Toronto – First off, lets list the songs that I enjoyed that weren’t played:

Inner City Pressure
Hiphopoptamus vs Rhymenocerious
Think about it
Business Time
Leggy Blonde (although Murray/Rhys Darby wasn’t there..that’s expected)
Robots

Now that those are out of the way, how was the actual show? It was pretty good. I guess a little background would help – unless you lived in a cave (Afghanistan), or Northern Alberta or something, you will know that Flight of the Conchords is pretty much the most popular comedy show on HBO. It’s a comedy/music show following the trial and tribulations of two New Zealanders named Jemaine and Bret as they try to make it big as a folk based duo in NYC. Music is peppered through out each episode, with most musical numbers mimicking a certain genre of music including Pet Shop Boys:

french chamber pop:

and many others. Nevertheless, the show found a strong following and well, the Flight of the Conchords decided to tour and sold out two shows at Massey Hall in about five minutes. I was lucky enough to get tickets – not as lucky as my coworker, who was sitting fourth row, but still, lucky.

The show started on time! By the time we entered at 8:15, we was shocked to find that Eugene Mirman was already into his opener set AND the place was packed. That dude was funny. At around 8:40, Mirman thanked the crowd and IMMEDIATELY introduced the Conchords. Who woulda thought? I had guesstimated that they would go on at around 9:30. I guess Massey Hall has strict curfew policies so it is only natural that they came on early, but 8:40 – that must be a record time for a band to go on.

The “band” consisted of Bret and Jermaine, as expected and they opened up with “Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor”. Thru out the rest of the 1:40 set, the band interchange between witty barbs and songs. Musically, they primarily relied on guitars, with the occasional synth and minor drums. Some dude named Nigel came out and was a multi instrumentalist while they primarily relied on prerecorded samples for some of the more complicated songs. The music they played primarily consisted on season 2 material, which was probably a great disappointment to many. I for one, think that the season 1 music was better then season 2, but that might be just my opinion. They did play “Foux Du Fafa”, “Mutha Uckas”, “The Most Beautiful Girl”, “Bowie” and “IF You’re Into It” among others from the first season. Some of the songs they played weren’t off either season and although they were funny, left the crowd wondering.

I had a good time at the show, Bret and Jermaine were hilarious and interacted with the crowd throughout the set. Even letting someone know that they knew he was taping them and suggested that they shut off the red light on their camcorder. Another good moment was when they stopped the show so that an audience member in the front row could take a bathroom break. All in all, it was an enjoyable night of entertainment, was it worth the 63$? Well I guess that depends on how big a fan you are.

Indio, CA – Welcome to day 2 of Coachella. I promise you this won’t be as lengthy as part 1, through no fault of my own. I had a leisurely lunch with some friends in nearby Palm Springs that afternoon, then got stuck in an inexplicable traffic jam trying to get into the festival on Saturday and didn’t get in until 6pm. In contrast to Friday, I had never seen any of the bands I decided to check out.

That wasn’t my initial plan, though. Once I got through the gates I hightailed it to the back of the field, wanting to catch Glasvegas. They were a highlight of SXSW for me and I wanted a chance to see them closer up, and I didn’t really have anything else I wanted to do during their time slot. I arrived just as they were supposed to go on, and immediately I knew something was amiss. Another nice thing about Coachella is that it is very efficient; bands almost always start on time, and barely any gear was on stage at this point. I overheard someone saying Glasvegas canceled because singer James was sick, then a keyboard rolled onto the stage. Glasvegas do not have a keyboard player so I correctly assumed they weren’t going to be playing. I was sad but ran back to the front of the field in order to see TV on the Radio after all.

Not sure what to say about TV on the Radio that hasn’t been said by almost everyone in the entire music world, they’re awesome. After seeing them I plan to spend more time listening to them, as I really enjoyed them a lot. There were a ton more people on the field Saturday and it seemed like almost everyone was at the main stage watching them and singing along enthusiastically. The vibe was really good Saturday afternoon, everyone seemed really excited to be there. I still noticed the sound at the main stage wasn’t the greatest, though. Not sure what was going on there.

I caught about 5 songs of Fleet Foxes’ set, some of which were from behind the beer garden fence, so I probably didn’t get the full experience. Along with TV on the Radio everyone seems to love them to death, while I agree they’re really good I prefer their album mostly for background music. It flows very well, as did their live show. Not sure how they got through their set wearing flannel with those thick beards though. I was overheating just looking at them. Big problem for them was that the stage they played on wasn’t far from the main stage, so the last half of their set was slightly marred by Thievery Corporation going on. I gave up, as I wanted to migrate anyway.

Thievery were, without a doubt, the unexpected highlight of my day on Saturday. I’m a casual fan, but friends that have seen them urged me to make sure I saw them and I’m glad I did. What a cast of amazing musicians they are; so interesting to watch and listen to and the beats wouldn’t let me stand still. They are from DC and have been around for almost fifteen years. Perry Farrell showed up and sang on one song; keeping with the trend that he will perform in some way at Coachella every single year. Luckily at this point in my life I am not opposed to dancing around like a fool all by myself and I don’t really care what people think. It was nice to see that many other people in this crowd felt the same way. I wonder how many of them were on drugs.. anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed their set and am going to make sure to see them again someday when I can.

M.I.A. was next, and while I’m not a huge fan of hers I was very interested to check her out. It seems like just yesterday she showed up on the scene, whatever scene that might be.. and now she’s nearly headlining one of the biggest festivals in the country. She definitely rose to the occasion even though she just had a baby a couple months ago. In between comments about wishing she was back in one of the tents performing, she promised us seven songs instead of six. She and her DJ and dancers were covered in glow in the dark stripes and she often sang from a mock podium similar to one you’d see at a presidential press conference, launching bullhorns into the crowd. This time when audience members were invited on stage it did not end the show, and just watching was a hell of a lot of fun.

So that’s basically Coachella 2009 from my perspective. I’m glad I decided to make the trip out and if the line up is good in future years, I’ll definitely be back for more dry heat and Del Taco.

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….