White Tents In The Desert Spring: Coachella 2006 Wrap-Up

After 18 bands in a weekend, Austinist is exhausted. Coachella 2006 was everything we thought it would be, only hotter, and with less alcohol (due to the scorching heat) and more drugs (since nobody could drink near the stages). We went in with no set agenda in terms of seeing particular bands - it seemed smarter to just hit whatever struck us right at the time. This strategy worked pretty well, and here's how it all went down.

The best moments of our Coachella experience:
#5 - Pogoing while shouting "2,4,6,8,10!" with The Go! Team and their many delirious fans. Silly, and enormously fun.

#4 - Not intending to see Los Amigos Invisibles, but then going, "What's that cool Latin beat? Where is it? Must. Find." It was addictive, and the crowd was huge. What a discovery (for us - you may already have their box set.)

#3 - Sigur Ros' wall of sound engulfing the festival grounds at sunset. Beautiful.

#2 - Kanye West doing the "white guy dance" to A-ha's "Take On Me" for a solid minute. And then telling the audience, "White people, this is your one and only chance to shout (the n word)! So take advantage!" during "Gold Digger." Of course, nobody actually did this. Brilliant.

#1 - Daft Punk's emergence from an enormous blinky pyramid to the Close Encounters theme. We thought everyone's head was going to explode. Then they played, and it just kept getting better.

Our Top 5 acts: Daft Punk, Sigur Ros, Wolf Parade, Gnarls Barkley, The Go! Team.

Five we're sorry we missed: Editors, Seu Jorge, Mylo, Ladytron, Celebration.

10 word reviews - Day One:

The Walkmen - Why all the new songs? Poor setlist hampers solid band.

Wolfmother - Great expectations, poor results. Volume too quiet, songs just alright.

Animal Collective - Weird, truly unique. Totally abstract. Not our bag, but engaging.

Common - Dr. Dre covers! And breakdancing! Too preachy, but great talent.

Kanye West - With strings! Exceeds expectations. Hit-filled. Winkingly mocks indie kids.

Sigur Ros - Amazing. Orchestral, epic, perfect setting. We finally get them now.

Franz Ferdinand - Hit and Miss. Should be better. But The Fallen kills.

Depeche Mode - Past prime. Gahan tries too hard. Stage mimics ZooTV badly.

Daft Punk - Smoking pyramids, robot costumes! Best crowd ever. Unfuckwithable dance explosion.

For day two, hit the extended entry.