Wow wow and more wow... not exactly what I expected from the ninth installment of this once a year, desert throw down known as Coachella. Yes, the meat heads were there along with the so-cal and NYC mega hipsters, but what was most surprising was the ease in which one could simply opt to not deal with the bullshit. I must mention that we in fact had the much sought after main stage badges which we could have done without, seeing as we spent the majority of the time either at our rendezvous point (the big rig art installation by some Brooklyn artist) or in the mix with john q public. The times we did venture out to backstage was mainly to use the much more pleasant bathrooms or try and sneak a peek at the purple midget.
And the Sheffield Messiah himself, Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin (with child and wifey in tow) was present. Out of the gate, I got the weird feeling that everyone there was expecting a trademark live set, not the dj set we were assaulted with. As his weapons of choice, he used freestyle, house, techno, jungle and every other dance genre under the sun to transport us to an early 90's illegal warehouse all nighter. Not a lot of motion or emotion from the conductor except some guru-like crowd pointing. Here's an example of popular consensus which can be found on various online forums: "Was anybody a little underwhelmed by the performance? Granted it is RICHARD JAMES and yes HE WAS THERE AND PLAYING IN AMERICA, but I felt like he wasn't really into it and more or less was just pressing play..The playlist was amazing, but honestly I think Diplo killed it before he came on (with MIA coming on at the end too.)" In reality, his set was more of a perfectly mixed sonic history lesson than the hype fest, prefix set from the previous dj (Diplo). Then to completely squash his infamous rep for being a major Brit douchebag the guy goes and poses for photos with the swarming fanatics backstage. Not only could you have a flick taken with him but could also pour your heart out (about how you now build oscillators for roland) and he was responsive. I guess a 15 year hiatus and wife and kid have done the man once known as "pac-man" a whole lot of good.
Instead of blabbing on about how absolutely amazing Portishead's live show is, from the sensory throbbing visuals to the "by the seat of your pants" set list, I dare the critics and bashers (yes there are some) to disgrace themselves by denying this band their much earned respect. How can anyone ignore lead singer Beth Gibbons' emotional nakedness and refusal to do interviews, three classic albums back to back and yes, their truly soul moving live performances.
They followed the godfathers of electro pop themselevs Kraftwerk and in retrospect with a very cosmic feeling that you just know nothing will EVER compare to this. It just felt like we could have listened all night and some how come out better people.
Roger Waters was Music-as-Theater taken to its highest level, all to the backing of one of the truly landmark recordings in Rock n' Roll history, Dark Side of the Moon. As the amazing, perfectly clear 5.1 surround sound system elevated us, we were brought back to earth by a plane circling right above. The sound and special effects were amazing. This was one of the best, if not THE best, set I experienced at Coachella. Everything has been said about this, but the amount of work that went in to this production is astounding.
At days end, the fact still remains that one must experience something if one is to form a valid point of view. There's that seedy winter music conference vibe without any of the funny british fashions. The underbelly of the festival also features gangs of gypsy like, tech-fiends out to beat one and all security systems. Well organized and with no self-respect to be lost, these clans are next to impossible to stop and loads of fun to watch operate: in the hopes of not just getting nasty VIP riddled party girls to go down south on them, but to also plug their new made for TV street hustle, all the while smoking grade A dankness outta glass pipes, across from from demi-god and host with the most founder Paul Tollet!
