Coachella Day 2

It didn't take long (just a few hours) for today to eclipse yesterday. Overall, a great day!

Traffic was really light and we ended up arriving pretty early. Caught a few songs of VHS or Beta on the main stage. They sounded good, like an upbeat and updated Cure. B

Then witnessed some rock-n-roll history in Carbon/Silicon, Mick Jones' (and Tony James') new project. They were great — Mick was convivial and entertained the crowd with witty banter and spot on tunes. Good old rock-n-roll. B

Freakfest time in Man Man, who seem like a group of band geeks who took one too many hits of acid, adopted a drama student as their frontman and decided to spread their percussive madcap message to the masses. Their stage arrangement was very interesting — five of them in a tight cluster, the main anchor being a ton of drums, but they would pull other instruments into the mix: guitars, horns, pots and pans, keyboards. The "singer," adorned with facepaint, would alternate on keyboards and running around, causing havoc. They had a nice Louisiana swing to their sound as well. Great energy. B

120 Days are Norway's answer to Underworld, albeit with a bit more screeching. They came on pretty late, due to tech difficulties and never really seemed to recover. Good beats, but not feeling it, really. C

Some DJ action with James Zabiela, who played some decent records and mixed them really well. Also incorporated a Kaos pad (or something similar) to throw some nice scratching action in the mix. B-

Poked my head into the Sahara tent to see what was going on with MGMT. Way too crowded and not really justified, I think. Flavor of the week. C

Blown away by Boyz Noize. Dude demolished the dance tent with crazed mixes of insane techno. Master use of effects on the mixer to whip the crowd into a frenzy. Most impressive. B+

Kate Nash started late (an unfortunate pattern today) due to sound check issues. They didn't seem to solve them as there was something amiss with someone's instrument (loud crackling). The audio mix was pretty bad too — drums and bass way too loud, making Kate's voice hard to hear. I was disappointed, but it wasn't terrible. B-

I jetted Kate early to recline in the grass and catchy the last bit of Stephen Malkmus' set. He really can't do wrong in my book, so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Nice to get off the feet for a bit too. Did a good Who cover (can't remember). B

St. Vincent was an interesting experience. Like Chan Marshall channeling Feist with more schizophrenia and some twang. Good stuff. B

Cinematic Orchestra also started late — they are an 8 piece outfit that plays soulful easy listening. Nice, but not really my cup of tea. B-

Another bit of reclining and caught the last bit of Death Cab. They played some pretty rocking stuff–'twas a nice way to wish the sun adieu. B

After some grub, hit the main stage for Kraftwerk. Their show hasn't changed much, but it wasn't any less impressive and enjoyable. They have done such a phenomenal job updating the underlying beats behind their seminal music. I especially enjoyed Radioactivity. A

Portishead was better than I expected — very dynamic with some fairly upbeat tempos (just some). The vocals were great too. B

Prince was amazing. He didn't fail to entertain. He was late to the stage, but still played an hour and a half. There were about 20 people on stage, including a horns section, drummer, keyboards, three back singers. Then there was Morris Day and Sheila E.  He played a bunch of stuff, both old and new (Lil' Red Corvette, 1999, Controversy) and had the crowd into it the whole time, singing, clapping, waving hands, dancing. He shredded on guitar, played "Creep," a great version of "Come Together" before sending us home with "Let's Go Crazy." Fantastic. A