Coachella 2010 Overview

"He's been with the world and I’m tired of the soup du jour!"

Every year Coachella gets a new identity. Typically, the headliners set the tone. When acts like Bauhaus or Depeche Mode play, you see a lot of gothies. If it’s Tool or Rage Against the Machine, a lot of meatheads. This year there were a lot of fratty manchild alpha-bros thanks to Them Crooked Vultures, Faith No More, and (believe it) Vampire Weekend. (And, I think, less women than usual.)

In some ways this felt like an all-new festival. 3-Day passes only and the new ins-and-outs policy radically changed the dynamic of how festival goers saw music.

By limiting the fest to 3-Day passes, Coachella skewed its population towards those who could 1) afford the expensive ticket, 2) afford to take three days off, and 3) were inclined to want to sit in the desert drunk for three days.

This festival had a more belligerent party atmosphere than past years. By and large, the indie rock kids were too cheap to go. Many kindly eccentric creative-types were disinclined to spend the money, too. The frat guys and alt bros were more than happy to sacrifice whatever it took to come, though.

In years past, once you were on the grounds, you were essentially trapped. No ins-and-outs. Being such, festival goers often chose to see something over nothing, plopping down in the grass for bands they were either indifferent to or didn’t know about. A closed-gate festival lent itself toward festival goers discovering new music and taking a second look at previously disregarded acts.

With ins-and-outs allowed, all camping attendees had the option of getting drunk in their tent instead of exploring the fest. Bands such as Yo La Tengo and Shooter Jennings with Hierophant really suffered, playing for sub-optimal crowds. Paul Tollett has said the new policy would create a tighter community amongst attendees, but in fact the policy created a more individual experience: anyone was free to walk away from everyone else.

(The show sold-out. There’s no doubt the new policies were good business. On that point, some obvious corners were cut: gone were hand sanitizer trees outside of the port-o-lets, for example. )

The end result of the new policies? Upwards of 15,000 more attendees, but even scanter crowds at the early acts, with over-crowding for the headliners.

Over-crowding issues were complicated by poor stage assignments. Public Image Ltd. should have played the Mojave Tent. Devo could have easily played the Outdoor Stage. Sundays indie rock barrage of Yo La Tengo, Spoon, and Pavement should have been on the smaller Outdoor Stage, while Thom Yorke should have opened for Gorillaz on the Main. Hot Chip and MGMT drew catastrophic crowds at the Outdoor Stage; the Main would have barely contained them.

Friday suffered from great organizational dysfunction. It took myself and Travis Woods two hours to drive-in and park. It took another hour to get through bag check because – get this – they ran out of wristbands. How is this possible? (Well, probably a durpy volunteer forgot to drive his golf cart over. But still.)

To add insult to injury, it took two and a half hours to drive out of the parking lot when we left. Never in my six years of attendance have I been so miserable coming in and leaving. What baffles me is that Coachella is usually exceptionally well organized in these departments. Fortunately, problems were resolved by Saturday.

"I'll be waiting forever. I'm waiting, I'm waiting, I'm waiting, I'm waiting, I'm waiting, I'm waiting, I'm waiting..."

The art installations this year were underwhelming, though giant strings of balloons that dotted the sky (by LED light at night!) were a visual joy. A new Ferris wheel made a marvelous addition to the Coachella skyline. (I wonder why it took this long for them to figure that one out.)

As for festival improvements, giant water stands were replaced by numerous small ones scattered about, alleviating some crowd congestion. The bathrooms seemed better maintained. The food stand options were significantly improved.

This year’s festival had the deepest lineup I can remember. I saw fewer jaw-dropping, life-changing sets than previous years but nearly every set I saw was enjoyable. The bill was incredibly balanced; truly, all manner of genre and style was represented. The bill was poo-pooed when it came out. In retrospect, what a bunch of nonsense.

Coachella’s formula was perfect: broad and accessible (but individually different) headliners, rare reunion opportunities, soup du jour P4K acts, and a plentiful dance tent bill. By all accounts, every box was checked-off in abundance.

One request: It’s time for Coachella to fully-embrace prominent African-American artists. There have always been hip-hop groups. Last year’s Booker T booking was a good move to dig deeper. This year was the best yet, with Gil Scott-Heron, Sly Stone, and Jay-Z as a headliner. But there’s no reason every day shouldn’t feature a sub-liner like Alicia Keys, with some up-and-coming R&B artists on the undercard.

Despite the long list of negatives this year, the purely joyful sets (The Specials, Jay-Z, Faith No More) and the rare memory-makers (Gil Scott-Heron, Devo, Pavement) more than made-up for it. Why pay the money? Why go through the hassle?

The gathering of people to consume, participate, and celebrate in art and music culture at its highest levels. Simply that.

"Black holes and revelations..."

I loved teaming-up with Travis Woods (Web In Front), David Greenwald (Rawkblog), and others for Kevin Bronson’s Buzz Bands coverage. I dunno how it came off to you guys, but to me it felt like we were doing a cool thing. I’m hoping we do it again for some of the LA fests this summer.

Full coverage to come in the next three days. Here’s a teaser:

Mouse's Top Ten Sets of Coachella 2010

1. Muse
2. Pavement
3. Devo
4. Coheed and Cambria
5. Jay-Z
6. Gil Scott-Heron
7. Faith No More
8. Echo and the Bunnymen
9. Girls
10. The Specials

If I wanted to say the cool and hip thing, I'd tell you Pavement was the best I saw. If I went with what spoke to me the most, I'd say Devo. But objectively -- critically -- Muse played the most complete, most awesome, most thrilling and emotionally powerful set I saw. The top seven were "Coachella worthy" throughout.

A detailed look at Friday coming tomorrow...