I’m not sure if you heard or not, but Coachella was supposed to suck this year. They couldn’t get any decent acts on the bill– I mean, how could Prince and Portishead possibly compete with the likes of the Chili Peppers or a reunited Rage Against the Machine? Or hot new underground acts that you’ve never seen before like LCD Soundsystem or the Arcade Fire? (OK, that would have been pretty awesome.) So yeah– stop listening to your jaded friends and take a good look at Coachella 2009, especially when they heed my call to finally get Soundgarden to reunite (possibly).
Rogue Wave [Coachella; 1:30 p.m.]
Death Cab meets Southern California whine-rock, which I hear is great, if you’re into that sort of thing. Rogue Wave weren’t helped by poor sound quality in the first half of their set– the vocals were lost amidst heavy guitar. That makes their songs an especially tough sell, given that Zach Schwartz already has pitch problems, and his soft voice is easily lost in an even softer desert breeze. They ironed out those sound problems by mid-show, just in time to hit a couple of newer songs cleanly. Their one truly interesting moment, however, was when they attempted a bit of actual rock via a 45-second drum jam with all members participating– and nearly pulled it off. Rogue Wave also lose points because their frontman looks like a blond Bam Margera. Not fair, but true. –Joe Crosby
If you’ve happened to see Battles at a more conventional rock venue, you know these guys are liable to break a sweat or two onstage; I imagine John Stanier goes through more white T’s during an average week of touring than your favorite Atlanta rapper. So what happens in the broiler pan of the California desert– does Stanier spontaneously combust, Spinal Tap-style? Fortunately, as the first rock band made entirely of tungsten and fiber optics, these men-machine can withstand heat up to 5,000 degrees Kelvin without fucking up their ultra-precise grooves. I guess that makes it somewhat of a disappointment that they were allotted the same amount of air-time as the Black Kids, who I suppose had to play every one of their songs twice. Mirrored was nothing but high points, but while the band addressed the singles, Battles’ set felt unnecessarily truncated.

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