Frank at Coachella Music Festival (Sat Update Part 2)
Saturday was hot hot and a lot of standing. the first act we caught was MGMT. The tent was pretty full and hot. While most people knew the material they seemed to kick it up a bit on the last few songs and the crowd responded well. It’s funny to me to see so many people knowing the music to band that is so new. I just got to them recently and they’ve only recently released their first full length album. Next up was another hot performance in a tent. Bonde Do Role, mixing dj, singers and rap, wrapped up in Brazilian words, heavy metal sounds and various singers grabbing the mic. Over to the outdoor stage for Dwight Yoakam. A little bit’o country in the middle of everything else. He did a few of his Buck Owens covers, his own hits like “A Thousand Miles From Nowhere” “Guitars Cadillacs” and paid homage to another southern California artist, doing “Garden Party” by Rick Nelson. After a not so good burrito, it was over to the main stage for the rest of the night. Kraftwerk was up first. When you hear the beats, if you don’t know beter you don’t imagine 4 stoic Germans manning keyboards and laptops. A good show visually and musically. Portishead was next. While the band was tight and I did look forward to hearing them live, the words are depressing. If I wasn’t standing in a good spot I would have headed over to Flogging Molly. Prince closed out the night and I was glad I stayed in the crowd. He and his band threw a great show. Starting out with Morris Day, then Sheila E. doing “Glamorous Life”, some of the ‘youngsters’ didn’t know what was happening. He played most of his hits, closing with “Purple Rain” and “Let’s Go Crazy”. It was cool that he went back as far as “Controversy” My only disappointment was no songs from his 2 recent releases, 3121 and Planet Earth. He played almost 2 full hours so it was well worth it. It was great to see his guitar playing live.
One more day then home. It’s gone too fast!
