Right now, being back from CA long enough to feel vaguely rested, I’m rather loathing NYC. Given that I usually find festivals more trying than edifying, day 1 of Coachella was pretty wonderful.
For me, the Raveonettes provided a good start, though maybe not as good as blasting Arular (for my second hearing) in the convertible as I drove in. They did a spectacular rendition of “Attack of the Ghost Riders” that really was reminiscent of Suicide, to whom they dedicated it, and “Ode to L.A.” came off perfectly, even if Ronnie was only along on tape. Then they started (ugh) “Somewhere in Texas” and I rushed off to Ambulance, LTD. for some generally pleasant grooves, including ultra-jingly “Anecdote”, the sweetly pining “Stay Where You Are” and “Stay Tuned” and a “Young Urban” that they brought to a very incandescent climax. Oh, Shit!
Hurry, M83 have already started—and, actually, the prior wall of noise was a knock-out intro to “Run Into Flowers”. I immensely enjoyed the rest of the set, despite not recognizing anything else until the very overdriven set-closer “Don’t Save Us From the Flames”, one of the day’s peak moments. Then, falloff. The always (for me) underwhelming Snow Patrol were well beyond competent, but didn’t make me want to run back to the albums In fact, this would’ve been a perfect meal-break, if I hadn’t eaten in the parking lot. Razorlight, upon first encounter, did very little for me, and even Tiga was more monotonous than I expected. He did have a nifty light show—CG graphics on screens were echoed on multicolored LED displays reminiscent of giant Lite-Brites.
Rilo Kiley brought things back up to speed. Though I’ve not got their material down, they sounded great, a nice loose swing, but still all together. “The Good That Won’t Come Out”, “It’s a Hit”, and, I think “So Long” (one of Blake’s vocals, anyway) stood out. Jenny’s voice was in great form, but I had to run before they ended—I’d never seen Wilco before. The somber tunes won out over the likes of “War on War”. A couple of the following made me well up: “At Least That’s What You Said”, “Muzzle of Bees”, and “Radio Cure” —a favorite of mine, and the day’s second transcendent moment.
Weezer, I still don’t get. Maybe I’ll do an On First Listen for the Blue Album someday… They were just, I don’t know, there… The sound wasn’t balanced, heat and hunger finally got to me, so I sat in a far corner eating dinner before moving on to Four Tet, who didn’t have a highlight. It was ALL blasting from start to finish; my shorts, fingertips and hair all vibrated at different frequencies. Another act I’m not so familiar with, “Hands” and “My Angel Rocks Back and Forth” were all I could place, and those, only by trace elements. The entire show was underlaid with a constant innards-twisting subsonic rhythmic onslaught barely hinted at in the recordings. At the beginning the tent was Ľ full. By the end, it was loosely filled.
Bloc Party was a bit disappointing, primarily due to someone’s colossal error of booking them in the second-smallest tent. Even had I booked out halfway through Four Tet’s set, I would then have been packed inextricably into the mass of bodies that absorbed most of the guitar notes. The lighter songs, such as “Blue Light” sounded wonderful. “Like Eating Glass” and “Positive Tension” came off well, but “Little Thoughts” and “Banquet” lost some of their verve due to both the sound quality and lacking a bit of the recordings’ swagger. I lay outside catching my breath, and listened to a muffled but not muffed “This Modern Love” before moving on.
I arrived at the second stage shortly before Mercury Rev slid into “Holes”, another epiphanic moment, as I’d never seen them perform. They stuck primarily to later material, which constant uplift and bombast was occasionally irksome, but some of the inspirational quotations superimposed over the new-age space imagery were entertaining, and the band performed immaculately. If only there’d been something more rocking than “Chains” to round out the sheen. “The Dark is Rising” was an overwhelming enough ending that it took a while to realize that, ahem, the setup for Spoon is taking ForEVER. At last they got rolling, but took a couple songs to get juiced. “My Mathematical Mind” finally found them shredding, and they got in a near-perfect 40 minutes, including a spot-on “Small Stakes” with some extra reverb, and a very slinky “Take a Walk”. Generally, Spoon stick pretty close to the recordings, with only minor added hooks and filigrees. “Paper Tiger” was delirious, with it’s spookiness further augmented by some very ominous abstract guitar lines added throughout. They were reminiscent of Ira Kaplan’s more subdued freakouts—another of the day’s indelible memories. We also were treated to “Sister Jack”, “I Summon You”, “The Way We Get By”, and a ludicrously taut “Jonathan Fisk” as the endup.
I suppose if I’d skipped just three or four of those songs, I’d have beat enough of the crowd to the parking lot, and shaved a lot off my 140 minute crawl through traffic for approximately 30 miles to the hotel. And that even, once people dropped into closer hotels, was taken at mostly upward of 80 MPH. I actually wish I had, but only because I missed my flight in the morning. Otherwise, the 3:00 AM tumble into bed wouldn’t have been regretted.