NMScene

Pendulum playing Voodoo People and Blood Sugar live

Aphex Twin

The Verve

Spank Rock

Midnight Juggernauts

The coachella valley which includes neighboring Indio, and Palm Springs lies just east of Los Angeles on the edge of the Mojave Desert. It’s about 800 miles or so from Albuquerque, and takes one good long ten hour drive through Arizona and the southern Mojave desert. It’s long, its boring, and the highlight is getting to eat a breakfast samich in Kingman AZ.

Once you get to Indio you have to drive through town around five miles to make it to the venue, which is held on a massive series of polo fields about a mile square. Although the overall attendance was lower than it has been in the past, the 80-90,000 people who did show up isnt something to scoff at. Luckily the crowds were moved through quickly.

The camping situation kind of pissed me off just a bit. the website said you would get 8 square feet per person, which is small, and barely fit the smallest 3 man tent i could find at wal mart for 30 bucks for the trip. the people in charge of the camping ground decided to downsize the area to 7 square feet per person, then invoked the scary fire marshal as the nameless authority who would come and kick us out if we didn’t squish together as tight as possible. my tent was literally up against another camps tent. it was pretty lame, but i do confess that i liked being on the grounds a hell of a lot more than driving in and out every day.

Entry into the fields is through a very long entry way that first checks you for booze and weapons and then hustles you by a massive line of lockers and merchants selling trendy crap. finally you go through a big gate that is situated in a way that obscures the rest of the venue.

One thing that i did appreciate was the fact that some decent art was brought into the venue that most people just wouldn’t see otherwise. Being a burner, i’ve seen most of the pieces here before. The main swirly shade structure is, to me at least, a massive rip off of the “Belgian waffle” from burning man 06. It was cool enough, though, and people seemed to like it, so i wont rip it too much.

Of course the Steampunk Treehouse, a big hit at last years burning man was in attendance, and it was really good to see it assembled, especially after seeing it in parts during the BoingBoing interview with its builders a few months back in San Fransisco.

The first thing i was attracted to was The Do Lab’s venue, which to me was the heart of Coachella this year, and where i spent the majority of my time either cooling off or dancing. While Portishead and Pendulum were bad ass to hear live, the real cutting edge music was coming out of this area.

A modern day vaudeville/circus style performance act, Lucent Dosier was one of the big draws for me to come back. Having just sucked me in during the 2006 Coachella, they definitely upgraded the experience incorporating a water theme that went perfectly with the event.

I’m not sure who this is who was dancing but she rocked the shit out of this costume she was wearing. Both beautiful and a great dancer, she was the best of the water goddesses.

After hosing down the crowd they performed a live dance act.

Wanting to check out some of the acts i knew nothing about I wandered over to one of the three covered stages, the Gobi, where Cut Copy was performing. Unfortunately i didn’t realize they were a *very* whiny emo act. I skipped out after two songs. they had a large crowd but they were defiantly not my thing.

Some more interactive art

At this point i wandered in between several of the stages. I caught some of the Breeders, who were good but it was obvious to me that they were off their prime. Although the lead singer and band were doing well, and rocked, they lacked that youthful enthusiasm i remember they had about ten years back. I also was able to catch some of Vampire Weekend and Tegan and Sara. I didn’t like vampire weekend all that much, and was disappointed in Tegan and Sara- the two songs i heard from them rocked, but they spent more time talking and discussing things than actually playing. I eventually got bored and went back to the Do Lab venue to dance.

The sun started to set and I was pretty tired at this point. I had worked 8 hours, and slept 4 hours and somehow was in my car for 25 hours, then managed to set up camp and wander coachella all day. I hit it pretty hard but had a lot more to do.

The big rig jig is another piece that was born at burning man, just this last year. it was good to see it out again.

All of the acts i wanted to see were playing at the Sahara tent, which was at the far end of the field, was the largest of the covered stages and had most if not all of the electronic acts for the weekend in it. Diplo was spinning, and even though i didn’t really feel like it he played a really good set and i ended up dancing for most of it.

Nest up was Aphex Twin, who was announced late. I was expecting some hard, crazy set from him, but was *extremely* blown away by his set. To say it was amazing was understating it. I’ve heard a hell of a lot of drum n bass in the last few years, and straight up this was one of, if not the best, I’ve ever heard. It started out slow, which confused me at first.. was this really aphex twin? did i fuck up, was this diplo? The momentum kept building. He just sat there behind his equipment, building the momentum, the beat, the tension. At some point people dressed as a cow, a monkey, a donkey, and i think a rabbit got on stage and begun to dance. It went from downtempo to hard, insane drum n bass, and finished with one of his crazed, mind altering tracks. Its been a hell of a long time since a dj has fucked with me like that. I cant say enough how much i enjoyed it. And the crowd did to. The tent went nuts for it.

Taking abreak i wandered outside to cool off. I was exhausted at this point, barley maintaining. The view back towards the rest of the madness was a sight.

For me the peak of the night was Pendulum, and i was wondering, how in the hell do you follow up the perfect drum n bass set if your a group that does drum n bass? You pull out a full band, and play your shit live. I was blown away when i saw them come up there and play everything with a keyboard, drums, and bass guitar. It was madness at this point. I was near done. i wandered towards the back to try to stay through the entire set. I felt bad for the lead singer, although he pumped the crowd in an insane way, it cost him his voice, which went out as he sang “hold your color.” Good thing for him, though, that was about it for their set, and for me, also. Although it would have been cool to stay for Fatboy Slim, whom everyone said played a really good set, i had had enough I was just too tired at this point to continue on, ten hours of partying in the sun and another 20 of driving was my limit. I wandered back to my sad little camp and passed the fuck out. More about day 2 tomorrow.

I’ve got a ton of pics and short videos i was able to take from the concert. It was, im happy to say, probably the best time i’ve had at an event like this. there were few problems and most of the acts i saw were either better than i expected or did some damn awesome unexpected shit.

First things first; a mp3 of Portishead’s complete set, probably taken from the live webcast. the only disapointing thing was that Portishead was forced to cut five songs from their set due to prince being added to the lineup.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/l9eqdb

MP3s:
Portishead - Silence (Live @ Coachella 2008)
Portishead - Mysterons (Live @ Coachella 2008)
Portishead - The Rip (Live @ Coachella 2008)
Portishead - Glory Box (Live @ Coachella 2008)
Portishead - Wandering Star (Live @ Coachella 2008)
Portishead - Machine Gun (Live @ Coachella 2008)
Portishead - Over (Live @ Coachella 2008)
Portishead - Sour Times (Live @ Coachella 2008)
Portishead - Cowboys (Live @ Coachella 2008)
Portishead - Threads (Live @ Coachella 2008)
Portishead - Roads (Live @ Coachella 2008)
Portishead - We Carry On (Live @ Coachella 2008)

Yesterday was a pretty damn amazing day. 10 straight hours of headliners playing back to back. They were almost all hits but there were a few light misses.

I began the day with my first shower of the trip, which was like heaven. I remember back to history classes that described how people of the middle ages would sometimes go up to a year with out bathing, and I can say with out a doubt that I could never tolerate it. The rail workers in the 1800’s would go up to a month at a time with out bathing, that too would be too extreme. I’m discussing this because out here, in your new faux home, you begin to become quite a bit more aware of how much you can and can not handle, and while it’s usually a lot more (our instincts and basic primal life kicks in after a bit in the sun) some things like bathing just can’t be skiped.

I started the day pretty much as I am right now, I got up, showered, then headed back to my car to charge my cell and rest for a bit, my first night’s sleep out here was rough, but that’s normal for any new place that you sleep in.

After chilling at my car for a bit and meeting some guy who was also from nm, who, as it turns out also lives downtown like I do, I wandered back to the camping lot to procure some coffee, as the withdrawal of caffeine was producing a pounding headache of doom.

It didn’t occur to me to buy iced coffee until after I bought it, so I spent the next thirty minutes under the shade of a tower waiting for my boiling cup of addiction to cool the fuck off. In that time I learned how to properly mix condensed icee syrup for a shaved ice stand that was next to me. Although the mark up for food at this place is pretty ridiculous, there was a constant stream of people coming up to buy. As a side note getting into one of these businesses has to be profitable on some level, its defiantly something I need to look into once my party/concert miles are used up.

I wandered around the periphery of the camping area, which is pretty damned huge, and found some people enjoying a slip n slide hooked up to the water tank on one of the shower trucks. I found a camp with a nm flag flying, but it was completely empty as I walked by.

I found my way to the “center camp” which was a free internet cafe. I plopped down on the grass for a bit and people watched for about an hour. Having only consumed some juice sold by a hippy girl and a single cup of coffee, I decided that hunger was going to force me into the event, so I got up and went in.

Few acts were up yet so I took the time to start checking out some of the art installations here, like the sonic forest, which was an interactive piece. You put your hands up to a pole and it plays back sounds you’d find in a forest like birds along with other random noises. Apparently its been to all the major festivals, so it was nice to have it as a kind of touchstone that is common to people all over the world.

I wandered back over to the do lab venue and heard a bit of Adam Ohana’s set, which was good but wasn’t quite getting me in the mood. Saturday is the peak attendance day so there were noticeably more people there. I finally made it all the way across to the far end of the field to catch a bite to eat. Every meal here is costing 10$ each. Not too bad but can add up if you’re not careful on what you eat. Not finding what I wanted I got some water and headed over to see vhs or beat play on the main stage.

Many of the acts this year have surprised me with their performances, and vhs or beta is definably one of them. Although a bit on the emo side, they fucking rocked it hard, and even played a damn good acoustic song that blurred the line between 70’s funk, drum n bass, and rock. I really look forward to hearing them again.

At this point I’m fucking starved to death. I skipped the last bit of vhs or beta- a good strategy that I used the rest of the day, and headed back to get something to much. I ended up with a “burgerrito” which was a burger in borito form. Burger n fries all wrapped up. Great idea, poorly executed. I inhaled it and found the sleepyness setting in, so I chilled out under a shade area to catch dredge, a bay area band that was pretty damn cool. The lead singer explained that this was the first time they’ve played out of the bay area, and I hope they do go on some kind of tour they had a very good sound that would be perfect for a night at someplace like Burt’s.

I chilled out through most of their set and then got my bum ass up and went back to the dolab area and heard dj imagica spin. It wasn’t all that great but she’s good eye candy, plus the water misting the crowd felt damn good. Stayed through and watched lucent dossier perform again, but it just wasn’t as great the second time around so I went to seek shade, as the skin on my neck is starting to give me the sign that its had enough sunlight. There was a free patch of shade right behind one of the dolab walls so I hung there and listened to devotchka play, and didn’t really dig the Russian rock but did like the two girls they had rolling around in rope doing acrobatics. I stayed there for quite a while before hearing a bit of david starfire w/icatching, who was a decent mc but it wasn’t quite my thing. I went and bought some more juice. I just can’t seem to keep hydrated enough out here, drank two of those before going over to see death cab for cutie.

There’s a fun kraftwerk/ death cab mashup that’s in the “best of bootie 2007″ mix that I dug, and I have to say that’s the only exposure to them I’ve had. Although they were good, they were a little too emo for me, but hearing the lead rip on prince was kind of fun. I left near the end of their set and went to hear junkie xl, who had the Sahara tent packed but was playing some damn cheesy commercial shit, when he randomly plays the death cab/kraftwerk mashup. This pleased me and was my cure to go back to the main stage to check out kraftwerk.

Now, if apple had an official band it would with out doubt be kraftwerk. The four members of the bad stood, simply, behind four computers. None of them moved. They just stood there as their puters (which all looked to be macs) played their tracks, including computerworld and autobhan. It was pretty rad but kind of bored me after a while, which is too bad considering how much kraftwerk layed the foundations for most music in the last 20 years that uses any kind of electronic sounds.

Glitch mob was awaiting me as I skipped out of kraftwerk at the do lab venue, and they did not disapoint. Of all the acts that played the four of em probably had the most down to earth, lets get this party on attitude of the last 2 days. These guys can throw down, and why they haven’t played in nm is beyond me. They need to be brought out post haste.

I skipped out of glitch mob (at this point I finished filling up a 2gig card on my cam and switched over to my back up 512mg) and went over to see Portishead. What else can I say but wow. Wtf, they are simply wonderful live. They mixed their new and old stuff up in just the perfect way, cutting tracks from the new into the old just the right amount. Its haunting, sad, stoic, and lingers in you.

At this point its coming up on 10pm, and I’ve been at it since 11am. I felt wrecked, and my caffeine withdrawals were eating at me again. I did what I could to stumble over to hear Sasha and Digweed. I laid out in the grass outside the massive tent under the stars and chilled. The duo was playing well but it just was not motivating me to action. I would have liked to have caught a bit of flogging molly but it just wasn’t going to happen. I began the mile and a half walk back to my tent to get some much needed sleep. Prince came on as I got back to bed. I can’t stand prince but it would have been fun to see all the purple shit he has. Oh well.

I decided I don’t want to get back to Albuquerque feeling like a complete train wreck, so I got myself a room in vegas tonight. And as much as I wanted to hear danny tenagla, modeselektor, and roger waters play, I just don’t have any more in me. At this point I’ve heard 27 acts play. I plan on about 4 more before I say fuck it and head out. Ill have more to say soon.

I’ve been waiting to go into the venue all morning and its looking like the campers are starting to migrate in the direction of the entrance.

The first day of any event like this is always a frantic whirlwind to get parked, get gear to its place, find your way in, and claim a spot.

Weather through chance or luck I ended up with both a pretty decent camping spot and parking spot. Unlike other events you have to park anywhere between a mile and half mile away and walk your gear over, never something fun.

This year I decided I wanted to travel as light as possible. I only broughtt he bare minimums, including a few toiletries, change of clothes, tent, and the lightest blanket I could get a hold of. If I had to do over I’d definatley brign some kind of sleeping mat, the ground beneath the tent was just a bit to hard for my taste.

People here have been freindly and I haven’t seen any bad vibes or fights break out, which I have to say is a damned nice change for once, maybe I’ve gotten too used to seeing violence in albuquerque.

One thing that I haven’t cared for is, I suppose, the “consumer pop culture” that is always at events like these. I think one crucial thing I’ve taken away from the wo burning man events I’ve gone to is that there doesn’t need to be a profit motive underlying every interaction between people. Every meal here is costingme about 10 bucks, which isn’t horrible but isn’t good either. Instead of people getting together and sharing a meal with freinds and family its some rich old fat white dude who drives a convertable red bmw overseeing kids on how to properly measure out the right amounts of product for that 1000% markup on his meal style food substitute. Those of you who know me know that I’m pretty far from left, and now I’m going ptretty far from right too. Somewhere in here is an authentic cultural event, but, sadly, its coated over and over again by money.

Rants aside I’ve been pretty pleased with things. I’m going to start making my way towards the main stage to check out vhs or beta, more soon.

I finally hit my own personal wall last night half way into pendulum’s set. 25 hrs of driving, 4 hrs of sleep,1000 miles, and 10 hours of damncing in the ojave sun is about all I’m good for.

I woke up this morning very uncomfortable and pretty damned cold. I wanted to come in and experience this as easily as possible so I only brought what I could carry on my back, save the cooler which really wasn’t needed.

*thank god* they have showers here. Some funky set up in the back of a semi truck trailer, I had to wait in line for thirty minutes which wasn’t so bad considering the line doubled by the time I was done. God did I need that shower. Like, really bad.

Not long after I got up at this morning I started hearing something familiar from the main stage. We’re not allowed into the main festival area for a while so its nice to hear something early, other than the Mexicans camped near me screaming “cabron!” all morning. I finally figured out that it was portishead doing a practice set for tonight.

Today, unlike yesterday, will be a bit less walking as most of the acts I want to hear are on the main stage; vhs or beta, death cab for cutie, kraftwerk, portishead, and maybe prince. I’m not a prince fan to say the least but I’d be ok with hearing him play at least once.

Sasha and digweed along with mia and flogging molly are also playing but they’re up against some of the other acts I wanted to hear so I probably won’t catch too much of them.

Nothing gets started for a dew more hours here so check back then for more updates.

The most intense, wonderfull insane set of music I have ever heard in my life.

O.m.g.