Disappointing Friday

[StuManChu]

I've gone to Coachella on specific days for the last four years and I think this past Friday was pretty weak in comparison to some truly outstanding days of music put on in the past (last year's Prince-Portishead-Animal Collective triple crown being the absolute highlight).

I really enjoyed Beirut and The Presets, and it was sweet to see Leonard Cohen having fun with a Muzak version of his songbook. But boy was Coachella the wrong venue for him. People talking loudly through his set, pausing to sing along to "Hallelujah", and then leaving in exodus as he's drowned out by Morrissey. I felt bad for him. I should have seen him at Nokia!

Paul M... It was a lazy show. Roger Waters and Prince tried to create a unique Coachella experience. This felt like a standard issue roadshow with inane audience patter and a substandard vocal and visual performance. What's with all the new material? I left after 30 minutes. Even a requisite "Eleanor Rigby" felt lackluster. It didn't feel like Paul's heart was in this. Am I too harsh? I dunno, I thought he hadn't lived up to his end of the bargain. It didn't help that every seemed to be convinced they were going to be watching The Beatles.

And the rest of the shows during the day that I saw were "okay" but nothing special (People Under The Stairs, M Ward, Crystal Castles). Going back on Sunday. Much higher hopes for that.

I still love you Coachella.

[hypervera]

just paul playing guitar singing yesterday is better than waters and prince

[ugachaka]

i agree with your entire assessment of mccartney. no reason that couldnt have been better, but then it was mccartney. THE beatle. still it was nowhere near prince, or radiohead in my opinion.
saturday (today) was a much better daythan yesterday on the whole, and i left during m.i.a. cuz i had to poop. wish i could have hung on until mastodon...damn turtle-heads!!!

[gemee]

ugachaka saidf "i had to poop. wish i could have hung on until mastodon...damn turtle-heads!!!"
TMI.

[likecats]

I thought Paul was in good form actually, and played a really good show. Despite all the naysaying that went on since he was announced as a headliner, it was encouraging to see so many people show up for him. I'm already a fan, though. I staked out a spot at the very front and waited all day.

[InfinitR]

Are you kidding me? McCartney was epic. You have to be patient with storytellers and then you may see.

[pocket]

I've gone to Coachella on specific days for the last four years and I think this past Friday was pretty weak in comparison to some truly outstanding days of music put on in the past (last year's Prince-Portishead-Animal Collective triple crown being the absolute highlight).

I really enjoyed Beirut and The Presets, and it was sweet to see Leonard Cohen having fun with a Muzak version of his songbook. But boy was Coachella the wrong venue for him. People talking loudly through his set, pausing to sing along to "Hallelujah", and then leaving in exodus as he's drowned out by Morrissey. I felt bad for him. I should have seen him at Nokia!

Paul M... It was a lazy show. Roger Waters and Prince tried to create a unique Coachella experience. This felt like a standard issue roadshow with inane audience patter and a substandard vocal and visual performance. What's with all the new material? I left after 30 minutes. Even a requisite "Eleanor Rigby" felt lackluster. It didn't feel like Paul's heart was in this. Am I too harsh? I dunno, I thought he hadn't lived up to his end of the bargain. It didn't help that every seemed to be convinced they were going to be watching The Beatles.

And the rest of the shows during the day that I saw were "okay" but nothing special (People Under The Stairs, M Ward, Crystal Castles). Going back on Sunday. Much higher hopes for that.

I still love you Coachella.

it was a lazy show, yet you left after 30 minutes?

you my non friend are a fucking retard.

seriously paul killed it. the first 45 minutes were slow, but hey, the dude has do do his solo material.

the next 2 plus hours were filled with beatles classics as done by him. with just a single guitar belting out yesterday, or when he came back out for a second encore and sang helter skelter.

oh and dont forget the fireworks, the huge flames on stage and the lights that came down for the encore.

oh but you decided after 30 minutes to leave.

if you want to say something is disappointing, at least watch the whole thing.

once the weekend is done and everyone comes back here, everyone will say the same thing about paul completely killing it this weekend.

you also chose a lot of shitty bands to watch that day too, ever figure if something wasnt sounding so good to walk to another stage? did you see white lies, los campensions, conor and the mystic valley band?

oh no you didnt either.

oh and morrissey was great too, sad i had to leave cohen early but it was worth it.

[StuManChu]

I am really happy that many people seemed to get something out of Paul's show. And I'm really happy to be your "non friend", as you seem to greet differeent opinions with hostility and insults. May all your friends have exactly the same thoughts as you do.

When I got to Paul he did a really lazy version of "Eleanor Rigby", two stupid new songs, Band on the Run, and some horrid tribute song to John Lennon that John himself would have laughed off the stage. I had been there 11 hours in the heat and I wanted to beat the traffic before the show ended. I realled wanted Paul to give me a reason to stay... but when he broke out into The Fireman I just threw up my hands and drove back to LA. Things might have gone differently if I had heard a good one like "A Day In The Life". Sorry to have missed it.

So maybe I saw the worst 30 minutes of the 20 hour set but I'd still argue it's lazy to have a lag for a fourth of your show. And I really don't think we saw a very different show at Coachella than what he would have give anywhere else (unlike Prince and Roger Waters).

I'm not starting a pissing contest about whose the best musician. Obviously Paul's contribution to music will outshine anyone else on this bill. But I suspect the people most enamored with that set were people pre-sold on it being "epic".

Obviously if I'd picked different acts to see it would have been a different reaction, and maybe I missed the best shows I'd ever seen. But the stuff I did see paled in comparison to previous Coachellas (and I don't think seeing Conor, Los Camp, or White Lies would have changed that opinion as I'm not a fan of their recorded music... particularly White Lies)

[Toddy]

Yeh Stu, have to agree with Pocket here. You're an idiot. I could understand if you knew the show only lasted an hour that your half hour commitment was enough to justify your lame rant, but this 66 year old legend played for in excess of 2.5 hours. I defy anyone who stayed for the whole set to say that it was anything short of great, but more likely that it was simply incredible. Certainly among the best five shows I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot. Nothing lazy about it. If the early part of the set wasn't full of energy it's because he had another two hours of unrivalled pop history ahead of him. If you witnessed Helter Skelter, Birthday, Lady madonna, Live & Let Die, Sgt. Pepper's reprise etc etc, that adjective would not have entered your head. Sorry your lazy attitude towards the great man prevented you from witnessing an astonishing, at times very emotional, but continually breathtaking performance.

[StuManChu]

My post was not intended to review McCartney as I only saw 30 minutes of his set, but to express that I was underwhelmed with most of what I saw Friday. And I was surprised because typically Coachella blows me away all day long.

I was really floundering to find something to even see prior to M. Ward (Lucent Dossier... how do you justify yourselves!!!!), and really only enjoyed Presets and Beruit. Everything else had a high "meh" factor. I'd either seen the act before (Crystal Castles), or thought the venue was all wrong for the artist (Leonard Cohen), or in the case of McCartney just wasn't moved by what I was seeing or hearing. It does sound like I missed out on the best stuff. I really really would have liked to have seen "Day In The Life" and "Live and Let Die".

I think I was spoiled because Saturday Coachella 2008 was the best day of music I ever saw. Hearing Animal Collective do "My Girls" for the first time (In my opinion Animal Collective is as important to me as The Beatles), seeing Prince bring back Sheila E and the time, seeing Portishead's soul-drenched set, Hot Chip raise the Sahara roof... It was a very high "wow" factor. There was no wow on Friday.

However, to end on a positive note, Throbbing Gristle blew my mind. So happy the fest ended with them. Sunday was good but they were incredible. I loved that someone walked up to me during their set and asked if this was really the band. I guess she thought they looked like roadies doing a noisy soundcheck. Not only was it unusual and provocative, but the music was actually very good. It went beyond an arty stunt, which is what I assumed it was going to be. So thank you Throbbing Gristle, you made Coachella 2009 an event I will never ever forget.

[castleberryrock]

eh...

You should have been at Ghostland Observatory. It was the best surpriser of the entire event.

[Grant]

I caught about an hour between leaving for different bands and such. I thought it was amazing. Didn't catch the first 45 minutes though, just a couple classics and two encores.

[ThomThom]

Beirut, The Presets, and the last hour and change of Macca were enough for me on Friday. Not disappointed at all.

[Jman4321]

I liked Paul McCartney. It wasn't transcendent or anything but it was really solid IMO. Leonard Cohen getting drowned out was pretty lame however there was a second speaker attached to the sound booth so I just walked directly in front of it and heard everything fine. I'll admit that Friday was the weakest day for me however it was by no means a disappointment. The Hold Steady ripped as well.

[socalguy100]

McCartney just tore it up. 2-1/2 freaking hours. "Lazy" is not an adjective that belongs anywhere in a review of this show. Friday had some other great performances. Morrissey was epic (yeah, he bitched about the "smell of burning flesh" or whatever but he sounded great), Leonard Cohen was incredible, and Franz Ferdinand managed to win me over. Las Campesinos put on an entertaining show too. I've been to five Coachellas and this was the best day I've seen, hands down.

[CitizenJ]

Friday rocked. You should have went to Dear and the Headlights, Los Campesinos, and Franz Ferdinand, who all had great sets.

[Toddy]

Fair enough Stu. No need for me to insult you. I just feel bad for you that you missed such an incredible show from Sir P. To hear some of the best popular music songs ever written played with passion by one of our greatest living artists at Coachella was really quite something. But if he can play 2.5 hours with the energy and charisma of guys half his age, you can bet he'll be around again.

[JelloPuddingChat]

I could see how friday was weak if you made the mistake of missing Buraka Som Sistema and The Hold Steady.

[KickerConspiracy]

Just to pile on maybe you chose the wrong shows. Crystal Castles? M. Ward? People Under the Stairs?

My friday was awesome - a little Alberta Cross, Aggrolites, Cage the Elephant, Los Campanisos, Ting Tings, some Franz, Leonard Cohen (who was amazing - I was about 10 feet from the stage), Morrissey and Sir Paul

[alex gardner]

i have to admit, going into the weekend, i was super pumped for saturday and sunday and super meh for friday, but friday ended up blowing sat/sun out of the water. watched all of presets, then came over the catch the last half of paul m. wasn't really excited to see paul mccartney...holy fucking shit was that stupid of me. for those of you who watched the first half of paul mccartney, got bored and walked away, i feel so, so, sorry for you, because you missed an amazing show.

[Marvinsky]

Best friday ever!:">?">+_">::">;"'./,.;'.';/

[Goodtoknow]

I loved friday. In retrospect I wish I would have caught presets and caught the last hour and a half of paul instead of the whole shebang. But I am in no way saying macsee did anything but rock that place.

[captncrzy]

Friday was the best day.

[PotVsKtl]

Fanboys.

[PotVsKtl]

Look how angry they're getting.

[darkjustice]

i saw paul getting hammered with the guys from CM late night fri

[Voodoo Hipster]

The Presets,Silversun Pickups and Leonard was all I needed to make my Friday amazing.

[FoxeyLady]

Friday was awesome this year for me, I didn't get to see as many acts as the other days but i saw almost all complete sets.

People Under the Stairs
Black Keys
Franz Ferdinand
Ghostland Observatory
Peanut Butter Wolf
Paul McCartney

booyah

[anonimouse]

friday was awesome for me

i saw about 30 mins of paul mccartney and while he was good i just couldnt stand there with so much else going on. glad we left to check out the presets, they blew me away

only regrets are not staying longer for leonard cohen and when we did leave him, just chilling near the sponge during ghostland. i should have gone in the sahara damnit

[sbessiso]

My Friday alone was better than all of last year. Fact

Black Keys->Franz Ferdinand->Morrissey->McCartney

+

2CI

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HEAVEN