Coachella 2006 Recap
posted Mar 25, 07:30 PM by Rick WebbFile under: Festivals , Hit the Road
Rick’s 2006 Coachella Recap, originally posted here. The verdict? Daft Punk ruled, Madonna disappointed, and Rock Tourist is born.
Whew. Okay!
4/28
Got to Palm Springs around 7PM on Friday. I realized as I arrived that Abby wasn’t arriving until 9ish, so I drove to Indio and to the Hotel and checked in. I grabbed some In-n-Out Burger (and good thing, too, because there was never really any other time to do it), and some booze. Drove back to Palm Springs. Kept trading voice messages with Megan, who I never did manage to actually see all weekend. Got a call from my friend John at Apple, and it turned out he was staying in the same country club as us! Picked up Abby I thought briefly about going to the Filter party, wherever the hell it was in the desert, but the prospect of not knowing who was actually playing, and the vaguarities of not having your own car made it seem unpleasant And luckily Lele called, so we went over to her sister’s house, and me, abby, Leanne and Harry H spent the evening whiling it away in the hot tub – seriously, I think Leanne was in there like 3 hours. We drank champagne (not L. – she was good) and played with the dogs and generally had a good time. L’s sister arrived later with her husband and some friends and they proved seriously entertaining. Headed back to the resort around 2 AM, and opted to not call John because we were so tired. Passed out
4/29
Got up, ate breakfast at Dennys, which ruled. Still, though, man, everything on that menu is ridiculously unhealthy. REALLY bad All the service staff were huge. Our waitress was nice, though. She informed us she’d like to see Madonna, but that it was too expensive. I thought about telling her how much tickets for JUST madonna were going for in NYC, but it seemed pointless. Drove around for WAY TOO LONG looking for a Target, and never found it, because I’m dumb. Got booze and supplies and went back to the hotel, parked, and walked to Coachella.
The walk is pretty awesome in a lot of ways, but they really need an official short cut through to that corner. There’s a “parents pickup” area, and that’s cool, but it’s about a mile walk out of the way to there from the 2nd outdoor stage. An exit in the back corner would make life a lot better. Anyway, we walked in, and had to wait in the will call line for like an hour, which SUCKED. But luckily there was no long wait in the ticket entry line, like last year, so that probably would have been at least half an hour of that wait We missed the Walkmen, but could hear them pretty well as they were playing directly in front of us on the Coachella stage as we waited. Could also make out most of Joey Beltram’s set, which made me laugh, because it was a lot like it was 14 years ago.
Finally got into the event and went over to meet Harry and John, individually, in the back of the tent at Wolfmother. Normally, the back of the tent area is really easy to find people, but in this case, it was PACKED. We found Harry, luckily, but never found John, thus ruining our chances of finding him for the whole day. Wolfmother were pretty awesome, even though we were really far back, but I definitely understood what all the hype is about. Like the Walkmen, only the guy sings, and sings sorta like Jack White. Definitely worth checking out again in the future.
After Wolf Mother, walked by and listened to half a song of Lyrics Born, which was competent and kinda fun in their reggaeness. Grabbed some food at that back, side food area and listened to all of Animal Collective, who sounded WAY BETTER than their Avalon show I went to a while back. I will give them another chance. Meandered over to the main stage to hear a bit of Common – enough to know that we weren’t really into it. Back to the Mojave tent, as we walked to the dance tent, and caught the one decent Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah live song – the one where they go “Satan Satan” and even that HURT in this performance. Stop with the distortion Embrace the tween. Stop trying to rock. Please. Went to the Dance tent and listened to Colette for a while, and I kinda dug her. She sorta had an Annie thing going on, but she was all DJing n shit herself, but she would sing along. It was… um… a B maybe.
The day then really kicked into high gear with TV On the Radio. Judi and I went to see them with the Flaming Lips on our first date when we got back together, and I remember them being horrible. I’ve been listening to the new album the last month or two (thanks to stickyasrice) and it’s been okay, but i really couldn’t decide about them. Was it enough to make up for their past dodginess? The verdict is now in, and yes, they have improved. I heard rumors of them doing some month long residency in NY to bone up their live act, and it was worth it. Solid solid show. Really interesting. Made me happy. And the fact that they were on the same stage as Ladytron meant we could get up front for Ladytron, which we did And they rocked. They rocked as much as the Boston show last week, though they played about 3 fewer songs (they didn’t play the “he’s not coming home to me” song, I don’t think they played Sugar, but that was about it. More or less the exact same set, and more or less exactly as 100% awesome.
We had a bit of a disagreement after Ladytron, but the sheer stubbornness of my personality won out, and we went to see The Eagles of Death Metal over Cat Power, mainly because she can suck it for canceling so many shows. I’m sure she’s a nice gal, but I don’t have to support her in her neurosis. Tough love, man.
We listened to one Devandra Banhart song on the way over – he was playing his hit I Feel Like A Child or is it I Feel Just Like a Child I don’t know. I’m on a plane. but he had this huge band and seems to be deviating from his weird folk tendencies into a more band-oriented New Weird America thing, and I kinda liked it, but as the stage gets bigger, with that kind of music, the cred gets dodgier. I’d go see him and Animal Collective in a second at TTs but maybe not on a festival stage. In fairness, he did sound really good. He just looked silly up there, shirtless with his maracas.
The Eagles were awesome and funny and if I had a dollar for every time they said “Let’s hear it for the ladies!” I would laugh. They played I’m a Man and Stuck in the Metal and a bunch of others and it made me very happy, even if Abby and Harry kept wandering off. ;) They had like ten people on stage, because they’re from the valley cities area. Did they have two drummers in Boston?
We listened to a bit of Franz Ferdinand as the Eagles were going on, but not enough to qualify as seeing them (they are, thusly, unbolded). I didn’t miss them at all. I could see Harry pining a bit, though. Anyway, after Eagles we went over to the main stage and watched Depeche Mode who seriously left a lot to be desired. Awesome video show, and Martin Gore is still sporting the awesome hats and wings, but Dave just. Ugh. At one point he said “good evening Coachella!” in exactly the same tone of voice as he says “Good evening Padedena!” in Depeche Mode 101 from 1989. Um… hello, two decades back called? They want their banter back.
At Depeche Mode Harry found his friend Kim and her friend (Barry?), and they kept us company the rest of the night.
We left early, but since not a lot was on at that hour, we could hear them for most of our walk back to the dance stage. They played Personal Jesus and Just Can’t Get Enough and Clean and Enjoy the Silence and Martin actually did one unexpected song that was a little older that he sings – not Somebody – but it eludes me at this moment.
So, then the highlight of the night, and indeed the festival. Easily the BEST SHOW OF THE WHOLE WEEKEND. I was excited when I saw they were on the line up, but my excitement was an afterthought. Daft Punk’s new record is solid, and I knew they would be good for a dance or two, but never did I expect the pure genius that was Daft Punk live. Starting from a completely black stage, the five-tone tune from Close Encounters comes out of the sound system in perfect clarity. As it repeats, the curtain is drawn, and Daft Punk appear, IN ROBOT OUTFITS, sitting atop a fifty foot high black obsidian pyramid.
They came out in Robot Suits. They played from a Pyramid. It sounded. AWESOME.
We all danced, all six of us, nonstop, for one hour and thirty minutes, as they plowed through all their hits. It was such a brilliant display of artistry, sound, vision. I can’t even convey it. Every person I’ve asked what they thought the best band of the weekend was has agreed it was Daft Punk. I will never knowingly miss another Daft Punk show. They ended with Human After All and by that point their obsidian pyramid was showing VIDEO on the PYRAMID of human faces. Umm. Just Youtube it. Please, god, someone better have filmed at least one song of that.
They were worth the 90 minute exodus to get out of the park. They were worth the mile long walk home. They were worth the shin splints. They were worth not getting back to the hotel till 2AM.
Day 1 I was sad I missed Rob Dickenson, The White Rose Movement, and Nine Black Alps, the Rakes (the latter three I’ve never heard but it struck me as an easy opportunity to check them out). I skipped Lady Sovereign (sorry ryan!), Sigur Ros, Franz Ferdinand, She Wants Revenge and Deerhoof because I’ve seen them enough already. Daft Punk alone made me think that this day was pretty solid, and if I was a more casual concert goer and hadn’t seen a bunch of these good bands multiple times, I would say that yes, Coachella day 1 lived up to the tradition. Apparently 60,000 people were there – a record – so I guess people agree.
4/30 –
Woke up decently early on Day 2 of Coachella. Got some breakfast at a hilarious Indio local restaurant called La Piñata that was really pretty over the top – our waitress looked like Charo and was wearing a cowboy had and toy pistols. Apparently when mexicans dress as cowboys their legitimacy to making mexican food is increased. Tried hard to not be too cliched east-coast ironic mocking as we ate. Then we hit KMart for some supplies, parked back at the hotel, and walked over to the festival around 230 ish.
We had a MUCH easier time getting in on the 2nd day, just like last year. But it was MUCH hotter on sunday, so we took some time recovering in the shelter of the beer tent, while we watched our first band of the day, Magic Numbers, who were great! I am a new fan. They were cute and clever and the music wasn’t all ya ya ya rock.
Abby and I began serious rock tourism after that, checking out Phoenix for 2 songs (eh) and then Metric for 2-3 songs (eh), and then heading over to the dance dent for a bit of Louis Vega who sounded pretty awesome, but we were in need of shade. We headed to one shadey shelter, except it was smelly and awful. We could hear Metric from that shelter, though, and they sounded better as they got more melodic. I have liked what I’ve heard of them on record, but they started out all rocking like every other rock band on a festival stage. But later on in the set, it was much nicer sounding. We were already on a quest for a new shelter, though, so we moved on. Then we found the water and wet ourselves down, which I never did last year, but lordy! It totally works! I am gonna do that all the time from here on out. We then hit the main stage for a bit of Matisyahu who kind of intrigued me in his Seal meets Sting meets Reggae shtick, but the fact that it was just as I described made me realize I better run away before I turn into one of “those people” who would actually like something like that, so we went over to the outdoor stage and watched Minus The Bear’s full set, because I was curious about them, too, and we had given everything else a shot. They were… intruiging. Just when I think I’d have them pegged, they’d do something else. I liked them, though I suspect they may be forgettable. I will try and listen to their album before I pass final judgement though. We found a really great spot in the food court, with shade, and a perfect view and sound of the outdoor stage, so we stayed put for like 2 hours to wait out the heat. I did go over and watch 2-3 songs of *Wolf Parade *in that time, in an effort to find Harry, but didn’t find him. Wolf Parade were like 30 mins late, so I only saw a few songs, and I felt about them live pretty much like I feel about them on record – okay, what’s the big deal? It’s elephant 6y. yeah. okay. huh.
Then I went and met Abby again in our shady shelter, and then Harry found us, and then we all watched Bloc Party who were eh. When they played songs I knew, they sounded better, though, so it’s probably me. Maybe as a public service to myself I should listen to all their songs until I know them all well, so they all sound better.
So once they were done, the sun had more or less gone down, and we went out exploring. Harry went to see the Yeah yeah Yeahs, and me and Abby went to see stellastar*, because I had never seen them, and I thought they were great! I’m probably behind on that one, but they were shoegaze noisariffic! 2 thumbs up.
Walking away from stellastar* we ran into some bostonians I know – Darren from Newbury Comics and his friend. He had gone along for the ride at the last minute, because some other bostonians backed out. That was a fun little exchange. Sad, though, that I ran into him and another friend (below) but never Megan!
Then we tried to go see Seu Jorge, but he started like 20 minutes late. I could see the legions of people walking toward the dance tent to see Madonna, and I started to get pannicky and distracted. Abby tried to calm me down and I tried to find my inner zen, but man, I wanted to be able to see and hear Madonna. It’s so funny. You never think you’re gonna care about Madonna, but when she’s playing a hundred yards down the field, all of the sudden you have to get there.
We made it through like half of one Seu Jorge song, which is really a shame, and not only that,. I skipped the Editors AGAIN, I AM ALWAYS MISSING THE EDITORS. Gah. I’ve been in the same town as them as they’ve played like five gigs now. My friend John told me later that night that they had gotten A LOT better in the last few months, and they’re worth seeing now, so I’m probably gonna have to go to some Avalon show and feel like a suburban kid and be embarrassed I hadn’t seen them yet. Oh well. I saw Madonna instead. I can take it.
The GOOD THING, though, about leaving Seu when we did is that we ran into my friend Lila Marley, who I GREW UP WITH and hadn’t seen since my sister’s wedding. That was truly awesome. We walked over together and hung out, and caught up, and she met some of my friends, and I met hers, and it was really fun.
Madonna didn’t exactly play on time, and people were getting pretty testy by the time she want on. She conveniently played Hang up first, which was awesome, then she dumbly played two new dance songs, thus reinforcing the sneaking feeling in the back of my mind the whole reason she was at Coachella was to pump sales of the new album. She did cleverly then play Ray of Light, though, which was awesome, and she played the guitar part herself, and very well, which probably confounded more than a few people there.
We left after the fourth song, Ray of Light, to go see the rest of Mogwai. I was mildly testy because as Madonna was busy NOT starting for 20 minutes, I could hear the opening strains of Mogwai Fear Satan drift across the desert. Mogwai were the reason I chose to come to Coachella at all. But you know what? It worked out. It was like British Sea Power last year, where there were a ton of people at the Outdoor Stage, but you could still walk right up and be overwhelmed with sonic awesomeness. And I did just that, as Abby and Harry grabbed slices of pizza, I walked up to near the front of the stage and it ruled. They sounded so huge and perfect. I was up there for Stanley Kubrick and Glasgow Mega-Snake and life was awesome. They were playing Haunted by a Freak as we left, and life was good. We caught the end just as we were leaving earshot and it mixed into the first song of Massive Attack’s set and everything was awesome – like Coachella was one big sound mixing board and you could walk around and construct your own DJ set.
Massive Attack started out awesome, and my enthusiasm went overboard when they announced that Elizabeth Frasier was, inexplicably, actually present. She had cancelled the Cocteau Twins reunion @ Coachalla the year before, so it seemed unlikely to me she’d appear, but appear she did, and they played Teardrop and Angel and it was really awesome, though a bit quiet. The other thing about them is they sorta decided to play like 2 songs off of Blue Lines, wha? No Protection, nothing from Tricky or Tracy Thorn oeuvre and, um, Blue Lines is like 17 years old, mmkay? I did think it was interesting, though, that Depeche Mode and Massive Attack got the festival vibe – as did New Order and Nine Inch Nails last year – that people at a festival want to hear your hits. Okay Madonna? OKAY? Anyway, Massive Attack were great, but they failed to really whip me into a lather (is that too graphic?).
We were going to stay for Tool, for novelty’s sake, but the 25 minutes between sets, and lack of anything worth seeing during those 25 minutes made us decide to just head home. This was an awesome move because a) it was MUCH easier to get out of the festival, and b) it allowed us to sit in the hot tub drinking champagne for two hours, and FINALLY meet up with my friend John, who joined us as his posse was walking back to their rented houses. An excellent end to the weekend.
Day 2 I didn’t really miss anyone I wish I hadn’t, save for the first half of Mogwai’s set, but all in all, after the New York and Austin shows, and the upcoming Boston show, I’ll be okay .
I did decide, though, that VIP is the way to go. I need to get on that. It’s fascinating to me how much access my company will afford me in some circles, but not in rock. Rock and the Web still don’t really mix. The web is the new Rock, and the old Rock isn’t really fully convinced that they should be friends. Bloggers seem to do all right, though, and to that end, in the next week or so, I am launching a new blog: rocktourist.com – a site for those of us in our 30’s or close to them, without kids, who would rather rock than go to the beach. My SXSW and Coachella entries will be the first entries, and I have enlisted the aid of iandavid to be our Bonnaroo correspondent. It’s not going to be festival-based exclusively, but more like event-shows. Reunions, bands only playing NYC and LA, that sort of thing. Kraftwerk and New Order would have qualified last year, as will the upcoming All Tomorrow’s Parties stint. If all goes well, it’ll become a bustling bastian of activity and rock publicists will be falling all over themselves to put me in the VIP section of their next rock show. Yeah. uh huh.
5/1 – Got up at nine, drove back to the airport, returned the rental car, had breakfast with Abby, ran into Bloc Party while waiting at the gate, and headed home. Woo.
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