Coachella 2010. A Review Of Sorts...

It's been two weeks since the culmination of Coachella 2010, and I think we're finally prepared to put into words what we saw over a course of 3 beautiful days in the sun. When the lineup was released late in January we released a gasp of "oh, no you didn't Coachella?" which was followed by a gasp back from Coachella with a "oh, yes we did." And did they ever... Not surprisingly, the 11th edition of Coachella sold out, making it only the 4th Coachella ever to do so. Double not surprisingly, there was alot people in attendance this year. 75,000 to be exact. Each day. That's alot of people. With that said, I never waited more than 5 minutes for a bathroom, or 2 minutes for water. Apparently, there were alot of complaints via the internets about wait times, etc., but I didn't really see it. I dunno, maybe those people were at another festival.

Anyways, the music! Over a three day span, I was able to catch 37 bands ranging from the hottest rapper in the game and his girl wearing his chain(Jigga and B), to Colombian rock(Atreciopelados), to the geekiest white guy in the history of music, and no I'm not talking about Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip, Erlend Øye. Apart from Wale singing "Use Somebody" (really? btw, you were 45 minutes late. Did you really have to drop Kings of Leon? You're suppose to be rapping. Bad idea, dude), and the sound during Passion Pit (no fault of the band, but their audio guy kinda struggled to get a good mix throughout the set) everybody that I saw ranged from really good to amazing.

My Favorites:

LCD Soundsystem: If I was forced to pick a favorite for the entire weekend, it would have to be LCD and Mr. James Fuckin' Murphy. In the no pressure spot of playing before Jay-Z on the mainstage, Mr. James and his crew delivered by throwing down some serious and epic disco jams. Jumping up and down to "All My Friends" with all my friends was quite touching, but it was the intensity of "Yeah" that really threw LCD's peformance over the top for me. LCD Soundsystem is from the future.



Them Crooked Vultures: I won't say that I was surprised by this set, cause that would be really ignorant of anyone to say, being that there's members of Nirvana and Led Zeppelin in TCV, but I guess I was surprised at how they totally brought the rock thunder like I've never seen it brought before. TCV's set started with John Paul Jones playing slide on a 9 string bass. That's not a misprint. Do I need to say more? I think not, but I will cause I feel bad for the bald guy playing rhythm guitar that wasn't in Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, or Queens of the Stone Age. Actually, I don't feel bad when I come to think of it. That guy has a pretty sweet job!



Major Lazer: Going into Coachella 2010 I didn't know who would be best musically, but I was pretty certain that Major Lazer was gonna be the biggest party. Need proof? Please watch the video below. From the second that Diplo and Switch dropped their first beat, the entire Mojave Tent went absolutely apeshit. Led by their front/hypeman Skerrit Bwoy, who is absolutely insane, and dancers whose moves are best reserved for a futuristic strip club (I've never seen dance moves like this in my life! The physics of them is just impossible) Major Lazer had everybody jumping and screaming like the world was about to end. It would have been a really good way to go out. Pon de Floor!



The Specials: Who said Ska is dead?!? A fully reunited Specials brought it back to life in the desert in 2010. The Specials were impeccable in their performance and in their style with those fresh suits and those Fred Perry's as the sun went down on Friday evening.



Club 75: Busy P, DJ Medhi, Cassius, and Gaspard from Justice. Five French men. All dressed in white. The set started by Busy P melancholically exclaiming into the mic, as only a French man could, "Welcome to Paris." From there on it was a 90 minute Parisian dance party on a Sunday afternoon. And, yes, i stayed the entire 90 minutes.



Favorite thing I heard at Coachella: As Jay-Z held court on the mainstage he tried to connect with the indie crowd by trying to get everybody to make some noise for some of his favorite bands that were playing throughout the weekend. "Let's hear it for Passion Pit! Let's hear for Grizzly Bear! Let's hear it for The Yeasayers!" The Yeasayers?!? Oh, Jigga, you're so cute sometimes. To his credit, Jay, with Beyonce, was spotted throughout the weekend checking out all the indie bands that the kids love these days. You know, the XXes, The Beach Houses, The Grizzly Bears...



Favorite personal moment of the weekend: Standing at the way back of the Gobi tent watching the Whitest Boy Alive(Erlend, you are the whitest boy alive, by far) and turning around and realizing that to the left of me I could see Jay-Z performing and then turning to the right and realizing that I could see John Lydon(aka Johnny Rotten) grimacing at the crowd,with the rest of Public Image Ltd. behind him, like only Johnny Rotten can, and realizing this will never happen again and this is fucking awesome.

All in all, my 6th Coachella in a row was a great success, and again my favorite weekend of the year. Thank you to Goldenvoice for putting on the best festival in the U.S., and maybe the world. And a super-duper-uber thank you to all my Coachella friends that I get to share this experience with year in and year out. You guys are the best! Cuddle Party Forever!