Coachella Day 2

Coming from out hotel, we find that our secondary route to the festival gets us there much quicker. We show up in time to catch the Fratellis kick out the jams. Hearing them on the radio, I often thought that they had more energy but when watching I felt like they were a really strong bar rock band. No offense...just calling it like I see it. I still enjoyed what I saw.


We cut out early to catch a good spot for Regina Spektor who I've heard more about than I've actually heard her music. She came out and sang acapella for her first song. A very sweet playful voice is the best way to describe her. Me and Derek both enjoyed her set. The band was solid and though painfully hot (about 107) they all had a good time. I particularly enjoyed when she sat at her piano and while she played piano with one hand she also played a drum stick on a chair with the other. Just a nice break from all the seriousness of the festival especially for a mainstage act.


We stayed in the same space to also catch one of my favorites from the past and with their new album, Travis. They had a great time with the audience and were super ecstatic to be playing there. I love when bands are like happy kids when it comes to performing...it really comes off as so endearing. Considering they are far from kids now it made it all the cooler. They had fantastic energy in the heat and could joke about it with the best of them. A fantastic set indeed.




Travelling from Travis en route to the Peter Bjorn and John show we were passing by the Nightwatchman's show. The Nightwatchman is Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine's side project. Basically him doing songs about how the goverment is evil. Folky Rage Against the Machine. I dig it. We passed in just enough time to see him call up Perry Farrel of Jane's Addiction fame and Bootsy from the Coup to sing with him the Woody Guthrie classic "This Land is Your Land". Tom also explained that the song was a retort to the Irving Berlin song "America" cause it was such a wishy washy piece of fluff. Everyone joined in on it. So glad we caught this little tidbit.


Peter Bjorn and John did a bang up job from what I could see of them. It was to be expected that a band with such a huge hit and very well selling album would be packed out. I caught some of the set and bounced back to the Gobi tent after hearing a couple of songs to snag a close spot for Andrew Bird.
PB&J:


Andrew Bird, himself with an album all the blogs have been talking about, packed out his tent. We were lucky to be so super close to the stage. He does this cool thing where he plays stuff on violin whether it being plucked or bowed and then loops it to make this impressive sound and then will play guitar over the looping. At times it was so good that you thought he made an entire impromptu string section. Great band and great sound. He brought an amazing show and despite getting badly shocked from bad grounding on his mic more than twice, he was one of the best intimate shows we caught. He joked about the shocking but you could tell it really messed with him when he got zapped. Quite the trooper.





Up next was the Arcade Fire. Without saying too much let me say a lot. Stupendous. A symphony of passionate sound. One of the extreme highlights of the weekend. I was bowled over. If you ever have the chance please go see them you'll be non-plussed.




We quickly went over to the outside stage after their set to catch some Blonde Redhead that was cool and dark. They did a good job even though we couldn't stay long cause we wanted to catch a sweet spot for the home town favorite Chili Peppers.

Arriving back at the main stage the air had cooled off a bit so the only thing to keep you warm were other bodies which there were plenty of. The Peppers took the stage and played a phenomenal set. No surprises to speak of really just a solid rocking set that the crowd ate right up. Though the Peppers are starting to get up there in age you still would never guess it by how hard they rock out. For many this was the actual headline of the evening cause Tiesto was afterward and wasn't for everyone (like us...heck how those fans could dance for a Tiesto show was amazing as hot and tired as we all were).





After getting destroyed over at the Chili Pepper show we did our short stroll over to catch the Good the Bad and the Queen who started like half an hour late. This was a bummer for us cause after 2 days of being in the sun and catching as much as we did we weren't in the right mindset to be waiting around for too long. I really wanted to catch as much as possible but we only stayed for 2 songs in the end. It was just taking too darn long and our eyes were closing. In fact this picture shows you exactly what I saw from being so tired.


Day 3 will be up very soon!