(Mini) Festival review: Coachella 2009
If anyone missed me, I spent the last four or so days in the middle of the desert camping out under the demon sun at Coachella. I had a wonderful time, thanks, and hope to have a full review (with photos and video) up at some point. But for now ...
Highlights:
Turbo Negro (pronounced nee-grow) -- Awesome Norwegian rock fronted by Alice Cooper, if Alice Cooper looked like Jack Black, loved cats and was from Norway.
Leonard Cohen -- Some would argue Sir Paul was the highlight of the festival, but I was there to see Cohen. At 73, the guy owns it like few others. His voice is still strong, his words resonant. It was magical to be in the middle of thousands of people singing along to Hallelujah.
Hnery Rollins -- OK, he was doing spoken word (I would have loved to see the band) but it was still one of the most powerful acts of the festival. Dude has logic you can't fight. It's peace through P FUNK.
Fresno connection:
Airborne Toxic Event -- These guys are blowing up. They were on Jay Leno last week, followed by some huge show in Denver and then ... Coachella. They played the main stage on Friday and drew a pretty good crowd for it being so early in the festival. Drummer Daren Taylor was a one-time Fresnan, who played in a few local bands before leaving for LA stardom. And we don't hate him for it one bit.
Celebrity sightings:
While I didn't see Mr. Donnie Darko hanging out on the side of the stage during Fleet Foxes, I did see Busy Philipps totally enjoying herself. She was wearing Ughs.
Age of Pamparius
mixed reviews
since not everyone who went saw all the same bands perform.
I keep asking people who went if they saw Booker T and the DBT's
Uggs?
I don't get it. They're Uggs. But the link uses Ugh's also. Is this funny? Okay. Someone just go ahead and mention that thanks as I am annoyed by its incorrectness.
If its at all possible...
Remember Jheart Leenz in your full review!
I joined Josh on this escapade and it was a surprise at how smooth and organized this massive festival was. A tad pricey (although we had a few advantages, nudge nudge wink wink) but highly suggested. I think you have to camp as well as the parking looked incredibly insane.
Can't agree more with Josh on Turbonegro. I'm a somewhat rock guy, but they were EXACTLY how I like my rock: straightforward, a touch campy, and utterly shameless. Passerby's literally stopped on their way to other stages to check out this hairy, fat, cat-loving Norweigian gyrate and rock like no other!
Come to think of it...I'm half-norweigian, large, and have two cats........
Pure rock and roll
I'll have to check out that video, er, DVD, whatever. Being a rock guy Turbo Negro was totally the highlight of the festival for me, just for the sheer ballsiness of the whole thing. They ARE rock and roll the way it's supposed to be, loud and raucous and FUNNY.
There was a lot of walking yes, but it wasn't so bad at all. For most of the non-headliners you could get pretty close to the stage pretty easily. It was hot, like 90-plus degrees all three days, but there was lots of shade and water, so it was manageable.
Like I said, this renewed my faith is festivals.
Apocalypse Dudes
Apocalypse Dudes is the best rock album of the last ten years. Their video reminded me why I liked rocknroll in the first place. We read about Sr. Paul playing there & saw the suspenders. How far did you have to walk and how hot was it?
Coachello cool.
Sounds like the festival was fun!
(maybe we should add tent living to FUSE?)
That's so cool about Darren and ATE--my son got a copy of Alternative Press magazine...it must've had Green Day on the cover or something---and there was Airborne T. E.----didn't that dude used to play with a ska band in Kingsburg? with some singer?
[I think I have their CD somewhere...the disc was better than the cover (which is better than the other way around;an early LP I was involved with had a very neat-o cover...the record kinda sucked though, haha)]
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