Coachella 2016:No Money for the Undercard

What song(s) did Kendrick play? Also, I'm so fucking jelly of you right now, that looked amazing

My brother wants to do weekend 1. And I feel like weekend 1 gets better guests, and definitely works better with my school schedule. But it does seem like everyone here leans weekend 2. Ugh

Yeah, what he said.  The conspiracy theorist in me wants to believe they asked some artists to have better guests Weekend 2 so that it doesn't make people lean toward attending one weekend over another.

The people at Weekend 2 were the same as Weekend 1. Some people were there "for the music" and others were there to camp out in the Sahara and rage face. Totally average festival crowd.

I'd always suspected as much, but glad to hear the confirmation.

I'll continue to choose my weekend based on my preference for green grass.

I did find Weekend 2 much easier to handle logistically, given there's somewhat less demand. The extra dust was a bitch though. After doing both I'm pretty agnostic about which one is better.

So quick thoughts on my first Coachella.

1) Maybe shouldn't have done the Grand Canyon and Vegas first - was pretty damn tired upon arrival. But live and learn. Just made Saturday morning a recovery time. RIP Gogo Penguin and Black Madonna.
2) The crowds for the most part were great. Got stuck near a bunch of people talking for the first half of LCD but moved and that was cleared up. DJ Mustard was a shit show but we just walked up in the last 10 minutes to go to 2manydjs. Flume and Major Lazer's crowds were enormous. Didn't see Calvin Harris but I assume it was as bad or worse.
3) The dust definitely sucked, but its not like that hasn't happened before at Bonnaroo. Still coughing of course.
4) Got to meet Tristan! Cool to finally put a face with a name. And he texted me when James Murphy was in Despacio, which was awesome to see. Thanks again man.
5) It is insane how close the stages are together compared to Bonnaroo. Stand in front of the Gobi and you can see all 5 main stages? That blew my mind. And all that with very little sound bleed. With One Exception.
6) Putting Rhye on the Outdoor during Run the Jewels on the main was a horrible scheduling fuck up. Even standing on the opposite side to the main stage, we could still hear noise from RTJ over anything Rhye was putting out. That sucked and seems like something that could have been easily avoided.
7) Missed special guests. I guess I kinda saw Dr Dre from the beer garden but it was packed so left Ice Cube for Rufus and missed Kendrick. Also left RTJ for Rhye and missed Zack De La Rocha. FML. But what are you gonna do? With the exception of Rhye's sound bleed, I don't regret those decisions.
8) The Yuma Tent is awesome. DJ Koze was crazy and intense for the 30 minutes I watched. Could definitely spend all weekend bouncing between Despacio and Yuma and leave satisfied.
9) Beer Gardens - why do these exist again? They're nice during the day, but god forbid you want a beer during a popular act on the main stage. Fighting that crowd during Ice Cube just to drink a beer was not worth it. Also, last call is 70 minutes before the festival closes? Maybe the single biggest annoyance of the weekend. It's 11:55 on Saturday night, Guns and Roses is going to play for another hour and I can't buy a 16 ounce drink? No wonder everyone does other substances. Drinking there is downright inconvenient.
10) That being said, the craft beer barn is really nice. Great selection, tons of shade, tons of great food. Puts Bonnaroo's craft beer to shame. And why spend $10 for Heineken or Dos Equis when $11 buys you the good shit? Also is beer this expensive at Bonnaroo? I can't remember. But $10 for a beer or $12-15 for a mixed drink is fucking steep. Anyways.
11) Molly everywhere. Maybe I was just noticing it because we didn't find any, but people were rolling face all weekend for better and worse. There was one couple at the intersection of our camping streets who were standing up and groping each other at 4 in the afternoon! People walking right by them, not giving a fuck. Didn't even make it in to the fest. I stayed out of most of the most intense dance shows all weekend so I'm sure I missed a lot but even at Underworld and Rufus there were people losing their shit. State of festivals today I guess. Glad I avoided Chainsmokers, RL Grime, etc. Back to the good stuff.
12) The organization and tent structure are infinitely better than Bonnaroo. Mojave and Gobi are both fantastic and Sahara during Underworld was really special. Also the curved screens at the main stage are awesome. Individually painted cap sites so everyone knows how much room they have is really nice rather than fighting for every inch of space. Free showers were a godsend on Sunday afternoon. Also the wait to get in on Thursday afternoon was non-existent. Had a great spot about 15 minutes after going through the gate, if that.
13) The view is fucking gorgeous, day and night.

Finally, the music. We went hard on Friday and after a week of traveling anyway went a little lighter on Saturday and Sunday. Top shows though:

1) Underworld - Holy Shit. It was shaky to start out with technical issues through the first two songs. But once they let loose and opened up into their jammier stuff, the last 55 minutes was perfection. They went over their time due to the issues but Coachella let them finish. I was way too worried they were going to get cut off during Born Slippy but the call must've come from on high that you don't do that at a show like this. Rez>Cowgirl>Born Slippy to finish the show was nuts.
2) LCD Soundsystem - I was exhausted and people were talking through the first 4 songs but they still slayed it. Controversy was really cool. Dance Yrself Clean/Heroes/All My Friends was perfect. Wish we'd gotten Home like weekend 1 but can't have everything. They did awesome.
3) Sia - Just a great cap to the weekend. It was pretty much our headliner Sunday night and her voice was perfect. The videos/onstage dancers were really interesting and I loved the flow of the story her songs told. Really a great performance.

4) Rufus Du Sol - was awesome. Looked out of the tent and saw the TDE logo at the main stage. Knew Kendrick was probably there but didn't leave because Rufus was throwing down.
5) Sufjan - Hated to be late to this cause of Underworld but the 5 songs I did see were fantastic. And between Impossible Soul, Purple Rain with Gallant and Chicago that's like 30+ minutes right there. Something cathartic about a neon tinged Sufjan yelling "We're All Gonna Die!" to a bunch of Jack U fans...
6) 2manydjs - I had extraordinarily high hopes for this show and it almost met them. Opening with a 1999 remix and RIP Prince on the screen was actually really emotional for us. First time that it sank in I think... Wish they'd used the full power of the Sahara tent a little more. With just a square image back drop, they pretty much could have played the Mojave.
7) Guns n Roses - If this show had been 2 hours and a few filler songs had been cut out, it probably would have made the top 5. They sounded great. Slash was on fire. More enjoyable than I expected.
8) The Heavy
9) Rhye
10) CHVRCHES

Special shout out to the partial sets we saw of James Murphy, Savages, Death Grips, Ice Cube, DJ Koze, Rancid, Beach House and Nosaj Thing. All were awesome.

Most disappointing - Disclosure. Special guests were almost non-existent. Didn't even get Sam Smith for Latch. But that wouldn't have mattered if the song selection was a little better. They played some of the weakest tracks from Caracal and cut out some of their best. An awesome version of When a Fire Starts to Burn didn't save the set imo.

Overall - Coachella was extremely fun and I understand why people become obsessed with it. Although it definitely has advantages over Bonnaroo, I don't think they are as stark as people say. Especially in the way back years when Bonnaroo line-ups were exceptional, the difference versus the cost seems negligible. Still, if Daft Punk were to show up there or just a stacked line-up to my tastes, I would definitely consider going back. It was a lot of fun, even if it still doesn't touch my top 3 Bonnaroos.

That mountain view though...damn.

If I were to go next year, the weekend that Easter doesn't fall on. W2 I presume.

I feel like I almost prefer more "bros" coming. It made it extremely easy to show up to Beach House, LCD, and Sufjan either during or right before their sets and still get a good spot because all the bros are at Sahara or wherever the biggest cheese edm act is. And more bros means more attractive girls as well which is always nice. Most of the time the obnoxious crowds are not at pitchfork-y artists anyway so it's not like they are talking (unless it's during Sufjan because of Jack Ü)

Haha dude, you've gotta relax and take that tone down. I've read on the coachella boards that the crowds are more relaxed W2. 

How many years have you gone both weekends? I'm surprised that you haven't seen any notable differences in the crowd.

And again, consider unclenching.

Friday was the best day of music of my life.

just wondering if i was ever next to you guys in those crowds. also, am i the only one that had some of my best times in the do lab?

How was the security getting in this year?

It was crazy, people getting stabbed, blood everywhere. No, seriously.

www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-security-stabbed-coachella-20160426-story.html