Coachella 2014

Beck is killing it

Damn. Never really took the time to get into Beck, but after this I think I have to. Amazing.

Wow beck absolutely destroyed... Arcade is looking good too...

and yeah, AF is so good right now.

I ran live sound for them back in 2004 and they couldn't have been cooler. We booked them months before they blew up and when they did, they agreed to do two shows for the price of one that night. Did one show, cleared the bar (which only fit 160 people), cleaned it a up a bit, then filled it up again. Super cool.

you faceless people up there need avatars. I thought someone tripled posted.

Yes. I can blame him. Very easily.

At one point he even said "Are there any lovers out there? Because I can see the haters." Or something along those lines. Who calls out their audience during a show? What an egotistical schmuck.

Arcade Fire on the other hand, they know how to put on a performance. 

Goddamn, Debbie Harry is still fucking HOT

This debate is always a fun one.

Arcade Fire smashed it! Wake Up in the crowd!

Gotta watch Wake Up again! Too fucking good.

Favorite sets?

Pharrell was tops. Just ridiculous. Nas bringing out Jay-Z nearly gave me an aneurysm, but the fact that the people around me literally turned and went "wait...who's that?" made me want to weep. Disclosure was outrageously packed, I was nestled along the right fence and at one point turned and saw like 50 people scaling the giant haystacks at the back of the field. Madness. QOTSA was fucking unbelievable when you consider the dust storm they had to deal with, plus they rocked it in spite of those difficulties. The thing that sticks out to me, to be honest, is I don't think I saw a single set that made me want to leave for something else, and most of them were either hitting my high expectations or surpassing them. Girl Talk's new hip-hop focus is promising, plus his guests made his set pretty awesome. Busta Rhymes is a ridiculous human being. Oh, and for like half of Girl Talk's set they were showing Bryan Ferry's set going on in the Mojave. It was funny watching people think that at first it was some weird graphic then realize what was happening and crying about it. RAPPERS ON THE STAGE, bros. Surprising set of the weekend might have been Ellie Goulding, she has some very attractive backup singers who have serious pipes (which she has them show off for us) and she has a band, which I didn't expect. Chromeo. My gawd. With the exception of Pharrell, possibly the funnest set of the festival. Outrageously good time. Jagwar Ma killed it. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion must have played 80 songs, it was rapid fire dirty blues. GOAT was awesome, but people were too caught up in the outfits to realize their guitarist was shredding. Warpaint wailed, and their show had the highest babe-to-bro ratio I saw. Schwing. Apparently borderline-prepubescent boys were smoking meth at Empire of the Sun. Calvin Harris was obnoxiously loud and the horde of bodies going from the Sahara tent to the Coachella stage for his set was like the Lion King stampede.

As for Outkast, pretty much all of you are wrong, even Sang who somehow defends Outkast in such a way that makes him look ridiculous. First, their crowd was unsafely packed. I couldn't move, nearly had a panic attack and had to relocate. When B.O.B. started the place was louder than a football stadium. The set was good, the biggest issue was Future's bullshit which took the winds completely out of the sails since at least half the people there haven't the slightest fuck clue who Future is. The ending being cut short was also shitty, because that ending would've been sweet. Arcade Fire just played over their time limit, so I don't get why Outkast couldn't do it

Whatever, best festival ever. I"m bombed.


Edit: nevermind, tonight ended at 12, not 1. Drunk, see above.

Edit 2: Saw Sam Smith at Blood Orange's (aka Little Prince) set. First, he had his shirt buttoned all the way up (as those Brits are known to do) while I was 25 feet away sweating like Patrick Ewing in the 4th quarter. Second, his hair is really tall. Third, his girlfriend was one of the most gorgeous people I've ever seen. One of those people that you look at and just know they are not a normal person.

Edit 3: To give everyone an idea of the insanity of the dust, one of my friends left his rear window open like 1/4" and his entireeeeee inside was caked with a solid layer of dust. Tents rolling like tumbleweeds. At night you could either wear sunglasses and bump into shit like a doofus or just continuously get pelted by grains of sand and dirt right in the eyeballs. The wind was knocking power out on every stage. To everyone's credit, from the performers to the crowd, no one really let it slow them down. I'm about 99% sure that Pharrell inhaling a metric ton of dust had to hurt his throat. Thankfully today was way, way better and Friday wasn't really that bad either. Credit is due for all Saturday performers, because it was literally relentless from about 3pm on.

Couldn't stop talking about Dev on the guitar. Was shocked by that, but he was fantastic.