[Editor's Note: While Coachella's two weekend desert jammer has generated tons of photo and video for us to experience via remote, air-conditioned laptop stations, this year we wanted to enrich our point of view from a Commenter perspective. So we called on Stereogum comment section denizen/underscore enthusiast Michael_ to provide intrepid reports from his three days in Indio. This is his story.]
UPDATE: This post has been removed at Michael’s request.
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Nice dispatch, Michael_. Carrie Brownstein spoke to much the same experience, albeit in <140 characters.
https://twitter.com/#!/Carrie_Rachel/status/191651824808370176
As most of my life is spent living vicariously through other people’s descriptions of experiences of their life I really enjoyed this!
I had the chance to see ATDT in Dallas last week but I was in NY for the Videogum party, my friends called me up telling me they got a ticket and were mad – still are, a bit – that I wasn’t there.
Great writing!
Have you ever read Amy Klein’s Coachella article from a few years back? It’s similar to Michael_’s but from a performer’s perspective.
p.s. it’s here: http://flavorwire.com/172776/ticket-to-the-festival-coachella-from-a-performers-perspective
Even though I am more of the dance music persuasion, I certainly understand your feelings about the direction Coachella is heading in. I’m glad you survived the bro-pocalypse to turn our your report. I also find it hilarious people were bundling up at 70 degrees, and I grew up in South Florida.
Thanks, Michael_. Always an enjoyable and insightful read. While I’ve never been to Coachella, I’ve frequented Bonnaroo a number of times, and my feelings toward the shifting demographic of fellow concert goers has lead to me to a similar conclusion as yours. I have nothing against the age, personalities, or appearances of the crowd at festivals. Having a wide variety of attendees completes the festival experience for me. But when those people interrupt and distract my attention from the shows, and act genuinely disrespectful toward one another, I ask myself if festivals are worth it for me anymore.
Same goes for Lollapalooza these past few years that I’ve been there. It seems that larger festivals are aiming more towards the EDM crowd and it can attract some crowds that are younger, and more inexperienced at how to behave at shows.
I went to Bonnaroo for the first time last year and I had no bad experiences. Maybe I got lucky, I guess….because everyone i came across was pretty awesome. It seemed like a majority of people were respectful of those around them, and everyone was really just having a great time and enjoying the festival.
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see
Nobody likes your lame blog, shithead.
“Pretty powerful stuff”
I bet.
What a great surprise!
Logging in to see our very own Michael_ given us the blow by blow of Coachella Weekend 1. I love that you focused on the crowds because as great as set times look on paper, it is the crowd that can often make or break a show. The M83 recap frightens me as I plan on seeing them for Weekend 2.
Especially since I Refused to watch the M83 set on the livestream. I will say, that Refused set was INCREDIBLE. They were so cordial and simply left everything out on the stage.
BTW, Coachella’s Livestream experience this year was mighty impressive. Even though I’ll be walking in Michael_’s footsteps in mere days, I feel like I’ve already gotten a taste. I focused on watching bands I knew I’d have to miss due to conflicts or just lack of preparation. The benefits of a two weekend festival are slowly starting to show themselves.
Great review Michael_! YTMND!
The ball is in your court, Michael Hanna.
What does this have to do with me? I’m not Michael_ if that’s what you think. Also, I did not attend Coachella.
M83 was outstanding live, and although I agree with Michael_’s assessment that it was very crowded and kinda terrible to put them in the smaller venue, it was completely worth it. Everyone was dancing and it was a great time all around.
Although the complaint that it was tightly packed and hard to move is legitimate, I hate to break it to everyone, but all big shows are like that. I was lucky enough to get very close for The Shins – Bon Iver – Radiohead trifecta, and I was unable to move for all three of those concerts. Although not enjoyable, it is something festival goers will need to get used to: The closer you are, the most squished you will be.
TL;DR See M83, they were amazing, simply amazing.
Thanks for this post Alex!
It has given me the confidence needed to withstand the M83 crowd. I’ll be at The Rapture right before, hopefully people were dancing up a storm to them as well.
I caught The Rapture from the back, and it was a great time. Also, if you are looking to get your dance on, I hate to admit this, but Girl Talk was ridiculously amazing live. My friends and I are not into mashups at all, but that concert was a giant dance party.
Have fun an Coachella 2!
Nice work, M_
Just you guys wait until Stereogum asks djfreshie to host his own column: “Deconstructing Deconstructing: a Postmodern approach to critiquing a feature whose analysis is not a deconstruction, but rather mostly an overwrought self-satisfied look at which female artists are empowered or not empowered, based on the author’s own semi-archaic opinion of what constitutes empowerment in music, while never addressing anything actual musical, like whether maybe the female artists empower themselves by, oh I don’t know, being good at music? That or a really weak twitter study of Lil B.”
Very happy to see you all enjoyed my ramblings. I look forward to returning to regular comment section action on Wednesday, but until then, I’ll be enjoying what’s left of my vaca with a small shopping spree at Amoeba while hoping the sight of glow sticks embedded into my retinas will soon begin to fade.
Whoa whoa whoa, it’s nice that you’d like everything to go back to normal but it clearly can’t. Now that you’ve written an actual article, you can’t just “return to the regular comment section” like nothing has happened. Sure, you can still comment, but it’s gonna be awkward. Oh and just so you know, the other commenters and I have already been talking about you behind your back.
Plb do you have to be so catty?
I’m SUCH a bitch…
not to add to the awkwardness but i was already contacted by the higher-ups at buzzmedia (Bill Englington) to join the site soon as a featured writer.
mostly covering toots n’ dumps, but, if the budget allows, i hope to have my IBS diagnosed
if you’re skeptical, check out my past work: http://emilypothast.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/dirt1.jpg?w=497
look forward to feedback. should be fun. well done mikey_
until then,
- tit
I like it but do you have to be kissing it SO lovingly?
That’s not me kissing the poop. I’m not a star (somebody lied), just a reporter.
Fun Fun Fun Fest really is shaping up to be the most consistently awesome festival in terms of bands, location, size, and the crowd in general
While I have also never been to Coachella (one day…) I had a similar experience at RockNess a couple of years age, where some people clearly had no idea the sort of stuff that went on at a Crystal Castles show. Sadly that festival caters almost entirely to that crowd now.
They do, and people did some awful things like leave bands the instant they played their hit song (90% of the Gotye crowd left after they played “Somebody That I Used to Know”), however I have to say people were just so happy to be there, and with the slight exception of crowd surfers (I am 6’4″ and get kicked in the head every time….every time) I thought the crowd was great for almost all the shows. To be honest, the Real Estate crowd was 10x better at Coachella than any other time I have seen them in SF. Now that I think of it, maybe SF just has a really shitty concert scene….
But what did you think about Tupac????
THE PEOPLE WANT/NEED TO KNOW!
This article really underscores Michael’s exemplary efforts in the comment section here. Kudos.
nice sneaky reference to the underscore
The complaint about the showers on the campground couldn’t be more valid. 2010 was my only Coachella and they shower situation was rediculous. We decided to get a hotel around 5:30 on day one. The demo at the campground is so young too, I was 26 when I went and it was probably the first time in my life I felt old.
This is starting to bring back memories…
Pretty sure that Coachella overbooked the camping grounds. My friends were coming in on Friday and were not allowed entrance (they had camping passes and wristbands). They had to stay parked in a ditch outside the festival ground for… 8 hours? I think 8 hours. Missed LCD Soundsystem and such.
They eventually got them in by turning the “Checkpoint Station” into campgrounds. My friend said they were pitching their tents over broken glass from bottled beer that was confiscated/destroyed.
I wasn’t aware of “Gatecrashers” in 2010, I believe it, but I think a lot of it had to do with Coachella selling too many camping passes. The campgrounds were MUCH smaller in 2009, although that was the last year they had “Normal Camping” (read: not car camping).
My guess in 2010 is that they didn’t estimate properly how much more space car camping was going to take up. *shrug* I’m not defending em, fuck em, but I think there is a more rational explanation than 10,000 people gatecrashed. Makes it sound like none of them didn’t have tickets.
This was my first Coachella and I have to say that camping was not bad at all. There was never a long wait for a bathroom (although they were disgusting to say the least) and the longest I waited for a shower was 20 minutes (the line was in front of yoga, so I can’t complain too much). Although the showers were not clean, they were far from bad, and had cold water, which was pretty damn refreshing in the heat. I am currently 25, and there are definitely younger people there, but I did not feel old, just really out of shape….
After reading through this post, it occurred to me that I come off as a sad, out of shape man, with low standards…. I am going to reevaluate my life now.
???
The shower situation at a three day rock n’ roll festival is less than ideal?…….Holy shit!
I thought it was all about the music, dude……
I thought your piece, which made strong, insightful observations at times, suffered overall because it reeked of (“suburban?”) annoyance and judgement.
Really. The world wants to know.
How annoyed were you?
I’ve been to six Coachellas now, with this being the first I stayed at a hotel. I’m not sure if you were at Coachella 2010, but it was estimated that tens of thousands of people crashed the gates and campgrounds throughout the weekend and made for a somewhat dangerous logistical nightmare. Organizers also attempted to make several drastic changes to the campground area that year by expanding the campground area and centralizing the shower area, which for some reason was cut down to a fraction of the size from previous years. As plb102′s comment above states, it was an issue. Yes, I understand it’s a rock ‘n roll festival (Well, these days, it’s becoming a stretch to call it that…) but many people pay the $85 just to camp each year for the small perks like the availability of a shower. Keep in mind, Coachella weather is normally in the 90s (next weekend is forecast to be near 100 degrees), there is a ton of dust and dirt around, you spend your day in a mask of sweat and at the end or beginning of the day, some people just want to wash it all off. I can’t confirm since I haven’t been back to the campground since, but I believe the situation is back to normal, yet to point out and criticize that anecdote in regards to my experience this year doesn’t really make much sense.
Secondly, I wasn’t annoyed at any point during the great weekend and have trouble seeing where I came off that way during my post. Not being able to see M83 (quite literally, albeit) wasn’t a huge loss in my book since I’m not the hugest fan of M83 to begin with, and so I made the executive decision to leave and find a better way to spend my time. Several others around me made an exit for that same exact reason. I didn’t do so just so that I could say I was better than anyone in the crowd. I did so because I paid several hundred dollars to be at Coachella and wanted to make the most of my time there. Likewise, attending Justice was fascinating from my eyes because I don’t listen to that much EDM music, and given its massive popularity right now, I’m happy that I experienced it even if it didn’t turn me into a dance music fan. I wasn’t making any complaints during the set or being rude to anyone around me. I merely observed and let the kids dance, just as I would have liked someone to do for me if they were in my position during a band I enjoyed which they knew little about. To say I was annoying and judgemental would be to liken me to The Weeknd fans standing in first five rows from the front booing Wild Flag as they played, paying little to no attention to the performance, looking at their phones the entire time, complaining that they just wanted it to end and and making passive aggressive remarks / nearly starting a physical fight with the people whose views they were blocking as they pushed their way toward the front. That said, I’m all about the music whether I agree with someone else’s tastes or not, and my anecdotes were a defense to keeping the live experience fair to everyone. It appears to me that you’ve taken my criticism on common crowd courtesy to mean something against people’s tastes in music, and that just isn’t so.
People were BOOING Wild Flag?
Fuck teenagers.
Sadly, given how crowded festivals are, it is difficult to see a band up close unless you watch the previous show. To be honest, I arrived two shows early to see The Shins/Bon Iver/Radiohead (Radiohead up close is a life changing experience), and even then I was still 10 people back. With that in mind, some of my favorite shows from this year were the ones I actually went to for the next show. Although I did not know the songs, I did dance (hopefully that helps).
I recall in 2006 Tool fans booing Massive Attack.
I just… I can’t… I don’t even.
Seems to be a theme for Tool fans. They also booed My Bloody fucking Valentine in one of their return shows at All Point’s West. Mind you, this was during My Bloody Valentine’s reunion tour. I don’t mind the band, but Tool fans are the worst.
they were saying BOO-urns, right?
M_, I agree most of your observations, and even if one should expect some of this behavior from a growing number of festival goers I’m not sure it makes it any less obnoxious. I gotta say though, you do overuse the term “bro”. And yes, I do know what you mean, but it can make you come off a little judgemental. I’m not sure why classifying people as bros is ok when lumping people together as hipsters has been considered lazy for a while now.
It takes a bro to know a bro when he sees one ;)
The only reason I felt comfortable telling you that is cuz ur my bro
I remember Michael_ back before he was a big shot Stereogum contributor.
Many thanks for this dispatch, Michael_. I really enjoyed reading it.
I just have one issue, though: you said the Weeknd “absolutely met all expectations in his highly anticipated Coachella debut with a sultry mix of all the best from last year’s mixtape trilogy.”
I know I wasn’t there, but I watched the live stream and Mr. Tesfaye sounded very uneven vocally throughout the whole set. Did you not notice this? I’m really surprised that there wasn’t a stronger reaction about his performance. Not that I wanna be a Debbie Downer for the folks who liked his set, but are we really past the point of expecting singers to be good at singing?
I get what you mean, but then again, I’m not looking for perfection when a band plays (and I personally didn’t notice an unevenness with his singing from where I stood.) If the band sounded awful and there was a total lack of on-stage energy, I might have thought otherwise, but my expectations may not be as high as others’ in the vocal department.
This is kind of funny to me because when I was in college all I wanted was to go to Coachella. Now a few years on, and reading live reports from attendees over the past few years, and I think Coachella would be the most god awful experience ever thanks to the crowd and people showing up. Just watching the coverage from this past weekend, it seems like its turned into a commune for rich, annoying assholes; whether it be about what celebrity partied where, who Gerard Butler was fucking in a porta-potty, or whatever other nonsense was happening around the place.
I’m so glad there are a bunch of smaller festivals popping up (or growing up) around the country like Fun Fun Fest, Neon Desert, and LouFest.
All I gotta say is this
I saw Tune-Yards and St. Vincent last night in one of those shows in between the Coachella dates here in Tucson. they both were amazing. St. Vincent definitely brings out a totally different side to her songs live.
Refused were fucking amazing. This lil reunion of their’s might single-handedly bring punk hard-edge punk BACK…and i hope they keep going.
DARN KIDS AND THEIR CELLULAR PHONES