Coachella Diaries 2013 (Part 3 of 5) - Day 2, Saturday - “Entertainment, Show Them What You Do To Me”

• Original publication date: 17 June 2013

From the 19th to 21st of April 2013, I attended the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California, USA. This is part 3 in a series of 5 articles, focusing on the second day of the festival. All photos are my own.

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Friday had mostly been a rock & roller-coaster ride, with corners taken with reckless abandon (Palma Violets' beastly bash in the Mojave) or long climbs and massive drops (The Stone Roses' trance-inducing nostalgia trip at Coachella).

The second day of Coachella, however, would see an exploration into more experimental territory, populated by dance rock, indie pop, acoustic folk, and pop rock. The festival offers a wide variety of exotic locales to visit, but as a devoted fan, your schedule is likely to be booked in advance, leaving little room to venture into unknown lands.

The recent rise in popularity of EDM (electronic dance music) has highlighted this divide, or opportunity, depending on your perspective.

Although Coachella was a forerunner in catering for that broad range of genres, those stages and tents are now a festival in their own right, with the capital housed in the monolithic Sahara Tent, which hosts a raging party with high production values from noon to midnight. The enclosed Yuma Tent and Heineken Dome provided more EDM excitement, while the DO Lab, an outdoor arrangement of tall multi-colored Dr Seussian tents arranged around a central dance floor, doubled as a shady retreat from the daytime desert haze.

The monolithic Sahara Tent, home to one long EDM party

Coachella has the same lineup for both weekends, but an artist will occasionally withdraw from the second instalment. Biffy Clyro, the proggy priests of Scottish alternative rock who have gradually earned a stadium-sized reputation on the other side of the Atlantic over the past five to six years, was one such disappointment.

Following a shaky appearance on Weekend 1, the band bowed out of the remainder of their US tour, with lead singer and guitarist Simon Neil suffering from severe respiratory problems caused by the relentless promotion of their first UK Number One album, Opposites.

Because of this unfortunate loss to the Saturday afternoon lineup, there was an opportunity to discover some other highly-recommended acts, beginning with singer-songwriter Ben Howard's laid-back acoustic folk at the Outdoor Theatre. Howard's troupe flitted through his soothing repertoire, with highlights including 'Old Pine' and 'The Wolves,' with much of the audience seated or reclined on the grass.

Moving to the Mojave, Bat For Lashes' alluring indie pop merged tribal rhythms ('Horses In The Sun') with a synthpop aesthetic ('Daniel'). Project leader Natasha Khan gave an impressive performance overall; slowly sashaying across the stage in time to the jittery beats, her powerful voice evoking a young Kate Bush on the exquisite 'What's A Girl To Do?'.

Following the stunning ballad 'Laura,' Khan acknowledged the scorching heat ("I want some of that spray, it's bloody hot") before pushing on to the most intriguing song of her set. 'The Haunted Man,' the title track from her critically acclaimed 2012 album, saw her use an old transistor radio as an instrument, triumphantly holding it up to the mic at the song's climax.

The journey to the main Coachella Stage via one of the eight food vendor areas is a culinary adventure in and of itself.

There are a variety of international options available , including Mexican, Greek, Korean, and Italian (it's supposedly a festival right-of-passage to have at least one gigantic slice from Spicy Pie Pizza) and portable locations of some well-known Los Angeles restaurants also make their way into the Coachella melting pot. Feeling fed and well-nourished, it was now possible to make it through the final four acts of the day on the festival’s biggest stage.

Hot Chip opened the night with an energetic, quirky, and danceable set that focused heavily on their latest album (2012's In Our Heads) and creating live improvisations of their hits.

The synthpop group worked well in the live setting, spicing up with the sweet ode to monogamy 'One Life Stand' with actual steel drums and infusing 'Over And Over' with heavy slabs of bass and a galloping drum line (the synthesiser solo on the call-to-arms 'Ready For The Floor' was also a highlight). The group’s slinky sound even moved into ballad terrain (‘Look At Where We Are’), but never lapsed into laziness, as evidenced by the beautifully programmed synth-and-drum combination on set-closer ‘I Feel Better’.

The Postal Service was in business next, a seemingly imaginary band that had only recently reformed for the tenth anniversary of their sole debut album Give Up. Despite the irony of the name, the group (featuring Death Cab For Cutie vocalist Ben Gibbard) was well-received and remembered, as their sole album a decade ago was a critical and commercial success.

Their forward-thinking, twinkly new-wave melodies have aged well, eliciting crowd sing-alongs (such as on set-closer 'Brand New Colony') as Gibbard's lead vocals were delicately backed by Rilo Kiley's redheaded Jenny Lewis.

Interpreting these songs live led to some interesting moves onstage, as Gibbard dashed across to a drum set to give the magical soundscapes of ‘We Will Become Silhouettes’ some added percussion. Soaring magnum opus ‘Such Great Heights’ (the soundtrack to many a commercial or television series in the intervening years) was also given a great rendition for the crowd, whose enthusiasm for the group had clearly not waned over time.

Captivating and cool, The xx’s hauntingly beautiful indie pop was a bold choice for the main Coachella Stage, something which guitarist and singer Romy Madley Croft confessed to (“Three years ago, we were at the Outdoor Theatre next door. We could never have dreamed of being here”).

It was a rare glimpse behind the veil for a group that thrives on hushed, intimate confessions. Croft's spiralling guitar lines blend seamlessly with Oliver Sim's throbbing bass grooves, while sonic architect Jamie xx rounds out the mysterious trio, whose subtle and sparse stage setup echoes their mellow sound choice.

Beginning with the woozy 'Try,' the band effortlessly shifted the mood between melancholic (the propulsive 'Crystalised') and romantic (the steel-drum-inflected 'Reunion'). Croft and Sim's spectral duets were stunning, whether it was their serpentine sighs or their forehead-to-forehead, heart-to-heart instrumental passages.

Their taut chemistry was highlighted by fan favourites 'VCR,' 'Intro,' and 'Islands,' and the undulating, danceable numbers from their recent album Coexist alluded to their R&B roots. Surprisingly, they ended their emotional set with 'Angels,' a minimalist (even by their standards) song. Not surprisingly, the audience sang along, echoing every word Croft said. The xx's claim for the main stage had been validated with confidence.

The hot topic of conversation over the course of Weekend 2 was “do you think Daft Punk will show up?”. The revered French DJ duo had released a teaser trailer the previous weekend to rapturous response, apparently causing a sudden mass exodus to its screening at the main stage.

Those hoping for a cameo appearance seemed to have the best chance with Saturday's headliners, fellow Frenchmen Phoenix. On Weekend 1, the eclectic pop rockers brought R&B superstar R Kelly to the stage to blend his own 'Ignition (Remix)' with their hit single '1901,' but no such star-studded sideshows were in order the second time around.

Phoenix did, however, confidently and earnestly attempt to cement their headliner status, jubilantly opening and closing the set with their irresistible new single "Entertainment".

The band used the opportunity to reveal a plethora of new material, showcasing their style evolution from the laidback and endearing indie rockers of 2000's United and 2004's Alphabetical to the stadium-sized synth scientists of their breakout success, 2009's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.

In addition to the crowd-pleasing past hits ‘Liztomania’ and ‘1901’, hot-off-the-press new tracks that were revealed included the bouncy ‘Don’t’, new-wavey ‘Trying To Be Cool’, and the hazy electro of ‘Chloroform’. An exquisite stage setup, an acoustic rendition of ‘Countdown (Sick For The Big Sun)’, and a lengthy remix of two instrumental tracks (‘Love Like A Sunset’ and ‘Bankrupt!’) rounded out an immersive show.

But lead singer Thomas Mars wasn't done yet: during the reprise of the euphoric 'Entertainment,' he launched into the audience, surfing his way towards a lighting rig far from the stage. Mars clambered up the scaffolding, surveyed his faithful flock, and knew it was a job well done.

Nowadays, major music festivals like Coachella are becoming more about the experience than just the music. In a matter of days, places like the Empire Polo Club are transformed into mini-communities with scope and variety that the average concert-going experience cannot match. You come to a festival to be entertained, whether you extol the virtues of EDM, profess your love for pop and rock, or simply follow the crowd.

Each time Thomas Mars leaped into that chorus, singing the high falsetto of “Entertainment, show them what you do to me”, thousands of exuberant voices didn’t realise that they were providing the evidence.