Swedish Parker!

Coachella, Day 3 (see the full photo album @ flickr)

What else to say… I can die happy having seen Rage Against The Machine play live.

I had to stand in the one spot, in extreme heat, for eight hours in order to get a good vantage point.

I decided I wouldn’t risk my life by going into the front area (there are four areas bordered off by metal fences, sort of in the shape of a double-H laid on it’s side in front of the stage…).

Good thing I didn’t, I was front row of the second area, so I had a perfect view without getting squashed (so I thought…). Three hours before Rage came on Crowded House did an awesome set that was unfortunately played to a crowd that wanted only one thing, and therefore didn’t really appreciate just how brilliant this band is.

Then two hours before Rage came on the crazy side-to-side crowd surges began in the front areas. Then about an hour before Rage came on all the little people in the front realised the surges (which by now were just looking plain dangerous) were only going to get worse and started bailing over the security fences to safety.

Unfortunately the safe little walk-ways between each area (where only security guards can walk) had their exits blocked off by the massive crowd. So this meant all the people jumping the fence to safety were stuck in no-mans land (which would stay that way until about four of five songs into Rage’s set).

I was watching all of this craziness unfold literally half a metre away in my cosy front-row spot. There was no crazy crowd surges in our section before Rage came on, and I could even turn around and talk to the guys behind me it was that chilled out.

(our calm and peaceful area, a few hours before it descended into chaos)

Then the lights went out, four guys walked on stage, Zack de la Rocha announced “We are Rage Against The Machine from Los Angeles, California.” and the entire crowd went absolutely mental.

I think I moved about 3 metres to my left in the first 10 seconds, desperately clinging to the fence so I wouldn’t get sucked back into the abyss of the crowd.

I managed to hold my own – thanks largely to the big sweaty shirtless guy behind me that was sandwiching me in – and then proceeded lose my voice screaming “I AM THE NINA, THE PINTA, THE SANTA MARIA”, “ALL OF WHICH ARE AMERICAN DREAMS”, “FUCK YOU I WON’T DO YOU WHAT YOU TELL ME”, and so on.

I wandered around in a daze afterwards, before heading back to my tent – via the riot squad guarding the camp site entry that apparently were there in case any hard-core Rage fans decided to start a revolution – and reliving the moment into the early hours with a couple of cool Brits, a Canadian, and a girl all the way from the Isle of Man (Hey Dave/Mak/Michael/Louise…).

…

In the preceeding ten hours I’d had no choice but to also watch:

The Feeling
Explosions in the Sky
The Roots
Willie Nelson
Crowded House
Manu Chao (Radio Bemba Sound System)

All of which were pretty cool, especially Crowded House.

…

Here are a few incredibly short and dodgy videos I managed to capture during Rage.

The random blackness is a result of someone crowd-surfing over my head, and me quickly trying to prevent a flying foot coming in contact with my camera.

Rage Against The Machine
Know Your Enemy (short clip)

Rage Against The Machine
Down Rodeo (short clip)

Rage Against The Machine
Sleep Now In The Fire (short clip)

Coachella, Day 2 (see the full photo album @ flickr)

How could a day NOT be good when it starts with a generous serving of General Tso’s Chicken?

(this is to be the start of my American Fast Food Tour)

I also had to stop in and charge my camera at the campground Wall Of Power, an adventure in itself…

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If it wasn’t for Rage, today would have to be the best day for music. At least 12 or 13 bands I wanted to see.

Of course then came the catch that half of them were playing the same time as the other half. So my day was spent stage-hopping across opposite ends of the festival grounds, trying to catch as many as I could.

I managed to get a glimpse of:

Pharoahe Monch
The Fratellis
Hot Chip
Travis
Peter Bjorn & John
Kings of Leon
!!!
Arcade Fire
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Good, The Bad and the Queen

Hot Chip will go down as one of the sets of the festival. Their cover of Joy Division’s Temptation, which morphed into their own track No Fit State was a pretty cool highlight (see a short video of it at the end of this post).

Travis are a band I used to love, but hadn’t heard from in a while, so it was fun to hear all the tracks I was into a few years ago.

Then in one of my many zig-zaggings between stages I came across a very random sight; some Aussie guy in my AFL footy team’s jumper (the Hawthorn Hawks, the brown & gold one on the right…):

I only caught the end of Peter Bjorn and John (Swedish!), but they finished with three of my favourite tracks so I was very content with my decision to run across the fields of Coachella in order to see them.

I was fighting heat-stroke by the time I sat down to listen to Kings of Leon, but their energetic set gave me a bit of a boost before the sun went down and I could re-hydrate.

It was the end of a very long day by the time The Good, The Bad and The Queen came on, but I caught a few good songs before giving up and coming back to the tent to rest up for Rage…

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Some of the videos I took:

Hot Chip
Temptation vs No Fit State (short clip)

Hot Chip
Over and Over (short clip)

Peter Bjorn and John
Objects Of My Affection (short clip)

!!! (Chk Chk Chk)
Intensify (full clip)

Arcade Fire
Haiti (short clip)

Arcade Fire
Rebellion (lies) (short clip)

Red Hot Chili Peppers
Under The Bridge (short clip)

Coachella, Day 1 (see the full photo album @ flickr)

This place is hot…

It must get to about 40 degrees, and it stays that way all day until the sun sets. It’s a dry, intense desert heat – nothing like I’ve ever experienced. It’s near impossible to sleep in, as the tents turn into saunas about 7:30 each morning.

That being said, I couldn’t be happier to be here. The Coachella camping field is on a lush green polo field, surrounded by palm trees, in the middle of a desert valley, surrounded by barren mountains. It’s a pretty cool sight…

And the campgrounds are one big international mix. There’s just as many Brits/Aussies/Canadians as there are Americans.

The amount of Aussies I’ve run into is crazy – seems hundreds of them came down from the end of the Canadian ski season, where they’ve all been working and snowboarding for the past six months.

With the heat you have to drink about 5 litres of water a day. You can buy 12L in 24x 500ml bottles for US$48… at the camping general store, or you can drive 5 minutes into town and buy the exact same thing at Wal-Mart for $4.98.

I almost felt guilty shopping at this beloved icon of consumerism and capitalism, being here to see Rage Against The Machine and all, but I’m not sure how revolutionary a 1000% mark-up is either, so I went with the reassuringly cheap option.

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First day’s music was awesome, although after lazing around under a tarp trying to avoid the sun, I only caught the following bands:

Of Montreal
Arctic Monkeys
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Interpol
Björk!!!

Björk was incredible, with her 10-piece, all-female, all-Icelandic brass section (that she personally assembled for this new album/tour), the crazy electronic instruments, including the rune-stone-controlled-radar-machine (which I just discovered is actually called a reacTable), not to mention her colourful-as-ever colourful opening outfit (see the video below).

Arctic Monkeys looked like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves, and put on a bloody good set (although I’m not sure if the crowd quite got their British banter…).

This festival’s full name is the ‘Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival’ and there’s loads of random arty stuff going on everywhere. This included some very extravagant balloon things… umm…

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Finally, here’s a few of the videos I took:

Bjork
Earth Intruders (full clip)

Interpol
Slow Hands (short clip)

Arctic Monkeys
Still Take You Home (short clip)

Arctic Monkeys
A Certain Romance (short clip)

A short clip ofBjork’s reacTable in action on the big screen