Concert Review: Coachella – Day 2: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tiesto, Justice, Gotan Project

By S.P. MacIntyre Apr 29, 2007, 15:46 GMT

Day two of Coachella got off to a slow start for me since I didn’t arrive until about five o’clock in the afternoon.  I was disappointed to miss Regina Spektor and Hot Chip, but there were unfortunate circumstances that could not be avoided.  Actually, that’s a bit of a lie.  To be honest, I just slept in late.  It was a hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit at Coachella on Saturday (about 42 degrees Celsius if I remember my conversions properly) and, now that a larger crowd had arrived, it was almost unbearable.  Keep in mind that I’m saying this having arrived several hours after the hottest part of the day.  

Before I try to recall some of the finer points of the day’s concerts, let me just say for a moment that, if you’re a people-watcher like myself, Coachella is the place for you.  However, there are certain things I’ve observed watching the various festival dwellers: back acne is an epidemic that rivals all forms of cancer combined (PBS needs to hold a back acne fundraiser to increase awareness and assist potential treatments for this affliction); dancing becomes easier for uncoordinated people when the crowd is so thick that only jumping up and down are possible; and nobody, seriously nobody, is or can ever be sexy when it is that hot.  There were a lot of sweaty and dirty people out there, and they were all scantily clad and sunburned.

On to the shows!

Decemberists play to the crowd. Photo by Chance Knecht © monstersandcritics.com

The New Pornographers were a fun band that I can assuredly say I enjoyed.  The energy level they instilled in the crowd vacillated between high and low, unfortunately, but I imagine that is to be expected considering Travis was overpowering them from the main stage.  They joked between songs and actually began to sing the chorus to a Travis song they could hear from the stage.  All in all, not bad.

The Decemberists were, by far, the band I regret not seeing the most.  I’ve seen them before, so I figured I would give !!! a try (I’ll get into that more next).  If I can recall correctly, they opened with “Crane Wife” and that’s all I saw before I took off.  The Decemberists are a band I would rather see in a venue where I could imagine Liszt’s symphonic poems being performed: an amphitheater where you sit down and enjoy the music, not the second stage of a music festival where the heat is probably warping the wood of all those acoustic instruments.

!!! (pronounced “chk chk chk,” I’ve been told) was something I don’t know quite how to describe.  They were good, don’t get me wrong: they were funky and groovy and sweet and some other anachronistic colloquialism all at the same time, I just don’t know if I could get any further into detail than that.  They were a lot of fun to watch, despite (or, perhaps, because of) the lead singer’s impossibly short shorts.

If the Decemberists are meant to be seen in a concert hall or amphitheater, Arcade Fire takes the quirky instrumentation of their narrative-based alter egos and writes songs that are meant to be seen at a large arena setting.  They put on a very good show and, even though I’ve never heard a single song of theirs before, I want to see them play again.

After that I went and saw Justice.  From what I heard, this was apparently their first show (not just DJing), and they put on a great one.  A wall of amplifiers and sound equipment, all tied together by a Christian cross (they’re French and, I imagine, very Catholic) that couldn’t help but make me think they should change their name to Divine Justice.  People were dancing and crowd surfing and generally just having a ball.  They played in the largest tent and filled the entire thing with a lot of very happy people (and some of them weren’t even on drugs). 

Justice performs. Photo by Chance Knecht © monstersandcritics.com

After a little while, I went and saw everyone’s favorite DNA fans, Blonde Redhead.  Now, I’ve had a mixed history with this band, so I was a little worried.  I saw them for the first time at Coachella a number of years ago and thought they were amazing, but when I saw them again performing with Autolux, they were terrible.  I thought this might be another case of the cliché, “I really liked their early stuff better.”  But they played very well and put on an interesting set, even though they are a fairly reserved band when they play live (the focus is definitely on the music, not the stage act).

During the show, I ran into a person I met at the Amy Winehouse concert the day before.  We chatted and I asked her to give me her impression of some of the bands that I had missed.  She said that Regina Spektor played a very minimalist and wonderful show, handling the entire main stage pretty well considering she was by herself for the most part.  She also said that Kings of Leon were straightforward and unpretentious and generally enjoyable.  We got separated at the end of Blonde Redhead, but, girl who’s name I won’t reprint online, if you’re reading this, look me up in LA sometime and I’ll buy you a drink or five.

To the rest of you reading this: yes, I am a coward and didn’t get her phone number.  Don’t judge me.

Afterward, I begrudgingly saw part of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ show.  I’ll be straight with you: I’ve never been much of a fan; I think their music is for the most part mediocre.  However, I will agree with what my friend said about them: “They were beyond exceptional. They still got it.”  At least 25 minutes of their set was pure jamming, but didn’t get boring.  After playing “Higher Ground,” a personal favorite, and segueing into a short cover of Donna Summer, I departed pleased with what I saw so I could catch a band I had been waiting for.

Flea and the Red Hot Chili Peppers jam. Photo by Chance Knecht © monstersandcritics.com

Gotan Project is a whole other level above “beyond exceptional.”  If I remember correctly, yesterday I described Amy Winehouse’s vocals as sultry.  Well, today, Gotan Project’s music gets that particular adjective.  The Argentinean/French band was…there are no other words to describe it: they were perfect.  The entire time I watched them I couldn’t help but wish I was wearing a tuxedo and dancing a tango with someone in high heels and a slinky red dress.  Songs like “Una Musica Brutal” and “Santa Maria,” combined with their stage setup and the visuals they had playing in the back were just gorgeous and make me wish I had a picture of them to show you.  Like Gogol Bordello the night before, Gotan Project stole this show for me.

The last thing I saw on Saturday was Tiesto (sorry Tiesto fans, you don’t get an umlaut this time).  As far as electronic dance music goes – I have no clue what subgenre he belongs to – I thought he was pretty good.  I was a little taken aback when he decided to play some of the remixes he had done for other artists like Moby, but it’s his set, he can do what he wants.  According to Tiesto himself, he had to cut his set short because Red Hot Chili Peppers played for too long.  Though I’m no connoisseur of his particular brand of music (or anybody that plays other peoples’ music, sometimes at the same time as other music by other people), I was told that this concert proved that he had surpassed Paul Oakenfold as the greatest DJ in the world.

Tiesto does his thing. Photo by Chance Knecht © monstersandcritics.com

I’m writing this now at five o’clock in the morning on Sunday, the last and largest day of the festival.  Rage Against the Machine is playing, and everyone I talk to says there’s going to be a riot.  I imagine tonight will either be a very good or a very bad moment for capitalism in the California desert.  Either way, I’ll tell you all about it on Monday.