In depth review of Coachella 2007

[gmoneyak]

[QUOTE=bballarl;176486] The Good, The Bad & The Queen were as well. I held out hope they wouldn't be quite so late, so I could justify missing The Black Keys, but they were and it sucked. QUOTE]

Too bad you missed The Black Keys, I definitely enjoyed myself there, great vibe in the tent!!

[sydaud]

Unfortunately, since Gotan were really fucking late, The Good, The Bad & The Queen were as well. I held out hope they wouldn't be quite so late, so I could justify missing The Black Keys, but they were and it sucked.

There is no justification for missing The Black Keys. You should have known better.

[psychic friend]

Playground
W.F.L.

happy mondays didnt play those songs. they were on the set list but they didnt have time.

man that was fun though.

[bballarl]

Wasn't the reaction to "Step On" amazing?

[downingthief]

I'm crazy busy at work but my brief highlights were...

Arcade Fire
Artic Monkeys
Crowded House (completey agree with Andrew on this...was VERY pissed at the Rage crowd. Thought Neil and the boys handled it very well/professionally, though)
JAMC
Noisettes (shame on anyone who missed this set...the "find" of Coachella, IMO)
Roderigo y Gabriela
Travis
Regina Spektor

Among others...definitely saw a lot of very good performances. Only one that I can say I was "disappointed" on was the Kooks. But, they weren't God Awful, at least.

On a side note...was it just me, or were there more late bands than in past years?

[amyzzz]

Comments on other posts here:

Bjork did not play Isobel. i don't remember that anyway.

Also, The Happy Mondays sounded groovy, but I never really liked them and my husband's friend had recommended Ratatat earlier, so I went over and caught the last 5 or so songs of Ratatat's set in the Mohave. AMAZING.

The Arctic Monkeys were great. I threw an orange beach ball up. Did anyone see it?

I will post my full Thurs to Mon review of the weekend later.

[lindseyb]

Saturday:

It was hot. Hottest I can remember since 04. But I'm sure it wasn't really. It just seemed that way.

it was so fucking hot on saturday. it got to the point where i was sitting in the shade saying "i'm so hot right now i don't even care about music anymore!". not just uncomfortable hot, i was ready to pass out/vomit/kill myself hot. then, my boyfriend came up with the ingenious idea of pouring cold water onto a napkin and putting cold wet napkin on face, neck, arms, etc. that helped revive me. i can't imagine it being any hotter, though. i don't think i could handle it.

[hawkingvsreeve]

Bjork did not play isobel. I entered each song into my phone as it came up. Would have been cool though. I thought It's Oh So Quiet might have been played, with all of the horns, but alas, it was not.

[amyzzz]

I entered each song into my phone as it came up.

Clever. I'll try that sometime.

Brandon, I looked for during Noisettes because that was the first set I knew you'd be at. Were you there? I was to the left of the soundboard.

[bballarl]

Clever. I'll try that sometime.

Brandon, I looked for during Noisettes because that was the first set I knew you'd be at. Were you there? I was to the left of the soundboard.

I use to bring pen and paper to shows until I realized my phone had a memo function.

I was to the left of the soundboard too. My friend was standing next to me without a shirt. I was wearing a green soccer jersey. We obviously didn't recognize eachother.

[amyzzz]

I use to bring pen and paper to shows until I realized my phone had a memo function.

I was to the left of the soundboard too. My friend was standing next to me without a shirt. I was wearing a green soccer jersey. We obviously didn't recognize eachother.

Yeah, I saw that you posted that in another thread. I didn't recognize you. They were awesome, weren't they?

[bballarl]

It was good, yeah. On par with expectations. I want to see them in a club.

[hawkingvsreeve]

No, it took us 2.5 hours to get in on Friday. We missed our first 2 bands.

[mountmccabe]

I'll post reviews/comments later.

The Noisettes were a good first band, loud and energetic. Shingai had her voice going strong and was all over the stage.

Next I moved over to the Coachella stage for Brother Ali. He was clearly hot up there in the sun but he sounded good.

After that I rushed over to the Mojave to catch the last half of Tokyo Police Club. They sounded a little rough but maybe it was just that I was starting to get really hot.

I went to the AT&T Blue Room for a little while to cool off while waiting for people by the Gobi for Gillian Welch. I liked that dark, cool room. It was just the thing to allow me to enjoy...

meeting up with TomAz. Heh. I saw him in the Gobi so we chatted and then fullonidle and PotVsKittie showed up. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings showed up in rhinestones so you knew they were ready. During "Elvis Presley Blues" I picked up on David's odd hip gyrations which I thought were special for the Elvis song but he kept up with it. It was rather hilarious. They both played guitar (David had his acoustic archtop and Gillian switched between a standard acoustic and a banjo. The setlist was quite wonderful and she was funny. She talked about being flashed on stage at Bonnaroo and described that fest as 'the Coachella of Nashville.' (paraphrase.)

Next I ran out to catch the last two songs by Silversun Pickups. They were straining but still came off as epic.

I didn't have anything to do before JAMC so I got some food (I forget what) and decided to find my friends at Arctic Monkeys. That didn't happen (wrong side) but I was surprised to enjoy their set quite a bit. At first i figured Alex Turner was bored to be there but then I realized he's just English. That's just how his face looks. He was laughing and chatting with his bandmates. Anyway I found myself being bored by most of each song but being surprised by how they climaxed.

I'm gonna finish this later.

[caco0283]

PotVsKittie showed up.

thats awesome john

[bballarl]

thats awesome john

Seconded.

[full on idle]

meeting up with TomAz. Heh. I saw him in the Gobi so we chatted and then fullonidle and PotVsKittie showed up. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings showed up in rhinestones so you knew they were ready. During "Elvis Presley Blues" I picked up on David's odd hip gyrations which I thought were special for the Elvis song but he kept up with it. It was rather hilarious. They both played guitar (David had his acoustic archtop and Gillian switched between a standard acoustic and a banjo. The setlist was quite wonderful and she was funny. She talked about being flashed on stage at Bonnaroo and described that fest as 'the Coachella of Nashville.' (paraphrase.)

That was a really wonderful set. One of the best of the weekend. I didn't know David Rawlings' name until I read this, he was AMAZING, as was Ms. Welch. They played my two favorite songs (Miss Ohio, Time:The Revelator) back to back and I was all goosebumpy and I was going to show you John but you had your eyes closed and I didn't want to interrupt.

[mountmccabe]

Yeah I fell asleep.

[full on idle]

hahaha

[bballarl]

Declare independence!!!!!!!!! Don't let them do that to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TomAz]

that set was so damned good. rawlings was so good with or without the movements. but they certainly added something. but still. they were like, on. ON. in my mind (and probably ONLY in my mind) they came out and said to the kids, you think that shit is good, check this out. and it was good.

i did wish they'd played "orphan girl" or "annabelle" or "one more dollar" but hell in the end the set list was great and my hopes/expectations for songs played were laid to waste in irrelevancy. what mattered was what they did. which was fucking awesome.

[bballarl]

Tom I saw Sean (Shawn?) twice at the fest but not you. What gives? Did I scare you that bad?

[whynotsmile99]

it was so fucking hot on saturday. it got to the point where i was sitting in the shade saying "i'm so hot right now i don't even care about music anymore!". not just uncomfortable hot, i was ready to pass out/vomit/kill myself hot. then, my boyfriend came up with the ingenious idea of pouring cold water onto a napkin and putting cold wet napkin on face, neck, arms, etc. that helped revive me. i can't imagine it being any hotter, though. i don't think i could handle it.

wet naps were the only thing that saved me. They were divine. I went through two packs over the weekend and will bring more next time.

[hawkingvsreeve]

I'll stick my junk in here as opposed to starting another thread like everyone who has a "dear so and so" thread. Attention fuck faces, those go in the letters to people or organizations thread. Please leave the board immediately.


FRIDAY

Like I stated above, traffic and lines were pretty bad on Friday, causing us to get in around 4 pm. Seeing that we missed stuff we wanted to see, we took care of logistical things (ATM, water, merch, etc.) while trying to avoid Sattelite Party. I overheard them playing a Janes Addiction song. I rolled my eyes. After they were done, we made our way forward to the Main stage for:

Silversun Pickups

Now many members on here had praised their live show as the second coming of Christ, so I had high expectations. I was a bit underwhelmed. They weren't bad by any means, and I enjoyed them, but I wasn't really wowed either. They played most of my favorites, including Dream At Tempo 119. Unfortunately they played the songs where whats her name also sings. That girl can't sing. It's dreadful. Anyway, I scored them a 7/10. Afterward, we made our way to:

Amy Winehouse

Because we got there right before she started, we were well outside of the Gobi tent. Her being like 3 feet tall didn't help the view at all, and the only thing in my line of vision were the backup singers. They appeared to be having a good time. I only stayed for 4 or 5 songs, but what I heard was good I thought. Apparently by the time she was done she was trashed and was having trouble keeping her shit together. Good thing I wasn't there to hear it. I gave her a 7/10. Like I said, about halfway through I went over to the Sahara for:

Digitalism

I wasn't entirely familiar with any of their stuff before checking them out, and I did like what I heard, but I thought their set had one too many cockteases. They would drop out the bass, and build it up, like every other dance act does, and it would build. And build. And build. AND BUILD. AND BUILD. AND OH MY GOD EVERYONE IS LOSING THEIR SHIT RIGHT NOW THIS IS GOING TO BE SO FUCKING SICK WHEN THE BASS DROPS BACK IN I CANT WAIT OMG OMG OMG-...hey. where's the bass? Hey what the fuck? This is a new song. WHERE IS THE GOD DAMN BASS? Sometimes they would deliver. Most of the time, not. For that I gave them a 6/10. Around this time I felt a rumbly in my tumbly, so I went and had a quesadilla and listened to:

The Jesus And Mary Chain

I don't have much to say except I liked what I heard. I knew a couple tunes, and it was nice standing in line music. But I was at the food place near the Outdoor stage so I gave it a 7/10. After eating I meandered over closer to the Outdoor stage for:

Peaches

It seems like Peaches is very polarizing. I enjoy her a great deal. I didn't enjoy her tardiness. Anyway, this set was a blast. Highlights included Fuck The Pain Away, Shake Yer Dix, and some others that elude me at the moment. My favorite part had to have been during the last song when she broke it down into a "shirts come off. shirts, shirts come off" chant, and then watching as everyone waved their shirt in the air like it was the world cup or something. Very very fun, and vulgar as always. I loved it. I gave it a 9/10. We stuck around to kill time for Bjork and watched:

Jarvis Cocker

I just recently got into Pulp, so I firgured, what the hell, I might as well stick around. I wasn't terribly impressed with Jarvis. The songs were good and all, but maybe it was the just the fact that Peaches had just tore it up and Jarvis was a bit more mellow. I don't know. He had good banter though. I gave him a 6/10. We left after about 5 songs to get in position for Bjork and ended up catching all of:

Interpol

I didn't have Interpol on my schedule going in, but standing all day decreased my motivation to want to walk to the Sahara for Faithless, who I had never really even heard. This was my second time seeing Interpol, and it was musically infinately better than the first. I think Carlos needs to go back to looking like George McFly and lose the stache for the image to really work for them. They played stuff off of both records and a few new ones. They are still pretty boring to watch though. Also, I have a rant to insert here-

General Standing Concert Etiquette:

Look, I know there are a lot of people at Coachella, and as such, you may want to move closer to try to get a better view, or you have to leave to catch someone else, or you are trying to find friends, etc. This was me all weekend. But. Don't be a huge douche about it. If you are going to move through the crowd, take off your huge fucking backpack stuffed to max capacity with God knows what. Bricks or small children by the look of it. The rest of us are trying to watch Interpol be dramatic and wear all black while you are reeneacting Moses parting the Red Sea. Take the pack off, and carry it in front of you, while you say "excuse me" to those you are trying to get by. More than once I was sent flying onto some dumb bitches feet who got all upset because she happened to be breaking one of the cardinal rules of general admission concerts. The rule being: closed toed shoes. No fucking exceptions. I don't give a fuck how hot it is outside. If you dont want your feet stepped on, or if you at least want to decrase the pain, leave the sandals at home. This is common sense. I'm sorry that I was moved against my will forcing me to rebalance myself and step where your foot was. I am. But I'm not sorry for it hurting. That's your fault. Maybe if Pablo and his horde of Zapatistas weren't trying to move by us with their conga line like procession of friends, this wouldn't have happened. That is another thing I hate. I can understand not wanting to lose your girlfriend in the sea of people watching the show. But I swear to God if another 20 person hand holding train of fucking Paris Hilton clones tries to squeeze through the crowd, someone is getting knifed in the urethra. Back to Interpol.

So yeah. They were good listening. 8/10. Afterward we found the rest of our group and waited with baited breath for:

Bjork

As you all know, I am a fan. This was my 3rd time seeing her, and holy shit. Amazing. Simply amazing. The horns were great, and really did a wonderful job of replacing the string parts on songs from homogenic. I loved it. Army of Me was the best thing I heard all weekend, and whatever that dude was using during Hyperballad, Pluto and Declare Independance was sick as hell. We called it the Evil Chess Set. Yeah. Best set of the weekend, by far. Ronnie just linked me to what it is. The Reactable.

A demo of the Reactable.


Jammin with the Reactable.


I love you Bjork. 10/10.

Friday's avergae score: 7.5


SATURDAY

We got an earlier jump on things for Saturday, but not early enough to catch all of:

Fields

I have really taken a liking to this band. I bought the shirt, and Kerrie took one of the road signs to put up in our house somewhere. We only caught the last 1.5 songs, but it was rockin none the less. Hopefully they will come back state side for a proper tour. The album comes out the same day as Bjork. Pick em both up. I gave them a 9/10. I hung out with Sean and John for a while before heading over to the Main stage for:

Pharoahe Monch

I wasn't entirely into him. Maybe it was the heat, or the time slot or something, but the stuff I checked out online seemed cooler than the live show. Whatever. 5/10. We hung around for:

Fountains Of Wayne

I'm not huge into this band, and only know the singles. What they played was tight musically, which I always appreciate. The lack of Stacies Mom from the setlist was interesting, but made me respect them more. I will have to check out some of the records which seem to get glowing reviews from the likes of Greg and others. The song where the road crew came out to play percussion was a complete ripoff of Don McClean's American Pie, and for that, they get a 7/10. Afterwards we hung out and chatted with some board members before heading off to the Mojave for:

Hot Chip

This tent was a lot more crowded than I had anticipated. None the less, Hot Chip was fun, although they seemed to play a lot of stuff that isn't on The Warning. I knew Boy From School, Over and Over and No Fit State, but the rest were a mystery. 3 girls near us were getting down. That was fun to watch. 8/10. After Hot Chip were started our gauntlet of half sets, beginning with:

The New Pornographers

I just recently got into these guys, and only own Twin Cinema, but love it. I was pleased as most of the set was from this record. All of the songs sounded great. Also, I was near this over-rocker who made it twice as enjoyable. Sorry about the sideways video by the way. I didn't realize I couldn't rotate it.



Being that it sounded like I was listening to the album and the setlist was great, I gave them a 9/10. I didn't want to to leave, but I had my sights set on the Sahara to catch some of:

MSTRKRFT

Dance party USA. It was a dj set, but it was still a great time. They dropped Daft Punk and everyone went nuts. They dropped House of Pain and everyone went nuts. It was one of those crazy fun dance party moments. The lack of my favorite MSTRKRFT songs warrants them a 7/10. Hunger and wanting to listen to literary prog rock led us to the food court by the Outdoor stage again, and after having some Teriaki bowl action, we caught the end of:

The Decemberists

Unfortunately we only got the last 2 songs (The Perfect Crime and Mariners Revenge), but Mariners Revenge was sweet. They had a giant whale! A WHALE! Yeah. I would have liked to have seen more. Also, the dance contest seemed pretty cool. 7/10. After that we braved all of the fanboys over at the main stage for:

The Arcade Fire

Seriously, I am sick of the hype. I'm also sick of the unecessary band member that runs around and hits things. Fuck that guy. It's distracting, you cant hear what the hell he is doing, and he just generally looks retarded. Get Napoleon Dynamite to play his bell parts instead of beating an unmiced drum. Anyway. Win sounded better than he normally does live which was nice, but I felt Regine and Sarah weren't loud enough in the mix. We only stayed for 4 songs because I have seen them before and am kind of over it. It sounded good though, so I gave em an 8/10. After fighting our way out of the main stage crowd we made our way to the Sahara to catch:

Justice

Except it wasn't Justice. It was Busy P and DJ Medhi, and it was lame. They played Smack My Bitch Up. Like, here. Here is a prodigy song. Yes, we are just playing tracks from cds. It was retarded. 3/10. So yeah. Justice was late, and we only got to watch 10 minutes. I give it a 5/10 because it wasn't very exciting, and we had a date at the Gobi with:

Girl Talk

ARE THERE LADIES IN THIS MOTHA FUCKA?

HELLLLLL YEAHHHHH

ARE THERE FELLAS IN THIS MOTHA FUCKA?

HELLLLLL YEAHHHHH

It was everything I hoped it would be so it gets a 10/10. After that the tent pretty much cleared out, but we stuck around to watch:

Mike Relm

Relm is a turn tablist and video scratcher dude. It was great. The songs were a lot of fun, the video was good and he quickly packed the tent with passers by who caught a whif of the sex scenes being projected up on the screen (including the one from Team America). He dropped Bjork on us to remind us of how fucking amazing she was the night before,then he did his Rage thing and everyone lost their shit.





This might have been my second favorite set of the weekend. A great sleeper pick. 10/10. Being hungry again we headed to a random food court and got water and corn dogs before heading to the Sahara to catch the last 40 minutes of:

The Rapture

I am not a big Rapture fan but they seemed to have people all in a frenzy and I was enjoying them. We got there right as they started that Chance Of A Lifetime song. I don't even know if that is what it is called, but it's the single. I really liked the idea of the dance rock acts in the tent this year, and it seemed to work out well. I was a surprisingly pleasant way to end the evening, although the walk back to the car was quite a trek.

Saturday's average score: 7.4


SUNDAY

Originally I had planned to watch Lupe Fiasco, The Coup and Explosions In The Sky but sleeping in put on a better show. So we got in around 4:45 and headed to the Mojave for:

Junior Boys

I expected this to be a more low key show but it was pretty fun. Nothing terribly amazing, but a fun way to start the day. 7/10. Afterwards we stuck around for:

CSS

These guys were a ton of fun, and provided us with our second Paris Hilton sighting of the weekend. The first was at Girl Talk. Anyway, they played everything I wanted to hear and everybody was into it. Music was all of our boyfriends, so they got a 9/10. We left during the last song to go one tent over to the Gobi for:

Konono No. 1

This was flat out awesome. All sorts of African instrumentation, including mbiras. The 2 older dudes on the left part of the stage were probably the best, as they looked like statues while playing. It was funny. I caught another over rocker doing a barrel of monkeys kind of dance. Enjoy.



Here are some other people getting down.



For coming all the way from Africa and rocking everyone who was wise enough to check them out I give them a 10/10. They ended their set and we headed back to the Mojave for the first 15 minutes of:

Klaxons

It was short but it was sweet, and we got Atlantis To Interzone. We were happy about that. They get a 7/10. Afterward we made our way to the Outdoor stage for:

Placebo

Apparently Placebo and New Order are great buddies and share the same live show philosophy. Play a bunch of songs from your new album while we wait to hear something we know. I was pretty dissapointed. 5/10. We had a sing along to attend, so we went to the Main stage for:

Crowded House

This one was purely just a novelty act, and we arrived just in time for Don't Dream It's Over, which was fun until some fucking douche fuck face thought it would be cute to throw something onstage. I don't care who you are or how much you hate the band playing. You don't boo opening acts, and you sure as fuck don't throw stuff on stage. I mentioned urethra knifing earlier. This is the guy I want it done to. That kind of marred the experience, so I have to give it a 6/10. We got dinner at the teriaki place again, and met up with a large group of boardies for:

Air

Who were late as hell. And played a short set. But were good. But crowded. So it gets a 6/10. Being that they were so late, we decided to skip Teddybears all together, and head to the Main stage for:

Rage Against The Machine

The was the set I was anticipating most all weekend. This was going to be the defining moment of Coachella 07. We were here. The end. The final night. All of the sweat and tears of girls toes I had stepped on was leading up to this. Rage Against The Machine. Or how about, Rage Against the fact that it wasn't loud enough. Or, Rage Against the tempo slipping all over the place. Or, Rage Against the fact that they needed two more months of practice to lock the songs in tight enough. Or, Rage Against the short set list. Large frat guys near us thought it would be fun to rage against other Coachella attendees, so they started a mosh pit. But that wasn't enough for them. They wanted to tear the system down. To start a revolution. And what better way, than with fire.



Yes, they raged against that machine that is holding them down. All of which, are American dreams. Seriously though, it did get better after a few songs, until Freedom, but it was never as tight as it should have been. Maybe I had it hyped up too much in my head. A fellow board member said that Rage in 99 was the single defining moment of live music in his life. I sincerly hope that 99 was better. I do think though that him and I watch concerts from a different viewpoint. A sort of technical/execution vs. stage presence/showmanship kind of thing. Who knows. So for all of the things that counted against them, it was still Rage, and for that they get a very generous 7/10.

Sunday's Average score: 7

Time to get misty eyed.

It was a pleasure to meet all of you who I had not met previously, and to those I knew, it was great seeing you, as always. You guys are the big highlight of my year. The bands are great and all, but I think what makes it so special for me, and I am sure all of us is that we have such a fun and diverse group to share it with. I love you all. Seriously.

Non musical highlights:

Greg leaving his tickets in Montana
Gabe's brother spitting Ransom 1 rhymes
Playing Wii with Erik
Renting a house with awesome friends
Jimi Hendrix's National Anthem
3 am in the jaccuzzi
As always, pie
Keriann falling into the jaccuzzi
Watching the moon set
Fishing the golf course ponds
Stefan's speeding ticket
Putting the gorilla on the golf course
Getting hassled by grandpa security. Twice.
The golf cart
Seeing the dude from MSTRKRFT entering our country club


And now the moment we are all waiting for. The pictures.




























Farewell Coachella. See you next year.

[bballarl]

That was a prime in depth review. Whoa, green tongue. And whoa, Dustin. Dustin needs to come back.

[bmack86]

I liked that quite a bit.

[idrive1life]

I like it a lot (very comprehensive) though I don't agree to some of them but it's really a fantastic review.

Silversun Pickups

Now many members on here had praised their live show as the second coming of Christ, so I had high expectations. I was a bit underwhelmed. They weren't bad by any means, and I enjoyed them, but I wasn't really wowed either. They played most of my favorites, including Dream At Tempo 119. Unfortunately they played the songs where whats her name also sings. That girl can't sing. It's dreadful.

Yup, if I have one criticism of their performance. I absolutely agree on this one ->

That girl can't sing. It's dreadful.

[PassiveTheory]

That song you're missing from the SSPU set? Future Foe Scenarios.

Lemme see...

Thursday

Camping was pretty bitchy, thankfully the folks next to us gave us enough space to fit our 3 tents. Ran into fasttrack while getting a lemonade and the picture we took was pretty bitchin'

Friday

Got in a little after 1 pm, enjoyed the view from the entrance for a second before making a beeline to the KROQ misters (did so every day), dropped 12$ on water and bought my girlfriend a Nickel Creek t-shirt since she couldn't come. I wandered about and could hear Flosstradamus from a while aways after a while, but decided to check in on...

Comedians of Comedy, first.

I essentially caught Patton Oswald's opening skit and the guy after him. If the Gobi tent weren't so fucking packed, I would have stayed... I still give kudos to the guys for puttign on a riotous act. 6/10

I'm actually glad I decided to go to the Mojave and give a band Brandon introduced me to a second shot...

The Noisettes

I was pretty damn impressed with these 3, and the lead singer gave it her all, I mean after introducing yourself with "We are the Noisettes, if you do not like punk rock or rock n' roll, PLEASE LEAVE" you had better kick ass or you will be even more lame. But like I said, they rocked it, the Mojave was actually quite cool, and they sounded great live. 8/10

Moved a little further forward for...

Tokyo Police Club

I had only heard a tiny bit from these folks, but they were pretty damn good. Everyone on stage was into it, and there was some comical mid-song interaction between the lead guitarist and the drummer. They tore through their set and I have no complaints, definently a performance not to have missed. 8/10

Moved up once more and got in some prime position for the next act, had a good dialogue going on with the folks beside me.

Tilly and the Wall

I had hoped to find my friend Fred before their performance, but no luck ;_;. The Tilly girls were decently late, but they put on a stellar performance, "Urgency" and "Rainbow In The Dark" were definently highlights for me. I left midway through their set, but I was glad to see enough of them to witness them tearing it up, plus the Tilly girls were quite nice to look at 8/10

Grabbed something to drink/eat (frozen lemonade!) and wandered down to the mainstage just as the next band was getting on stage...

Silversun Pickups

Were pretty damn awesome. The lead singer was getting into it, giving props to Blonde Redhead (who I missed ;_; ) Arctic Monkeys, etc. and shredding all over the fucking stage. It was definently his show, and the chick fucking dissapoints me as a bassist, then again, D'Arcy never did thrill me either... Oh, there goes another comparison to the Pumpkins! Blah, they still rocked it, and playing Future Foe Scenarios, Common Reactor and Lazy Eye before I left was just awesome. 9/10

Wandered over to the Gobi tent to try to get a good spot for Amy Winehouse... YEAH... That wasn't fucking going to happen... After realizing that there was no way I'd be able to get in, I decided to split and get some rolled tacos (MMMM... good) and saw that Stephen Marley about to start over on the Outdoor Theatre. I said, the hell with it, and wandered over there to watch him;

Stephen Marley

Good LORD that was an incredible amount of weed smoked! half the time, from the back, the view was all obscured by gray murky pot-smoke-ness... Not that I minded, though. PPL in the crowd weren't very cool, shooting me dirty looks and what not, when I tried advancing, even though I asked politely and shit... Ah well. Stephen was on though, so was Jr. Gong. Who the fuck was that one guy with the bongo drum who delivered a fiery outburst of spoken-word poetry? He was cool. Stephen stuck with the notion that "this is a Coachella crowd, not a Stephen Marley crowd" and played a ton of Bob Marley songs. Noice. Buffalo Soldier and This Is Reggae Music stood out as highlights, Mind Control and that one Jr. Gong song that wasn't Welcome to Jamrock was kickass too. 8/10

Had a choice to make: Split for Rufus Wainwright and Peeping Tom, or stay for the next two Outdoor acts... Stuck with the latter, especially since I knew the next two crowds would be TOTALLY different, and thus, much more easier to maneuver through. So I got in good position for...

Peaches

Definently one of my highlights of the weekend, and (at the time and still, even now) I don't think she was dreadfully late. Fuck the Pain Away was fucking masterful, and she totally proved her mettle by climbing up the metal barricade, the only artist to do so all weekend. I loved how the Outdoor stage had clocks, that helped with figuring out where to go to and when. Anyway, back to Peaches, she and the Herms really gave it their all, and she actually shaved her fucking armpits! WHOOOO!!! 9.5/10

SO yeah I moved up for Jarvis, felt REALLY stuck, so I moved back again;

Jarvis Cocker

Yeah... The first shitty wait of the weekend. I was only able to catch 4 of his songs, including Fat Children and Don't Let Him Waste Your Time, and I thought the visuals on the latter were amazing. I loved how Jarvis strode around stage, and especially his between-song banter (especially the one where he commented about taking his shirt off, some girl screamed, and he called it an appropriate shriek of terror, classic shit! XD) but alas, there was no way in hell, especially in light of missing Interpol, that I was going to miss the next act...

Faithless

I don't know how to put this... I'll just go with; E P I C. Yeah, that seems appropriate... Their performance reaffirmed my faith in making music, and demonstrated to me just what you can accomplish with a live show. It was the most uplifting spiritual experience I have ever witnessed, and kreutz showing up mid performance was also pretty badass. I hope you enjoyed Bjork dude! Just from start till' finish, Insomnia, God Is A DJ, I Want More, Mass Destruction, We Are 1, etc. It was a PERFECT show, for me at least. 10/10

So, after completely burning myself out at Sahara, I thought I could manage to stand for Gogol Bordello...

Gogol Bordello

'Fraid to say I only caught their first 2 songs then split... I was dead tired, but I was able to witness them bringing on the crazy dancers and shit like that. I hope you guys had fun, and I won't reserve judgment on their performance because I really didn't "witness" it... =/

Heard Bjork's "Declare Independance" on the way out (I stopped for food one final time) and headed to the campsite, tired as fucking hell. Friday was amazing, the best day for me, so I'll give it a 9/10.

I'll post at. and Sun. later on...

[amyzzz]

Nice, Brandon.

[full on idle]

Noise. Big Time.


Awesome pics b.