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Apr 20, 2011 By Michele Yamamoto

 

Yes, again with the delayed recap.

Sunday. The third and final day. It's always bittersweet. Several shades darker, several pounds lighter, and still woozy from day two, I always seem to feel a second wind coming on in that final day. At one point, I found myself walking by an art installation on my way across the field and thinking, "I'll have to check that out tomorrow," before the realization set in. But I digress.

First order of business was an interview with Brazilian dance-rock band CSS, and so I arrived on the field hurried, nervous and rather early. And yes, it was for our very own Under the Radar, but that's another entry.

By the time I wrapped and got a bite to eat, Menomena was up on the Outdoor Theater in blazing sun. One Oregon-based blogger made the observation that the set was ideally paced for the heat and the slot, and the audience, while not dancing wildly, was certainly engaged. The Portland group moved easily through the set and a relatively large group of insruments, including the baritone sax, which is a rare site indeed on the rock stage.

Following a bout of woozy, I mustered the energy to hit CSS at the Mojave. The tent was packed, and the band provided quite the counterpart to Menomena's performance. The crowd was off and dancing from the start with "Art Bitch," and the band was soaked through with sweat by the end of the second song. Crowd surfing by lead singer Lovefoxxx ensued.

Meanwhile, Wiz Khalifa blazed away on the main stage, and I caught the end of his set, which included hit song "Black and Yellow." The show primarily consisted of the Wiz requiring that we all get high immediately. And while even a straight-laced girl such as myself can find humor in a well-timed comment like that, it got a bit tired.

(Waffle ice cream sandwich interlude here. Original. No frills.)

Los Angeles band HEALTH was next on my list. My first glimpse of the noisy, experimental four-piece as I approached the tent was of bassist John Famiglietti's long dark hair being thrashed about. In fact, staring dead center, one could easily assume HEALTH to be some incarnation of a metal band—hair galore. And while there was great energy in both the band and the crowd, as relatively sparse as it was, I had to walk away with a promise to myself that I'd catch them in Los Angeles soon enough.

My sense of nostalgia won over my sense of curiosity. Jimmy Eat World was already on at the Outdoor theater. Most of the set was spent with me sitting in grass off in the distance, reliving high school with a friend to an all-too-appropriate soundtrack of "Sweetness" and "The Middle" from their album Bleed American, which came out my sophomore year. 

As we walked back across the field, Nas and Damian Marley started a cover of "Could You Be Loved" to a sea of people on the main stage. A Rastafarian flag waved up front, a Canadian flag with a marijuana leaf in place of the maple leaf held up the back.

(Kogi BBQ's short rib sliders here.)

Death From Above 1979 took to the main stage, and to sum it up, I have a friend who's still complaining about a sore neck today (Thursday). It sounded amazing, but you know.

Foster the People must have also been a great show as the Gobi was packed, but alas, the Gobi was running somewhere around 25 minutes behind schedule, and today was the last day. I had to jump ship during the second song.

Back to the main stage for ’80s comeback kids, Duran Duran, fresh off an album with producer extraordinaire Mark Ronson. They revisited the hits ("Planet Earth," "Notorious," "Rio," "Girls on Film," and more) while sprinkling in material from the recently released All You Need is Now. Yet another nostalgic act, the performance included a guest appearance from Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters who closed out the previous night on the Mojave.

The Strokes were amazing, or so I was told. It was coming up on the end of the day and I hadn't spent a moment in after sunset in the Sahara tent with its new light installation hanging above the crowd. And wouldn't you know it, the Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77 were about to start. Sometimes, you have to make these difficult decisions in life. Coachella is worse.

Though I may have been the only person in the Sahara tent not totally intoxicated or tripped out on whatever substance, I got down with the rest of them. When "Warp 1.9" started ticking away, the entire crowd was jumping, which is quite a sight when coupled with intense strobing. 

And the most fortuitous chain of events had culminated in the Outdoor theater running at least 20 minutes late. Practically all of PJ Harvey's set was mine for the taking. By the time I got to her, the main stage had gone dark for Kanye West, which meant that her sound was fairly uninterrupted until the tail end (quite a feat for the two big competing stages at that time of the day). Closing song "Meet Ze Monsta" easily ruled and the set was otherworldly. 

In the meantime, Kanye West had made a rather dramatic appearance by swinging out over the audience on a crane, continuing the tradition of going big at Coachella. Remember, this is where Wayne Coyne walked over the audience in a bubble, Arcade Fire dumped glowing beach balls on the crowd, Roger Waters lost an enormous inflatable pig, and Paul McCartney took several encores.

Practically a one-man show, West's set was carefully premeditated and formatted as a Greek tragedy, and it seemed he owned the stage all by himself. None of the guest appearances the whole festival had quietly expected after hearing of collaborators on the new album gracing the grounds materialized. Having neither caught the beginning nor been totally immersed in the crowd, I have to admit I was not particularly as taken by his set as I have been in the past at Coachella, but he certainly made his mark on the festival, and I got to hear "Monster." So, I was pleased and sad to watch it end. And really tired.

Another great Coachella in the books. While early organization of wristbands seemed all but organized, this year's festival was pleasantly revamped. A greatly improved layout eased traffic flows. The Gobi tent's expansion made that stage significantly more comfortable. The DoLab's proximity to the mainstage was less intrusive. And though I can't speak for everyone, I didn't spend more than one hour in the parking lot, even after Kanye. I somehow managed to make it  back to Los Angeles in the same time it would have ordinarily taken to get back to the Palm Springs Motel 6.

I sit here now, completely sick and drained, sifting through the experience. Can't wait to go back. 

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