Tag Archives: Coachella Festival

The Hoff allegedly rejected at Coachella

It’s good to know that I wasn’t the only one who saw David Hasselhoff, oh he of “Knight Rider” supremeness, at the 2008 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

But, fellow blogger Kim Pierceall and I did not turn away from the Hoff, even when we were puzzled by his wardrobe, because the Hoff was a man of the people, walking through the Empire Polo Field like the rest of us non-celebs.

Anyway, according to a news report, the Hoff watched Mark Ronson’s set (this I knew from a colleague watching that set), but then he complimented the DJ’s set and expressed interest in working with him.

Read this for Ronson’s response.

Lame. Ronson could have worked wonders on “Jump In My Car.”

Radiohead misses Prince’s Coachella clip

So if you weren’t at Coachella to see Prince cover Radiohead’s “Creep,” you might never see it. Even Thom Yorke hasn’t seen it!

The sultan of purple has taken down all YouTube postings of the clip, claiming a copyright violation.

There’s an interesting story from the Associated Press today mentioning that even Radiohead hasn’t had a chance to see it.

Rodrigo Pena/The Press-Enterprise
Prince rocks out at the 2008 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Radiohead took it in stride (I mean, according to the story, Thom Yorke even laughs) and then Yorke called for Prince to unblock it and said Radiohead should be the one to block it.

Now, what Radiohead should do is somehow come up with a way for fans to pay what they wish to see the clip.

If you want to relive the 2008 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, you can check out our special Coachella Web section. There might even be some pictures of Prince in the Day 2 slideshows.

Differences between Coachella and Stagecoach

The Stagecoach and Coachella experiences are very different, even though they’re at the same venue only a week apart.

Glow sticks:
Coachella: Everyone has one in the dance tent. They may or may not be on illegal substances.
Stagecoach: A bunch of people have giant glow sticks in front of the Mane Stage.

Footwear:
Coachella: Vintage sneakers
Stagecoach: Cowboy boots

Vendors:
Coachella: Very limited outside vendors, cordoned off in an area away from the stages.
Stagecoach: Booths peddling clothes for punky cowgirls, saddles and more are near the main stage

Headwear:
Coachella: Recycling bin tops
Stagecoach: Beer box cowboy hats

Beer:
Coachella: required a Heineken wristband
Stagecoach: requires a Budweiser wristband

Second stage star:
Coachella: Dwight Yoakam
Stagecoach: Dwight Yoakam

More Coachella tidbits

Whew–have you recovered from Coachella 2008 yet?

My head is still swimiming, but I am back and blogging with some extra stuff I wasn’t able to get in during the busy, busy weekend.

First up–here’s what I’m deeming my first ever Coachella Citizens Award, which goes to a Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival first-timer for capturing what the spirit of the show is about.

This year’s winner is Cara Rauh of Oregon.

She attended Coachella for the first time with a friend who was in the U.S. from Brazil who suggested they attend the festival.

It was Rauh’s first big festival and she decided to camp out. In her early 30s, she was a bit concerned about what she had gotten into when she saw a younger demographic at the campground, but she was impressed by how smoothly things ran checking in and getting tickets and everything that was needed.

“I love being introduced to new music,” Rauh said.

The highlights for her were the bands. I met Rauh while checking out Vampire Weekend’s set on Friday and she was truly thrilled to be exposed to new sounds from bands she wouldn’t otherwise hear.

Coachella wants its pig back

So maybe the pig wasn’t supposed to drift up, up and away during Roger Waters’ set Sunday night.

Check out this press release I just got, now that I’ve awaken from the post-Coachella coma-like state.

Coachella organizers are offering $10,000 and four festival tickets for life in exchange for the safe return of the two-story inflatable pig that broke loose during Roger Waters’ set on the final night (Sunday, April 27) of the 2008 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The pig escaped and floated into the desert sky just prior to the intermission between Roger Waters’ back-to-back sets–marking the only back-to-back Coachella sets by one artist in the critically acclaimed festival’s history.

Anyone with information on the lost pig should e-mail lostpig@coachella.com.

A review of Roger Waters’ Coachella performance

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is known for its moments–those fleeting periods of magic that last for mere minutes shared by only those who make the musical pilgrimage to the Empire Polo Field in Indio.

While one of the most talked about moments came on Saturday night when Prince covered Radiohead’s “Creep,” perhaps the most appropriate one was when a giant inflatable pig floated above the crowd and drifted into the air over the Coachella Valley, signaling the end of the first half of Roger Waters’ set and the beginning of the end of this year’s edition of Coachella.

Waters, a driving force behind psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, delivered the most visually stunning set ever in Coachella’s history. A shower of pyrotechnics engaged when Waters opened his set with “The Show” off the epic “The Wall.”

He and his full band, complete with powerful female backup singers,played some of Pink Floyd’s best, such as “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” “Wish You Were Here” and “Mother.”

To cap the Pink Floyd retrospective set, he ended with “Pigs,” as an inflatable porcine, spray-painted with a cartoon of Uncle Sam and the words “Don’t be led to the slaughter” hovered over the crowd before being cut loose.

After an intermission, Waters and his band came back to perform “Dark Side of the Moon” in its entirety, with stellar sound throughout the entire show.

Green lights flooded the stage when the unforgettable bass line for “Money” began and with every crescendo in “Us and Them, bright white lights pierced through the crowd.

However that set’s crowning moment came at the end, when was a three-dimensional triangular prism hung over the stage, slowly pirouetting as lights projected a clear rainbow of color on the smoky haze, bringing the icon album cover for “Dark Side of the Moon” to life and turning the crowd into a living part of it.

Waters wasn’t even finished. He and the band came back onstage to rile the crowd into a fist-pumping frenzy for “Another Brick in the Wall Part II” and an ultimate finale of “Comfortably Numb.”