coachella (Photo credit: joshc)
It’s only been three days into Coachella and already, I’m feeling depressed. Even though it would probably be better for us emotionally to focus more on the happenings in our industry that make us feel less sad (like Spotify losing $59 million dollars, or the new digital music rates set by the RIAA, NMPA, and DiMA that are supposed to bring in more revenue for artists) I think I’d much rather reminisce on Coachella and promise myself, once again, that I’ll be there next year. You’ve probably been hearing what we’ve heard, that weekend one at Coachella was pretty epic (Reappearance of TuPac epic enough?). Here’s some of the highlights from weekend 1, and you can keep up with the festival on your own over at Coachella’s YouTube site. The fun’s only just beginning.
Swedish House Mafia
I’ve never been one for DJ performances, but Swedish House Mafia‘s set was so good, the audience was stripping off the layers of clothing that were supposed to keep them warm so they could move to remixed versions of songs from Coldplay, Gotye, Florence and the Machine, and Diddy Dirty Money. Sounds like a party, and once again, I wish I was there.
West Coast Love
During Snoop Dogg‘s set Sunday night at the festival, 2Pac digitally rose from the dead in hologram form and joined Snoop and fellow west coast rapper Dr.Dre in a performance of “2 of Amerikas Most Wanted” and “Gangsta Party.” This whole performance might seem completely random and weird in hindsight, but I’m pretty sure at the time, people were losing their minds. Of course 2Pac wasn’t the only guest star, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, 50 cent, and of course Dre’s protegé, Eminem, were all in attendance.
Radiohead
What’s not to love about Radiohead? By all accounts the set was amazing, and featured some really cool set tricks. Below are some of my favs of the set Saturday night. I’ll count on your YouTubing skills to find links to the rest.
The Weeknd
The elusive Toronto native is truly an independent artist, and earned himself a nighttime slot at Coachella without having any official releases, but rather leveraging the hype surrounding his extremely popular mix tape releases. If you’re not familiar with The Weeknd, you might as well play catch up now. He’s set to perform again next week at Coachella and will follow his Coachella debut with a U.S. Tour this summer.
