Saturday, May 08, 2004
Coachella 2004
I was more than a little apprehensive over this year’s event due to the sellout crowds, but I really have to hand it to Goldenvoice – they made major improvements to the way things worked and handled it all incredibly well.
Dragged myself out of the Indianola’s pool on Saturday to catch a ride with a small group of early birders, in hopes of catching dios. Alas, I got there just in time to miss them. Softening that blow were the all-access passes I scored for Brad, Lisa and myself. We watched many of the bands that day from on the stage. Which might partly explain why The Stills were one of my Coachella highlights, they being the first band we caught after swinging through the VIP tent to say some hellos. Another reason I really dug The Stills was they were one of the few bands/Djs at Coachella that I had never seen before. The last reason: they fucking rocked.
Our shiny gold wristbands got us behind the stage for Beck’s set, which was cool but I was hoping for a bit more funky keyboard/beatbox stuff like he did at last year’s KCRW show. The dance tent was a sweatbox during most of the day, but we caught the last hour of Laurent Garnier and he was great, though Brad pointed out that every single year at Coachella we’ve heard a DJ drop New Order’s “Blue Monday” and this year was no exception. Watched some of Death Cab for Cutie’s set from on the stage but the vocal monitors were turned way down, so we waded out into the crowd for the second half.
Loved the Pixies and Radiohead and was pleasantly surprised at how good the main stage sound was, even way back – that was a major improvement over previous years. I didn’t notice much bleed-through from the DJ tent, at least from where I was standing, but other people were complaining about that later. Remember: you can always move! Beelined to Kraftwerk before Radiohead finished and managed to worm our way in to a super-packed tent. I’d seen em twice before but it was a blast once again, especially when the robots came out to play one encore and the humans returned for the second encore in their neon Tron suits.
Hit the Urb and SPIN afterparties, where free booze and more tunes flowed until after 3… I think? Things got a little blurry at that point, but I’m sure I wasn’t half as hammered as Alicia Silverstone and Fred Schneider of The B-52s, both of whom were (separately) staggering around the SPIN party all crazy-eyed and wobbly-legged.
Didn’t arrive to the show until almost 7 pm on Sunday, opting instead to recuperate and stay cool in the pool. Got there just in time for Air, who were pretty much perfect. The Flaming Lips were enjoyable but I was somewhat devastated to not hear “Do You Realize,” which was something I was really looking forward to, specifically at Coachella. Basement Jaxx were perfect for their evening time slot, the temperature dropping down enough to allow the crowd to go crazy.
And then came The Cure, which was surprisingly kind of a bummer. As I mentioned before, the main stage sound was very impressive the whole weekend, but for The Cure it seemed like the volume had been turned way down, making it really hard to get into. I saw them just last summer and they were amazing, so I blame something behind the scenes more than the band for a lackluster experience.
My most memorable moment came on Saturday, when Brad, Lisa and I were exiting a VIP area and walked past Beck, who was standing on a little ledge near the exit gate watching the Pixies. Brad stopped right in front of Beck, pulled out his camera and yelled to Lisa, “Hey Lisa! Look, it’s Beck! Do you want your picture with him?” I’m standing between Brad/Beck and Lisa, who is already through the exit gate, and watch as a look of sheer terror spreads over Beck’s face. Lisa looks at Brad, looks at Beck, then looks back at Brad, makes a funny sort of pained expression and shakes her head ‘no.’ Beck got off the hook that time.
Later that night, while exiting that same exact gate, Beck appeared once again and we waked out behind him and into the crowd for Radiohead. I thought it was really cool that he went out there by himself to get a closer look, and later he wound up standing right in front of us. Or so we thought, even pointing “Beck” out to a stranger I was standing next to… until we realized it wasn’t actually him.
See you there next year. You too, Beck.
Dragged myself out of the Indianola’s pool on Saturday to catch a ride with a small group of early birders, in hopes of catching dios. Alas, I got there just in time to miss them. Softening that blow were the all-access passes I scored for Brad, Lisa and myself. We watched many of the bands that day from on the stage. Which might partly explain why The Stills were one of my Coachella highlights, they being the first band we caught after swinging through the VIP tent to say some hellos. Another reason I really dug The Stills was they were one of the few bands/Djs at Coachella that I had never seen before. The last reason: they fucking rocked.
Our shiny gold wristbands got us behind the stage for Beck’s set, which was cool but I was hoping for a bit more funky keyboard/beatbox stuff like he did at last year’s KCRW show. The dance tent was a sweatbox during most of the day, but we caught the last hour of Laurent Garnier and he was great, though Brad pointed out that every single year at Coachella we’ve heard a DJ drop New Order’s “Blue Monday” and this year was no exception. Watched some of Death Cab for Cutie’s set from on the stage but the vocal monitors were turned way down, so we waded out into the crowd for the second half.
Loved the Pixies and Radiohead and was pleasantly surprised at how good the main stage sound was, even way back – that was a major improvement over previous years. I didn’t notice much bleed-through from the DJ tent, at least from where I was standing, but other people were complaining about that later. Remember: you can always move! Beelined to Kraftwerk before Radiohead finished and managed to worm our way in to a super-packed tent. I’d seen em twice before but it was a blast once again, especially when the robots came out to play one encore and the humans returned for the second encore in their neon Tron suits.
Hit the Urb and SPIN afterparties, where free booze and more tunes flowed until after 3… I think? Things got a little blurry at that point, but I’m sure I wasn’t half as hammered as Alicia Silverstone and Fred Schneider of The B-52s, both of whom were (separately) staggering around the SPIN party all crazy-eyed and wobbly-legged.
Didn’t arrive to the show until almost 7 pm on Sunday, opting instead to recuperate and stay cool in the pool. Got there just in time for Air, who were pretty much perfect. The Flaming Lips were enjoyable but I was somewhat devastated to not hear “Do You Realize,” which was something I was really looking forward to, specifically at Coachella. Basement Jaxx were perfect for their evening time slot, the temperature dropping down enough to allow the crowd to go crazy.
And then came The Cure, which was surprisingly kind of a bummer. As I mentioned before, the main stage sound was very impressive the whole weekend, but for The Cure it seemed like the volume had been turned way down, making it really hard to get into. I saw them just last summer and they were amazing, so I blame something behind the scenes more than the band for a lackluster experience.
My most memorable moment came on Saturday, when Brad, Lisa and I were exiting a VIP area and walked past Beck, who was standing on a little ledge near the exit gate watching the Pixies. Brad stopped right in front of Beck, pulled out his camera and yelled to Lisa, “Hey Lisa! Look, it’s Beck! Do you want your picture with him?” I’m standing between Brad/Beck and Lisa, who is already through the exit gate, and watch as a look of sheer terror spreads over Beck’s face. Lisa looks at Brad, looks at Beck, then looks back at Brad, makes a funny sort of pained expression and shakes her head ‘no.’ Beck got off the hook that time.
Later that night, while exiting that same exact gate, Beck appeared once again and we waked out behind him and into the crowd for Radiohead. I thought it was really cool that he went out there by himself to get a closer look, and later he wound up standing right in front of us. Or so we thought, even pointing “Beck” out to a stranger I was standing next to… until we realized it wasn’t actually him.
See you there next year. You too, Beck.
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