Quarterlifeparty

We made it back from coachella with everything mostly intact, thanks to not camping and scoring a sick condo, except for a loss of feeling in our feet and some tight backs. Once again, Coachella was a great experience. We didn’t want to do any live blogging because we would rather sit back and enjoy the festival, and our lazy river and hot tub mornings (This years theme was “Roughing it is Overrated”), instead of typing away at a computer like we do every other day. So we spent our time watching the bands, laughing at LA’s ability to overdo any fashion fad, most the time overdoing more than one at the same time (who knew neon-indian was such a popular look), and eating hamburger-itos. So here is our coachella rundown day-by-day as written by Brent and Ryan.

Friday:

Rogue Wave
It was disappointing at the beginning probably due to some sound problems, song selection, and them being the first band: it might take some time for them to get into it. But by the end of the set they were a good Coachella kickoff, taking a good 5 minute drum jam and transitioning into an excellent sun-in-your-face festival song “Lake Michigan”. I had seem them before, opening for Feist, and they were better in a small venue, but by the end of the set I wasn’t disappointed.

Midnight Juggernauts
Our friend Marc recommended these guys and it ended up being one of the pleasant surprises of the festival. Neither of us had heard anything from them other than some remixes, so we were surprised when we stepped into the dance tent only to find an entire live band making such electronic robot goodness. It wasn’t long before we were dancing ourselves in the middle of day. Plus is was fun to hear daft-punk-esque robot vocals being sung live. Excellent grooving bass lines that kept the crowd going.

Battles
Couldn’t even see what was going on on stage we were so far back. They sounded great, but we only stayed for one song, making note that we need to see them in a club up close. So we were off to…

Les Savy Fav
One of the highlights of the Festival. I had seen pictures of their sets before and had listened to the album I have a lot, but never put the two together. I don’t think any of us were ready for Tim Harrington’s on stage (and off stage) antics which included rubbing a huge block of ice on his bare chest, running around with a plastic trash bag “toga”, going under the stage to supposedly smoke weed with some concert workers, and taking his mic and chord 50 yards into the audience almost managing to strangle a few crowd members. One of the worst mistakes of the festival was when we left to see the disappointing black kids and missed the end of the set where he climbed up about 50 ft to the top of the stage. I would compare it to seeing a pudgier Zach Galifianakis play in a band. Insanely awesome.

Black Kids
Complete disappointment, going from Les Savy Fav to them was like brushing your teeth and then drinking orange juice. Sure, they sounded fine, just like on the album. But their energy is empty, and totally lacking. Its amazing when you can see a show like The Black Lips, who are nowhere near as polished or possibly “talented” but just had this great genuine quality to them, and then you can see The Black Kids who have good songs but are unable to perform them live. I realize the band has literally only been around for about 6 months or something, so i give them the benefit of the doubt of being new to it and still working out the kinks, but come on. I know it was hot, but don’t tell Mr. Harrington that.

Dan Deacon
It’s weird to live in Baltimore and have Coachella be the first time seeing Dan Deacon. We have been pretty much just not into the whole Dan Deacon thing, mainly because we aren’t huge fans of the music. Seeing him live gave me a new perspective on him and I can see why he is getting all this hype. That being said, it felt like I was in kindergarten at the show. He does have some good crowd experiments going on during the show with people line up to snake a tunnel throughout the set, and then creating a large people cyclone that spreads out throughout the entire set. It’s more performance art than music, if you consider sesame street for indie kids performance art. The music didn’t sound too bad, but it’s not necessarily something I would just throw on at home. And if you don’t involve yourself in the crowd and the “games” then your probably not going to like it, except for having something neat to watch for a few songs.

Jens Lekman
The guy has a great voice, sounding a lot like Morissey. The group is the most Swedish looking band I have ever seen with a beautiful blond drummer. The songs sounded good but I think I like listening to the cd more than I like seeing him live. I think it was a little disappointing seeing a laptop run the backbeats. He sounds like a mix between Peter, Bjorn & John and Belle & Sebastian, so probably pretty good summer music.

The Breeders
I only saw a couple songs so I could get up close for Cut Copy. The Breeders started out very rough. Kim Deal was as crazy as ever, stopping in the middle of the first song because of a fuck up and then beginning the song all over again. I don’t even know the breeders songs that well, but that was a bad first impression. Other than that, they sounded pretty good.

Cut Copy
One of the highlights of the festival, Cut Copy blew people’s socks off with their 80′s dance/rock-rave, frequently counting down to the breaks, leaving the audience jumping up and down halfway back in the tent or more. The audience got more and more into it with every song. The entire set there was a massive beach ball with the home-town Australian flag on it being bounced around the crowd as people lost their shit. Their new album is great, and they perform it live with precision and a ton of energy. I have been waiting to see them since their debut album came out in 2004 and they didn’t disappoint. Probably my top non-main stage act of t
he festival.

Vampire Weekend
We only caught the last song “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” after watching the entire Cut Copy show, but I was impressed. I expected Vampire Weekend to be another Black Kids let down, but they totally weren’t as they played with some good energy. They had a good time of day set as they played the outdoor theater at sunset for dramatic effect. As expected there was a massive crowd.

Diplo
Expected less of a traditional trance/dj show since all I know of diplo is from M.I.A albums and a Fabric Live cd I have. Wasn’t very impressed with the set so we left after about 15 minutes to catch…

The Raconteurs
Anything with Jack White in it is pretty badass. The new songs sound good. I didn’t realize Jack White was such a good piano player.

Aphex Twin
Not what I expected at all. We left after about 10 minutes and kept walking back near the tent hoping for something different but kept hearing the same drum n bass beats. I thought it might be more ambient or atmospheric, but what we heard is music that you might hear at any other drum n bass show. Biggest disappointment of the festival for me.

The Verve
I now understand why Richard Ashcroft is considered the shit in England. His voice sounds awesome live. “The Drugs Don’t Work” was probably the highlight of the set and seeing “Bittersweet Symphony” performed on an epic scale live reinvigorated that song for me after hearing it 50 bajillion times on the radio. They even have new songs that they played that sounded just as good as their original material, how often do you hear that.

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
Saw a couple songs in this set and the first thing that came to mind was: “now THIS is how you do soul music”. Amy Winehouse could learn a few tricks from Sharon about how to put on an entertaining show. When we got there Sharon was propositioning a bashful indie guy on stage during the song “Your Gonna Get It”. She was hip-thrusting the guy the entire song, which the crowd found hysterical. Then she went into “100 days, 100 nights”, which was perfect. I only caught 2 songs, but the tent was packed and everyone was LOVING it. Will definitely have to check her out next time she is in town. Top Knotch

Spank Rock
Hurried over to catch these guys and found Devlin and Darko doing a standard DJ set. They seemed to be almost stalling for something, when finally a girl came out and started singing some of Spank’s lyrics. Something was up. After about 20 minutes of the set, one of the girls announced that Spank was sick and wouldn’t be making it. Damnit. I can understand why they didn’t let us know that to begin with (everyone would have left), but they really should have…especially when there are 4 other bands i could have been catching at that moment. Spank Rock apparently partied too hard at the show in l.a. the night before and was too sick to make it. I’m not sure if that is true, just trying to start some rumors.(Update: turns out he was legitimately sick and may have even been getting surgery the very second i was pissed for having left The Verve early to see them).

Black Lips
3 of our group left after the first song (Ryan included…not my thang), and I was tempted to leave as well but stuck around and the music surprisingly grew on me as the set went on, as my friend stated. They came onto the stage, in what looked like, a total state of plowed-ness and tore into their noise-punk songs. We found out the next day in the lazy river they ended the set by lighting their guitar on fire, smashing it and throwing the pices out into the crowd. Nice.

Fatboy Slim
I (ryan) dragged myself over to the fatboy slim set at the dance tent. Mainly because in 2005 after bloc party, me and Marisa went over to check out The Chemical Brothers after Bloc Party and had a great time. Well, not sure what if it was the jet lag, the 12 hours of being on my feet, or the fact that in 2005 i was 26 and now i am 29, but i wasn’t feeling it. His set started out well enough…entering the stage in the middle of a huge Charlie and The Chocolate Factory montage playing behind him but then the music started and similar to diplo it sounded like a standard DJ set with flourishes of his 90′s hits thrown in there. Everyone else seemed to be having a great time, so maybe i was just tired. So with that we made our way back to the car (and air conditioned condo)….with a successful day 1 in the books.

UPDATE: Thanks to photographer Clifton Stubblefield for letting me use his picture of Les Savy Fav’s Tim Harrington up on top of the outdoor stage. That’s one crazy dude.

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