30.4.08

Coachella 2008: A Debriefing

1. I can die now.

2. I know I looked a fool in my outfit.

coachella06 

2. JESUS I'm exhausted.  Still.  But the constant screaming made my voice even deeper, and therefore more... how shall we say... sexy.

3. Kraftwerk.  What can I say?  Could they have been any more German?

coachella25 

The answer is no.

It was sooooooo weird, soooooooo conceptual and stimulating, suuuuuuuuuch an experience, I loved it!  I could tell while I was in the audience that it wasn't everyone's cup of tea, though.  Man,  if you thought I was stone-faced...   Any attempts to describe their set will butcher what it was like, but I will say that those robots were soooooooo cool!

4. The sculptures that were exhibited this year were way more interesting than last year's.

5. Man, there were white people everywhere!!  Maybe last year's constituency was more of an anomaly than I first thought.  I did, after all, attend only on Sunday when Rage was playing - La Raza was in full force that day.  One such white person...

coachella24

She was cool.  I met her during the Kraftwerk set.

6. Wow!  VHS or Beta!  They were really great and I was impressed!  Can you believe they formed in Kentucky?  I need to let go of my stereotypes of the South.  It's hard, though, because I travel there often.  I'll be doing my best to get into them ASAP.  Same for Bonde do Role!

coachella10

They were having so much fun, despite the fact that the band before them - like total @$$holes - didn't get down when they were supposed to:  Bonde do Role didn't have time for a sound check and didn't sound as good as they could have.  They MORE than made up for it in energy, though.  The only song from them I had ever heard was Gasolina, and my Brazilian friends (I've got quite a few) had never heard of them.  Think of them as a Baile Funk/techno/mash-up type group with hip-hop formal qualities.  SHOW!!!!

7. I caught a DJ set by a collective of sorts called Institubes - super cute!  Super fun!  At the end of the night on my way to my car, I passed by one of the guys mixing a set out of the trunk of his car...

coachella30

Isn't he cyuuuute!  If you're in LA, he's mixing at a club located behind Avalon on Sunday, May 4th.

8.  What was up with the lead singer from Cold War Kids hating on Prince?  The Cold War Kids (so overrated) played on the main stage in the late afternoon, and I wasn't really in the audience but I was just chillin' in the grass nearby, minding my own business, when I hear the guy, in between songs, showing barely veiled contempt for Prince.  It was purple this, purple that; the guy seemed kinda jealous.  Tell you the truth, they were boring.  The other guitarist repeatedly played to the drummer and there was just no show.

 

PRINCE!!

 

Oh                                                                                                    My                                                                                                    Christ

That was one of the most wonderful experiences I ever had!  I was right up front!  He was beauuuuuuutiful!  The fact that most of the people in the audience weren't real fans didn't dampen it too much for me, but the next time I see him live, it's definitely going to have to be in a more intimate setting.  I felt like shaking some of the people around me and screaming "THIS ISN'T PORTISHEAD!!!!!" directly into their faces.  Nothing against Portishead, btw - they had a great live sound.  It just wasn't right for the venue, though.  But back to my future husband.  Let me break it down for you...

The lights were low.  And then, Prince sailed onstage:  I had a screaming fit.  The opening chord to "Let's Go Crazy" sounded over the speakers, and I had a screaming fit.  Then, after a brief intro, he brought out...

MORRIS DAY AND THE TIIIIIIIME!!!!!!

I had a screaming fit.

They did "Jungle Love" and "The Bird" with all the dance moves, thank you very much!  And after that, Prince brought out...

SHEILA E!!!!!!!!!

She performed "The Glamorous Life" and then proceeded to lead a jazzy jam with the band with her her good-lookin', mature self!  My favorite song of hers is "Love Bizarre" and I would have loved to hear it, but hey, I didn't have to be there at all.

Here are the songs that I remember Prince playing:

A slowed-down version of "Little Red Corvette", "1999", "You Got The Look", "Anotherloverholeinyohead", "Musicology", "Controversy", "Come Together" (Beatles), "Creep" (Radiohead), a Sarah McLaughlin song that one of his back-up singers broke her foot off in, a version of "Shhhh" (Tevin Campbell) in which he inserted a guitar solo that made me cry, and of course, "Purple Rain".

You can tell by the lack of photos above that I was too busy having fits to take pictures.  You can click here for more pics if you feel so moved.

I don't know what else to say, except that a few days later, I was describing that guitar solo to one of my friends and I started crying again.

I love music.

1 comment: