There is no better way to say it...I love live music. So it was no surprise that the hundreds of shows I have attended seem to culminate into this one weekend of pure celebration. From the moment you step foot on the Indio Polo Fields, you know that Coachella is more than just music, it is what passion for live music can create. Although the heat can be intimidating from the hours of noon to three, there is no better place to watch your favorite artists than on the Polo Fields when the sun begins to set at 6 o'clock, you feel the grass between your toes, the palm trees move with a slight breeze, your skin starts to sizzle as it cools, and the sky turns into orange sherbert. (Connor Oberst, T.V. on the Radio, and Yeah Yeah Yeah's played around these times on their seperate days). Coachella was the largest collection of quality acts I have ever seen and I felt priveleged to spend the weekend in a universe of stories (whether it be musically or visually) told by those that chose to venture beyond the ordinary.
M.I.A.'s show at Coachella was nothing short of pure empowerment. If the sight of a female rapper from Sri Lanka on the Main Stage (second billing to the Killers) wasn't enough, M.I.A. made sure you knew who ran the show. She started her performance with dancers outlined with neon lights (lights off looked like glowing skeletons dancing) and then emerged from behind a press conference podium wearing neon general gear. She was the woman in charge and we were her soldiers. She claimed she wasn't used to the Main Stage and would love to revisit the tent, "I like being down here with the sweat," as she was one of the few acts to actually step down to the ground level with the crowd. She also told her long term fans that she sold out by playing the Grammies, and probably sold out by Main-Staging (a replacement for the fickly-sick Amy Winehouse). She then commented and said "they asked me to play the Oscars and I said 'No,' they asked me to play the Oscars and 'I said No, No , No' (singing the hook from Amy Winehouse's "Rehab"). Then came "Bird Flu" which will live forever as the "stage invasion." Rye Rye (M.I.A.'s hype woman/partner in crime) invited anyone with "balls" to come up to the stage and start an invasion. M.I.A. mentioned she had already been banned from Coachella once and figures it happen again. Amidst a dancing crowd of fans on the Main Stage, M.I.A. performed "Bird Flu" from behind her podium. There was no mistake about it, her show was for the fans. With constant blaring horns, M.I.A. invaded Coachella Valley and inspired her army.
With Sunday, starting to cool down into what would be the night's coming Main Stage acts (My Bloody Valentine and the Cure), the Yeah Yeah Yeahs seemed a fitting group to close out the energy inspired by the desert sun. As Karen O took time to mention upon taking the stage "Sunday..." it seemed as if the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were meant for a bigger day or maybe a better slot. Personally prior to their performance, that slight tinge of annoyance seemed premature, however, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs made future festivals and Coachella take notice the next time they make the schedule. Karen O is as enigmatic as she is relatable. Her pear-sized sequin attire was elegant as much as it was strange further highlighting her essence as a front woman. The band's leader is detached from what it means to front a band, but, with a flash of her coyote grin, lets her fans know she is right there with them. Her high kicking strides and bounce are characteristics that will be associated with her distinguished performance style. She constantly holds the mic away from her body perched up on the tips of her fingers as if it has a life of its own (her + the mic is another entity). There is no Karen O when a mic is involved, there is only the music. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs played a mixed set with new tracks like "Zero," "Dull Life," and "Heads Will Roll," while holding true to their roots with "Maps," and "Y Control." (going 15 minutes overtime) "Y Control" was the closing song and most appropriate track to the task. As a fan of Fever to Tell, I have listened to "Y Control" numerous times through many speakers, so it was an amazing moment to hear it play from the stack of 15+ hanging amps on the Main Stage at Coachella. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs carry through an emotional performance that involves everyone and were fully grateful for the audience, taking their own personal video and bowing to the crowd.
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TV On The Radio
TV on the Radio arrived on the Main Stage at 6:30 PM on Saturday, with the mission "to set the sun." Like the shepherds of celestial spheres, with hanging tapestries behind them, TV on the Radio flung out a musical lasso around the fiery orb and pulled it just beneath the Coachella Valley Mountains. The crowd, energized by the soothing dance grooves of TVOTR, created their own dance parties (one of which I was apart of). As I looked forward at the stage through a hipster girls flower-child-like arm movements (reaching towards the sky as if they were snakes being serenaded from their basket) her hands coming together to form the likes of a lotus flower, I saw TVOTR bring their groovy moods to dance music. At times their sound was muddied by too much bass, but, overall TVOTR surprised me with the clarity of their sound. I had recently written them off as studio musicians after I saw their noisy indecipherable performance at the Wiltern in Los Angeles this past November, however, their performance at Coachella put me in my place and set them firmly in theirs, as a live act to see (perhaps at their best in a festival setting). Their set hit its climax with "Wolf Like Me," that says, "my mind has changed/my body's frame but god I like it/ my hearts aflame/my body's strained but god I like it." On paper the song is a orgasmic plea to a lover, a "just give me a chance." However midway through a three day music festival in the desert sun, your heart aflame, your body strained...TVOTR made you scream "But god I like it."
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Conor Oberst and Mystic Valley Band
As a fan of the drudge, often dark earlier work of Bright Eyes, I
found my self partial to the group's more folk I'm Wide Awake Its Morning. Knowing that the heart of Bright Eyes, Conor Oberst, would be performing with his newest vehicle for solo success (billed as Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band) I was interested to see where the Bright Eyes style would end and where Oberst would pick up. From the first note played it was apparent that Oberst has assembled a cohesive and unfaltering band (Mystic Valley) bringing them to Coachella for everyone's enjoyment. Not since The Raconteurs played at the Greek this past September have I seen a group of musicians play with such accuracy. While Oberst's stage personality is a tad "mystic," at one point he pointed into the distance and rambled about a philosophy of paralleled universes and some speculate he was drunk, (intoxicated...who could blame him, it is Coachella) his music doesn't suffer at the hands of his eccentricity or recklessness. He is still a professional musician to the core and played music that made me not only want to pick up Outter South (the newest Oberst/Mystic Valley album) but go back a year prior and pick up the self titled album. As the sun set on Day One, Oberst transplanted you to a time of the wild west, gold rushes, saloons (beer gardens) and was a perfect soundtrack for the desert festival. Cowboy hats off to Oberst and his earthy ensemble.
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the Black Keys
I once read Carlos Santana say that blues was like syrup, anything it touches just tastes better. The same can be said about the bluesy rock brought to Coachella by the Black Keys. Ooozing with maple blues, the Black Keys were a great band to start Saturday making everything before and after taste great. Dan Auerbach soulfully twists his guitar notes suspending them mid air, keeping you on your toes and hanging on his words sung with a spirit that likens his guitar. While some artists are purely studio musicians, the Black Keys are live artists. Ideally, you would want to see the two piece in a dive bar over some whiskeys, but, they were certainly capable of playing on the Main Stage and moving a festival crowd. At one point i found myself lost in the music only to be brought back to "reality" by a neighboring fan that was once as lost as I was. (it helped it was girl, but didn't that she was wearing a Led Zeppelin t-shirt probably purchased at Urban Outfitters and accompanied by a guy, nice, but a guy)--regardless the Black Keys proved unifying. Often times looking bare, the Black Keys brought tons of attitude and flavor to the beginnings of what was to be an amazing collection of musical acts.
*photos-- rollingstone.com, spin.com
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