Blurt @ Coachella - Day 1 (4-17-09)

Blurt goes to the circus... or something like that! Pt. 1 of our multi-day coverage....

By Scott Dudelson

If somebody tries to tell you that Coachella is the hottest music festival in the United States, believe them - daytime temperatures generally average 105 degrees Celsius. The festival itself takes place on a nicely manicured Polo field in the vast Mojave Desert; about 20 min from Frank Sinatra's old hang in Palm Springs, and 2 hours east of Los Angeles. And while Day 1 of the three-day event, brought the requisite desert heat, it lacked the edgy headliners that have made Coachella one of the most respected festivals on the planet.

The first half of the day was dominated by younger, up and coming indie-rock acts, and in turn, was the most interesting part of the festival. Early highlights included Cage the Elephant, a five-piece, balls to the wall rock outfit from Bowling Green KY, and the always-excellent Hold Steady.   M. Ward and The Black Keys also took to the daytime Coachella stages, and in the case of M. Ward, less than 1000 people stopped over to watch his beautiful set and hear tunes from his latest album "For Beginners."  Not even the Black Keys, with their crunchy blues-rock sound, and mainstream music buzz could pull in a major crowd.  The bands set included raw and heavy versions 10 A.M. Automatic, Strange Times, and Stack Shot Billy and to those who watched the performance, it was widely regarded as the days best.

The lack of enthusiasm for some of these great daytime acts likely had something to do with the presence of Paul McCartney, Leonard Cohen and Morrissey as night one headliners.  While all three are iconic legends, none of these artists fit the traditional profile of a Coachella headliner, and it in turn attracted an older crowd that didn't fit the traditional profile of a Coachella concertgoer.  A vast majority of the crowd that attended were only interested in watching McCartney, Cohen, and Morrissey, and didn't bother to show up early and catch some of the great indie(ish) acts.

The most interesting of the three headliners was Leonard Cohen who performed with a large band, and gave the crowd a set chalk full of classics including Dance Me To The End Of Love, Everybody Knows, Bird on a Wire, and Hallelujah.  The rumor was that Cohen accepted the Coachella gig because he needed the dough (apparently he lost his $10 million fortune recently), so it was a great relief, that Cohen showed up in fine voice, spirits and interest in giving the crowd the performance they wanted.

The final two acts - McCartney and Morrissey, performed the sets you'd expect from Moz and Macca.  Moz's set featured an abundance of Smiths tunes (Bicycle, Girlfriend in a Coma, Ask, How Soon is Now), and solo hits (Irish Blood, English Heart), coupled with the occasional commentary about how ‘Meat is Murder.' On stage Moz did his best Moz impression, and for 50 minutes simply stalked the stage apathetically and flailed his mic chord around like he was bored.

Macca's appearance was notable for being preceded by a DJ set that remixed the very tunes that Macca was to soon after perform.  A strange opening, but the baby boomer heavy crowd didn't mind, and the sing-a-long atmosphere was fitting for what was to come.   McCartney kicked off his set with a handful of Beatles / Wings tunes - Jet, Drive My Car, and Got to Get You Into My Life - before he went into an extended run of songs from his last few albums that nobody really seemed to know, nor really care about. The second half of the set was Beatles intensive, and exactly what you want to hear when you see an ex-Beatle (that's not Ringo) perform.  Songs included Paperback Writer, Something, Yesterday, Helter Skelter, Can't Buy Me Love, Long & Winding Road, Let it Be, Day in the Life, Get Back, Sgt Pepper and the final festival sing-along Hey Jude

After all was said and done, the promoters of the festival had claimed a sell-out, but even a quick walk through the crowd during McCartney's performance indicated otherwise.

Lets see how Day 2 turns out...

[Photos credit: Scott Dudelson]