2 May, 2007 | No comments

Coachella 2007

So, I’m in Singapore, and haven’t really woken up yet. It was a 19-hour flight, after all. More on that later…promise.

How about some highlights from the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California? First, I decided to skip some of the first day’s gigs to finish up work, then do the 2 hour drive to Indio. That turned into a 7.5 hour drive through the Interstate 10 parking lot, from L.A. all the way out there. Missed Tokyo Police Club, Sonic Youth, Bjork, Interpol, and several others I wanted to see. Luckily I’ve seen them before.

Saturday was another late start, but caught Travis, the Decemberists, Andrew Bird, Blonde Redhead, the Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon, Red Hot Chili Peppers. Andrew Bird was the surprise. Very good. The Arcade Fire sucked live…badly. The lead singer to Kings of Leon looks like my friend The Grapedonk.

Sunday was Amos Lee, Lily Allen, Kaiser Chiefs, Explosions in the Sky, Placebo, Damien Rice, Manu Chao, Willie Nelson, Air, Against Me!, The Lemonheads, Crowded House, and Rage Against the Machine. Obviously a good day. Amos Lee was great, but I got bored. I went to see what all the fuss was about Lily Allen and decided it was nothing…overrated and strung out. Love the Kaiser Chiefs but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want to party with them and the lead singer’s ego. Explosions, Against Me! and Placebo put on awesome shows. Manu Chao was wacky, Willie Nelson was somehow not out of place, Crowded House was 80s. Damien Rice got his set cut 20 minutes short by Air, which pissed me off. This is the first time I’ve seen Rice with a full band. He’s incredible.

Rage put on the show everyone expected, sounding like they’d never left the scene. I’m down with their music (saw them last in 1993) and their lyrics — well, except the part about killing white people, which would pretty much screw me over, yeah? — and it was certainly an energetic display. But I’ve got to wonder about Zack de la Rocha’s real reasons for quitting RATM years ago. Was it really to pursue a solo career and study South American folk music? Or did he just look around one day and realize he was living in a $7 million mansion, had a couple cars, and naked chicks at his feet, and start feeling a bit hypocritical about his band’s politics? He’s like, “Wow…I’ve got all those things I complain people don’t have…hmm.”

Now he’s back, and I like the idea of revolution, but watching people my age jump around and sing “Killing in the Name” doesn’t really do it. A call to revolution at midnight in a field with 100,000 sweaty people who’ve just spent the weekend in 100+ degree weather watching live music? No one had the energy to revolt.

Now, Zack’s starting to look like Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips. Seriously. Check out these pictures:

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I wonder what it means?

To end it off, we wandered over and saw The Lemonheads for a bit. Poor guys…there were only about 50 people watching, but they put on a good show. Hard to face off against Rage.