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Arcade Fire

Apr 18, 2011 By Michele Yamamoto

I had every intention of recapping day 2 on the morning of day 3, but all the commotion of day 2 coupled with just the right combination of alcohol and dehydration prevented all that.

Significantly hotter than opening day, crowds were as scantily clad as ever though still dancing in the midday sun. Myself, I spent a good half hour or so in one of the air conditioned sponsor tents before setting out for Foals on the Mojave.

The English band thrashed about, climbing scaffolding and attempting to stage dive before a crowded house somehow still matching the band’s energy, which peaked for both in the closing song “Two Steps, Twice” from their debut album, Antidotes.

A rare but welcomed cloud cover moved in right as the crowd emerged from the shade of the tent, and I walked up the field to check in on The Delta Spirit’s set already swinging away at the Outdoor Theater for a couple of new songs.

Erykah Badu took to the main stage to scorching sun and feedback. Despite the technical issues, which apparently included having her sound cut out twice near the end, Badu was graceful and soulful, reminding the audience and crew, “I’m an artist and I’m sensitive…” as she went.

But Coachella doesn’t leave a lot of time to dwell, and off I went to Glasser at the Gobi. Formerly the “small tent,” the Gobi was now nearly equal in size to the Mojave and Cameron Mesirow and company filled it with moody atmospherics and echoed cries. The band moved deftly through most of the debut album, Ring, with Mesirow dancing in a shroud of white tulle and her backing band in full jumpsuits. At one point, she addressed the sweaty crowd, “Imagine how we feel.”

Just next door in the Mojave, Jenny and Johnny had already begun stirring up their adorable onstage chemistry. The duo and their backing band of friends worked their way through their lone debut album, but luckily the two have a strong amount of solo literature between them. Johnathan Rice‘s own “We’re All Stuck Out in the Desert” was perhaps the most germane song of the weekend, and the duo got the tent singing its chorus: “We’re all stuck out in the desert and we’re gonna die. Wipe that sand and salt from your blistering eyes.” The two decided to close the set with Jenny Lewis’ own blistering “The Next Messiah” from her album Acid Tongue.

After wandering a bit from stage to stage as the sun was starting to go down, I found myself parked at the main stage for the beautiful run of Bright Eyes and Mumford & Sons.

Bright Eyes’ set came at sunset and the Coachella veterans had a satisfying lineup of past material even though the band’s latest album The People’s Key was just released in February. “The Calendar Hung Itself,” “Cartoon Blues,” and “Lover I Don’t Have to Love” all made appearances alongside newer material, and the set closer was none other than 2005’s “Road to Joy.” A welcome decision given Oberst’s past post-Casssadaga comments on ending the band’s run with one last album and tour.

Mumford & Sons, on the other hand, seem to be just getting started. With a successful Grammy performance in the bag (both on their own tune as well as backing Bob Dylan on his), the English quartet can now add a well-received Coachella appearance to the CV. Replete with sing-a-longs, new songs and a horn section the band generated a driving set with the help of a lone kickdrum and some aggressive strumming—the group lead, Marcus Mumford, snapped a string midway through. The four spread across the front of the stage, essentially erasing the space between the audience and the scope of the stage. The closest to a club performance I’ve ever seen on the main stage.

Making my way out of the crowd for sustenance, Animal Collective felt less like a performance and more like performance art. This was due in large part to the fact that the big screens, which usually broadcast the onstage goings on to the back of the crowd, were filled instead with psychedelic color imagery for the entirety of the performance. The band worked below three large cubes—also bearing colorful abstract imagery—all courtesy of The Creators Project. The band sounded loose and experimental while being counterintuitively tight and rehearsed.

But the true highlight of the day was Arcade Fire‘s first headlining set. Having just been awarded the Grammy for Album of the Year, the bar was set high, but the band delivered their all (as usual). The seven-piece filled the main stage to bursting with intensity, often shouting all together while on whatever instrument they happened to be playing at the moment. The set list was comprised of songs old and new, but the crowning moment came during old favorite, “Wake Up,” from their first album, Funeral. As the song hit its emotional arc, a flood of opaque beach balls descended upon the crowd from an articulated crane above the stage, each with a synchronized lighting device that cycled through different colors in unison. Another gift of the Creators Project. And fans walked off the field holding their glowing souvenirs in awe.

And that was day two.

(www.coachella.com)