Coachella 2018

[concertgoer]

Was it worse than the shuttles in 2014?

[Deleted]

Apr 16, 2018 13:14:31 GMT -6 concertgoer said:

Was it worse than the shuttles in 2014?

absolutely not, thank God.

somehow Friday was the worst and i didn't even stay until 1 am. the drivers clearly didn't know the routes, based on the drive in that morning.

Saturday after bey was probably a 30 minute wait.

i had to wait for buses at Agua Sunday afternoon which has never happened ever.
walked right on Sunday night but i left right after APC.


they did the Anytime Anyline passes again this year and they didn't send out a preliminary survey to see which buses they need the most of, so that surely fucked it up again

[Deleted]

1. Beyonce, duh
2. Jamiroquai
3. St. Vincent
4. Otoboke Beaver
5. David Byrne
6. Vince Staples
7. Nile Rodgers and Chic
8. A Perfect Circle
9. King Krule
10. Soulwax and Jean Michel Jarre split



was also really impressed with Hundred Waters full production, John Maus, Nothing but Thieves, Sir Sly, Kelela, Moses Sumney, and Cardi B (especially compared to the D4N set)

lots more that i saw that at least met expectations if not exceeded them -- who knew coachella knew how to mosh for thee oh sees so well.

[Xamnam]

Hmmm. Suspect rankings.

[Deleted]

Apr 16, 2018 13:45:26 GMT -6 Xamnam said:

Hmmm. Suspect rankings.

GVF was fun and very tight for a bunch of 18 year olds or whatever (guitar amp was dead for the first song or two tho)

but they literally tried to dress like Zep live and copy their mannerisms so the joke about them being a cover band only got worse. also lead singer in native American attire in 2018 is definitely groan worthy.

fun set and they had a huge crowd that knew every word but not a top 10 moment

[Xamnam]

Heh. I 100% agree with that, they weren't even on my mind here.

[irvred]

Apr 16, 2018 13:48:47 GMT -6 @wretched said:

Apr 16, 2018 13:45:26 GMT -6 Xamnam said:

Hmmm. Suspect rankings.

GVF was fun and very tight for a bunch of 18 year olds or whatever (guitar amp was dead for the first song or two tho)

but they literally tried to dress like Zep live and copy their mannerisms so the joke about them being a cover band only got worse. also lead singer in native American attire in 2018 is definitely groan worthy.

fun set and they had a huge crowd that knew every word but not a top 10 moment

Ugh that sounds like the worst.

[Deleted]

Apr 16, 2018 13:54:46 GMT -6 Xamnam said:

Heh. I 100% agree with that, they weren't even on my mind here.

2-5 are all VERY close. Byrne was transcendental and Otoboke was absolutely brutal but Annie's new stage and return to full on rock show is just amazing.


oooh forgot to mention Regrettes. they were wonderful and really impressive stage presence for a band so young. wall of death during "ballroom blitz" was so dumb fun

[ten15]

Apr 16, 2018 13:57:27 GMT -6 @wretched said:

Apr 16, 2018 13:54:46 GMT -6 Xamnam said:

Heh. I 100% agree with that, they weren't even on my mind here.

2-5 are all VERY close. Byrne was transcendental and Otoboke was absolutely brutal but Annie's new stage and return to full on rock show is just amazing.


oooh forgot to mention Regrettes. they were wonderful and really impressive stage presence for a band so young. wall of death during "ballroom blitz" was so dumb fun

They were fun at RF last year (Regrettes) 

[Deleted]

they had quite the crowd for a tiny Sonora band too. happy for them to get recognized.


also God i hope jamiroquai gets booked for North Coast or something. just. simply. incredible.

[Deleted]

Apr 16, 2018 14:05:48 GMT -6 ten15 said:

Apr 16, 2018 13:57:27 GMT -6 @wretched said:

2-5 are all VERY close. Byrne was transcendental and Otoboke was absolutely brutal but Annie's new stage and return to full on rock show is just amazing.


oooh forgot to mention Regrettes. they were wonderful and really impressive stage presence for a band so young. wall of death during "ballroom blitz" was so dumb fun

They were fun at RF last year (Regrettes) 

Oh Wretched know this

[c1916]

Apr 16, 2018 13:10:27 GMT -6 Tweet said:

How bad was security this year?

Friday - 3PM arrival, about 45 minutes wait
Saturday - 2PM arrival, zero wait
Sunday - 3PM arrival, <10 minutes wait.

[c1916]

Apr 16, 2018 11:27:44 GMT -6 concertgoer said:

Apparently Cardi-B drew a bigger crowd than Beyoncé
That’s wild

There is no way that this is true.  I was able to stand comfortably in exactly the same place (right side, ADA equivalent spot) for Cardi B as I did for Haim.

For Beyonce, I was trampled (left side, more than twice as far back), fights breaking out around me, completely uncomfortable.  Stayed for 45 minutes...that was more than enough for me.  Way more trouble than it's worth...watch it on TV instead.

[c1916]

First impression top 5 for me:

1. David Byrne
2. St. Vincent
3. A Perfect Circle (although there were very, very few hits. You should know what you're going into W2 if that matters to you).
4. Aurora
5. Yaeji

I thought for sure that Cardi B would be a shitshow, and I was very pleasantly surprised.
Beyonce, however, was a shitshow...not her performance, which was serviceable, but the crowd was bonkers and not in a good way.

Best part of the weekend? How crazy simple and easy it was to get around due to the new layout. Pushing the Sahara out to the boonies was genius. I spent all weekend in the first 3 or 4 rows (including rail for St. Vincent, Byrne, APC, and about a dozen others) for everything before 9PM. That was so unexpected and crazy. Best Coachella "experience" ever.

[goodson]

love when someone describes beyonce's performance as "serviceable"

looooooooool

[Deleted]

so yeah overall pretty great week.

-laid by the poolside all wednesday after the usual 3x3 and animal fries at in & out, followed by our usual outdoor bbq place for dinner. grandparents took me brewery hopping after that. so much good stuff in the valley nowadays.

-went hiking thursday through some of the shorter and lower trails since the winds were really bad. back to the pool again then a fancy italian place for dinner downtown. also got to see the Andy Warhol exhibits at the Palm Springs museum before meeting up with jazzpolice on the strip for tiki drinks because apparently Grind Burger -- or long time hang out spot -- has closed.

-got on a later shuttle friday since the schedule was lighter earlier in the day. grabbed margs and a decent lunch nearby with the fam then was able to hop right on a bus that didn't bother with the bullshit secondary and tertiary stops but the driver also had no clue on the fastest way to the fest so it still took far too long (fucking I-10 to Jefferson to Ave 48 why is this so hard.)

they tried an idiotic system where they had a small batch of wristband scanners with a waiting area (read: bottleneck) then after that there was another spot where you waited to get in the security line. security was fucking pathetically shitty too -- in that they were pretty much randomly hardcore searching some people and holding up the line while others they pretty much let walk through without stopping them or wanding them. generally piss-poor and it took probably 45 minutes from the time i got off the bus to get into the fest.

new layout is mostly great. the sahara is actually internally sideways now so the DJ is playing from wall to wall which dampens the sound outside and doesnt shake the whole fest. the dolab was actually louder. it did cock up the lines for the craft beer tent on friday but i think people, including myself, didnt know that there was a new beer garden on the other side of the barn for sahara folks that just want the usual heineken or wine. the gobi, mojave, and sonora all having their own areas is way better for sound issues. i just wish the giant market thing wasnt directly in the middle of it all because it has a VIP area that stops you from easily going between the 3 and requires an annoying walkabout.

moses sumney was surprisingly terrific and had a good crowd for being an early set. same for kelela who put on a helluva show

los angeles azules were nice from the beer garden. feel like i should go to ruido fest and see them again with more intent and focus on their set and not just drinking and catching up with people

greta van fleet sounded very tight for being teenagers but they are literally trying to look like zeppelin on top of sounding like them and the native american outfit was just offputting. crowd was crazy into them tho.

regrettes were kinda the opposite in that they were equally young but were just doing a straight up punk set to a really fun active crowd and knew how to go to with the flow. ended with a "ballroom blitz" cover and wall of death

vince staples was oh my fucking god too good for that fucking crowd. campers are always an issue on the main stage but really idk if it was kygo, sza, abel, or all 3 but the front half of that crowd just didnt care and was trying to pretend vince wasnt playing while the back half of us were going off. visuals were stunning.

war on drugs sounded very nice from the beer garden

god i always have a great time at st vincent but this new full band set is just the dopest. it's very Byrne or NIN influenced with each member on their own separate LED panel that reacts to their movements and the videos behind the band were all new ones for every single song. also the dude drummer and bassist were in non-entity masks and outfits while Annie and Toko got to be in full rockstar outfits and do their new moves. which i thought was great. setlist was VERY heavy on the new stuff which i was fine but even the slower stuff (New York, Slow Disco, etc) had been revamped in full arena blowout rock tracks

caught the last bit of perfume genius, 4 or 5 songs. his tent was mostly empty but he still killed it. same setlist as usual. apparently people said his audio on the stream was bad but i honestly had no issues with it irl

soulwax was cool but also not quite what i was expecting? idk i probably enjoyed 2manydjs a few years ago more. soulwax was probably the tightest band of the weekend and the best sound but the 30-40 minutes i saw were basically an lcd-sounding version of a jam band song that never really stopped. dont get me wrong it was incredibly good and dancy but i guess i expected something with more...variations?

actually was able to grab dinner at the end of sza literally just so i could see "all the stars" which was delightful

JMJ was cool. very cheesy music obviously but the visuals were absolutely worth seeing live

jamiroquai went on late so i was actually able to see the first 6 or 7 weeknd songs which were a lot of bangers from starboy, black panther, and his guest spots which is honestly kinda what i really wanted so im v happy with that. he sounded good and the crowd was going off and the stage setup was neat. apparently it got very bland after that tho. i caught a few more songs at the end on my way out of the park during his encore and it still sounded fine.

god damnit jamiroquai was stellar. so happy we got "return of the space cowboy." i dont get why snoop was there and i dont care it was awesome. please play chicago soon.

shuttles on friday night were miserable and idk why because i left before weeknd or rezz were even done. again i suspect it's because they did anytime anywhere shuttle passes this year with no survey so they were blind guessing buses again. fucking pathetic.

(to be continued. heading into a meeting soon)

[jazzpolice]

This was definitely the best time I've had at Coachella in several years.

- The new layout and expanded footprint are great. They've done a stellar job of addressing many issues that plagued previous years. Moving the Sahara and adding the Central Market especially made a world of difference. As Wretched mentioned, it was a bit annoying to walk all the way around the VIP area to get to the other side of the market. But the crowds were light enough it never added much time for us.

- Other than Beyonce and Cardi B none of the sets felt crowded. For almost all the others I saw, you could walk up right at showtime and still get a pretty good spot.

- We got a later start than expected Friday so we were met with the cluster at Security around 2:30. Took about 30 min to get in. Arrived before 1:30 the next two days and walked right through. Never searched our bags thoroughly, just took a peek and that was it.

- Walked right on and off shuttles all three days. We left before the headliners were done Fri/Sun and we stayed in the back of the field for Beyonce to make an early exit Saturday so that helped a lot I'm sure.

- Never had to wait long for food or water and never at all for a bathroom (even the air-conditioned trailers).

- Art installations were all nice, it would be really nice if they could bring the Spectra back.

- Weather was ideal all three days.

Top 5:
Beyonce
David Byrne
Cardi B
Otoboke Beaver
Noname

Finally a big thanks to Wretched for hanging out with us. A lot you already know this, but he's the nicest guy.

[Deleted]

-grabbed an early shuttle saturday so of course we had to make 3 other stops but at least this driver knew the route and rode like a bat outta hell. and there was no line for scans or for security and hilariously i was just asked if i had anything on me and then wasnt so much wanded as i was kinda quickly stabbed with a metal detector wand that wasnt even on

Otoboke Beaver was just fucking phenomenal. bigger crowd than i expected for that time and just flat out slayed everyone and everything

caught the last bit of Sir Sly just for their singles and it was pretty fun

Nile Rodgers was so perfect. band was amazing and the singers were A+++ and he pretty much played every hit you could want. once again, the entire front half of the crowd was dead due to beyhive campers but us in the back were going nuts.

was able to get into Yaeji but -- and this is totally my fault -- i didnt know it was mostly a dj set. she did have a mic for vocals but she kinda just said one line every few minutes and then mixed it over a beat on repeat. it sounded fun but not the vibe i wanted.

Priests are just always too good.

Cherry Glazerr had probably the biggest crowd in the sonora all weekend which is cool

David Byrne's set was legit just like a spiritual journey, man. really tho what a beautifully coordinated set and routine. great setlist and the sunset slot was so perfect.

Tyler himself sounded good but same issue Vince had but even worse because anxious Bey fans

lots of craft beers then a mosh pit at Thee Oh Sees who fucking killed it

Haim sounded fine but i think it was almost the same setlist (from what i saw) as lolla 2013 with the dumb drum circle ending. so that's kinda weird.

i hadn't intended to see Hundred Waters but ended up going with pulp and jack and WOW. what a gorgeous set and a wild light show for such a tiny set. really good comedown before Bey.

i probably cant say enough about Beyonce but it's nothing you guys havent already heard. it was tremendous on all fronts. the only negative thing i can say is again, the crowd wasnt very amped -- despite the campers who wasted their whole day not enjoying the other sets -- and also i was a bit thrown off that Bey basically didnt recognize that she was at the fest or that there was a crowd until the very end. it felt very Super Bowl Halftime in that it was so coordinated that she was focused more on the cameras than on the crowd. it was such a dope show i still loved it but it definitely a bit alienating on that level. still, jay, solange, and destiny's child had everyone popping.

shuttles were somehow easier saturday night than any other day. also this was probably the drunkest ive been at coachella so i actually started having a hangover on the ride home and that was kinda torture lol


-grabbed lunch with the fam again and caught a later shuttle (like 2 pm) and there was a fucking line at agua caliente. had to wait for 3 buses before i could get on which was infuriating. security was almost as bad as friday too.

Japanese Breakfast put on a very good show and had a very receptive crowd

Nothing But Thieves were really good dumb fun alt rock that pretty much everyone here would hate but i thought they had a few bangers

Talaboman was nice if only for the yuma beer garden and bathrooms no one knows about

Fidlar was fidlar but they had a very large and rowdy crowd so that was cool

we tapped out on finding a good spot for Cardi and just sat up on the beer garden hill. it was definitely the biggest non headlining crowd ive seen (similar to Ice Cube in 2015 but Cardi was in broad fucking daylight) but there was a big push when she started and people shuffled around so it probably looked bigger but mightve been sparse and spacious between folks. she sounded great tho and the guest spots were good.

new Kamasi sounds great. outdoor sunset was perfect cause he had like a 20 piece band and something of a light show.

had never really heard much from John Maus but his live show was very neat. live drummer and bassist plus a beep boop guy and then John just bounces and screams at the audience the whole time with a lot of reverb.

the antarctic theater ruled this year. the first piece was a gorgeous "story" piece with music from St Vincent and the second was kinda just an abstract piece with music from Odesza. feels like it was bigger and louder than last year too.

King Krule sounded amazing. tinier crowd than i expected but everyone was very into it. kinda wish there had been more going on onstage but i also probably shouldnt have expected that, given the general sadboy demeanor of the music.

APC was so damn good. mostly new stuff, which i expected, but everyone sounded perfect and the new stage (finally) is really cool. shame they only did an hour depsite being a stage closer but im sure Maynard and Paul's conversation was "well how much time are you actually paying us for? an hour. k."

made my way out afterward and heard a little bit of Eminem (first ive heard any of his live show despie him being booked at however many fests ive gone to) and it didnt seem great. his voice seemed shot and he had a hype man who kept speaking over him duing every new (i think?) song. i didnt stick around for any special guests but im sure they were all better than eminem.

shuttle line was worse than it should have been for that time sunday but i guess slim shady didnt have a huge crowd, compared to Abel or Bey. still got home early which im not mad about.


-the art installations were beautiful and very much not-in-the-fucking-way like the last few years. only sad i didnt get to go into spectrum (giant rainbow tower) but the line never really went down and i was in too much of a hurry every day

craft beer tent was nice but i honestly dont think they changed out the selections almost all weekend so it was a little disappointing to just keep seeing the same options after years of pretty great variation hour-to-hour

absolutely 0 issues with sound or sights all weekend. also other than the main stage for Cardi and Bey, i dont think any set i was at was really "packed" compared to previous years. even full tents had space to move and the outdoor was absolutely empty all weekend. the new design for it is great though.

didnt get to explore food as much since i got lunch outside the fest every day and just got late dinners at whatever was open. basically just got some variation of pad thai or orange chicken most nights.


-flights were delayed all day yesterday for anywhere east of the mountains so i made friends with everyone at the bar in PSP and we all just got smashed together. flight was fine other than some real crazy winds during take off.

bae picked me up (with my car lol) and took me to dinner so i didnt get home to unpack until like 11 pm and went to be at like 2 am.


v dead today but v worth it. will likely get a 2019 ticket next month but i'd VERY much like to find any reason to not deal with shuttles anymore. rental car, uber, etc. don't care but im 7 years in and the shuttle situation is just continuous piss-poor. there's also separate security lines for shuttles vs camping vs driving so maybe others had better luck with security than i did.

[concertgoer]

Wow there’s a Yuma Beer Garden now ?
More details plz

[Deleted]

you cant take the drinks into the yuma. it's own little outdoor garden that's kinda hidden behind one of the twelve double doors (8 of which dont open lol) but yeah it's good for chugging and then going back to dance.


OH the Absolut tent next to the main was real fun this year. didnt get a chance to go in the Heineken house.

[ferro_man]

Apr 17, 2018 9:52:17 GMT -6 @wretched said:

Nothing But Thieves were really good dumb fun alt rock that pretty much everyone here would hate but i thought they had a few bangers

they were really good at lolla last year

[claypoolfan]

I thought you couldn't drink at all outside of beer gardens which I always thought sounded like the worst. Is that not the case?

[Deleted]

Apr 17, 2018 10:49:38 GMT -6 claypoolfan said:

I thought you couldn't drink at all outside of beer gardens which I always thought sounded like the worst. Is that not the case?

yes? 

[Deleted]

If things stay good for me, I'll likely return to Coachella in 2019. I'll need a roommate though.

[irvred]

I'm always lineup-dependent but will continue buying presale tickets just in case. So, maybe.

[concertgoer]

I’d like to go back at some point, but the lineups need to better for me to justify the cost.

[Tweet]

All things being equal I think the lady and I are gonna try to pull this off next year too. Depends on if she's able to pull the time off or not but if she gets hired on full time I don't think it'll be an issue

[neader]

ok let's do this

man i hated the new setup. getting over to the mojave always felt like such a chore, if they opened up the area south of the sonora that would be so much better. traffic was never too bad getting to places but it just took forever, and like mentioned above putting the central market there was annoying.

rip to craft beer tent which was totally overrun with bros on friday. sunday night after king krule was great since everyone was at odezsa, like hardly anyone in there.

got in thursday after buying pretty much everything we needed at walmart, set up camp, neighbors were awesome, had a good time hanging out with them and then heading into the silent (even though it wasn't) disco.

friday waaaaaas:

moses sumney was good, need to listen to most of his stuff to be able to enjoy it more for homecoming

kelela was fucking awesome.

kali uchis was decent but it definitely felt like something was missing from that set

as wretched said the regretts were great with ballroom blitz, thanks for dragging me to that

vince was the highlight of friday for me. he's really gotten so much better live and actually has a stage presence, even if the crowd was eh. the screens were amazing, kendrick coming out was a nice surprise. also shoutout to the girls behind us dropping the hard r and then rapping along to lift me up.

st vincent was great, so nice to finally get to see her. los angeles is a beast live.

Soulwax like I said were good but nothing to write home about. They were my most anticipated set of the weekend and though the middle of the set was great it still wasn't as good as I thought it was. I still regret not doing SZA.

Weeknd fucking blew, Jamiroquai were awesome, Rezz was whatever.

Saturday

otoboke beaver were fucking tight. i need to see them again.

chic were awesome as well, i was in a good space for that one too.

after chic i had a few beers then went to the last few songs of flatbush zombies to get a good spot for brockhampton and very happy i did. about 4 people back from dead center and they definitely lived up to my expectations. they came on 20 mins late and dom's mic kept cutting out but other than that, phenomenal. very happy to see them again in june.

david byrne was better than i expected as well, new stuff still isn't great imo but the old stuff is timeless. sad we didn't get born under punches. left early to check out tyler, prob one of my favorite memories of this fest was leaving him during sunset and dancing across outdoor to main.

tyler was decent, kinda let down. crowd wasn't into it and as a result his energy wasn't really there. prob my most disappointed of the weekend.

jorja smith was MUCH better than I expected. I assume she will be blowing up very soon, rightfully so.

Beyonce. Holy fucking shit Beyonce. It's been like what, three days? I'm still in the afterglow of that show. It is the goat show i've ever seen, over prince. The production, the dancing, the choreography, the theme, the music, the singing, the guests, how black it was, fucking awesome. engaging, empowering, and entertaining. bow down bitches.

sunday

noname was good, her band is so tight. excited for her to release some new material.

snail mail were good but i was lying down on a couch and fell asleep for most of the set, oh well.

after that i drank with some friends to get ready to party with cardi, and party with cardi we did. this was definitely one of my favorite sets. so many people expected her to fail and this was going to be her big flop moment but she fucking killed it, also probably the best crowd of the weekend, reminded me a lot of future last year. she deserves all the praise she gets and more.

kamasai was much better than i expected, prob my favorite set in terms of like had no expectations and blew me away. had fun dancing with stick thissy while kamasai was speaking on police brutality, i recorded that and it was hilarious but idk where the video is now sadly :/

left his set early and danced over to princess nokia at the sonora. she was great and the crowd was into her as well. after 25 mins she went offstage and even tho the lights were still off she didn't come back after a few minutes, a lot of people including myself left, she played pretty much everything i wanted to hear in that amount of time tho.

king krule was ok. wasn't a fan of the ooz and his live show didn't do much to sell me on him either.

the drums were amazing. i haven't listened to them in about 4 years and they were incredible. so dancey and fun.

eminem, like i said, much better once you got to the old stuff and dre was probably the best guest of the weekend.

right now as i'm deep in the coachella flu and super tired since my flight got delayed 4 hours and i didn't get home until 4.30 i'm not sure if i'll go next year. if kanye's there obviously, and if the lineup is good maybe, but i'm definitely not going in blind. i spent a LOT more money than I thought I would and trying to do this big trip in a few years it doesn't make sense to spend as much on one weekend as I could on two weeks in some places around the world.

[Deleted]

the best part of the weekend was explaining to non boarders what a "fuckin neader" means

[Deleted]

Apr 17, 2018 9:15:54 GMT -6 jazzpolice said:

Finally a big thanks to Wretched for hanging out with us. A lot you already know this, but he's the nicest guy.

nah you were both wonderful glad you guys didn't mind my drunk ramblings