Worst Perfomance?

[Larry Farnsworth]

At first, I was going to tell you how awful of a human being you were for this:

Cloud Nothings are the worst band on the planet now. It has nothing to do with not yet being able to replicate the sound from the records live. Its the material that's the problem. Attack on Memory was the worst album of 2012. Delightfully catchy indie pop songs from the other albums got replaced with mindless rah rah rock. Its for people who spell rock rawk. They should have named the album Bad Career Move. Fortunately word is the new one this year will be less shitty.

...but then I saw this:

I don't understand all the hate for Passion Pit. Ive only seen them twice (OSL 12/coachella13) and they've been hugely entertaining both times. It was practically impossible to see them at OSL. There was not nearly enough room in that part of the forest for them. I harldy know anything about them but it seems they always have a high energy show that sounds great and gets the crowd going.

...and it all makes sense. I know this gets thrown around a lot around here, but your opinion is pure shit and you should be made to feel bad for having it. In conclusion, go fuck yourself.

[bobert]

Fucking hell you all have terrible taste in music. At least one asshole had something disparaging (and incorrect) to say about all of my favorite sets. And for future reference, if any of you idiots feel the need to qualify your comments by adding something like "they sounded like shit, at least on the webcast. Maybe it was better in person," try reading your post aloud before clicking reply.

[Y0UNGBL00D]

i have to say that passion pit was not as bad live as everyone said they are.

[travelfan]

I caught the tail end of Passion Pit and they sounded just fine, relax.

[Darth_Bater]

Yeah, I was there for the last half of Passion Pit as well. Got food at the food court and then sat near that back and watched/listened. It was enjoyable, they have some catchy songs that were fun to see live.

I only got to see Cloud Nothings from the webcast as well. The singers voice sounded very hoarse. Relistening to the CD, it does have that same texture to it on the recording just less pronounced. I enjoyed the webcast performance and wish that I had been there live. For those that have seen them live multiple times, does his voice always sound hoarse? Or too many recent performances?

[arya.]

Yeah Passion Pit was surprisingly not bad...

[nake13]

i can't remember a bad act, i highly liked everything i saw/heard

...But yeah the only thing was of course the not-even-informing-us-that-PAROV-STELAR-was-not-performing

Tame Impala was very good, but not GREAT (As many of us expected) and this was because they showed up late on stage (almost 20mins), as a consequence they just played about 4 or 5 songs, good ones but not all that we deserved.

[chunk]

Its the mindless dogpilery thats frustrating. I was expecting to hate Passion Pit with all the negative press they have gotten in here all these years. Im guessing most of the people in here are like Mr. Farnsworth above and piggyback on whatever happens to be the prevailing opinion of the day.

I find Cloud Nothings boring now. Im not trying to offend anybody with this opinion. Im just sad at the direction they took last year after what seemed to be such a promising start prior to that. I know I am in the minority here.

[jnthnbyl]

Passion Pit were one of the best sounding bands all weekend. Incredibly tight and he nailed the high notes. I expected them to be awful too. I went W2 if that makes a difference.

[LickTheLizzard]

I only got to see Cloud Nothings from the webcast as well. The singers voice sounded very hoarse. Relistening to the CD, it does have that same texture to it on the recording just less pronounced. I enjoyed the webcast performance and wish that I had been there live. For those that have seen them live multiple times, does his voice always sound hoarse? Or too many recent performances?

I've seen them 5 times and his voice varies. I thought he was a little more screamy than usual for their weekend 1 performance. My problem with the Cloud Nothings set was that they were missing a guitarist, I think this hurt their sound. I still thought they were pretty good though.

[Twattycakes]

The only bad shows I saw were due to sound issues. Namely Japandroids and the beginning of Aesop Rock's set.

[birdiearch]

I looked up everyone on the line up, so I never winged anything (unless I had a huge time gap)....
My only disappointment was the Shouting Matches.
I loved what I heard online, but something was off, live.

Absolutely LOVED everyone else I saw. PERFECT first Coachella

[kroqken]

These were not the worst performances, but two bands that did disappoint me at Coachella 2014 were the Bombay Bicycle Club and the 1975.

[gopher37]

Only real trainwreck performance that I saw at weekend 2 was Julian Casablancas. I have seen The Strokes twice before, as well as Julian at Coachella 2010- so I was expecting him to put on a great performance like I had seen before. I had no idea that he would be playing all new material, and not play a single Strokes song as far as I could tell (anyone can confirm this?). The new material was just not catchy to me at all, only maybe 1 song was okay to me. I'm honestly not sure that I clapped once the whole set. And the entire crowd seemed dead basically the entire set, not sure how to respond to what they were watching. Also, he seemed drunk, and that he really didn't want to be there at all. His speeches in between songs were also bizarre and rambling. I was tempted to leave after 3 songs, but I stayed since I was waiting to see if he would play any Strokes songs, or if the trainwreck would continue to develop. Well, the trainwreck continued all the way to the end. One of the worst peformances I've ever seen by anyone in recent memory.

I wonder if Julian is having trouble with alcohol or drugs again? Or if his set is a momentary glitch on the radar? He already seems like a legacy performer - using the coattails of his prior great performances to get people to watch his solo act. Though after that debacle, I will never see him again, and I'm assuming that many other people will not as well. So unless he gets his act together, he might not have many fans left if the continues his "No Strokes songs" policy at future shows. Anyone have more insight on him or what happened? Just puzzling to me.

[thepiratepenguin]

Julian Casablancas is a laughing stalk at this point. I can't tell if everyone who crammed into his tent legitimately expected great things or a bunch of Strokes covers, or if they were just curious about the trainwreck that was about to unfold. The mix was off and cranked up to a ridiculously high volume for some reason, and he was just overall fucking terrible.

I had no idea that he would be playing all new material, and not play a single Strokes song as far as I could tell (anyone can confirm this?)

He played "Take It or Leave It", but so poorly that I completely forgive you for not noticing.

[gopher37]

lol yea I was guessing that he maybe played 0 or 1 Strokes songs - there was 1 song that the crowd responded somewhat to, but even that response was tepid at best. I saw a lot of puzzled looks on peoples faces around the tent, and I wanted to ask people around me if that performance really was as awful as I thought it was - but I didn't want to get other people involved at that point lol.

[kroqken]

Only real trainwreck performance that I saw at weekend 2 was Julian Casablancas. I have seen The Strokes twice before, as well as Julian at Coachella 2010- so I was expecting him to put on a great performance like I had seen before. I had no idea that he would be playing all new material, and not play a single Strokes song as far as I could tell (anyone can confirm this?). The new material was just not catchy to me at all, only maybe 1 song was okay to me. I'm honestly not sure that I clapped once the whole set. And the entire crowd seemed dead basically the entire set, not sure how to respond to what they were watching. Also, he seemed drunk, and that he really didn't want to be there at all. His speeches in between songs were also bizarre and rambling. I was tempted to leave after 3 songs, but I stayed since I was waiting to see if he would play any Strokes songs, or if the trainwreck would continue to develop. Well, the trainwreck continued all the way to the end. One of the worst peformances I've ever seen by anyone in recent memory.

I wonder if Julian is having trouble with alcohol or drugs again? Or if his set is a momentary glitch on the radar? He already seems like a legacy performer - using the coattails of his prior great performances to get people to watch his solo act. Though after that debacle, I will never see him again, and I'm assuming that many other people will not as well. So unless he gets his act together, he might not have many fans left if the continues his "No Strokes songs" policy at future shows. Anyone have more insight on him or what happened? Just puzzling to me.

Week 1 he played Ize of the World, a Strokes song.

[TomServo]

Julian Casablancas is a laughing stalk at this point.

Is this a serious thing? Because if it is, I kind of like "laughing stalk" more than "laughingstock", which doesn't really make much sense. I kind of see Julian Casablancas as a 40-year old piece of amused celery as it is.

[harryoliver]

Julian Casablancas is a laughing stalk at this point. I can't tell if everyone who crammed into his tent legitimately expected great things or a bunch of Strokes covers, or if they were just curious about the trainwreck that was about to unfold. The mix was off and cranked up to a ridiculously high volume for some reason, and he was just overall fucking terrible.


He played "Take It or Leave It", but so poorly that I completely forgive you for not noticing.

That's my favorite Strokes song, so I'm glad I didn't see him butcher it W1.

[kroqken]

Is this a serious thing? Because if it is, I kind of like "laughing stalk" more than "laughingstock", which doesn't really make much sense. I kind of see Julian Casablancas as a 40-year old piece of amused celery as it is.

Julian Casablancas turns 36 this year. He was born on the same day as Kobe Bryant.

[mikeoley]

I couldn't disagree more about BBC. Granted I've never seen them before but they were one of my favorite surprises of the weekend. I thought the tent had a lot of energy and responded well to their setlist.

These were not the worst performances, but two bands that did disappoint me at Coachella 2014 were the Bombay Bicycle Club and the 1975.

[TomAz]

Pharrell Williams was one of the worst things I have ever heard at Coachella. he sounded like some guy singing in his shower badly. I walked by quickly.

[footixy]

Thank you voice of reason!
Felt like I was at the I heart music "festival" there for a while

[AlexRice]

Only real trainwreck performance that I saw at weekend 2 was Julian Casablancas. I have seen The Strokes twice before, as well as Julian at Coachella 2010- so I was expecting him to put on a great performance like I had seen before. I had no idea that he would be playing all new material, and not play a single Strokes song as far as I could tell (anyone can confirm this?). The new material was just not catchy to me at all, only maybe 1 song was okay to me. I'm honestly not sure that I clapped once the whole set. And the entire crowd seemed dead basically the entire set, not sure how to respond to what they were watching. Also, he seemed drunk, and that he really didn't want to be there at all. His speeches in between songs were also bizarre and rambling. I was tempted to leave after 3 songs, but I stayed since I was waiting to see if he would play any Strokes songs, or if the trainwreck would continue to develop. Well, the trainwreck continued all the way to the end. One of the worst peformances I've ever seen by anyone in recent memory.

I wonder if Julian is having trouble with alcohol or drugs again? Or if his set is a momentary glitch on the radar? He already seems like a legacy performer - using the coattails of his prior great performances to get people to watch his solo act. Though after that debacle, I will never see him again, and I'm assuming that many other people will not as well. So unless he gets his act together, he might not have many fans left if the continues his "No Strokes songs" policy at future shows. Anyone have more insight on him or what happened? Just puzzling to me.

Weekend 2 he played "Take It or Leave It."

[heart cooks brain]

i heard it was still pretty awful.

carnage was the worst thing i saw. we were showing my noob friends around and of course everyone wants to see the pretty lights. i had to leave before my hearing was ruined.

[Heavy Metal Snail]

Because it's already been said, I'm going with someone new, Calvin Harris. I heard some of his set while eating dinner and I could not believe how awful is sounded, even by DJ standards. The guy had such little stage presence, I don't think he even addressed the crowd once. His "DJing" was essentially playing songs that he produced with the occasional "cover", only louder and uglier sounding. Hell, he couldn't even be assed to bring out guest vocalists, even ones that were at the damn festival. The fact that he brought out such a large crowd absolutely baffled me because he sounded like complete shit.

However, I did also hate Pharrell and Julian Casablancas, especially Julian. At least Pharrell had the novelty of guest vocalists. Sure, he sounded like shit and totally botched several songs (you're singing Beautiful without Snoop Dogg? Weak) but at least there was something there. All Julian Casablancas had was an unreasonably loud mix and a bunch of songs that not a single person has heard before. Hell, he sounded like he didn't want to be there, which I found to be incredibly stupid because he was a late add. I was watching from outside the Mojave and I was just shaking my head in disgust the whole time.

[gaypalmsprings]

Pharrell Williams was one of the worst things I have ever heard at Coachella. he sounded like some guy singing in his shower badly. I walked by quickly.

And he was one of the best for me. That's the difference between you straight people and us gays. I needed me some Gwen Stephanie, Nelly, Usher, and Jay Z.

I can honestly say I didn't see one terrible set this year. That being said, the worst for me was the Dum Dum Girls.

[kroqken]

I couldn't disagree more about BBC. Granted I've never seen them before but they were one of my favorite surprises of the weekend. I thought the tent had a lot of energy and responded well to their setlist.

They sounded predictable to me, trying to sound excited and pushing for highs and enthusiasm. Nonetheless, they sounded boring, a poorman's Two Door Cinema Club or Killers.

[TomAz]

help me understand what I was hearing as I walked by then Bob. I'm not even talking about his musical style or anything, I'm just talking about the actual physical act of singing. When I say it sounded like some guy singing in the shower badly, i mean that literally. It sounded off-key, strained, as if he were unable to find or carry a melody. what the fuck was that?

[gaypalmsprings]

Pharrell is known mostly for his writing and producing. His singing career is rather recent. He's a gorgeous looking 41-year-old man who is a musical genius. His voice is no worse than Jeff Magnum or that dude who is the lead singer for Radio Headz.