Coachella Review, part 2 - Middle of Day 1

Part 1 was published a couple days ago. Parts 3-12 to follow (I hope I don't drag this out that long.)

After the Kills I headed out to catch the end of Razorlight's set at the Outdoor Theater. It was nice leaving the Mojave; it wasn't hot enough outside that shade made up for the oven that the Mojave becomes. It actually wasn't that bad when I was inside... but upon leaving I was glad that I would not be going back until after dark.

My friend directed me to Razorlight earlier in the year; Rhapsody had their album and it was good, Libertines-esque (though less of the snarling punk, call Up All Night as somewhere inbetween Up the Bracket and the Libertines... on some scales) pop-punk (for want of a better term), good enough that I bought the album to increase the arenas in which I could listen to the album.

Their live show, however, didn't impress me. It was sort of interesting watching the lead singer screw around - climb speakers, pull folks from the VIP side-stage to dance on stage - but it took away from the music they were playing. That is to say that he couldn't sing normally whilst clowning around. Razorlight's music is not noisy or chaotic enough for this approach to work well. I don't know if he was playing rockstar ("this is how a rock show is supposed to end") just because of the festival, for the large crowd or if this was typical of their live performance.

I stayed at the Outdoor Theater and slowly made my way forward to get closer for Rilo Kiley. They came on a little late (~6:30 instead of 6:20) so I decided that I'd stick around for the full set rather than leave early to see all of Wilco.

Rilo Kiley played a good - if slightly tired - set from More Adventurous and the Execution of All Things, well, minus my favorites (Love and War, Spectacular Views, My Slumbering Heart, Paints Peeling... not to mention Science vs. Romance.) Interestingly Blakes lone song, Ripchord, probably was the highlight for me, his voice strained and passionate (yet still Blake.)

I got over to the Coachella Stage in time for Wilco's last four songs. The sun was well on it's way down and the air was beautiful for Hummingbirds, Jesus, etc., War on War and the closer, Spiders. Since I missed most of their set and was too far away to see much I couldn't really get into it... but that's alright for Wilco. The music came across strong and compelling.

Retroactively I wish I had left Rilo Kiley earlier (since they didn't play any of the great rockers or old songs I was hoping for) but there was no way of knowing what either band would do - and I'm very glad I didn't miss that version of Ripchord.

And anyway I probably could not have gotten much closer, many festival goers were already well into their positions waiting for Weezer, Bauhaus and Coldplay. My recounting of the rest of day one (including the start of sets for the first two of those bands) will follow... sometime. Hopefully soon as I'm starting to forget stuff.