Coachella Part 2: The Sahara Tent

American act Girl Talk drew a large crowd with his set, despite competing against Morrissey for audience members. Girl Talk had everybody dancing with his seamless set of mash-up remixes, created with samples from well known pop, rap, rock and R&B songs. The set partially followed the progression of his latest album ‘Feed the Animals’, but also had a lot more to offer, with samples ranging from ACDC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ to Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’.

Girl Talk further entertained with an impressive light show and a stage full of dancers. The highlight of the set, however, was his finale in which he surfed over the crowd standing in an inflatable boat to the uplifting melody from Journey’s ‘Faithfully’.

Australian electro duo The Presets also had the Sahara tent overflowing with fans, despite sharing a timeslot with headline act Paul McCartney. Girl Talk proved a hard act to follow, but The Presets’ unique sound pleased the crowd and the light show was just as spectacular. The audience danced wildly as the duo performed familiar hits such as ‘Talk Like That’ and ‘Are You The One?’, and although they closed predictably with ‘My People’ the set was far from boring. The Presets deviated as usual from the radio-friendly recorded versions of their songs, adding extra elements and extending the songs to make them more suited to the dance frenzy of the festival crowd.

Coachella Part 1

The Coachella festival kicked off on Friday April 17 featuring big-name acts such as Paul McCartney, Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand, and many more.

Paul McCartney hushed those who were skeptical about his inclusion in the Coachella line-up, drawing an enormous crowd comprised of people who had been reserving their places on the grass all day, those who liked The Beatles’ music, and others who simply dropped by for the novelty value (or because their parents would kill them if they hadn’t).

For those who bought their Coachella ticket purely to see McCartney the wait proved worth it, as he belted out a set of 33 songs including ‘Hey Jude’, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Let It Be’. He also spoke to the crowd between songs, making dedications to late band members John Lennon and George Harrison, as well as to late wife Linda McCartney, who had passed away 11 years ago that day.

McCartney was preceded by Morrissey, former front-man of legendary indie rock group The Smiths, who impressed fans between meat-related tantrums and briefly removing his shirt.

Franz Ferdinand found that Coachella was perhaps not the best festival for audience participation, failing to get the audience singing, despite their clear enthusiasm for the band.

Other notable acts of the day included Girl Talk, The Presets, The Hold Steady, The Ting Tings, Conor Oberst, The Airborne Toxic Event and Leonard Cohen.