Mathematically, it’s impossible for one person to see every band at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. With around 140 acts playing on five stages over three days, it’s unlikely, in fact, that said person would even see every band they like. Accepting this fact is the first step in attending the West Coast’s premier music event and it’s especially important if you’re a journalist naively hoping to sum up a weekend’s worth of sensory overload on paper.
That said, if the weekend’s festivities in Indie-O had to be summed up in one word, it might be “epic.” Not that Coachella hasn’t always been epic – it’s been downright Olympic in terms of bringing quality music from the far reaches of rock, rap, pop and electronica to one location – but for 2010, its eleventh year, the festival made big changes in how each fan experiences its offerings. Gone were the single day tickets, meaning every fan had to ante up $269 to fall down the full three-day rabbit hole. The 12am curfew was extended to 1am and Friday and Saturday nights boasted an after-hours showcase in the campgrounds that bumped until 3am. Capacity was expanded to allow 75,000 fans in per day – 17,000 more than previous years – and camping was beefed up so that concertgoers needed nothing more than a car with a reclining front seat if they wanted to rough it for the weekend. And besides a few hang ups in handling the increased crowds, the new Coachella operation was a resounding success.
And then, of course, there was the music. Arguably the most solid all-around lineup to date, Coachella’s bill sparkled from top to bottom. There were surprise guests, unexpected on-stage moments, plenty of celebrity sightings and more than a few one-of-a-kind performances. Here are accounts of a few. Story continues after slideshow. Photos by Curtis Cartier.
Friday
Getting to the festival on Friday was a nightmare for many fans. Some said that between traffic and the unorganized hordes of fans stacked up at the main entrance, they waited up to five hours just to get in the door. Once they did make it in, however, things improved instantly.
In the early evening, Brooklyn experimental folk harmonizers Grizzly Bear hung sonic tapestries on the walls of the Mojave Tent. Next, Indie pop diva Imogen Heap arrived in a huff, just in time to her set having been “stuck in traffic” and sans one of her trademark wireless wrist microphones. But the decadently dressed musician still managed to croon out jams like “Just For Now” and “Headlock.” At the Outdoor Stage, Vampire Weekend delivered a polished performance that had the audience in full boogie. But it was the Hova himself, Mr. Jay-Z who stole the night, intoning his braggadocio in songs like “Big Pimpin” and “Empire State Mind” and flanked at one point by his wife and surprise guest Beyonce, who sang “Forever Young.”
Saturday
Saturday is the party day. And the hordes of fans that came in varying stages of sobriety were treated to some of the best dance tunes they could ask for. The roving hippie commune that is Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros erupted onto the Outdoor Stage in the early afternoon – at first with perhaps too much enthusiasm. Leaping forward, the group’s founder and singer Alex Ebert grabbed a microphone stand and tried to drop it near the front of the stage, but missed and sent the metal stand crashing into a photographer’s forehead below (see photos). After bandaging the young man’s bleeding head with his yellowed “wifebeater” T-shirt, the group threw down a hugely entertaining set. Afterward, London dark wave trio the xx, forced out a moody, but rather underwhelming performance while Jay-Z, who decided to stick around for the day’s showcase, was seen nodding along offstage. Around 7:30, black smoke began billowing from the main stage during Coheed and Cambria’s set when a malfunction caused the top of the stage to catch fire.
Later, synth pop heartthrobs MGMT played a set featuring a slew of songs off the group’s brand new album Congratulations, though they left out “Kids” and other favorites, to the chagrin of many fans. The bar was raised sky high soon afterward when the DJ duo Diplo and Switch, better known as Major Lazer tore the Mojave Tent to pieces, unleashing reggae-soaked electro crunk mayhem with the help of dancing dragons, acrobatic dancers and an endless barrage of, you guessed it, lasers. In the Gobi tent, Los Angeles beat scientist Flying Lotus finally got his big chance rocking a full tent at Coachella and delivered the smartest, most ambitious set of any electronic artist all weekend. British stadium rockers Muse headlined the night, with what was apparently the exact same performance that they’ve given for months – a fact that has seen them jeered by the music elite ever since.
After Dutch super DJ, Tiesto, whipped the main stage crowd into a trance, fans not yet ready to find their beds headed into the campgrounds where the Bassface after party was in full swing. The scene at this scarcely moderated dance orgy was nothing short of chaos, with a horde of saucer-eyed fans crowded around the bar and spilling out into the campgrounds in grooving pockets of glowstick wielding and costume wearing bodies. These people would be up all night.
Sunday
With a festival that seemed to have taken eons to arrive already nearly over, Sunday was a bittersweet experience. And for many, it was a time to relax on the lawn, visit one of the merchandise booths or check out some of the art like the giant solar powered origami crane or the mesmerizing cube of blinking balls, the Cubatron.
For tunes, hip hop legends De La Soul kicked the day off on the smooth tip, while shoegaze thrashers Yo La Tengo built a wall of noise on the main stage. At the Outdoor Stage, Icelandic experimentalist Josni – seemingly unaffected by the ash cloud emanating from his homeland – crooned out ethereal soundscapes in the same vein as his day job band Sigur Rós. Funk legend and recluse Sly Stone postponed his original set, to the boos of the audience (later it was reported that he did return but only played half a set that was more of a profanity laced rant than a set.) Not far away, English DJ duo Orbital showed why Coachella’s all-electronic Sahara Tent is the biggest dance party in America, throwing down blistering techno and house jams before an ocean of sweaty, undulating fans.
As hotly anticipated as any headliner, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke brought his freshly anointed side project band Atoms For Peace to the Outdoor Stage next. Showcasing what the hardest working mind in music can do with musicians like Flea and Nigel Godrich, his performance included every track off his 2006 album The Eraser plus a few Radiohead jams and an unreleased track that had fanboys blushing all around the audience.
Ending the festival on a playful note, Gorillaz, the cartoon conglomerate act of Blur singer Damon Albarn, along with nearly a dozen special guests, blended funk, rock, electronica and hip-hop in perhaps the most fitting tribute to the hodgepodge of styles that graced the five stages all weekend.
And while not every change to this year’s Coachella was welcome – traffic was worse, entrances were clogged and cell phone service was non-existent – the essence of the festival moved further away from being about the individual shows and closer toward being about the experience as a whole. All that’s left now is the 51 weeks until next year’s show.
