Category Archives: coachella 2011

Coachella 2011: Day Three

Posted on April 18, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Adios, Coachella. (Photo courtesy of pitchfork.com)

If Saturday was dominated by heat, Sunday brought the winds. Desert breezes took some steroids for the festival’s closing day, and by evening, gusty winds cooled down the grateful crowds as they took picture after picture of the day’s massively beautiful sunset: a red glowing cloud backdrop as the Ferris wheel, palm trees and balloon chains arched across the sky.

The day’s lineup also breezed through a variety of genres, featuring acts as different from one another as Jimmy Eat World and Bloody Beetroots. By the end of the weekend, campers’ hair and bodies were painted and airbrushed beyond recognition, feet were sore and ears were ringing. But once Kanye’s last note echoed across the polo grounds, winds once again swept the crowds out and away, back from whence they came, scattering across the state and the country. Here’s to a Monday filled with reminiscence and utter exhaustion. See you at Coachella 2012.

Some reviews from Sunday:

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Coachella 2011: Day Two

Posted on April 17, 2011 by | 4 Comments

Desert rain. (Photo courtesy of mirno.com)

After Friday’s dazzling displays and painless navigations, we knew the other shoe had to drop on Saturday. No, it wasn’t the volcano of last year, but it might as well have been during the face-melting heat of the afternoon. The sun became the nemesis of Coachella Day Two, turning up the heat to a slow broil for the hungover and clothes-less masses. Brains were scrambled for the festival hump day–one woman “mentally altered on substances” fell off the Ferris wheel–but the day still had its shining moments.

Though expected, the stupefying heat proved an obstacle that some bands couldn’t surmount. Positioned in the unforgiving sunlight, mid-afternoon acts Here We Go Magic and Erykah Badu suffered from low numbers and lethargic crowds. When lines for hydration stations are more dangerous than the gnarliest Gogolo Bordello pit, you know you have a problem. Performers fortunate to be under canopies fared better, wooing staggering festival-goers into sweaty, explosive dance parties. Lil B also drew some interest away from festival’s larger stages and toward the Oasis Dome as he was joined by the whole Odd Future crew (who oddly claimed they were kicked out) to turn up Saturday’s swag (also swag, bringing in your personal spatula for the cook dance.)

Fans who survived the endurance test were rewarded with mind-blowing acts by veteran performers Broken Social Scene and Animal Collective on the mainstage. At the end of the day, the final strains of Arcade Fire were worth the aching feet and absurd post-festival clusterfuck.

Some reviews from Saturday:

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Coachella 2011: Day One

Posted on April 16, 2011 by | 3 Comments

We've been waiting for you. (Getty Images)

After 2010, when festival organizers found out very quickly that their eyes were bigger than their stomachs, 2011′s Coachella Valley Music and Art’s Festival arrived on Friday with few of the logistical nightmares that had become standard at past installments of the desert get-together. With Goldenvoice and Co. realizing that less really is more, Coachellites were able to enjoy Day One relatively hassle free. Crowds mere manageable. Traffic was bearable and parking was orderly. Cell phones actually worked. And the new chip-carrying wristbands were surprisingly efficient.

After all, with the elaborate preparations leading up to this years’ event, from the dressing and personalized shipping of wristbands to the addition of a sixth stage, the 12th edition of the Coachella Music Festival may not have been bigger, but it certainly was better, at least from Friday’s experiences. With the source of most of the problems–the crowd levels–kept at bay, Day One will be remembered as all Coachella opening days should be: a 12-hour ribbon-cutting to a desert oasis that had fans running across the polo fields from Odd Future to Lauryn Hill, soaking in mist and ear-slamming bass at the Do LaB or dancing the night away at Cut Copy. This is the festival experience we’ve been waiting for. Welcome to Coachella.

Some reviews from Friday:

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Coachella 2011 Preview: Death From Above 1979

Posted on April 14, 2011 by | 2 Comments

Wait, what year is it. (Photo courtesy of streetgiant.com)

For a college generation that’s witnessed some age-defining acts pull the plugs on their amps and call it quits–The White Stripes and LCD Soundsystem are among the largest casualties–it’s almost a travesty to even think about reunion tours.  After all, a generation, whose only connection to the 80s is the fact that our parents couldn’t wait a year or two to conceive, shouldn’t be looking forward to reunions. There shouldn’t even be break-ups.

So really, Death from Above 1979? You guys are fucking with our biological clocks.

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Coachella 2011 Preview: Marina and the Diamonds

Posted on April 13, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Mindsweeper. (Photo courtesy of theprophetblog.net)

As the sets begin to blur together around evening Day Two, you begin to appreciate the artists that bring the theatricality. Wearing her American-stripe jumpsuit and felt hamburger, Marina Lambrini Diamandis, better known as Marina and the Diamonds promises to deliver on that front Friday evening. She’s a little pop, she’s a little insane and she possesses one of the most freakishly arresting voices you’ll hear at the festival.

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