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Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival: Day 2
(Empire Polo Fields; Indio, Calif.; 60,000 capacity; $85 per day, $249 three day pass)
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Performers: Tiësto, Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon, Travis, Regina Spektor, Fountains of Wayne, Pharoahe Monch, the Good the Bad and the Queen, Gotan Project, Blonde Redhead, Ghostface Killah, the Decemberists, the New Pornographers, Jack's Mannequin, The Frames, The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, Justice, Busy P & DJ Mehdi, MSTRKRFT, DJ Heather, Steve Aoki, Black Keys, Sparklehorse, Ozomatli, !!!, Peter Bjorn & John, Hot Chip, the Fratellis, the Cribs, Fields, Cornelius, Mike Relm, Girl Talk, CocoRosie, Andrew Bird, the Nightwatchman, Roky Erikson, Chuck Dukowski Sextet, Yeva, Pop Levi.
The story of day two was the Arcade Fire. With their 70-minute set on the main stage early Saturday evening, the Canadian band confirmed their place among the top bands to emerge in the last few years. As was the case with their 2005 debut "Funeral," the songs from "Neon Bible" (Merge) turn warmer and more fleshed out when performed live. With the strings, horns, and a hurdy gurdy sawing and wheezing away, Arcade Fire packs an anguished, panicky wallop.
On "(Antichrist Television Blues)" Win Butler can preach with the apocalyptic furor of Springsteen. With his wife, Regine Chassagne, standing next to him, doing a little shimmy and mouthing the lyrics with a big smile, and the rest of the band leaping about while shouting the chorus, the songs take on a welcome humanity. It's a perf that replaces "Neon Bible's" bomb shelter solipsism with a generous embrace that realizes hard times are easier to face communally.
The day's breakout set came from LCD Soundsystem. Although LCS ringleader James Murphy (half of the DFA production team) tries to separate his New York-based project from electronic dance music, LCD's set -- which included last year's favorite "Daft Punk is Playing at My House" and their current club hit "North American Scum," from the recent "Sound of Silver" (DFA/Capitol) -- sounded right at home among the DJs in the Sahara tent. With various loop and effects augmented by a live rhythm section and Murphy's strangled half-spoken whine, LCD updates the darker hued synth-based rock of Suicide and Normal.
Among the most anticipated bands on Saturday was the Good The Band and the Queen. The collaboration between Damon Albarn (Blur, the Gorillaz) Paul Simonon, the Clash's former bassist, producer Danger Mouse and drummer Tony Allen, best known for his stint in Fela Kuti's Egypt 80, released an intriguing collection of ghostly, downbeat reminisces of Thatcherite England. But live, they sounded sulky and enervated, the elements never quite cohering, with Allen barely making an impression, providing an anticlimactic end to a largely satisfying day of music.
Related review: Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival - Day 1
Related review: Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival - More on Day 2
href="http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117933472.html?categoryid=34&cs=1">Related review: Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival - Day 3
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