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Music

Festival of the future

Coachella, California – After hearing a year’s worth of grumblings about the overcrowding and human gridlock that plagued Coachella last year, it was almost disconcerting how hassle-free entry was on Friday to the palm treed desert oasis.

Thanks to a reported cut back on attendance capacity, an alleviation of traffic surrounding the polo ground – using an impressive army-sized fleet of bus shuttles – and a new microchip wristband system that speeds flow through the gates, it felt like we’d glimpsed into the future of major music festival organization.

And speaking of Future, high buzz L.A. rappers Odd Future were a surprising disappointment midday at the Sahara tent.

With 20,000 plus chanting “Wolf! Gang!” before even a single beat was dropped, Tyler the Creator and his posse came out to a huge ovation but couldn’t hold the momentum and after several tracks the tent noticeably cleared. It could be too much too soon for the L.A. posse who seemed to be thriving at the moment on their catch phrases and vacuous internet hype.

Meanwhile Cee Lo Green broke the cardinal rule of Coachella mainstage – do not mess with your set time.

The off-kilter soul singer was nearly 40 minutes late and the crowd’s aggravation while baking peak-hour sun was palpable. When the burly Crazy crooner finally showed (“Sorry I just landed … it ain’t my fault,” he pleaded), he ran through an abbreviated set, which included hit F*** You, but had his sound cut after about five songs. F*** You, indeed.

It was smooth sailing however for shoegaze revivalists The Pains of Being Pure at Heart who impressed at the large Mojave tent, proving perhaps their career isn’t solely destined for playing niche crowds at small clubs.

Ditto for bouncy dance rock duo YACHT who played directly afterwards. Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans traded vocals and spastic dance moves and at times sounded (and looked) like an updated Talking Heads while dishing tunes from their new album, Shangri-La, out next month on DFA.

When discussing bands who thrive and command large stages then the night belonged blues rock experimentalists the Black Keys. The Akron duo soldiered through 20 minutes of their main stage set with curiously low sound levels and without the visual aid of the giant monitors which broadcast close-up video of the acts. Still, the tech issues couldn’t hold them down and when the monitors/sound finally came to life, the place exploded and fans danced to the crunching riffage in a field of soft grass.

Read more from Coachella here!

And also here!

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