Tag Archives: Coachella Festival

I think the sun might be getting to people, inducing odd behavior.

Then again that’s probably just Coachella being Coachella.

In the past hour, I’ve seen a guy with a giant red mouse head, a burlesque show and mimes playing cymbals, and that’s just the performers.

I may have also seen Steven Spielberg and Anthony Kiedis, from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, in the crowd, though I can’t be sure.

The artists in today’s lineup are having fun.

The electronica music artist Deadmau5 stayed in character, refusing to remove his giant foam red alien mouse head during interviews with the foreign press.

Then the Gogol Bordello set sent the audience into an impromptu Russian danceoff, complete with one girl wearing a headdress and little else jumping off picnic tables.

A large chunk of crowd later ended up in the treehouse where the Lightning in a Bottle troupe did a burlesque show in mime, skidding across a pool and spraying the audience with a hose.

Coachella folks always bring a cast of characters to the festival, and you never know who’s going to show up.

Sean Penn, though, gets my vote for least spontaneous performer after delivering the same speech to both crowds. His security made sure the pit was clear of any of those pesky photographers.

Although, to be fair, he did quote Spicoli in his second set.

John Asbury
jasbury@PE.com

“Revolution is a young man’s job, and it’s your turn to be revolutionaries.”

This is from Penn’s second Coachella address, this one from the main Coachella Stage.

OK, so, since part of what we do here is evaluate performances, I just have to say I was slightly underwhelmed by his speech.

I like what he’s trying to do — inspire young people to activism and grass-roots efforts to make a difference — but his lackadasical delivery wasn’t inspiring at all.

I didn’t expect him to come out with a full gospel choir backing him and for him to preach The Word, but it woulda helped had he done something that seemed a little less like even HE wasn’t impressed with what he was accomplishing.

On the other hand, for all you folks who sometimes say, “I want to help, I just don’t know how,” well, if you’ve got the time, there are organizers working on the how.

Here’s his group’s site.

Gogol Bordello got the crowd going at Coachella and there’s a pig around. Listen in for more.

OK, finally, we have a good mosh pit at Coachella.

Thank you, Gogol Bordello!

I think everyone went nuts when they came on, but it hit fever pitch with “Start Wearing Purple.”

Check out this shot from one of our excellent staff photographers, Ramon Mena Owens.

See you in the pit!

Ramon Mena Owens/The Press-Enterprise

Gogol Bordello got the pit and the crowd surfers going on Sunday at Coachella.

I am so glad that Gogol Bordello is back on the stage again. I saw them last year and they rocked, but I was about to pass out since it was my first time at Coachella.

Now they’ve moved up to bring their awesome gypsy punk and cast of characters (dancers, accordions, singer Eugene Hutz in fabulous purple-striped pants, etc.) to the main stage.

I had a chance to talk with Hutz this afternoon and asked him what made Coachella so different from other festivals.

“It’s kind of more manic,” he said. “Maybe it’s just in the ground out here.”

He also had something to say about moving up from a tent to the main stage.

“This way it really sticks to the ribs,” he said.

Hear what has happened so far at the third day of Coachella.

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I have to say, the security at Coachella has never bothered me until today.

When entering, they tried to confiscate my pens and the guy didn’t seem to understand what a reporter was until his supervisor heard me explaining for a third time and finally let me through, with my evil ballpoints.

Now I just spent five bucks on a frozen lemonade and they won’t let me go to through the gate to the press area with it. Now I can understand bottles and alcohol, but a lemonade? What am I going to do — injure someone with a brain freeze?

I wonder if they’d let me sit in the big easy chair created by the ice bags.

Duffy might be the next Amy Winehouse, without all the drama.

She is making her Coachella debut, and she said it was also her festival debut.

When she had mic problems in the first song, the crowd let her know and she started again, after quipping that she’s never had anybody tell her they couldn’t hear her before.

She was also impressed that the crowd already knew some of her songs.

The thing that always amazes me about Coachella is the sheer number of people dancing in the Sahara Tent at any given time.

Dimitri From Paris has the crowd going insane with his reworking of Marvin Gaye and Tami Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”

He’s singing along with the crowd.

Not bad for a guy who got into music from watching American cop shows from the 1970s while growing up in France.