As I stumbled home from Ladytron at around 2am, I set up my phone alarm to 4am so I can make my 7am flight to Ontario. Well, my phone alarm did go off, but I hit the snooze button one too many times...on my desk alarm clock! So, I finally woke up and it was 6am. I didn't have that much time to spare.
I skipped the shower, thinking that I'm going to stink anyways at Coachella. I picked up my friend and sped to the airport. Even with security thoroughly inspecting my friend's bag, we were the last persons in the airplane. I slept the rest of the way to Ontario and skipping on the OJ that Southwest was giving out.
Still feeling like shit, we arrived at Ontario. We drove on the I-10 and went to the outlet malls near Palm Desert, reasoning that we had a lot of time to kill before the first band we really wanted to see. Then checked in at the hotel, only to find out our room wasn't ready. At this point, the temperature was around 90 degrees. We then drove to the festival.
We were faced with heavy traffic and we didn't get into the parking lot until nearly an hour waiting. (N.B.: Next time, take the Jackson St. exit off the freeway, should lead you to the "other" parking lot. Easier entrance and exit, but the walk is far from the fairgrounds).
We entered the fairgrounds, and saw the bicycle of death thing:
We then proceeded to plan our concert itinerary:
The first act we saw was Animal Collective at the Outdoor Theatre. They bored us with their yips and yaps. I really wanted to see these guys, but it was just too boring for us. I'm sure they're much better in a smaller stage and not amidst this, albeit tolerable, heat.
We then went to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at the Mojave Tent:
Clap your hands and say "yeah, that's a pretty shitty picture." We weren't that far away, but my camera's flash capabilities isn't that strong.
We waited for a while since they were having problems with their equipment. I noticed some of the members of Clap Your Hands motioning to their tech guys to fix a problem with some instrument or gadget. They came on finally and we caught "In This Home on Ice," "Graceful Retreat," "Is This Love" and something else. I wanted to stay for the entire set, but I also wanted to see acts I haven't seen before.
We walked over to the Main Stage to catch a bit of Common. I'm not that into rap, but good artists like Common should be well worth watching.
I got bored. However, Common's DJ was great doing all sorts of weird hooks and scratching.
After Common was hot shit himself Kanye West. Now, I was excited to see Kanye for the first time, and I'm sure he's going to be very entertaining. He didn't disappoint. And he sported a Miles Davis shirt which is always good in my book:
He opened up with "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" and the crowd started bumping from there on out. A full string section accompanied Kanye, along with his band and a DJ. His DJ also played a montage of songs he loved, including A-Ha's "Take on Me." In which Mr. West proceeded to do the A-Ha dance featured on the video. He played "Gold Digger" pretty early. Much to our disappointment, no special appearance by Jamie Foxx was to be found.
At this point, we took a dinner break. Let me tell you, those organic veggie wraps from the Sweet Tea place was awesome.
We sat down with our dinner while we watched Sigur Ros from afar. It seemed like a bigger string section accompanied Sigur Ros this time around, but they sounded amazing as always.
I wandered around a bit and went to the Amp Camp tent where I got some free goodies and had a pleasant conversation with Bruce, Amp Camp's founder. I also went to Neighborhoodies and thought of a clever shirt to have. I didn't want to make a decision until I had time to sleep on it. Thinking that purchases should be limited.
We also went to visit some gnomes in this big globe. I took my picture with one of them:
Franz Ferdinand was on next:
This time, we inched our way closer to the Main Stage, but it was no use. The closest we got was the sound booth but that was still far. Franz came out after a much anticipated wait. The second song they played was "Do You Want To" which is my favorite song from the new album. I wanted to dance, but it was so hard to do so.
Alex looked tired and he did a lot of improvising with the lyrics. Indeed, Franz has been on tour since last year. Their set didn't deviate that much from last year's set at the Austin City Limits Festival last year. Yeah, that was a long time ago. They also played other hits such as "Outsiders", complete with the extra drumming, "Take Me Out," another crowd pleaser and "This Fire." They played the slow stuff too, like "Walk Away" and "Eleanor Put Your Boots On."
I wanted to go see Ladytron again, but that was impossible to do.
We then tried to get closer to the stage for Depeche Mode. I really don't care for Depeche Mode, but I thought this would be a great chance to see these guys play. They are one of those bands that started it all. Like the Pixies, Cure and Morrissey at past Coachella festivals, everyone just went for it and tried to go to the front. We got pretty close, but it was too claustrophobic and opted to retreat to the back.
We saw and we watched. They bored me. Their new songs sound way too similar to their old stuff, which is a good thing I guess, but it didn't have the gusto of the old stuff.
After a handful of songs, we then went to the Sahara Tent to get a good spot for Daft Punk. We caught a little bit of the Audio Bullys and they seemed fun. Daft Punk though was definitely the best show of this year's Coachella.
Pyramids and space ships folks:
I've never seen Daft Punk before, and I thought they will be one of those electronica bands that would just play their songs straight up. But they mixed everything so well, and timed everything so precisely. They knew when to get you hyped up, settle you down and then hype you up again. If you were on "e" that night, you would have been a happy camper.
Just when you think that every possible permutation of the light show was done, more came. At one point, I got pretty drowsy and the lighting effects turned from heavy flashes to something Tron-like and 3-D. I thought the damn stage was heading for me! I think this would be how the kids with the drugs would perceive the stage as well.
Absolutely magnificent! That's the best I can describe Daft Punk's set. A fitting way to end the first night.
However, that positive note came to an abrupt end when it took forever for us to leave the grounds. For some reason, only one small exit was open to handle nearly 60,000 people. Some resorted to jumping the fence. Eventually, after 20 minutes of waiting, the security guards opened another gate. Why they didn't do this before baffles me.
We then waited another hour or more to get out of the parking lot and go home. The festival ended around 1am. We didn't get to our hotel until close to 2:30am. We didn't sleep until 4am, after getting our luggage back and showering.
Overall Beer Rating for Day 1:
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