Indio, CA – Moving right along..
In 2006 Franz Ferdinand made a fan out of me when I first saw them at this very festival. I had never gotten into them until I was forced to sit through their set while waiting for another band and they completely blew me away. Understandably I was pretty stoked to see them perform the older hits as well as some songs off the new album “Tonight: Franz Ferdinand”, which I am really liking a lot. Funny story real quick: In ’06 I ran into singer Alex Kapranos a couple hours after seeing them (seriously, I was hauling ass from one stage to another and bumped into him pretty hard) and upon realizing who he was excitedly told him how much I enjoyed his band and he graciously stopped to say thanks and wished me a good rest of the night. Anyway, these guys just radiate energy when they are on stage, and I find it impossible to stand still and not be swept up into it when they play. The new material sounded spectacular, especially “Ulysses”.
Morrissey was up next. I had also seen him previously at Coachella in 1999, the inaugural year of the festival. I wondered if he’d make a comment about it, but he didn’t. His set started off strong and turned out to be similar to the one he played last weekend – a few Smiths songs, mostly new songs. However, a little while into it he was obviously not happy with the way things were going. He kept putting his hand up to his ear which signaled he was having trouble hearing himself, and he made several angry comments about being able to smell burning flesh – “and I hope to God it’s human”, he said. I’m guessing anyone reading this blog is aware of Morrissey’s strict vegetarianism and animal advocacy. As a die hard fan I respect his dedication to the causes, but to me it’s pretty extreme at times (no, I am not a vegetarian because Moz says I should be, though I know he’s influenced many fans to that end. Very well and good for them but I love bacon thanks). He ended his set somewhat abruptly a few songs early but by then I wasn’t surprised. I felt bad for people who weren’t as familiar with him.. but what can you say about the man? He does what he wants and it’s a price you pay when you love his music. I’m not saying it’s okay to be a complete diva like he can be, but it’s something I’ve learned to live with.
Disappointment quickly faded away because it was time to book it back to the Sahara tent for The Presets. Ricky saw them recently in Toronto and reading his review made it so hard to wait for Friday night. Then I got even MORE excited to see them since the list of set times and locations were revealed for Coachella – they were given an hour to play (a long set, for a festival) late at night in the biggest tent, which was exactly what I had hoped for. I can definitely say that Jules and Kim did not disappoint, in fact they killed it. I have never danced so hard in my entire life and I don’t think I was the only one; I did not care that my tank top was soaked through with sweat even though the night had cooled off considerably. They powered through most of “Apocalypso”, one of my favorite albums of 2007, as well as a couple songs off of 2005’s “Beams”. The light show was also incredible to watch and it was just a perfect end to a very long, but satisfying day of music.
Day two coming soon….