(Note: I only have some decent pics of my own, but zimbio.com has a ton of awesome ones from almost every set. So any pics of bands in this entry that are actually close/in focus are from there, haha.)
After another good night’s sleep (for some reason I slept insanely well this year… probably because I was so utterly spent each night, haha), we rose for Day 3. Sunday of the fest is always kinda sad to me because it’s like “OMG! It’s almost over already… wahhh!” but, this particular Sunday turned out to be a major contender for my all-time best day at Coach, so clearly I managed to fight through the sadness, haha.
Before heading into the festival we made our most valiant push yet on the box of wine, getting good and liquor’d up (speaking for myself at least, haha.) What fun! Since it was so much cooler than normal weather-wise (don’t think it officially cracked 90 degrees at all… weird!), it was pretty enjoyable hanging out in the campsite (the sun was still pretty brutal, though.)
We made it in in time to see the last 15 or so of…
King Khan and the Shrines – Ha! So enjoyable! King Khan is the dude in the Kaiser helmet and cape. He is the ringleader of the ensemble garage party rock band dressed all in green. The girl in blue is a cheerleader/dancer of sorts with a large pom-pom. The creature in orange is fellow Coach performer DJ Lance Rock making a guest appearance on their last song!
They are a blast and have tons of energy. Khan has a really cool voice, and the whole project brings to mind some of those crazy big funk groups of the 70s, like P-Funk or Sun Ra’s Arkestra. Definitely going to check out more of their stuff and try to catch any of their shows in the future.
Riding high from that awesomeness, we continued to the Sahara, where Rusko proceeded to DUB OUR BRAINS OUT. I’ve never really gotten into dubstep or tried very hard to do so, but now I COMPLETELY GET IT. Cause it’s pretty much the definition of DOOOOPE. Hahah!
This was just one of the most fun, delightful Coach surprises ever. We got there at about 3pm and immediately joined the rest of the crowd in GOING TOTALLY CRAZY – couldn’t help it! The sound is just so awesome and fat and indulgent and satisfying. So gratuitous, yet so irresistible! It’s like your body just instinctively knows how to move to these beats.
Check out this awesome blog post for a lot more on Rusko and to listen to some dooope tracks. (Haha.. I think he’s really cute, but he definitely makes a lot of hilarious faces while he’s performing. Also, like so many hipster girls, he was apparently wearing a romper.)
We heard the last part of Mayer Hawthorne doing some smooove loooove groooves while we rehydrated and rested our dubbed-out bodies, haha. Then we had many tough decisions to make and were forced to do a lot of set-splitting for almost the rest of the day 
, starting with…
Matt & Kim – holding down the Mojave with their usual lo-fi sound and hi-fi pep (and zeal. What zeal!). They are definitely a crowd-pleasing feel-good Coachella band. Not that any of these others aren’t, but they both just seem like normal fun-loving folks who just climbed up onstage and started rocking out, inviting the rest of us to join them. Delightful!
Florence and the Machine – Couldn’t get too close for this one, and only watched maybe 3-4 songs. Still, she sounded really good, and we could just see her flaming red hair and white flowing robes, haha. Her sound is an interesting one, I would call it something like bohemian indie soul. We heard “Drumming Song”, “Howl”, and “You’ve Got the Love”, three standout tracks from her debut album Lungs.
Julian Casablancas – Okay, we only watched about 3 songs, but what we heard was really cool.. good sound, AND we heard “Hard to Explain” (old Strokes favorite!) which was definitely a surprise, esp. so early in the set. Awesome!
Sadly, we left his set to try and check out Charlotte Gainsbourg, but when she was more than 20 minutes late, we decided to leave, since Jonsi was starting. Sorry, Charlotte; you had your chance! Ain’t got no time to stand around not watching nothing (That sentence just broke the record for negatives.)
Jonsi – To be honest, I was actually a bit tired by this point and in need of a rest, so I spent more than half of this set lying down, half-asleep. However, the music sounded extremely pleasant in this state. When I woke up, Jonsi (the singer of Sigur Ros) had donned a crazy colorful headdress and festooned himself with fabric and such. That was pretty cool, haha. He has a really unique voice, and for some reason seems to me like a lost king from a distant magical kingdom or something.
(Stay tuned for all the lowdown on the evening of Day 3 in Part 2 of this post. Again split for length purposes.)
REMIXMUSIX 