Coachella Music Festival – Indio, CA

Coachella – Day 2   Saturday April 18, 2009

Day 2 got off to a lazy start. I stayed up partying the night before so i decided to show up to the festival a few hours late. The first band we saw were the Drive By Truckers and it was the first time I had ever seen them. They reminded me of being drunk on the bayou with a straw of wheat hanging out my mouth singing to the gators. That’s real blues rock right there. Smoking a few bowls during their set didn’t hurt either, it just heightened the enjoyment.

Next I stopped by the main stage to check out Paolo Nutini who i hadn’t heard of but turned out to be pretty awesome. Feel good music at the perfect time of day. The vibe was cheerful as i danced my way through the crowd to use the air conditioned restrooms located in the VIP area. There is nothing like the comfort of AC in the desert especially if you gotta take a leak.

The Gobi tent was the location for 1/2 of the Dresden Dolls, Amanda Palmer. Although her slogan reads "who killed Amanda Palmer?" it was clear that she’s alive and well. I had to make a decision to see either Amanda or Henry Rollins who was doing a spoken word set a mere 50 feet away. She turned out to be a wise choice since she gave us one of the most memorable moments in Coachella history when she crowd surfed from the front to the back of the entire crowd while a superman song played over the speakers. When she made it to the back, she sat on the rafters with a fan holding the mic and started playing Radioheads "Creep" on a ukulele. The crowd couldn’t help but sing along (and film) to the whole song. Then her set ended with a parade through the entire festival,and everyone was welcome to come along.

DJ AM and Travis Barker nearly died last year and it was safe to say that mostly everyone wanted to see them, if only to witness two men who met their maker and said "i ain’t done yet!." Now I’m not a huge fan of Travis Barker, and yeah i know he’s a great drummer and has done some pretty ground breaking stuff but personally I’m not a fan of anything in particular. But when they performed at Coachella it was great to see him rocking it. Best moment was when they brought out Warren G to perform his hit "Regulators," that was the shiznit!

I stayed a little too long seeing AM-TRV$ that i missed Booker T’s performance of "green onions" which nearly made me cry. I guess he played it as his first song???what the hell? and his backing band was the DBT’s (Drive By Truckers). He still rocked but I’m kicking myself in the ass forever for missing green onions.

MIA was taking the main stage so I stopped to get her shirt that came with a horn! While she performed she kept asking those with the horns to blow em along to the songs, it was crazy rad! It was like she incorporated the crowd in a new way. Then she brought on stage an entire clubs worth of people and had a concert within a concert. It looked like a huge party up there, you could see on the screens people passing red cups around. All I really have to say is, damn that chick is awesome.

Since The Killers were headlining I think the organizers knew they were gonna have a bunch of drunk dudes wandering around thinking "man if i have to see The Killers I might actually kill someone," so to keep all those dudes and all those cool, smart chicks happy while The Killers do exactly what their name says they’ll do, the Mojave tent had a back to back lineup of TURBONEGRO!! AND MASTODON!! Need I say any more? It was a dream come true for many. Turbonegro got the pit going nuts and they brought out Nick Oliveri of Mondo Generator to sing on a couple of songs.

Mastodon just released a new album called "Crack the Skye" which they played in its entirety. It was amazing for me since that’s one of the only CD’s Ive been listening to lately. The guitar work in that band is insanity, and the whole performance goes along to a futuristic video that plays in the back round. It was a perfect ending to quite possibly the best Saturday I’ve ever had.

-Bobby Vega-
Big Wheel music scene reporter

 

More photos of the show can be seen HERE

 
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