Coachella Day 1: A Little Bit Closer

April 13, 2013

Yesterday we made the trek from Los Angeles to Indio, California for Coachella 2013! The first day at Coachella is always a bit of a blur (hehe) because it’s such a marathon of a day – but once again Goldenvoice put on a spectacular day of music and art.

The biggest draw for Coachella is the environment they’re able to create. Between the desert and all of the incredible art instillations spread throughout the grounds – Coachella becomes much more than an outdoor music festival. There’s of course the iconic ferris wheel and palm trees image you all know so well, but there are also several unique instillations that come to life. Some even had people inside! The “Coachella Power Station” had people wearing hippo masks; I have no idea what they were doing in there, but it totally worked at Coachella.

As far as music the day was jam-packed! I caught Johnny Marr (under Richards’ suggestion), Metric, Alt-J, Passion Pit, Modest Mouse, Beach House (and I stand by what I said earlier about them), Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blur, Jurassic 5 and lastly Tegan and Sara.

A few things that stuck with me as the day went on were Passion Pit, Modest Mouse, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jurassic 5 and Tegan and Sara.

– Passion Pit was full of energy and everyone around me was dancing. They are fantastic live.

– Modest Mouse went over their time (I think there was too much chitchat) — and during their most popular song, “Float On” everything cut out. Ooops.

– Yeah Yeah Yeahs were phenomenal live. Karen O is revered as one of the most icon front women in music and she lives up to the hype.

– Jurassic 5 was just straight up amazing hip-hop. They have not all performed tog their in about 7 years, but man they still had it. I am not a huge hip-hop fan, but when it’s performed like THAT find it infectious and mesmerizing

– Tegan and Sara’s set put a huge smile on my face. They have played the festival three times and the sentiment has not worn off on these sisters. They gave a powerful performance and had the crowed in the palm of their hands. I find it interesting to watch how differently they perform. They’re twin sisters, singing the same song but have distinguishable signature styles on stage. When they went into “Closer” the crowd just erupted in excitement. Was an excellent way to close night one.