The crowd cheers for Vampire Weekend during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, Calif., on Sunday, April 14, 2013 (Rodrigo Pena/Freelance Photographer)
After last night’s wild drive in a dust storm back to Riverside from the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, I have gotten enough dirt out of my eyes to start typing the highlights of the fest.
Here are some of the wild and wacky highlights that made our first weekend at the Coachella Festival.See more than 60 photo galleries from the weekend. You can see even more coverage here at the Audio File blog. Just click the Coachella 2013 tag. (There’s a lot of stuff we wrote about–even the portapotties.)
The Flaming Lips Boy in a Bubble Award: Major Lazer
Check out more photos from Major Lazer’s set.
Most metaphysical moment: Blur
During “The Universal,” everything seemed to make sense. See a gallery of photos from the set.
R. Kelly joins Phoenix on stage at the 2013 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. (Denis O’Regan/Coachella)
Weirdest surprise guest: R. Kelly with Phoenix.
Yeah, we’re still flummoxed, too. Read about Phoenix’s set here. See a full photo gallery of Phoenix at Coachella 2013.
Vintage Trouble performs at the 2013 Coachella Festival. (Tom Bray/Staff Photo)
Best dressed: Vintage Trouble
Vintage Trouble braved the sun Saturday in impeccable suits and started a blues rock soul dance party that just wouldn’t quit. See photos of Vintage Trouble at Coachella.
RELATED: More than 60 photo galleries from Coachella 2013, weekend one.
Band that may have awoken the demons of the underworld: Ghost B.C.
Ghost B.C. is so metal that they wear costumes in the desert heat, pair shredding with Gregorian chants and Latin lyrics and also aren’t afraid to play that disco beat. See photos of Ghost B.C. at Coachella 2013.
Band that will melt your face off: Japandroids
Pardeon the NME-style headline, but JAPANDROIDS WILL SAVE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL!. See photos of Japandroids at Coachella 2013.
Best quote of the weekend: Anthony Kiedis of Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Red Hot Chili Peppers lead singer said ““I feel like I’m going to go home and throw up a sandbox for my small child.” Read more about the band’s third headlining gig of Coachella. See photos of Red Hot Chili Peppers in action at the Coachella Festival.
Honorable mention on best quote: Ben Gibbard of The Postal Service
““What’s going on Coachella? We’re an imaginary band called The Postal Service,” Gibbard said.
Check out the set list and my review of The Postal Service at Coachella.
The Postal Service at Coachella 2013 (Rodrigo Pena/Freelance Photographer)
Best reminder to be safe:
Ben Gibbard reminded everyone during The Postal Service’s set to drink water, too. See photos of The Postal Service at Coachella. Thanks for that, Ben. Dehydration is serious business.
Best comedy act meets alt-country set: Father John Misty
Father John Misty played a dynamite set at Coachella 2013 that was chock full of alt-country gems, but he also had some funny banter from the stage, too.
Set most likely to cause psychological damage: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
There was a children’s choir singing with him on “Jubilee Street,” a prostitute-centric song. It only got darker from there. Read about Cave’s descent into Coachella 2013’s darkness. See photos of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at Coachella.
Best use of an object to find friends: The guy who had a pool noodle with David Hasselhoff’s face on it
The Hoff wasn’t there in the flesh, but a guy had his face on a pool noodle. It was awesome.
The Make-Up at Coachella 2013. (Tom Bray/Staff Photo)
Best music as performance art: The Make-Up
I’m still not exactly sure what I was watching with the amazing reunion of The Make-Up on Saturday, but I know I liked it. See the amazing photos from The Make-Up at Coachella.
Strangest set set-up: Wu-Tang Clan should have been on the main stage while Nick Cave brought his creepy demons to the Outdoor Theatre. The crowd was all the way back to nearly the Do Lab.
Band that would have had a great set if they had started on time: The Shouting Matches
Oh Justin Vernon, I dig your side project more than Bon Iver and I wanted more, but then I had to run away because you took too long to start playing.
Best band to air guitar to: JEFF the Brotherhood
Brothers Jamin and Jake Orrall are expanding from a two-piece (drums and guitar) to a quartet, but their psych garage punk tunes make you want to play the air guitar no matter what.