Coachella Arts and Music Festivle 2004, Indio, CA

Witnessed by Michael Zduniak

As music festivals go, Coachella 2004 did not disappoint. With headliners such as Radiohead, The Cure, The Pixies, and The Flaming Lips on display along with 70-plus other lesser-known bands all squashed onto 5 stages for two days of music-, heat-, and drug-induced euphoria, what else could one expect? Much like the previous run-on sentence, Coachella was packed full. But unlike many festivals that came before it, it also ended up handling its size surprisingly well, managing to deal with two days of sell-out crowds and abnormally high temperatures amazingly well. I went with quite the caravan of people; yet when all was said and done, everyone still agreed that, although the food prices were high and the crowds huge, they still had had a great time that was well worth the $70 a day (plus Ticket-bastard charges) price!

One of the definite strengths of Coachella this year was its line-up. I only saw about 10 complete sets, and yet the bands I did get to see were so amazing that I still had no trouble justifying the whole experience. As far as the headliners were concerned, Radiohead was amazing and truly played to the crowd. They went to great lengths to make sure even the cheap seats enjoyed their show, adding an incredible number of display screens and visual effects to their performance. The Flaming Lips were….The Flaming Lips in all their glory—fuzzy animal suits, animal blood poured on lead singer Wayne Coyne's head while singing, and Mr. Coyne delivered to the stage from outer-space in a giant inflatable ball which he then used to crowd surf. The Pixies were wonderful just for being The Pixies, but the fact that they were performing live in front of us for the first time in 11 years certainly helped as well! Finally, The Cure were as dark, brooding, and emotionally moving as ever!

Of the smaller acts I happened to pick up, techno-OG's Kraftwerk were extremely entertaining and very….German. I say this not only because I am half-German (and thus can get away with such statements), but also because of their surprising yet fitting appearance. Like their music, their wardrobe and setup was neat and to the point. Four finely dressed and expressionless clones operating 4 of the exact same sparsely configured keyboards doesn't get anymore German than that. And the fact that they were producing some bangin music that was driving the crowd absolutely wild all the while doesn't get any quirkier or more festival-esque than that.

In the mean time, I also managed to take in Sage Francis, a relatively indie MC from Providence, Rhode Island, who surprisingly had as much of a gift for comedy as he did for rapping. Throughout his whole set he eloquently and seamlessly combined the roles of MC, standup comedian, and all-around great performance artist by paying total attention to the crowd and mixing plenty of jokes in between the songs. And finally, to top it all off, a favorite band of mine by the name of Muse also made the cut, and put on a decent show as well.

Outside of musical entertainment, the Coachella crew also managed to bring in quite an interesting and entertaining array of artwork, oddities, and general entertainment. While strolling around in between concerts, I managed to catch the electrifying performance of a Tesla coil. It was a 50,000 volt electrical node that somehow managed to safely radiate electricity in every possible direction, basically creating lightning that would come right at you yet not touch you or anything else (and instead simply dissipate). It was absolutely mind-blowing.

Other techno gadgetry that I happened to see while there were the equivalents of giant battlebots – giant remote controlled robots that are fitted with various weapons and then let loose on each other. Some had flame-throwers, some had saws, and some just had claws for grabbing, ripping, and tearing (which believe me, they did). But, regardless of their chosen instrument of death, they were all impressive and wonderfully testosterone inducing (if not also slightly fear-inducing as I soon found myself suddenly thinking of The Matrix and the possibility of robot overlords!).

To top it all off, the Coachella planners actually managed to do the right thing and learn from the mistakes of the many festivals that came before, providing such wonderful things as $2 bottles of water and drinks (relatively cheap as concert and festival beverages go) and plenty of shade. I was even lucky enough to be one of the few who discovered that the PS2 tent (along with the Heineken tent) had air conditioning, and thus spent many of my heat-stroke moments in there cooling off. Finally, as hinted at a few seconds ago, there were indeed beer-gardens galore at Coachella, available to fulfill all your Amstel, Heineken, and domestic beer needs. And while I abstained from the beer myself**, I can attest that there were PLENTY of people there who made it pukingly obvious that they did not, and thus I can imagine that the prices for the beer were probably not that unreasonable either.

All in all, my 2004 Coachella experience (along with those of my friends) was a positive one filled with many warm and fuzzy moments of over-grown sparklers, strange German men, and bumper-crop beer gardens (which would probably explain the warm and fuzzy feeling). And so, I can only hope my future festival experiences shall be so colorful and intoxicating.

**(certainly not for a lack of want on my part, but rather a simple desire not to be so dehydrated as to puke on someone's girlfriend and leave with both heat stroke and severe internal bleeding)