Must-See Sets for Weekend 2 +explanations

[iammrcandyman]

Did anyone catch NOISIA on Sunday? They would have killed it with a later time slot, I can't imagine them at 1.

[SepaGroove]

Thanks for the input guys. This is some good shit. Can't wait

[SepaGroove]

Did anyone catch NOISIA on Sunday? They would have killed it with a later time slot, I can't imagine them at 1.

I'm getting there at 1 to see them. It's gonna be a long, exhausting day but I know they'll be worth it. I'd love some feedback about their set too

[iamellyn]

I'm surprised everyone really liked M83. I thought their sound was awful. Actually I thought all of Mojave's sound was awful unless you were super close. I really hope they fix that for you guys next week.

I was really surprised how much I liked slower music this go around. Explosions in the Sky was one of my favourite Coachella moments. I also really liked The Shins and Bon Iver's set. Radiohead killed it, but I don't think I would have liked it as much if I wasn't really, really close. They didn't have them on the jumbo screen, so friends of mine who couldn't actually see him well on the stage felt less engaged. The small screens they had didn't show everyone very much. It wasn't even hard to get to the front. I just started at The Shins and moved onward.

Favourite fast pace sets:
-Arctic Monkeys
-The Hives
-Zedd

Biggest Surprise:
-EMA

Other likes:
-WU LYF
-The Rapture
-GIVERS

Personal Essential:
-Jeff Mangum

[Garbarator]

Jeff Mangum is absolutely a must see. you missed out dude.

[IlliniQ]

Wow thanks for the nice write up illiniQ!!

I'm going to adjust my schedule based on your feedback. How early would we have to get to M83 to secure a moderately good spot in the Mohave? Was it packed to the point where people were busting out the sides of the tent?

Also can you please elaborate on the parking situation? How long did it take to get out each night? Was time to exit affected by which lot you parked at? Also, how long does it take to get in and park?

I think if You're at M83 5-10 minutes before start you'll be able to work you're way to the front half of the tent, but I was at Black Keys, I just know from others it filled past saturation point...someone else who was there early may have a better since.

Parking hard to say since I was there before 11 each morning so was parking in the sub-lot closest to the exit point all three days, but anyway you slice it, the bottle-necking that caused the 1-2 hour waits to get out is a thing of the past...Took me less than five minutes every night, and I left two of the three nights after the headliner wrapped, so my guess if even if your parked in worst spot...20-30 minutes max.

[Nealocus]

Gary Clarke Jr. was absolutely incredible. Gave me chills during his entire performance, one of the most beautiful guitar players ever. Blew the Black Keys out of the water.

[stripahbacon]

CORRECTION: Justice played an amazing set and STARTED LATE NOT CUT SHORT!!!! O and about the weather; those of us who bothered top check out the forecast prior to leaving had no troubles, have fun sweating your ass off and remember the sunscreen!

[renheal]

How was Calvin Harris? Clashes with Beirut who I *love* but who I've seen before. I also really like Calvin Harris but have heard he's not always great live... any advice?

Also, Kaiser Chiefs vs Buzzocks. I grew up on Buzzcocks but I *love* Kaiser Chiefs. Any recommendations as to which I should see?

[streamline]

I'm getting there at 1 to see them. It's gonna be a long, exhausting day but I know they'll be worth it. I'd love some feedback about their set too

saw the last 20 minutes or so. was all drum and bass from what i heard...they dropped shellshock near the end i think? wasn't loud enough, but it's cause they were early. the people who were there were getting down.

[blizzair]

that's my saturday LSD trip for me ! front row for all 3 see you there brother

I caught the end of st vincent, then fly lo and sbtrkt, and it was probably my favorite stretch of the whole weekend. A$ap rocky was fun too, if you're into that kind of thing. great energy, and their set up was pretty cool. lots of purple lights!

Also, any flying lotus fans out there should check out gaslamp killer on sunday in the gobi. he's on flying lotus's label and killed it. plus almost no one was there, i walked into the tent probably 15 minutes into his set, and was able to easily stroll almost up to the rail in the center.

[Geno_g]

Modeselektor. They killed the set, the tent was empty with tons of room to dance...

[jiggly]

IlliniQ,

fantastic write-up. Thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts. Very valuable information!

[ceurvon]

St. Vincent was my surprising highlight of the day. I loved the show itself. She is very passionate about her music, which is awesome. But she won me over as fan for life when she crowd surfed while singing. Fight to the front and middle in case she does it again!! Tune Yards was good - she is just wacky - at one point, she got a little too wacky and lost me.

[lostatlimbo]

IlliniQ,

fantastic write-up. Thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts. Very valuable information!

Agreed. Great read!

[CoachellaVet09]

The thing i really like about how everyone is saying St. Vincent is that she is playing at the same time as Jeff Mangum, who everyone says is amazing

[LickTheLizzard]

See Death Grips and don't ask why.

See Jeff Mangum, because it just might change your life.

[Hayleymoo]

if ur looking for crazy lights on stage you must see swedish house mafia and amon tobin

[jiggly]

that's my saturday LSD trip for me ! front row for all 3 see you there brother

you convinced me!

[Jakedeez]

Just some thoughts of what i saw.....
1.Metronomy- They put on a killer show during the day and crowd wont be too bad, they were great.
2.Gary Clark Jr.- kills it on the guitar.
3.Death Grips- Badass show, Zack Hill from Hella on drums
4.The Rapture- Best set i saw all weekend other than dre n snoop
5.Bon Iver- Like him or not, sounded so good with full band. Great sound
6.St. Vincent- very good set, she looked like she was on something though....wide eyed, big pupils, jumped in crowd second to last song, but kicked ass
7.At the Drive In- Love ATDI, but Omars mood totally killed it for me. Just wasn't how i expected it.
8.The Weeknd- Very underwhelming, wasn't very impressed
9.Gotye- Sounded awesome, once he plays him main song the entire crowd will disperse and you can get right up front, pretty pitiful actually. That was a sad sight to see

also see Beirut, Band of Skulls, Grace Potter, Tune-yards, Lissie

[fakepornotits]

what was wrong with Omar?

His mother passed away.

[afox19]

Wow, nice job IlliniQ. I'll try to add what I can to that. I went from 2-close on Fri/Sat and 4-close on Sun.

1) I know this doesn't apply to too many folks but they changed the route for folks walking to the fest from the north. Now, you're compelled to go through the camping security check as well as the main security check. Not a huge deal, but a bummer to wait in line with people rolling in coolers/tents/etc. Added about 20m on Friday so plan accordingly if this applies to you.

2) I'm sorry, but the food is nearly inedible. This is my fourth year, and it's just as disgusting as ever. I really wish they could address this issue somehow - Outside Lands, for instance, is far superior in this regard. I know it's a minor point, but I needed to vent...

Ok - on to the music (CONTAINS SPOILERS) -

Friday notes:


1) As many have stated - GARY CLARK, JR. I only knew one of his songs (the closer - Bright Lights), but it was a great time. He slows it down on a couple songs, which is a nice change of pace - and he's just a great performer. Tons of fun. And he really does shred.

2) Datsik - hang with me here. I saw a little of SHM, and it was basically what I expected. The light/stage setup was cool, but overall I'm just not a huge fan. I also prefer EDM in a tent as opposed to the main stage. So - on the recommendation of a DJ friend, we hoofed it over to Datsik. When I heard the unmistakable sounds of dubstep emanating from the Sahara, I was definitely bummed, but figured we'd give it a couple minutes. Wow, am I glad we did. First of all, there's nobody there - maybe 500 people. So, you can get up close, and have your entire body shaking with the bass (not recommended for long periods of time). Second, and this is so awesome - THERE WAS A MOSH PIT. Imagine a mosh pit filled with 135 lb bros with their shirts off slamming into each other and throwing air punches. Amazing. I could have watched that all night, it was phenomenally hilarious. If you don't find this amusing - I guess we don't share the same sense of humor, but for us it was endless entertainment. Lastly, and I know people will find this ridiculous, some robots get involved at the end. Let's just say it resulted in one of my indelible images of the festival. So cheesy and awesome and hiliarious all at once. Datsik ruled.

2) Also enjoyed Madeon and Afrojack on Friday - Breakbot was a bit of a letdown (the intro with the guy singing is mindblowingly bad), but overall a solid day in the Sahara.

3) Loved Refused. The singer discussed how Coachella essentially convinced them to reunite and play the festival, which is really cool. I only knew a couple songs, and wasn't familiar with them back in the day, but had a really good time at this. They only play for about an hour, FWIW.

4) Frank Ocean - trainwreck. Very sad about this, as I was really looking forward to his set. Saw the whole thing, and the bottom line, at least IMO, is that he just wasn't ready for it. Hopefully wknd 2 will be better. Funny random thing - his musicians were all wearing welding mask type things (?) - and they kept falling down over their faces - then they would push them back up, and they would fall down again, lather rinse repeat.

5) M83 - we got there about 5 minutes early and it was SLAMMED. Friday wknd 1 was definitely a light crowd, so I expect it will be even crazier for wknd 2. My recommendation, as others have stated, is to GO SEE THE RAPTURE (had no expectations and loved it), and secure a spot for M83.

Bands I saw and wouldn't go back to: Other Lives, EMA, Breakbot, Frank Ocean

Saturday:

1) The Head and the Heart --> Manchester Orchestra. I'm not into Tuneyards, and I hated to miss Kaiser Chiefs, but for me, this was one of the best stretches of the weekend. As stated above, the keyboarded for Manchester is a spectacle all on his own, and they play a tight, clean set. I'm a pretty big fan, and this was the first time I'd seen them. H and H - you know exactly what you're going to get and they delivered. Not a huge crowd at either one of these.

2) Sebastian Ingrosso and Kasabian both delivered solid, if unremarkable sets. Maybe I should have listened to the Jeff Mangum folks.

3) Godspeed. I have seen them twice before, and I'm really ambivalent. My buddy is a huge fan, though, so we went to check it out. As mentioned, the crowd starts off small, and only gets smaller. Probably 250 people there at the end. If you are just curious, I would probably just check out the first 15 min (they'll open with the Albanian, which is a really solid track). If that doesn't float your boat, move on. Note that it will take A WHILE to get going - that's the nature of Godspeed.

4) Radiohead - this is the 4th show I've seen on this tour, and I really liked it. Insightful point by IlliniQ about the sequencing of the tracks live - I have often had the same thought when in the midst of a Kid A --> Pyramid Song --> Identikit run, for instance. The power of a setlist is that the whole can be greater than the sum of the parts, and I didn't feel that way after this set. From KOL, Magpie is stunningly good live, as well as Bloom. I was bummed that they took two encore breaks for a 20 song set (normally they're 23-24), but I guess they have a routine they're sticking to. Crowd was NOT into the performance much at all, at least from my perspective.

Bands I saw and wouldn't go back to: Flying Lotus (I just don't get it, I guess)

Sunday:

1) araabMUZIK - wow. Do yourself and favor and go check this out, especially if you subscribe to the whole 'DJs just press buttons' theory.

2) Nero - never heard of this guy, and happened to listen to a couple tracks Sunday am. Dug him, and went. WOW. This and Datsik were my two slamdunk best Sahara acts all weekend (saw about 10-12).

2) Justice - Man, I was bummed this set got cut short. Wasn't that familiar with them, but was having a great time out in the open air dancing my ass off with the rest of the crowd.

3) Modeselektor/Dre&Snoop - I know this is a weird grouping, but I'm going to save typing the same thing twice and say JUST GO. I guess if you're dying to see DJ Shadow's suprise (revealed elsewhere), go check that out too, but if I were going to wknd 2, I would go to both of these again with no hesitation.

Acts I would not see again: Calvin Harris

So, all you wknd 2 folks, enjoy the hell out of it. Great 3 days.

[loopy]

Don't bother going to David Guetta's set, it was really bad and he kept yelling in his stupid french accent. Don't miss Kaskade! Flawless set on his part. The visual set malfunctioned but music was awesome.

Guetta was so awful. He played Levels in some form or another for about 10 minutes straight, a shitty light show that was mostly just his name and song titles along the panels.

[amma_sol]

Did anyone catch NOISIA on Sunday? They would have killed it with a later time slot, I can't imagine them at 1.

I caught this. Agreed a later time would have been better. I think during the day more hyper music is needed but I still enjoyed this set. But I was also tripping pretty hard at this point...

How was Calvin Harris? Clashes with Beirut who I *love* but who I've seen before. I also really like Calvin Harris but have heard he's not always great live... any advice?

Also, Kaiser Chiefs vs Buzzocks. I grew up on Buzzcocks but I *love* Kaiser Chiefs. Any recommendations as to which I should see?

I was very upset with myself with this conflict. I LOVE Beirut and don't really care for Calvin Harris. Because of the timing I ended up going to Calvin Harris. I wish Beirut was playing at sunset. But I will say that Calvin Harris was way better than when I saw him at Hard Haunted a few years ago. It was also pretty cool that Rihanna was there. So if you feel like getting down and dancing crazy I would suggest going to Calvin.

[frozen pilgrim]

doc oc.

I mean sub focus.