to your campsite once you’re on the festival grounds for the day. Even though you’ll likely pack up all of your weekend clothing in some sort of backpack, you dont want to have that stuff scattered all over, so bring an additional empty pack.

- Mini “first aid” kit: It would behoove you to bring a quart sized plastic bag with some essentials that you’ll want throughout the weekend. I usually have Tylenol, Tums (an absolute festival necessity), bandaids, allergy meds, nail clippers (nothing ruins a weekend like a painful hangnail. Or maybe that’s just me) and other things of that nature.

- DUCT TAPE: Duct tape cures all camping problems. Pack it.

- Collapsible chairs: Believe me, you’ll want a few of these when you’re sitting around the campsite. It’s also convenient if they have cup holders in the armrests, on account of all the burrs you’ll probably be drinking throughout the weekend.

- Dr. Bronners: Try to pick some of this stuff up. It’s a sort of all purpose cleaner. You can use it as soap, shampoo, or even to clean those pots and pans that you made breakfast with on your portable burner. It’s better than carrying a whole bunch of products and works pretty well.

- Bathing suit: While you probably won’t be swimming at the fest, a swimsuit can still come in handy. At Bonnaroo last year, there were trailers with a bunch of sinks. So we threw on the bathing suits, took the Dr Bronners and took “sink showers”. It wasn’t nearly as good as a real shower, but it did feel nice to freshen up a bit without exposing ourselves to the other hippies in attendance. Plus if you’re a chick, you can get away with shorts and a bikini top in the hot sun all day.

- EARPLUGS! It’s usually pretty difficult to get a good night’s sleep camping at a festival, but it’s damn near impossible without earplugs. There are lots of people around, and they usually are not afraid to blast their music at all hours of the day or night. An eye mask isn’t a bad idea either if you can’t sleep when it’s bright out. These things might help you sleep past 8AM, my standard camping wake up time regardless of how late I was up the night before. That is, until you get woken up by your flesh baking in the sauna that is a morning tent in the sun.

- Shade tent: It’s a bit of a hassle to bring and set up, but believe me, it is WELL worth it to have some shade to sit under in the mornings. If you don’t want to bring one, you can alternately hope that you have some nice neighbors who brought one that you can befriend. But do you really want to take that chance?

- Comfortable footwear: I know this goes without saying, but if you haven’t been, you probably aren’t aware of all of the standing/dancing/walking you’ll be doing. It’s better to be comfortable than fashionable in situations such as this.

- Sunscreen: Sort of obvious, but don’t forget to pack it. I know I did until someone reminded me.

- A hat: I never wear hats, ever. But it’s important to wear something on your head so your scalp doesn’t burn and peel, since you can’t apply sunscreen to the scalp in any sort of non-gross way. Believe me, you do not want your scalp to burn and peel. If the hat’s got a brim, it will help to keep you a little cooler too. So wear a hat, even if you never do. There are a million styles out there, I’m sure you can find one you like.

- TOILET PAPER: If you’re going to be using only the porto-johns for 3 days and nights, it is imperative to bring your own toilet paper, just to be safe.

ON THE WAY TO THE FEST

Above is a picture of the crazy amounts of windmills you might see on your drive in through Palm Springs (assuming you’re coming in from southwestern California). I just saw it for the first time in January, and it was pretty neat. Those of us coming from San Diego may also drive through Temecula, hence the contextually relevant song. Here’s a few things to remember on your drive into the fest.

Dirty Projectors – Temecula Sunrise

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- Charge up those electronic devices.

- It’s best to fill up your gas tank shortly before arriving so that you can run your car when needed to charge phones, etc (sorry environment!) without worrying about getting stuck. Plus who knows what traffic will be like? I went to a Phish festival and waited in stop and go traffic for 12 hours after exiting the freeway with no gas stations in sight (which, from what I hear, is one of the shorter waits that people experienced). Not sure what the traffic is like for Coachella, but better safe than sorry.

- For cooler purposes, I’ve found that it’s better to use those plastic blue liquid filled reusable ice things. I think that’s what they’re called at least. Bags of ice will melt all up in that cooler and get all of your food wet. And grilled cheese on soggy bread is unsavory to say the least. If you do have to use ice though, wait until you’re close to the fest (depending on where you’re coming from) to buy and throw in the cooler. A few hours can make a difference.

- Enjoy awesome playlists. Roll down the windows. GET EXCITED!

WE’RE HERE!

Remember that backpack I told you about? Here are a few things you can use it for, if you’re anal like I am. But also keep in mind that you’ll be carrying this with you all day. It’s best if you and your friends can all pack into one bag and then take turns carrying it.

Pavement – In the Mouth A Desert

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- Mini “first aid” kit: After your third round of carnival food, you’re probably going to need those Tums we talked about earlier. Although, to be fair, the food at these fests is typically much better than you’d expect. There’s always a wide variety of options and you can usually get away wiith something pretty healthy/not too scary for the stomach like corn on the cob, baked potato, plus a variety of veg items. I’m hoping that my Lollapalooza staple, the potstickers, will be in attendance.

- Long sleeved shirt/sweatshirt: In the desert, the days are excruciatingly hot (though as of now it looks like a bearable lower to mid 80s) and the nights get pretty cool. I’m planning on carrying some sort of long sleeve shirt to wear later in the day.

- Sunglasses case: I’ve destroyed many pairs of sunglasses from putting them directly into my pockets at music fests. Just bring your case in your bag and you can tuck them safely away when the sun goes down.

- Hand sanitizer: Porto-johns. ‘Nuff said. Bring hand sanitizer.

- TP: See above. You do not want to get caught in a compromising situation without some TP in your back pocket (both figuratively and literally).

- Sunscreen: Reapply liberally and often.

- As one of my favorite South Park characters says, “Don’t forget to bring a towel!” Although I hardly sit at these things and am not worried about the ground being wet or muddy, so I probably won’t be bringing one.

I would also advise you to bring snacks/camelpack/sealed bottles of water, but I guess these are Coachella no-nos. Although my friend Timmy did sneak in a liter water bottle of vodka into Lollapalooza two years back strapped to the inside of his leg, so anything is possible here.

GENERAL FESTIVAL ADVICE:

Faith No More – Epic

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This is definitely the raddest way I’m ending a post, assuming you clicked the play button above. I chose to end with this track because I fully expect an epic weekend. Including hearing this song live, which is going to be sort of nuts. Here’s some parting words of wisdom on how I like to do things.

- Planning your days: In my experience, I typically plan out my entire day ahead of time, then end up only seeing about half the people I planned on. This happens for a variety of reasons. The first is that I forget to take into account the time spent walking from one stage to the next. This is especially disastrous at Lollapalooza, which is arranged like a giant alleyway with the main stages at either end. But I hear Coachella is much smaller and more manageable. My advice is to have a general outline of who you want to see, but to play the whole day by ear. Some of the best acts I’ve seen were the ones that I decided to go to spur of the moment.

- Accept the fact that you won’t see everyone you want to see. There are going to be conflicts. You’re going to miss someone that’s on your list of “acts I am seeing for sure”. If there’s a conflict, just see how you feel beforehand and decide on the spot. Festivals are all about going with whatever you’re in the mood for at that moment, if you ask me, which you didn’t.

- When using the “restrooms”, depending on the setup, it’s best to find the most inconvenient porto-john and use that one. I’ve seen it all to many times when there’s a row of 100 porto-johns that there will be huge lines at one end and 10 at the other end with no line. Believe me, it’s worth it to walk the extra 20 feet. Alternately, if there are long lines at both ends of the area, try the ones in the middle. Besides the shorter wait, they’re also usually a bit less gross.

- There’s typically a lot to see and do at the fests aside from the music. Make sure you at least take in a little piece of the rest of the fest.

- Do NOT be afraid to branch off on your own. I know we all like to stay with our friends and enjoy things together, but if your friends all want to see one show and you want to see another, then go see the show you want to see. Don’t give yourself an opportunity to regret anything. Plus it gives you another opportunity to meet other cool people like yourself if you’re flying solo.

- USE LANDMARKS! Before you leave to branch off on your own, set up a meeting spot and time if you want to meet up with your friends again. Cell phones often don’t work in groups that number in the tens of thousands, so pick a spot ahead of time. And find big landmarks that are easy to spot from far away. Use these landmarks over and over again. At Lollapalooza, we always meet at the eyeball tower. It’s just easier that way. I hear Coachella has plenty of landmarks.

- Recycle what you can, and throw away what you can’t. Don’t be that guy that leaves his garbage lying around. Because I have to make it up to the environment after suggesting that you idle your car to charge your cell phone.

- Make sure to eat and stay hydrated, especially in the desert sun, it’s so easy to get caught up in the excitement of the day, and before you know it you realize you haven’t eaten anyhting or had a sip of water all day. Although I prefer when you can bring a camelpack and drink from it all day, the bottles of water are only $2, so it’s not a total rip-off. Don’t be that person who passes out in the sun because you didn’t drink any water. At other festivals, there are usually lots of people giving out samples of various sponsor products, so try to snag some free bevs.

And finally, most importantly, have a fucking blast. Rock out. Enjoy every second. Take it all in. Dance like a madman (or woman). Meet new people. Listen to new bands. Everyone is there to have a good time, so don’t be a dick (or a vagina, if you’re a female) to other concertgoers. Let’s make it an epic weekend.

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