Day One

Erase Errata

The first show we caught was Erase Errata and it was probably one of my favorite of the festival. Despite the already sweltering heat, the tent was packed full of people, most of whom had probably never heard the band before. Incredibly fun to watch, dissonant and fist-pumping at the same time, jagged guitar lisps over spine-crunch staccato basslines and complex repeated and varied THUMP in the drums. And a singer who has a great voice but prefers to scream. Yeah.

... And You Will Know Us By the Trial of the Dead

Over to the outdoor stage to see ... And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead. Also a great show. I'd never seen them before, though I loved their debut LP, Source Tags and Codes. Two drummers, fabulous idea. They played mostly new stuff which was a treat - the majority of it sounded really, really good, except for when one of the drummers got out from behind the kit to play guitar and sing. Not so good.

Junior Senior

The entire tent was screaming for more bizarre Dutch-Anglo-pop. They kept everybody dancing and, in one of the weirder Coachella moments, brought out Fred Schneider of the B-52's, Har Mar Superstar (shirtless), and some dude to sing a "Twist and Shout/Push It" medley. It was, uh, confusing but had an odd logic to it.

LCD Sound System

Caught LCD Sound System's first live performance on American soil. This was one of the highlights of Coachella. Such a GOOD sound, the perfect club band. Dark synth shadings over a simplistic (but extremely sensitive) dance grooves and distorted rant vocals - dance music that is comical, harrowing, and feels amazing all at the same time. A studio band that's even better live than it is in the studio. I left about three-fourths through their set for the Pixies. In retrospect, I should have stayed.

The Pixies

The Pixies had already begun their set. The main stage was flooded and it was futile to try to get any closer. Had a semi-obscure view of Frank Black (Or is he Black Francis again?) and spent most of the time watching the screen. They seemed concerned with packing in as many songs as possible. Caught "Gouge Away" (one of my favorites), "Debaser," "Velouria" and "Hey." It was like watching an HBO concert special.

The Rapture

Also one of the best sets at Coachella. They started with a new song that pointed in a good direction for the band as a whole: more "electronic" but still retaining a certain intensity and, of course, danceable. Analog-sounding lock-groove "ploink" drum patterns with mallet cymbal rolls for color underneath - alternately cryptic and funny lyrics and the typical bumpin' bass lines and one-off vocal harmonies reminiscent of the beginning of their "Heaven."

Eyedea & Abilities

Radiohead's set began immediately after the Rapture's ended. There was no prayer of getting anywhere near the band; I was exhausted anyway. I sat down on a bench and watched Eyedea & Abilities play from a distance. Great, great hip-hop. Much needed interplay between MC and DJ. Eyedea is an awesome MC. He seems to fill up the stage, simultaneously playing the part of the MC and the hype man, talking up Abilities before the DJ flew into some carpal-breaking turntablisms. In fact, the whole set was pretty much based around the virtuosity of Eyedea as an MC and Abilities (who seems to come straight out of the turntablist school) as a DJ. A freestyle, trading fours-style dual was in the middle of the set: Eyedea must have been a bitch in a battle.

Radiohead

After some good, old-fashioned hip-hop, I sauntered over to the grass to watch Radiohead from a distance. Rumors had been flying all day that Thom Yorke had lost his voice and Radiohead had pulled out unannounced. The names I heard thrown around as replacements were mostly the Beastie Boys and David Bowie -neither was true. Yorke's voice was damaged but it didn't come through in the singing until the very end of the set. When speaking, he sounded croaky, keeping his voice below a whisper. It sounded like a good set. Despite expelling my weight in sweat, a great first day.

- Jessica Suarez and Mark Sussman

Day Two

Shower

It's not a band, but I feel like I must mention this. Really great flow and the droplets were huge.

Broken Social Scene

So I was pretty late on Sunday. But I escaped a couple hours of heat and I'm sure I'll see !!! some other time. BSS was on top of its game, and set the stage for a lot of great bands on day two. In one of the more "that's sort of cool but not really" moves of the festival, a guitarist proposed to his girlfriend onstage after seven years of dating.

Muse, Atmosphere, Thursday, Cursive, Belle and Sebastian

Aside from Cursive, these bands were average or worse. The lead singer of Thursday fainted on stage due to the sheer emotion of his screamo. Belle and Sebastian fell asleep on stage due to the sheer boringness of their music. Muse wishes it was Radiohead and Atmosphere wished people took rap music more seriously. Hey, Atmosphere, just because you rap about more important themes than 50 Cent doesn't mean you're smart. That's like saying I get more action than a Mormon missionary.

Dizzee Rascal

British rapper has mad skills. Raps fast, raps smart. He's a young guy, so his show will only get better. When it does, it'll be scary. The show was mad fresh and mad other stuff.

Bright Eyes

Caught the tail end of the set and noticed the guitarist from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was playing with them. Like many bands, they felt it necessary to show they don't support Bush. When will I find a great conservative indie rock band?

Air

Air is a mostly instrumental group of kind of old French guys. I never really understood it when people started hating the French (Freedom Fries?), but now I kind of get it. Cough * pretentious * cough.

Flaming Lips

The screen on the main stage had topless women running around as the words flashed across the screen: "Flaming Lips, Coachella 2004. The most spectacular moment of your life." In all seriousness, this performance was close. I was warned that the Lips would amaze me. With band members and dancers clad in animal costumes, it was an hour of childhood bliss. They only played four songs and made the crowd sing "Happy Birthday" to Beck's unborn child. But lead singer Wayne Coyne crowd surfed in a giant transparent bubble, so the smile never left my face. Every band I saw seemed to step up their performance for Coachella, but the Lips outdid them all.

The Cure

They came on late and played late. They played the hits, mixed in some better songs and looked sad. They were just OK. And after 20 bands who were better than OK, I wasn't disappointed. Plus, Robert Smith is funny-looking and fat. And if there's ever a time when you can't find a good band at Coachella, you'll always find someone funny-looking to watch.

- Nate Buchik