coachella 09

This post doesn't really have much to do with Los Angeles except that every L.A. hipster was absent this past weekend due to the scene going down in Indio.


Coachella went down without any deaths this year which is more than I can say for last year :( Some highlights (according to yours truly) included the Airbourne Toxic Event (even though they were snubbed by Ben for not saying "thank you" after their set and even though the guy behind me was yelling "LOS FELIZ!!!!!" throughout the entire set). I thought they sounded smooth and kudos to them for still wearing scenester black even though our brains were melting from the heat.


Another highlight included the Paul Weller set. He played infront of an easy going crowed. Seemed to be a lot of parents with their preteens at his show until he played Town Called Malice and everyone from everywhere ran to his set. I danced from my seat at the food court, pizza in hand.

There were no sweet potatoes this year at the food court. This made me sad.



Some other acts I caught were Leonard Cohen, White Lies, Band of Horses, James Morrison, M.I.A., X, and Throbbing Gristle. Murder City Devils were probably the best act of the weekend for me. Both they AND their crowd had a lot of energy and good vibes. My Bloody Valentine gets props for their sound holocaust. I'm not really sure how I felt about reverb for close to 20 minutes but they get props for having the guts to do that AND go over their time slot for it. Of course I caught Paul Mcartney. Of course he was brilliant. He's a Beatle for god's sake.



I also caught the Killers. Their set was interesting. Lead singer, Brandon Flowers sang in perfect pitch, causing a stir on the Coachella messege boards. Was it lip-synch? I don't really know. I can't tell but also I don't care much. On night 2 and 3 of the show the sound system for the last acts was a FAIL. This included the Killers set as well as the M.I.A. set and Morrissey though the latter were the only two acts to keep mentioning the lack of sound quality. Honestly, I wouldn't have noticed the sound issues during their sets except that they kept mentioning it when they couldn't hear themselves.


Morrissey almost threw up on stage. He said the smell of "rotting flesh" was bothersome. I'm guessing he's a vegetarian? Honestly, I didn't even notice that horrid smell till Morrissey said something. Thanks Morrissey.


PICTURES: Coachella artwork, Coachella sunet and Airbourne Toxic Event (top) and P. McCartney (bottom)