2009 Coachella has come and gone...

It's 2009. A year in which the economy has been battering most people left and right. A year which many have found to be one of the most challenging years of their life.

And yet, this past weekend, Coachella 2009 posted the 2nd highest attendance in their 10 years of existence.

My mom and I made our second-year trip down to Indio, CA for the historic festival this past Thursday. Walking onto the Polo Grounds Friday we both read the opening page of the Coachella setlist/booklet. I especially liked it - it seemed to put everything into perspective for this year of the festival and felt like the proper way to start off this Coachella review:

"Welcome to the 10th annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival

A decade ago, a lineup of trailblazing performers set up on a polo field in the middle of the desert, congragating for 48 hours in celebration of music and art. There had never been anthing like it but something about that weekend ignited a spirit that was undeniable.

Fast foward to the present, where amid the most uncertain of times that spirit is more necessary than ever. On this 10th Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, take comfort in knowing that for at least 72 hours we can put aside the woes of the world to revel in it. After all, there's a Beatle here!

As you meander from stage to stage with the sun beating down and the desert wind blowing in your face, take time to appreciate your favorite artists knowing that when the going gets rough there's still music.

Enjoy YOUR weekend!

-Goldenvoice"

When the going gets rough, there's still music. Have you ever heard such a truer statement?

Anyway, getting to my review (which I'll make a bit easier to read this year by clearly defining the dates - actual festival dates are colored).

Thursday 4/16: Prior to departure I had decided to paint the car with "Coachella 2009!", "Coachella or Bust". Turns out that this may have been one of the best ideas we came up with from this year. As we left Sacramento on the 8-hour drive for Palm Springs (where our condo was), the paint evoked even more excitement and spirit for the weekend. And as we got closer to the festival, we started getting fist pumps, excited yelling, and spontaneous honking from other festival-goers that liked our paint along the way. We both agreed that it was probably the only time in our lives that we'd feel "anything like a celebrity." But it was more than that. It's an instant united bond with strangers. We stopped at a gas station in Firebaugh and came across another painted car. Instantly we smiled at each other and got respective "Where ya from?"s. Where else in the world would you be united on the road with strangers simply because of a common destination? Only at Coachella.

That being said, the rest of Thursday was filled with lots of driving and the occasional funny pit stops. If you remember my blog post on Coachella last year, you'll remember my words and drawing on the Denny's restaurant in Coalinga. To refresh you, the restaurant had a glass panel that was nearly invisible near the door. As you can probably guess, people ran into it. Alot. And it was funnier than hell. So earlier this year we made it a goal to stop at that same Denny's to see if the glass still existed and whether or not we'd see anyone bump into it while eating.

Unfortunately for us, the restaurant has been renovated - new layout, colors, etc, including a new entry door that doesn't have the "glass panel of doom", as I called it. Still, we questioned the manager on duty about the panel to see if she knew about it and/or could explain more. "We had to call corporate," she said, "because people kept hurting themselves by running into it." "There would be at least five people a day that would bump into it." Trying to refrain our laughter, we also discovered that one lady actually had to get ice for hitting the panel so hard.

Our other guarantee before the trip was a stop in Firebaugh for the Apricot Tree restaurant. The restaurant has been sort of a family tradition - as it is filled with hundreds of cool vintage lunchboxes and offers decent food off the freeway. The thing was, the place felt like death. We were the only ones eating lunch in there while the radio played depressing love songs.

Sadly, it's one of those places that people see less and less of now because of this. Everyone seems to opt for quick fast food, leaving the small mom-and-pop restaurants to die out. It's a story we all know. But if you're ever in Firebaugh, try and check it out. The picture to the right is an interior picture from Yelp.com

Friday 4/17: Early wake-ups at Coachella are the equivalent to waking up before everyone else on Christmas morning as a kid; the earlier you arrive, the more you have to see/experience. And Friday is always the easiest of the three days to wake up early (having not been out late the night before). So we cruised on over to the Polo Grounds after a quick breakfast.

Nice Surprises: Alberta Cross (just a good sound), People Under The Stairs (had the Gobi tent completely packed, kept emphasizing the "party"), Steve Aoki (the man was everywhere throughout the weekend and his actual performance in the Sahara was pretty tight. First time hearing "Warp 1.9" by the Bloody Beetroots), and Morrissey.

Bloody Fantastic: Paul McCartney (okay, so this is a given. The man is a Beatle for christ-sake. At the same time, he's also a 66-year old man. Lucky for him, he's a 66 year-old man that can still bring down the house. With classic after classic and tear-jerker moments involving dedications to late wife Linda, and George + John, there was little more to ask for. Hell, there were even fireworks at the booming part of "Live and Let Die". The best part of it all though? A crowd of 20,000+ singing along to "Hey Jude" and "Blackbird". Angelic. Beautiful. And it gave me goosebumps. Life-changing concert seeing Paul.), and Silversun Pickups (after two years of trying to see them, I finally have. Unfortunately, I had to cut their set a little short to get a decent spot for McCartney but from what I heard the new album Swoon is pretty damn good.)

"Meh": Black Keys (their band is only two guys, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney...it's a given that they're gonna have trouble holding down the main stage's attention. But for what it's worth, they did a decent job.), the Hold Steady (I was expecting a lot from them. And like my blogger friend Liz said, they're one of those bands I should like. Still, I can't find more than one or two songs that really stick out. Their energy live is great though. Frontman Craig Finn - pictured at right- seemed to have the energy of a salmon swimming upstream...), and the Ting Tings (caught them with Liz before Crystal Castles and they weren't nearly as awful as I thought they might be. For that, they get a "meh").

Craptastic: Crystal Castles (so after the Black Keys finished I finally met my SF area music blog The Bliss List friend, Liz. Very nice woman, and no, she's not lying about being tall. The Castles are coming off an odd ordeal with a Dallas club where they refused to play because the sound at the club wasn't up to their standards. It's a lot of "he said, she said" junk, but judging from some past grumbles that CC have had, it's most likely just them being prima-donnas. Anywho, crappy set from them. I loved their self-titled album last year but it didn't hit me until seeing them that Alice Glass just screams into the mic on all of their songs. The beats are fantastic, but her screaming kills any possible enjoyment one might get.)

Random things from Friday:

- Most people I've ever seen on a single day at Coachella. People of all ages and decent too - though older folks for McCartney and a latino-based group for Morrissey made up a lot of the crowd.

- Strawberry Lemonade still is expensive, and is still the best god damn lemonade in the world. So sugary sweet. When it's 100 degrees out, it's the only thing completely worth spending $6 bucks on.

- Saw a shirt that read "Elliott Smith...was MURDERED". Ha.

- The panic button is probably the only way to find your car at night in the parking lot.

Saturday 4/18: After returning home at the crack of dawn and not waking up on time, I decided I might as well take a dip in the condo pool. Learned that this is a great way to start out the day, I highly recommend it. Unfortunately for this day, we screwed around and didn't get out of Palm Springs and into Indio until around 1:00. And down near the festival we spent a fantastic 2 hours in traffic. Never again are we leaving that late for the grounds, it's ridiculous getting in. We did have an "Only at Coachella" moment though - we discussed music with a random stranger in an SUV stopped next to us at the red light.

Nice Surprises: Zane Lowe (random DJ that I heard a bit of and really liked. He also did one of the coolest things I've seen in the Sahara so far... getting everyone to get low and then jump up at the same time. See the video of this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv_qZ7ebV3k), and MSTRKRFT (their most recent album "Fist Of God" got awful reviews in the weeks prior to the festival, but their live performance seemed to suggest differently. Everything they played sounded really good, and almost all of their mixes seemed flawless.)

Bloody Fantastic: The Bloody Beetroots (I followed the hype they got from the Coachella lineup-posting day 1 and they killed it in the Sahara. The guys are lined up to be the next Justice. Count on it.), and the back-to-back sets of Fleet Foxes - Band Of Horses - Jenny Lewis (The week of Coachella I went and saw FF and BOH in SF and Santa Cruz respectively and I've seen Jenny before. But their back-to-back set times made it nearly impossible for me to not watch. And I was yet again, blown away by the harmonies of these three artists and the incredible talent they all possess. FF in the Sunset timeslot was a masterpiece by the lineup allotters.)

"Meh": Drive-By Truckers (yet again, another band I keep thinking that I should like based on my other preferences, but again, tis' not the case. They aren't bad and I liked a few songs, but nothing spectacular from this alt-country band.).

Craptastic: None. :)

Random things from Saturday:

- Blitzen Trapper (who I also saw along with FF) filled the Gobi tent to maximum occupancy early in the day. Made me happy to see such a young band get the attention they deserve.

- Things I saw while watching the Bloody Beetroots in the Sahara: the full body green zipper suit man (pictured at right), a bloody nose, the giant blow-up shark being battered around, a man dressed as a polar bear (complete with paws and head) and a roll of toilet paper being thrown around.

- Spotted Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal watching Jenny Lewis from the side VIP stage of the Outdoor Stage. Weird feeling seeing celebrities in person, I must confess.

Sunday 4/19: For the final day we went big. Big as in breakfast at Denny's beforehand. Woot. We did leave early though, specifically to catch an early set by the Vivian Girls.

Nice Surprises: Friendly Fires (this band surprised me the most, and when I get a chance I still intend to buy their album. To put it simply, imagine Cut Copy and VHS Or Beta having a lovechild together... you'd get Friendly Fires. Pictured at left.) and Lykke Li (I'll admit that I wasn't expecting much from her - I like her two main songs off of "Youth Novels" but I wasn't expecting her to croon her way into my personal "fantastic lead woman vocals" list - Jenny Lewis, Emily Haines, Neko Case, Feist, Jolie Holland...)

Bloody Fantastic: Peter Bjorn and John ("Living Thing" has a few great tracks but it hasn't stuck with me yet. Their live performance establishes it as more of a dance album than I originally thought. As a whole they surprised me with how good they sounded out on the Main Stage. I'm a sucker for Swedish people too.), Yeah Yeah Yeahs (I'm in love with "It's Blitz", so I expected to thoroughly enjoy them live. After sitting in the sun for two hours through a fantastic PB&J set, I was rewarded with a great seat too. Karen O is sexy, soulful and energetic just as much up close as she is on any music video of theirs.) and The Cure (sort of another given, but they played a 30 song set and eventually had the power turned off. Indio's ridiculous sound curfew at 12 always seems to be broken by mainstage artists - McCartney went on till at least 12:45 - and the Cure played till 12:30 before being shutoff. Being true musicians though, they continued to play, even with only a few amps backing them. For that, they earned my fantastic approval.)

"Meh": Vivian Girls (both my mother and I were interested in seeing them early on, and they weren't bad...just bland. Almost all of their songs sound exactly the same.), and Groove Armada (I expected more from them. They're big DJs out in the UK and they were kinda just blah for me.)

Craptastic: Etienne de Crecy (so I can't decide whether or not he truly belongs in this category, but I know that his DJ skills definitely lacked any pizzazz. The cube was epic so that's what I would say could put him into another rating. If you haven't seen any YouTube videos of the cube, you should look for one. The whole thing lights up and all of these crazy images go on in colors and cubes.)

Random things from Sunday:

- We stayed till the very last minute of Sunday (unlike last year). And just as I expected, people get crazy and don't want to leave. One of the art structures was a tiny house-looking shrine (pictured at right) and people started banging on the side of it and chanting "Coa-chella, Coa-chella!" I didn't actually see the final rally but the cops showed up and started telling people to leave. At some point multiple people were sprayed in the eyes with pepper spray. It got intense. People love Coachella.

- YYYs had eyeball blow-up balls thrown into the audience during "Zero" and I completely failed to get one as a souvenir.

Regrets:

- Not seeing: Los Campesinos!, White Lies, Cloud Cult, Okkervil River, and the Kills.

- Not trying: The Wafflelicious! ice-cream sandwich. Ice cream in between two toasted waffles. Sounded delightful.

- Not being there: For the naked wizard man being tazed by police. Video can be found here.

I'm a terrible summer-upper of things. I think the one resounding thing I'd like to say about this year though is that the sense of community only grew. Everyone present is there for the same thing - to enjoy life, music and art. Coachella isn't just a concert. It's a different lifestyle & world for three days in the desert each year.