Seems my blog has been hijacked over the weekend by Steve Sutherland, who's clearly having the time of his life out at Coachella. Here's his second report, involving The Arcade Fire, Kings Of Leon, the mighty Roky Erickson and a few random Hollywood A-listers. God, it sounds great. . .
So hereโs another reason why Coachella is the best festival in the world. Iโm taking a load off on one of the black leatherette sofas they have backstage in the VIP/Band areaโฆ no, itโs not the sofas, though imagine luxury like that at Glastonburyโฆ anyway, Iโm taking a load off when this very short, very dumpy dude with thinning hair barely disguised by a baseball cap and really thick glasses plonks himself down next to me and starts rabbiting on about how awesome Arcade Fire were. By the way, dudeโs Danny Devito.
So I say to Danny, Iโd like a chinwag me old China but LCD Soundsystem are about to come onโฆ or words to that effect and I stumble out front to be confronted by Flea shamelessly fretwanking on the main stage.
But letโs park that for a minute and bring you up to scratch with some stats and the hot topic among the Brit contingent.
Stats first: This is the first three-day Coachella. All the rest have been two. About 60,000 good people are flocking to frazzle on the lush lawns of the Empire Polo Ground. Itโs hotter today than yesterday. So thatโs hotter than 102! The hot topic? On yesterdayโs evidence, can Arctic Monkeys pull off their coming Glasto headliner? For what itโs worth, I say yeah. The crowd will carry it, will sing every word, will lift the band into a state near communal grace.
Talking of which, Arcade Fire. How do they do it? How can they be this special when theyโre so goddamn special all the time? As the sun sinks, they burst on with โKeep The Car Runningโ and never look back. Beach balls bounce around the crowd and the Fire bring down the ecstasy with old โFuneralโ friends like all the โNeighbourhoodโs punctuated by more sombre fare from โNeon Bibleโ like โBlack Mirrorโ.
Canโt really pick out highlights. Itโs just all going on, Win descending into the crowd as mayhem reigns. They wind up with โRebellion (Lies)โ, โWake Upโ and โNo Cars Goโ. I donโt need to waffle on do I? You know it was truly emotional.
Arcade Fire
Aha, at last a very good reason to hate Kings Of Leon. In the past Iโve always considered them pretty much the perfect band just shy of that killer song. Well, now the bastards have it in the shape of โOn Callโ from the newie โBecause Of The Timesโ. While the crowd around me suddenly transform into, like, this scene straight out of Haight Ashbury circa 1967 with gamine supermodel angels gyrating in a trance to the bandโs every ebb and flow, the crowd picks up bare-chested Calebโs macho holler โBe there!โ and thunders it back like the Kings are, I dunno, U2 or something.
So thatโs it now. Every band in the world can wake up every morning and think: โFuck, why arenโt we the Kings Of Leonโ? Theyโve got the lotโฆ so cool, not an ugly amongst them, every gal in the place just falling over herself to rake her claws down their backs. Like I said, bastards!
Kings Of Leon
This is the best set Iโve ever seen them play, the new stuff bringing the beef alongside old faves โMolly Chambersโ and โCalifornia Waitingโ. So cool, too, the way the newly-shaven Nathan blows bubblegum as he drums. They ainโt the Southern Strokes no moโ. Talking of which, whatever happened toโฆ? Fabโs here, off his tits. Wastes his time these days drumming for Har Mar. Albertโs got his own thing going, Julian guests on the new QOTSA albumโฆ Is the game all up? Maybe they need five years in the wilderness, just so Paul Tollett can drag them back together for Coachella 2012 and remind us all how much we miss them.
By the way, Queens hired a plane to advertise their newie. It flew over the crowd as Arcade Fire played. Wait till you hear the first track. Wow! Pure Led Zep circa โHouses Of The Holyโ.
After the Fire, Red Hot Chili Peppers are shocking. Dull, dull, dull. A show that manages to be simultaneously showy in all the wrong ways and utterly pedestrian. They could have phoned this performance in it โs so unspontaneous. Which makes you wonder, if they canโt get it up for an adoring crowd like this โ easily the biggest for any single band Coachella has ever assembled before the main stage - when can they get it up? โCalifornicationโ is obviously greeted like the Festival theme song but really thatโs happening over in the Sahara Tent where Lindsay Lohanโs joined the merry throng to yell along to the mighty LCD Soundsystemโs โNorth American Scumโ. LCD are awesome and just about have it over the hyperactive !!! and Hot Chip who raised the roof earlier in the day at the Mojave Tent with an astonishing โOver And Overโ.
Best bit of whatโs been a truly brilliant day? Easy. Roky Erickson & The Explosives in the Gobi Tent. I mean, really, I had no idea just how amazing this man was. Iโd read all the stuff about how great Texan psychedelic punk pioneers13th Floor Elevators were back in the daze and how Roky gobbled acid or something till they locked him away and did the Cuckooโs Nest electrode brain-frying thing to him so I guess I was expecting a reanimated corpse.
What we got though, was this perpetually chewing, grinning werewolf, maggot pale and howling that heโd discovered the doorway to Hades as an awesomely screwed-down-tight band brought the brimstone to the Elevatorsโ โYouโre Gonna Miss Meโ, a โStarry Eyesโ that would not have disgraced Neil Young, a terrifying โDonโt Shake Me Luciferโ and barroom howl-at-the mooners โRed Temple Prayerโ (Cโmon, how often do you get to scream along to song about working in the Kremlin with a two-headed dog?) and โCold Night For Alligatorsโ.
Roky Erikson
The Gobi was transformed into a scene from the Titty Twister as Roky took crackling lead guitar for โThe Beast Is Comingโ. Man, it was like Tom Fogerty singing the Book Of Revelations while Buddy Guy flayed the strings. Grown men wept. I shit you not. One of those gigs that makes you glad you lived to see it. The tent wasnโt that full and there were a number of disciples with their phones aloft so Iโd check Youtube if youโd donโt believe me.
So anyway, I bump into some good friends who are staying at a hotel reasonably nearby and at the next table to theirs at breakfast were Melanie Griffith and Linda Carter having a natter. Thatโs Coachella for you - Wonderwoman, and Roky all in one day. Beyond surreal or what?
Check in tomorrow and Iโll endeavour to have a butcherโs at Happy Mondays sans Bez whoโs too naughty to get a visa, the reformed Rage Against The Machine, Willie Nelson, Lily Allen, CSS, Klaxons and all their loved-up crew.
Steve Sutherland
Seems my blog has been hijacked over the weekend by Steve Sutherland, whoโs clearly having the time of his life out at Coachella. Hereโs his second report, involving The Arcade Fire, Kings Of Leon, the mighty Roky Erickson and a few random Hollywood A-listers. God, it sounds great. . .
So hereโs another reason why Coachella is the best festival in the world. Iโm taking a load off on one of the black leatherette sofas they have backstage in the VIP/Band areaโฆ no, itโs not the sofas, though imagine luxury like that at Glastonburyโฆ anyway, Iโm taking a load off when this very short, very dumpy dude with thinning hair barely disguised by a baseball cap and really thick glasses plonks himself down next to me and starts rabbiting on about how awesome Arcade Fire were. By the way, dudeโs Danny Devito.
So I say to Danny, Iโd like a chinwag me old China but LCD Soundsystem are about to come onโฆ or words to that effect and I stumble out front to be confronted by Flea shamelessly fretwanking on the main stage.
But letโs park that for a minute and bring you up to scratch with some stats and the hot topic among the Brit contingent.
Stats first: This is the first three-day Coachella. All the rest have been two. About 60,000 good people are flocking to frazzle on the lush lawns of the Empire Polo Ground. Itโs hotter today than yesterday. So thatโs hotter than 102! The hot topic? On yesterdayโs evidence, can Arctic Monkeys pull off their coming Glasto headliner? For what itโs worth, I say yeah. The crowd will carry it, will sing every word, will lift the band into a state near communal grace.
Talking of which, Arcade Fire. How do they do it? How can they be this special when theyโre so goddamn special all the time? As the sun sinks, they burst on with โKeep The Car Runningโ and never look back. Beach balls bounce around the crowd and the Fire bring down the ecstasy with old โFuneralโ friends like all the โNeighbourhoodโs punctuated by more sombre fare from โNeon Bibleโ like โBlack Mirrorโ.
Canโt really pick out highlights. Itโs just all going on, Win descending into the crowd as mayhem reigns. They wind up with โRebellion (Lies)โ, โWake Upโ and โNo Cars Goโ. I donโt need to waffle on do I? You know it was truly emotional.
Arcade Fire
Aha, at last a very good reason to hate Kings Of Leon. In the past Iโve always considered them pretty much the perfect band just shy of that killer song. Well, now the bastards have it in the shape of โOn Callโ from the newie โBecause Of The Timesโ. While the crowd around me suddenly transform into, like, this scene straight out of Haight Ashbury circa 1967 with gamine supermodel angels gyrating in a trance to the bandโs every ebb and flow, the crowd picks up bare-chested Calebโs macho holler โBe there!โ and thunders it back like the Kings are, I dunno, U2 or something.
So thatโs it now. Every band in the world can wake up every morning and think: โFuck, why arenโt we the Kings Of Leonโ? Theyโve got the lotโฆ so cool, not an ugly amongst them, every gal in the place just falling over herself to rake her claws down their backs. Like I said, bastards!
Kings Of Leon
This is the best set Iโve ever seen them play, the new stuff bringing the beef alongside old faves โMolly Chambersโ and โCalifornia Waitingโ. So cool, too, the way the newly-shaven Nathan blows bubblegum as he drums. They ainโt the Southern Strokes no moโ. Talking of which, whatever happened toโฆ? Fabโs here, off his tits. Wastes his time these days drumming for Har Mar. Albertโs got his own thing going, Julian guests on the new QOTSA albumโฆ Is the game all up? Maybe they need five years in the wilderness, just so Paul Tollett can drag them back together for Coachella 2012 and remind us all how much we miss them.
By the way, Queens hired a plane to advertise their newie. It flew over the crowd as Arcade Fire played. Wait till you hear the first track. Wow! Pure Led Zep circa โHouses Of The Holyโ.
After the Fire, Red Hot Chili Peppers are shocking. Dull, dull, dull. A show that manages to be simultaneously showy in all the wrong ways and utterly pedestrian. They could have phoned this performance in it โs so unspontaneous. Which makes you wonder, if they canโt get it up for an adoring crowd like this โ easily the biggest for any single band Coachella has ever assembled before the main stage โ when can they get it up? โCalifornicationโ is obviously greeted like the Festival theme song but really thatโs happening over in the Sahara Tent where Lindsay Lohanโs joined the merry throng to yell along to the mighty LCD Soundsystemโs โNorth American Scumโ. LCD are awesome and just about have it over the hyperactive !!! and Hot Chip who raised the roof earlier in the day at the Mojave Tent with an astonishing โOver And Overโ.
Best bit of whatโs been a truly brilliant day? Easy. Roky Erickson & The Explosives in the Gobi Tent. I mean, really, I had no idea just how amazing this man was. Iโd read all the stuff about how great Texan psychedelic punk pioneers13th Floor Elevators were back in the daze and how Roky gobbled acid or something till they locked him away and did the Cuckooโs Nest electrode brain-frying thing to him so I guess I was expecting a reanimated corpse.
What we got though, was this perpetually chewing, grinning werewolf, maggot pale and howling that heโd discovered the doorway to Hades as an awesomely screwed-down-tight band brought the brimstone to the Elevatorsโ โYouโre Gonna Miss Meโ, a โStarry Eyesโ that would not have disgraced Neil Young, a terrifying โDonโt Shake Me Luciferโ and barroom howl-at-the mooners โRed Temple Prayerโ (Cโmon, how often do you get to scream along to song about working in the Kremlin with a two-headed dog?) and โCold Night For Alligatorsโ.
Roky Erikson
The Gobi was transformed into a scene from the Titty Twister as Roky took crackling lead guitar for โThe Beast Is Comingโ. Man, it was like Tom Fogerty singing the Book Of Revelations while Buddy Guy flayed the strings. Grown men wept. I shit you not. One of those gigs that makes you glad you lived to see it. The tent wasnโt that full and there were a number of disciples with their phones aloft so Iโd check Youtube if youโd donโt believe me.
So anyway, I bump into some good friends who are staying at a hotel reasonably nearby and at the next table to theirs at breakfast were Melanie Griffith and Linda Carter having a natter. Thatโs Coachella for you โ Wonderwoman, and Roky all in one day. Beyond surreal or what?
Check in tomorrow and Iโll endeavour to have a butcherโs at Happy Mondays sans Bez whoโs too naughty to get a visa, the reformed Rage Against The Machine, Willie Nelson, Lily Allen, CSS, Klaxons and all their loved-up crew.
Steve Sutherland