Oh yeah, back from one of those dream days of wonderful sounds. Warning! If you have a jealous streak, do not read any further!
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FIRST: To those of you who could've gone but didn't want to deal with the hassle, you missed out. Logistical problems were minimal. I arrived in Indio at about 10:45; it took about 40 minutes to get from the freeway to my parking spot, just enough time to prepare one's kit, if, like me, you hadn't done so already.
I waited in line for the gates to open, and went in a pretty fast moving line (another 20 minutes) past a security guard who eyed me up and down quickly but didn't lay a hand on me. Nice.
Inside, there was a gigantic ocean of green grass (a polo field, quite literally), with a huge outdoor stage, a smaller outdoor stage, three large tents, and the usual row of food vendors, as well as installations by Virgin, Sony, etc... Water was reasonable at 2 bucks a pop, and for most of the day, you could get a water without waiting very long in line. Nice, because it was a warm day, but it turned into a nice, cool evening.
OK, to the music. At 12:45 on the dot, as advertised, underground LA hiphop priestess Medusa dropped the downbeat on the larger outdoor stage. Believe it or not, my eyes started welling up with tears (am I wierd or what?) thinking, if this is the first act, and they've got the sound this much together, this is gonna be an incredible day! Medusa probably draws a lot of comparisons with Macy Gray, what with the wild hair and all, but these seem unfair, as she's been around quite a while and her whole vibe is more hip-hop. She had a tight 10 piece ensemble.
I checked out Souls of Mischeif just a bit before making my way to one of the tents to hear DJ Z-Trip spin an eclectic set, morphing Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" with Joe / Mystikal's "Stutter" into Billy Squier's "The Stroke." He does mad things with the rock and roll tunes!
Next up was MC Supernatural, a freakishly great freestyler who is one of the best warm up acts going. Those who haven't seen him have to seek him out, as "he can do shit you never heard..." and he can rhyme about "anything, anything."
Next I saw a really nice trio from Canada, The New Deal, which specializes in "live, improvised dance music." Really fun and positive vibes.
At about 3:00, I got to check out Nikka Costa. She's a small, teeny-tiny redheaded girl with a monstrous Janis Joplin voice and a funky band so tight you couldn't slip a dime through 'em. I made my way to see Smith and Mighty, but the dub stylee sound system was so loud I thought it would cause my eardrums to rip out of my head and roll around on the floor like jumping beans.
I went to another tent about 3:45 where Aceyalone was holding it down and had the packed in crowd hip hopping and neck snapping.
OK, I stopped off for a tasty three dollar hot dog (processed beef... mmmm), and my mouth was watering as I considered who to see next. I wanted to see if MC Supernatural could do it again, so I went to hear him warm up for The Roots on the large outdoor stage.
Now, here was perhaps my biggest tactical error of the night, as I saw the Roots just a few months back and, well, "they ain't sayin' nothin' new" since then. Still, I felt like I'd be a traitor to funk if Brother ?Love was laying it down and I wasn't there to hear it, but I missed a lot of really cool stuff, i.e., Plaid, Squarepusher, Photek, Ian Pooley, Ozomatli, etc. But, what to say about a day when The Roots is the lowpoint?
OK, now I was off to the smaller outdoor stage where, get this, St. Germain was to be followed by Mos Def and then Roni Size Reprazent! AAAAGHH the thought of it was almost too much to take. (And by the way, when I say smaller stage, it's only by comparison, the sound was PUMPING and in full effect!!!)
St. Germain did their jazz house thing. I'm not a big fan of "Tourist" but it is so cool to see people dancing to live jazz musicians that I didn't mind it. St. Germain has a trumpet, woodwinds, keyboard, guitar, and 2 percussionists, as well as Ludovic manning the master control pannel, looking like one of those Eastern Eurpoean liquor store owners you know is packing heavy artillery underneath the counter... he never smiles!!! The crowd loved it, and the sound was really together, even though it took them an inordinately long amount of time to get through the soundcheck.
Now, I was wondering about the scheduling of putting rapper Mos Def behind a live ensemble like St. Germain, but it could've been programmed by Gilles P. himself, as the dots were really well connected. Mos Def rocked! He came out with a funky-funky 4 piece band (the keyboard player actually had a Rhodes suitcase and a Minimoog! That's commitment!) and, as I predicted here once before, Black On Both Sides sounds MUCH better with live musicians. Tracks like "Hip Hop," "Love" and "My Umi Says" and "Fat Booty Pants" were too tight, the latter taking a 5 minute Gregory Isaacs detour, with Mos intoning some really soulful reggae vocals. Not only that, his band played some new material, which sounds like Fishbone playing Bob Marley... heavy guitar with the thumping reggae beats. Yeah, incredible. Mos Def!!! Unbelievable!!!
Finally came the main draw for me, Roni Size Reprazent. A smaller than expected crowd (he came on opposite Jane's Addiction on the main stage) gathered as they ripped through "Railing," "System Check" "Brown Paper Bag" "Snap Shot" "Who Told You" and etc... The setup is totally futuristic, with 4 keyboard/computer players stacked 2 deep in the center of the stage, an incredible drummer on the far left, and a bass player far right. MC Dynamite and vocalist Onalee take turns ripping it up vocally.
In fact, Reprazent was so intense that I had to get away from my spot about 15 meters from the center of the stage. I went back an additional 45 meters, found myself a nice, wide open spot of green grass, where, when they broke into the bass groove of "In And Out" I was able to bust into what I'm sure were totally ridiculous looking but great feeling, air-drummer/ninja kicker moves. Just when I thought I couldn't get much higher, who did I see next to me but the one and only Questlove himself, black-fisted afropick in full effect, grooving to the crazy mad sounds!
Well, that did it for me. I could've hung out to hear Fat Boy Slim, the Chemical Brothers, Gangstarr, and Kruder and Dorfmeister, but by this time, the schedules published in the program were way off, and I didn't reckon anything could top Reprazent in raw intensity. (Plus, I'm old enough to be Leslie Shill's much younger brother... I was spent!)
BTW., kudos to the city of Indio for doing a great job hosting the event, as the police had the whole route back to the freeway blocked off, and getting out was hardly any problem at all (once you find your car, heh heh....) What a DAY! What a NIGHT!!! Coachella ROCKED!!!!
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sun Apr 29 2001 - 22:56:22 CEST