Kingtone

…finally went to Coachella. i was fortunate to go with a crew of several hundred artists & friends installing the various art sculptures onsite. for us, it was kind of a mini burning man with the same desert heat but with lots of music and without the dust. we had our own private campsite with showers (!), didn’t really have to pay attention to the same rules, could go in an out of the event as we pleased, vip passes etc, etc. it may be rather elitist, but we had very little interaction with festival goers - especially the many frat boys, middle of the road types, LA dudes/chicks and young kids shouting ‘woohoo - Coachella!’ of course, we also managed to act pretty silly - but hey, we’re professionals. i could not imagine experiencing it any other way.

there were some great performances and the sound on the big stage was simply amazing. Kraftwerk and their intense visuals - especially on the song Radioactivity with the words ‘April 26, 1986′ in large letters marking the exact anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, Prince’s lengthy and simply rockin’ old school entertainment set (we danced so hard) and fiery guitar solos, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings great vintage RnB set, Roger Waters’ pig incident & Dark Side of the Moon set, The Raconteurs and my personal fave performance, Portishead. heavier than on record and so very mesmerizing, their performance was one of the more emotionally powerful i’ve experienced at a large concert. Standouts included Roads and a laid back version of Wandering Star (both from 1997 album Dummy) - sans drums and featuring an erie theremin sounding vocal solo and great slide guitar (using a guitar capo). last but not least, the most fun band (and the band that seemed to be having the most fun) was Man Man (with an honorable mention to Les Savy Fav) which our crew of 20 or so seriously moshed to - we were usually the best dressed yet most aggressive dancers and must have been rather entertaining to watch.