CA, Indio - 5.01-5.02 (updated 03.24) - COACHELLA FESTIVAL **REVIEW**

damn sticky, you saw just about everyone i wanted to see had I gone...how as adam freeland? atmosphere?

I'm sure basement jaxx and crystal method were awesome so i won't even ask.

-poste
 
Adam Freeland was tight as shit. The crowd was jammin' hard to Fight For Your Right. I've never seen hime before live, nor have I heard his stuff before, I went in not knowing what to expect, but he fuckin' rocks. Atmosphere had some trouble; the vinyl was all fucked from the heat.
 
Adam Freeland was awesome, I saw the first 2 songs and the last 3 songs of the cure but wandered over to go watch PVD play, and I must say his set was totally surprising. About 15-20 minutes into his set some asshat threw water on him (I was right by the guy who did it and poked him in the back of the head hard). PVD just picked up his records (not missing a beat) wiped them off and kept spinning but his set got really dark and dirty after that. I'd have to say that the crowd for the most part during PVD was shitty but his set was just totally out of character for him. He was pissed and it totally showed in his music.

sho
 
I don't know if it was just me, but is sounded like PVDs bass line was falling behind everytime. Each time he threw in a new track, it was matched with the rest of the music, but then it fell off. I don't think it was his fault. It was either the equipment he was working with, or the sound system.
 
cool you guys had a dope time I'm really bummed i couldn't meet you guys...esp you mariposa and spencer ;)

anyway
i saw pvd last friday and he was off the hook....too bad about his set...how bout radiohead?? how was their show?
 
For all those that I didn't see: hope your weekend was fantastic.

I skipped Saturday's show and opted for a day by the pool... and I wasn't upset about missing it until the ride out to Coachella when we heard that Beck was gonna be there! But Aly has a great Beck story so it all evened out. :)

Got there early on Sunday to catch Hybrid - THANK YOU Mr. X for waking me up on time and drivin and shit, for it was an awesome fucking set. Caught a good portion of Atmosphere's set, also damned pleasing to the ears. Prefuse 73 kicked ass, he's got 2 or 3 guys with him now adding to the sounds and it was awesome. Adam Freeland - I now have a new opinion of him after a spectacular set; the crowd had a blast as did the DJ which always makes for fun. Sadly the Flaming Lips only got to play 4 tracks (along with getting the large crowd to sing Happy Birthday for Beck's soon-to-be-born child)... there were sound complications and they cut it short in honor of The Cure.

Yeah, The Cure made me cry. A combination of a tough couple of months working overtime, talking to a dear friend on the phone while they played on stage, getting 25 feet away from Robert Smith with Aly by my side, hearing the magical quality of his voice after all these years pour out clearly and beautifully! Fantastic.

To those friends I did spend time with: thank you for being in my life and for taking part in what will always remain one of my favorite memories.
 
^I wish I'd had the chance to meet you, I spent Sunday in bed at the hotel sick from overindulgence and was heartbroken not to see the Cure, Adam Freeland and Ferry Korsten. ;) Tell Aly I have some baked goods for her next time I see her. :)

My favorite by far was Mindless Self Indulgence (thanks to bdreligrrl for turning me on to them) and the Pixies played a kickass set. I haven't danced my ass off like that in ages!

Ollie- you missed one hell of a good time *spanks you*

I ran into most of you who I wanted to see, but for those of you I didn't get a chance to see. My fondest memory of the event was all of us just sitting around outside the busy tent where Kraftwerk was playing, enjoying the music, the air finally having cooled down and each other's company.

I hope everyone had as great a time as I did.

Much love,

J.
 
chrissie said:
did anyone check out 2manydjs?

I did indeed, and they got the place rockin'. :)

I'll post my review in a bit. No one's mentioned them yet (since most were off seeing DJ Freeland), but the band that stole the weekend for me was Air. By far. It was simply amazing to watch them perform live, and the way they lured the audience with their set. More to come on this later.
 
^^

you alright big man?:(

glad to hear you all had loads of fun. even though i have found work out here (the stipulation for my attendance) it would've been too pricey a trip given our big move.

hope some of you will be out for EDC which is our tentative plan for so cal invasion:)
 
That was great - fantastic to meet those of you I did, and a shame I didn't spend more time with many of you - especially Phil and Chris, who I basically shook hands with and that was it.

Note to self: taking 2CB for the first time, in the desert, before the Pixies come on, is not really a good idea. I was still messed up when they played, and for that reason I don't think I enjoyed them as much as everyone else did. They were good, but seemed a bit flat - I didn't feel much energy from them.

Radiohead were great though, and I enjoyed hanging round while Kraftwerk played.

Sunday was much better. Arrived late, but that was good in one way - we missed all the heat. By running I managed to catch the last few songs of the Cooper Temple Clause's set - by lucky chance they played my favourite song just as I got there. Then over to see Bright Eyes, who I enjoyed in a mellow the-sun-is-going-down way. Air were surprisingly good, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club were too.

Back for the Flaming Lips, who I absolutely adore, but tech problems meant they played only four songs. Which is exactly what happened last time I saw them. I think they'd be best appreciated headlining their own gigs. They'd have time to mess around. From there I ran over to Mogwai, who were one of the highlights, and reminded me I need to get their latest album. Back to the Cure via Basement Jaxx, who sounded good but were basically just playing their albums from what I heard.

The Cure were the Cure - a good long set with all the hits and a few more interesting/obscure songs. I had fun. Katie Spencer and I then sat in the car for two hours trying to get home. And the next morning I wasn't answering my door and they all thought I'd OD'd (actually, they were knocking on the wrong door....)

Many thanks to Spencer and Katie and Jillian for their organisation of everything :)
 
i had an insane amount of fun at coachella last year. all the best bluelighters go, seriously. i hope everyone had a great time this year.

[thread title edited to conform to new format. -@E]
 
^^ Missed ya this year kiddo, hope you're doing well. :D

I also must add that Eye-dea and abilities were fucking SICK, I heard someone going off right next to radiohead and i wandered over to see what was going on and I was not disappointed.

Those two make up an amazing combination, especially when eye-dea was fuckin it up on the turntables i swear it was like he was channeling something! Un-fucking-believable.

sho
 
garnier was the best show of the weekend. if i could have, i woulda had a boner the whole time he played. hands down one of the best djs in the world. highlightt of day 2 was the prefuse73 orchestra . he had his band of merry men with him to make little blips, blops, beeps, and beats concurrently. there were i think 6 peeps representin hardcore. kraftwerk was awesome, but i had like .5 square feet of space around me to pop and lock. definitely not enough all those cocksmokers from the main stage waddled their stank asses over there and polluted my personal space. damn you fucko's! stay on your dirty side of coachella!! oh, tried goin to see radiohead, but the sound sucked and we ended up at the eyedea & abbilities (idenabilities). mc eyedea is a rediculous rhymer and dj abbilities provided a fun scratch fest. much better than the whining sound comin from the radiohead stage. 2 many djs did their mash up thing and had everyone pumped, but mixing could have been a tad bit better(maybe it was the system) freeland played party breaks......nothing really too groundbreaking, but good for partying. wasnt too impressed with the rock tracks.....ie nirvana, beastie boys.
dangermouse was cool. he spun some dope hip hop tunes and other ecclectic shit, but his mixing was way off. he's one of those stay in the studio type artists, that should.......stay in the studio. kleinenberg and howells played some good house music too. the jaxx were pretty cool for the 15 minutes i saw them. crystal method did their thang too and had the place jumpin. that was in a nutshell the musical realm of my weekend. the chemical realm was a bit different.

it was nice meeting some new people as well, and in simons case, re-meeting him :) heh
 
Well, it sounds like this was a lot of fun. I am going to try to make it to next years festival as a sort of graduation present to myself. Anyway, I am glad to hear that you all liked Adam Freeland, I have seen him a few times, in New Orleans, also @ Fabric over here in London. The guy rocks the crowd every time and it sounds like he did so here as well. I am kind of surprised that pvd was not rocking as well. I have seen him 4 times as well, some in the states and some over here, he has always been great. He was exceptional over here @ Godskitchen in Birmingham, played a 4 1/2 hour set with breaks, techno, and trance. Well I hope to be out there next year for this great festival.
 
yay what fun

first...thanks to all you blers who made my trip great!

saturday:
heiroglyphics rocked it as usual, great way to start out the event.

danny howells, sander kleinenberg, laurent garnier = very decent

THEN it was off to radiohead....we soon found out that everyone had the same idea and from where we ended up, we could barely see the glow of the lights from the stage and the sound was shitty as fuck.

this was a blessing in disguise i tell you for it was the only way i would have strayed from radiohead to see EYEDEA & ABILITIES!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot stress how FUCKING DOPE this act was....eyedea killed it with his rapid flow and abilities is just the best new turntablist i've seen....together, even giving much love to their competition radiohead throughout, they fucking tore it up....probably in the TOP 3 of my weekend. Check them out.

KOOL KEITH was pretty dope even though he had about a 15 minute set.

SUCKED = lcd soundsystem, mf doom, desert sessions (i couldnt even smoke a joint in this crowd they sucked so bad), & living legends

sunday:

just to start off.....i didnt sleep on saturday night mainly so that i wouldn't oversleep and miss HYBRID who I had vowed to see before I died...and so I got there a half hour into his set and I was not disappointed. I danced for most of it and loved it all.....

but somewhere in the middle I walked over to SUPERNATURAL at the tent next door....OMG this was goin off too!....he dropped his last track with the crowd chorus chanting "fuck bush" and then letting him flow about all the TRUTHS that are coming to light in the world right now about our government and good ole DUBYAH and i cant tell you how right-fucking-on he was...it was soothing to the soul.

after hybrid i decided to de-heat for a good portion of the afternoon...although i caught MUSE's set somewhere in there which was way stellar.

then ATMOSPHERE was very proper although I think their dj probably got fired for leaving his records in the sun...but it was an outdoor stage so maybe a few minutes was all it took...sucks to be him....but they still rocked it and i had a good time....they are definitely one of my favs.

and after that it was FREELAND who owned me....god this kid is sooooo phat....i want to be him. I ran over to AIR in the middle of this and chilled out a little bit, then ran right back over for THE CRYSTAL METHOD....

crystal....what can i say....it was my first time seeing the boys live but this was BY FAR the best of the whole weekend........I HAVE NEVER DANCED THAT HARD IN MY LIFE....its true....this was my religious experience of the weekend....kinda like Thievery last year.

and even so, during the middle of this, i just HAD to bounce over to see Prefuse73 and im glad i did. THEY ALSO KILLED IT. but i only stayed for 15 minutes or so then it was back to catch the end of TCM.

caught a little bit of danger mouse and basement jaxx....both really good.

was at the cure for about 5 minutes but just wasnt feeling it...i love the cure but was so worn out i couldnt even think straight.

saw the PVD show from outside but the Sahara Tent had the SHITTIEST acoustics anyone can imagine THE WHOLE WEEKEND and it made everything that wasnt right in the front of the stage sound like dog shit.....his set sounded just okay....but he ended it nicely...i think the incident with the water and the glowsticks may just be a good representation of what the scene has evolved into.

R.I.P. to the scene.


so that was my IN DEPTH account....sorry but i needed to document my thoughts fully or else i was going to explode.

I really enjoyed meeting the new people and of course getting to partner up with all of my old friends also.

SUNDAY > Saturday

thanks for listening. :)
 
I was curious, so I looked at this thread and when I saw the lineup I just sat here for a few minutes and stared at the screen in shock. Amazing!! I would have absolutely died to have gone to this!!! Glad you guys had fun. :)
 
1930a.jpg
 
Top