So last week, I was lucky enough to be at Coachella. I’ve been asked every day since who amazing the festival was, to which I usually reply, “it was alright.” I mean, that’s exactly how I feel about it. I had a sick time with my friends and all, but if I’m going to spend that much money to see that many great bands, they better lay out the festival better and know about the bands that are playing.
Long story short, they didn’t have a well though out strategy of what bands should play on what stages and when. It was almost as if the peeps in charge wanted to print up a pretty flier with fancy names. That’s exactly what they wanted to do actually. Fuck them for that. Seriously, that sucks. My advise to the Coachella committee, learn the strengths and weaknesses of the bands playing.
Prime examples:
1) The xx playing at the Outdoor Stage in front of 10s of thousands of people during the day. Now why the hell would they not be in a tent. That is NOT the sort of music that would be conducive to a hot outdoor fun experience. Terrible decision.
2) Phoenix not being on the main stage. Instead, Pavement was on the Coachella Stage, which didn’t seem to affect Phoenix’s popularity as it felt as if the entire audience was there wanted the Frenchies rock out.
3) Couldn’t they have at least ONE rock band headline? Jay-Z, DJ Tiesto, Gorillaz. Not a one! Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed all they’re performances, but don’t you think Muse could have made a better headline than Gorillaz (who didn’t even have their visuals synced up correctly with their audio).
I could go on and on about how many mistakes were made at Coachella, but I’ll stop there. I had a fun time, which is the point, right? Other than the fact that music festivals like this one are just as much about the drugs you take than they are about the music, I was relatively happy with the Coachella experience. I’ll take Sasquatch over Coachella any day of the week. Look out Washington, here I come (May 29-31).
Oh, and you HAVE to watch this video. Pretty much sums up the type of people at Coachella. Not a bad thing though. That’s the way it should be!
