NIGHTLIFE at Coachella: 10 reasons why Californians have the best thing going

INDIO, CA – When the first wave of confirmed acts for Osheaga was unveiled last week, North American Eminem fans began looking into late July travel plans to ensure they’d bop their heads to the real Slim Shady’s rhymes at Parc Jean-Drapeau. Meanwhile, at the other end of the continent, a sold-out three-day bash featuring over 150 of the most relevant indie bands around and an estimated 100,000 of their closest friends took place over the weekend at the Empire Polo Club, two hours east of Los Angeles in the sweltering California desert.

After a fairly criticized 2010 edition (logistical challenges such as unheard-of wait times and some 15,000 gatecrashers put a damper on the stellar line-up), the tide has turned for the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, now in its 12th year. 2011 shaped up to be one of the festival’s most successful editions yet. Regarded by music industry circles as the unofficial kickoff to the summer festival season, Coachella seemed completely impervious to the setbacks currently facing the concert industry, as tickets to the premier West Coast event sold out back in January in a matter of days. (Last weekend, scalpers’ going rate hovered at around $600 – and that still didn’t get you there, nor did it secure a much-coveted bed or tent space in an area that’s been fully booked, accommodation-wise for months.)

David Coulombe, NIGHTLIFE.CA

But really, financial setbacks notwithstanding, what’s not to love about a festival set in a picturesque location (it’s adjacent to the jaw-dropping gorgeousness of Joshua Tree National Park), with sizzling temperatures (about 35 °C, sunny and dry, a welcome change to us Montrealers continuously whining about unbearable humidity) and a friendly international crowd on its revered indie music pilgrimage? Think of Coachella as a Burning Man for the alt scene, or a Woodstock for the indie generation. Oh, and the music ain’t half-bad either.

As Day 3 of the fest came to a wistful close, “I’m exhausted” became festgoers’ understatement du jour and some 200,000 eardrums had weathered substantial decibel damage. But the outstanding performances from a few key acts (Arcade Fire, Nosaj Thing, Sleigh Bells, Foster the People and Erykah Badu, I’m looking at you) have more than made up for all the sunstrokes and steep costs. Below are 10 reasons why Coachella 2011 lived up to its rep as a world-class affair, according to this NIGHTLIFE writer.

Wiz Khalifa // David Coulombe, NIGHTLIFE.CA


10. Devastatingly difficult line-up decisions
Marina and the Diamonds or Cut Copy? Plan B or Lorn? The Black Keys or Magnetic Man? Wiz Khalifa or Angus and Julia Stone or CSS?? Warpaint or Cee Lo Green or The Morning Benders?? You’ll never hear this writer complain about quality overload, but Coachella demanded that ticketgoers repeatedly make such heartbreaking choices. After all, with its 150-plus acts, it’s an event that encourages short attention spans. And for the most part, kids at the Empire Polo Club happily obliged.

Lauryn Hill //  David Coulombe, NIGHTLIFE.CA


9. Hip-hop and soul represent
Thankfully, Coachella recognizes that its appeal extends far beyond the indie rock hipster enclave, and this year’s line-up provided a fine selection of both established names (Kanye, Erykah Badu, Raphael Saadiq, Nas) and emerging talent (Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa, British soul man Plan B, Brazilian mixtape master Emicida). 

Whether good or bad, quite a few got people yakking: Cee Lo Green for his extremely tardy arrival on stage and truncated set (ending with his sleeper rebuttal jam “Fuck You”, which took on a whole new meaning given the context); Wiz Khalifa and Kanye West’s verbal spat over a girl (what else), and an erratic as ever Lauryn Hill, who came off both dazed and frantic on Coachella’s main stage Friday afternoon. While her pipes proved more than a little raspy, her quintessential soul and spirit remained intact, as she provided the crowd with inspired new renditions of classics from her seminal album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. 
 

8. Discovery of under the radar/ percolating acts
For many prominent music festivals, a key ingredient to the event’s renown is discovery. While we all know that Nas & Damian Marley and The Strokes didn’t have any trouble drawing in substantial crowds, Coachella 2011 also had dozens of up-and-coming acts – you know, the ones featured in tiny type on the poster – that might be just a performance away from “their big break”. Heck, it happened to Arcade Fire back in 2005, when their much buzzed-about performance (and U.S. festival debut) as the California sun began to set brought them widespread attention.

There are many such acts worth mentioning this year, but for this writer, one in particular clearly had “runaway hit in the making” written all over it. The L.A.-based breezy dance rockers Foster the People haven’t yet released a full-length album, but that didn’t prevent the packed house gathered under the Gobi tent on Sunday evening from riotously dancing and singing along to almost every killer hook and hiss-laden melody the band provided. “Pumped Up Kicks” drew the most enthusiastic response from a crowd already sold on the idea of having found its atmospheric summer anthem.

7. Desert wear
The fashion at Coachella could be described as a cross between East Coast hipster chic and West Coast Burning Man outrageousness. Still, that would be doing a grave injustice to the tens of thousands of eclectic concertgoers who braced the stifling desert heat dressed to impress.

One-piece neon jumpsuits, bare-chested sailors, free-spirited, pasty-sporting ladies, bunny costumes plus a sea of Wayfarers, lots of exposed flesh and acres of Converse … The taste range for Coachella attire ran the gamut from chiselled club kids and aging flower-power music lovers to graphic T-clad hip-hoppers and surfer dudes rocking the board shorts. It was really a case of the anything goes. 

Check out our upcoming Desert Stylin’ at Coachella photo album to get a better sense of the fashion dos (no such thing as a “don’t” on Empire Polo Club grounds).

David Coulombe, NIGHTLIFE.CA


6. Festival organization and laidback Cali vibe
After a 2010 edition weighed down by numerous issues – an estimated 10,000 counterfeit passes and some ridiculous traffic jams among them – event organizer Goldenvoice pulled out all the stops (and an armada of additional manpower) to ensure this edition would run smoothly. The new security measures seemed to pay off, as lines moved along at a reasonable pace and on-site personnel were both friendly and helpful.  And little details like bottled water holding steady at $2 a pop since 1999 have also been key to the festival’s success, as people are more likely to make it to the end of day 3, or less inclined to require emergency assistance after their 13th round of hula hooping to deep house jams in the desert.

Concertgoers at the Empire Polo Club were for the most part quite well-mannered and friendly, and even more surprising was the ease with which an array of Hollywood heavy hitters chose to hang with the crowd. With the L.A. paparazzi out of sight and out of mind, celebrity spotting was almost too ubiquitous for anyone to care. No one seemed to pay any heed to the Sir Paul McCartney, Paris Hilton, Leo DiCaprio, Rihanna, Penn Badgley, Katy Perrys & Co. they’d come across, as folks were clearly there for the music. For this to happen just a few hours east of star-crazed Los Angeles says a whole lot about the spirit of the festival.  

David Coulombe, NIGHTLIFE.CA


5. Coachella live streaming
Not everyone can cough up the necessary funds to fly out to the land of drought/opulence, and refreshingly, Coachella organizers made a point to address this fact. A noble effort in democratizing access to the music to all interested parties, a partnership with YouTube made live streaming of Coachella sets possible. If you happen to be reading this in the U.S.A, you can still stream many of the archived clips here: youtube.com/coachella 

As for the festival’s Canadian fanbase, though, what gives? 

David Coulombe, NIGHTLIFE.CA


4. Electronic music tents
What a treat to attend a festival that can stay true to its indie roots while broadening its line-up to appeal to those who’d normally save their money for Sónar in Barcelona, Ultra in Miami or MUTEK in Montreal. 

Two of Coachella’s 6 main stages – the Sahara tent and the Oasis dome – were exclusively dedicated to artists of the heavy bass/drum loop/laptop persuasion. And while there was way too much clunky dubstep for its own good (that, plus a number of washed up late-nineties trance and techno DJs), a few standout acts like dubstep heavyweights Magnetic Man and BBC Radio One host Mary Anne Hobbs, loopy, ambient-minded post-dubsteppers Mount Kimbie, Italian electro-punksters Bloody Beetroots and Baltimore club rapper Rye Rye all set the bar high enough for Coachella to keep developing its electronic DJ roster in future years.

Animal Collective perform on main Coachella stage // David Coulombe, NIGHTLIFE.CA

3. The Creators Project
Coachella’s first-ever creative partner, the New York-based global culture and technology initiative The Creators Project (a Vice/Intel partnership) is reinventing not only how we experience art, but also how we envision live performance. Their motto of cross-genre artistic collaboration was put to good use at Coachella care of a truly epic Arcade Fire set (more on that below), but also thanks to really psychedelic videography paired to Baltimore experimentalists Animal Collective’s headlining set.

The design for Coachella’s main stage structure, an impressive 25-metre tall skeletal unit which all headlining acts had a say in developing along with British design team United Visual Artists, was one of The Creators Project’s most visible contributions. The stakes have been raised at Coachella, with many Creators Project artists pushing the boundaries of how technology can foster creativity… with the stage itself becoming part of the show. More on The Creators Project and cross-platform artists in NIGHTLIFE’s June issue.

David Coulombe, NIGHTLIFE.CA

2. Strong showing from the Canadian contingent
Already being touted as one of the finest moments in Coachella’s history, the performance of the fest title easily goes to Arcade Fire, who played a set that will be remembered as much for its crowd-rousing anthems (with cuts from The Suburbs serving as bookends to the night, opening with “Month of May” and closing out their encore with audience favourite “Sprawl II”) than for its visual razzle-dazzle.

The group collaborated with The Creators Project, pairing the Montreal musicians with director Chris Milk, an artist who’d previously brought their song “We Used to Wait” to life using interactive web browsing technology. This time around, the highlight of the night occurred as the band reached the chorus to “Wake Up”: some 1,250 LED-enhanced, blown-up beach balls came crashing down into the crowd, with each ball’s inner glow producing a kaleidoscope of colours when observed from afar. Entitled "Summer into Dust", the spectacular interactive stunt was made possible thanks to a collaboration between Montreal companies Moment Factory and ESKI with Vancouver’s Tangible Interaction and NY-based Radical Media.  

Arcade Fire // Peter Sutherland, The Creators Project

"If you had told me in 2002 that we’d one day be headlining Coachella, with Animal Collective playing before us, I’d have said you were full of shit," a very appreciative Win Butler shared with the biggest audience of any show at this year’s festival. He later added: "Coachella is really the first festival we ever played, so it has a special place in our hearts, and we don’t take it for granted." Well done, guys.

Other than Arcade Fire, many other Canadian acts gave it their all at Coachella – Broken Social Scene, City and Colour, Chromeo, The Rural Alberta Advantage and Death From Above 1979 among them. Alain Macklovitch, aka A-Trak, took his time Friday evening to warm up the crowd gathered under electronic music tent Sahara, before dropping a few early electro bangers and Duck Sauce’s disco house jam “aNYway” to an utterly enthralled crowd. Crystal Castles lulled audiences gathered at the Outdoor Theatre Saturday night with its unbridled synth reverie, as clouds of billowy red and blue smoke floated around singer Alice Glass and her unmistakably moody shrieks.

1. The top-notch perfs
Many Coachella-bound musicians interviewed over the past month have stressed the importance of a strong showing at the festival, as a standout performance here easily translates to increased exposure. Just ask Mile End royalty Arcade Fire, whose mid-afternoon set back in 2005 in the Mojave tent (often regarded as a springboard for potential headliners) has been heralded as one of the best ever at the fest.

Three of 2011’s festival highs, in no particular order: Sleigh Bells’ Alexis Krauss and her wild on-stage antics – which prompted a full-blown orchestra of crowd thrashers to the duo’s confrontational punk-pop noise jams.

Sleigh Bells // David Coulombe, NIGHTLIFE.CA

The sight of a jubilant Dan Whitford from Cut Copy as the capacity crowd gathered under the Mojave tent happily obliges his request to jump as he reaches the chorus of his synth-pop gem “Hearts on Fire.”

Nosaj Thing // David Coulombe, NIGHTLIFE.CA

Finally, L.A. glitch-hop wunderkind Jason Chung, aka Nosaj Thing, completely unassuming on stage and wholly absorbed in his intricate sonic layering, weaves electronic textures and rhythms like nobody’s business as striking visuals by Fair Enough – a backdrop of geometrical motions in constant flux – served as a most fitting complement to this high-calibre performance.

Chung was part of a big delegation of Los Angeles musicians performing at the fest (a very deliberate programming decision to ensure Californian acts are well-represented at Coachella), and it’s safe to say he did the Sunshine State proud.