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Coheed and Cambria, played pretty high up on the bill at Coachella, they are a decent band live, with a large collection of albums under their belt. For all the hype they were slightly disappointing, although, I believe that it was more down to me not knowing their music and the sound system being turned up to seven instead of eleven. Best Song of the set was their final song, titled welcome home, which has a memorable riff. For where they are playing at Glastonbury, I predict a nice surprise for someone with no real expectation of who or what they are.
Florence and the Machine, was superb, with a placing on the bill much lower than deserved. The band played at 5pm on the technical forth stage, and drew a huge crowd. She was predictable excellent and entertaining and enjoyed good banter with the crowd. The tent's top was nearly blown off at the start of every song, and in my opinion enjoyed the most enthusiastic crowd of the weekend. She will be good at Glastonbury, although I personally believe she should be second headlining one of the tents.
The Avett Brothers, put on a great show, their country tunes where ear pleasing to say the least and did extremely well to hold the crowd in near triple-digit weather. They where charming and had a great blend of upbeat songs with the slightly slower ones, with great vocal range in the band. The banjo's, violins, harmonica's where out in force, and put on a very fun set. I predict they will go down a storm at Glastonbury in their current location on the Bill.
Muse, where technically not even headlining, and had a lot of doubters in the crowd, with such a small fan base in the USA, many where thinking that they were not suited to be even playing at night time. By the first riff in the opening song Uprising, the crowd instantly turned into Muse-heads, and became and extremely memorable show, with the crowd participating more than any other show on the main stage. Muse played a fantastically produced set list, with the better songs in the new albums mixed with classics at a 1:2 ratio. Matt Bellamy was exquisite, and with performances like that in America, they will quickly become one of the most loved bands in the USA. They were one of five bands to not lose their crowd at any point during the show on the main stage. These Bands were, in order of awesomeness(in terms of performance that weekend); Muse, Faith No More, Them Crooked Vultures, Jay-Z, and The Specials.
I will put Coachella down as a big tick, in the things in life to do before I die. However, several things must be noted as negative that I found at the festival.
1) No water allowed into "festival area". This is inhumane, in temperatures near triple digits and often higher, the need to make more money over people in the middle of the dessert with few places to get water (cheaply), on site makes no ethical sense.
2) I am rather annoyed that the cancellations on some stages due to the Volcano; granted, it happens, but at least tell people what is happening, or replace the artists. The cribs got cancelled, and no-one clocked on until, they where 20 minutes late, and people came to the realization that they where now waiting for the next act, in a further hour away. Also just bringing the line up down one step, doesn't replace Gary Numan. And switching Sly Stone and Little Boots, was drastically unfair to Little Boots and the crowd, the announcement didn't say when Sly was playing or when Little Boots was playing, and the crowd in seconds diminished from a full house to be being three people deep, and overcrowding the Phoenix and Thom Yorke crowd.
3) I get the whole, new music is a good thing to see at a festival, but the main stage was littered with unfamiliar acts, which invariably left to overcrowding in the tents.
4) Small beer, $7
But overall, I had a fantastic time, and I sneaked in every day about 8 bottles of water so life is good
