The other issue is that as house has gotten so popular in the mainstream like Trick mentioned, the majority of the bigger DJs have started to converge in terms of sound. If this had been three years ago, Calvin Harris would have done a live set with a band, Kaskade would have spun all that tranquil relaxing stuff he did in 2010, Guetta would still be cheesy but it all would have been Chris Willis instead of Usher, etc. All the sets would have sounded different. Nothing terribly groundbreaking, but it would have felt a little more like a mix. The issue is that they all play the same fucking songs. We had some girls with our group who love Levels/Save the World Tonight/Feel so Close to You type stuff, and even they were bored with the Sahara by the end of Saturday and stopped going.
The one other interesting thing is that if the Sahara continues in this direction, it will probably need to get bigger. While I wasn't there, I heard Guetta was beyond a clusterfuck. AVICII apparently was too, which baffles me that that many people missed the spectacle that was Dre and Snoop. I was at Kaskade and it was uncomfortably full despite being against Radiohead. Somebody even said that Borgore at what, 2:00/3:00 in the day was packed to the gills.
On the flipside, Jacques lu Cont, who many here counted as one of the better Sahara bookings, was pretty empty. Maybe half full in terms of space, but nowhere even close to dense until the first fourth of the tent. I know some have mentioned that there is no reason why the Sahara has to be completely full, but GV has to take notice that they can book some pretty cheap dubstep and fill up the entire 12,000 person tent at 2:00 in the afternoon. I don't think it's getting better, although the Mojave now has some pretty quality acts.
I thoroughly enjoyed Flying Lotus, Araabmuzik and Modeselektor, so I can't complain. On the other hand this was my first year in the 8 I've attended where I never entered the Sahara. My best laugh of the weekend came at about 10:30 on Friday night when we where chilling for a few minutes just beyond the Zia tent. A couple girls in disco dresses and heels were just coming through the entrance and asked for directions to the Coachella stage. We were blown away that they would come to Coachella just for Swedish House Mafia.
The Sahara is just not the same tent it was. Like Trick said GV has found their target demographic and have made a business decision to cater to that demographic. There's no arguing that the big arena house acts smothering the Sahara this year move tickets.
The Mojave is our beloved Sahara of old, and lemme tell you, it fucking rocks. It's been by far my favorite tent the last two years.
not a big fan of this shit, BUT...zeds dead was pretty crackin. other than that i stayed away from sahara...tho Modeselektor, Araab Muzik, Flying Lotus, SBTRKT, Porter Robinson, Calvin Harris...were amazing! Had the time of my life! maybe its cuz i had no expectations of shitty-ness and just danced hard instead of complaining. i guess for you vets and diehards it mightve been tough
take drugs it makes it better
If drugs are required to get any enjoyment out of it then it should stay the fuck away.
Reading this thread I think 1/5 of the crowd at Sub Focus is on these boards. The main thing is that you people have European tastes, and Coachella is an American festival. I've been to some of the big European dance festivals and I'd still much rather be at Coachella even though their lineups (including Americans!) are much better. Coachella is a special event in so many ways and it's unfortunate they can't find a way to accomodate those of us who aren't into the cheesy bro-house. The problems in doing this are well described above, but you've got to think there's a way for Coachella to consider itself a place to educate and not just pander... American tastes in dance music need to mature.
I had a dream shortly before weekend one that there were two Saharas, one was cheesy and one was not... a 2013 premonition maybe?
that being said Modeselektor, Flying Lotus, and sebastiAn all kicked ass.
7891011
weekend one
The non-cheesy Sahara = The Do Lab
Too bad the do lab is all burners. What about all the people who aren't into burningman hippy bass but also aren't into cheese house? We're just screwed?
Yes. Yes we are.
As a veteran of Coachella, it's sad to say this... but I don't think I'm going anymore. I had just a "whatever" time. I was kinda just whelmed by the whole situation. not overwhelmed... not underwhelmed... just whelmed.
Fuck it. Time to start going to DEMF instead.
I didn't decide on DEMF this year but that's how I felt even after last year. Coachella's EDM booking and my taste in music are getting further and further apart as time goes on, and this year I decided it wasn't for me and have felt like I made the best decision possible for me. The amount of time, money and effort it takes to go to Coachella is not worth it to walk away and say the best EDM I saw was in the fuckin Do Lab? No thanks.
Excellent use of the a dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid fallacy. Machinedrum is clearly an exception. Salva was great but his set time prevented me from seeing him because I didn't even wake up until 4pm that day.
But I wouldn't say my time was shitty. I would just say that I remember going to Coachella and discovering new talent. I didn't discover anything. I feel like it's just becoming an excuse for people to do drugs in public where before people used to care a bit more about the music.
Thanks for understanding. That's all i meant. If anyone needs a deeper explanation to what I mean, just look at my signature line. It's not unreasonable to book someone like Jamie xx. He has name recognition. They couldn't even get someone like James Blake... hell, Andy C is touring RIGHT NOW with a giant new live show.
Even High Contrast in the Mojave would have been amazing! So many people would have loved to see him.
I can't even fuck with this. Again, sorry you had a lame time.
Fair enough. And hey, just so we're clear, I'm certainly not a fan of what was going on in the Sahara tent this year. But I found lots of dope stuff to enjoy in The Do Lab and the Gobi & Mojave tents.
Oh and btw, I would have LOVED to have heard Andy Stott's incredible bass at Coachella. So it's not like we're on opposing ends of the spectrum.
This completely.
I was bummed to leave early this year, and almost bought a ticket for the 2nd weekend, but when I looked at the set times/lineup again. It's not worth it. At all. I'm thankful I didn't do all my L that weekend and now I'm supplied for a little bit. Maybe if I find a ticket for under $225 I'd go for weekend 2, but really, nothing amazing here. Dr. Dre and Snoop, sure. I've seen radiohead before and I'm not a rabid fan.
Usually I let Coachella bless me with some amazing DJs that I get to research the fuck out of when I get home. There really wasn't that much this year that blew me away. Nothing came close to the highs I've reached before at this festival.
This makes disappoint.
Coachella has always brought the cheese (just look at past lineup posters), but they have also always booked other high quality EDM acts to balance that. This year's lineup seems to be moving away from that formula and that's why most of this board is upset.
Book Guetta Afrowhack and Ingrosso, just give me the Chemical brothers, Orbital and/or Underworld as well.
Sigh. I'm too old to tell if I'm getting snarked or not.
This definitely is a big part of the problem. I only heard about 5-10 minutes of Kaskade, but I noticed he sounded much more high-energy than he usually does - basically he's turning into every other DJ. Every single act was just playing the same songs the whole weekend and there really wasn't all that much difference between them.
Also, Avicii was pretty empty by the time I went over there (around 10:45), a lot of people probably wanted to see the very beginning but bailed right after.
you people complaining about crappy sahara shit really need to broaden your horizons and realize that there is a ton of amazing talent at coachella this year, but get this (this is the crazy part) it's not exactly EDM... *gasp*