Day 1: Coachella's GOODs, BADs and UGLYs (featuring Paul McCartney, Black Keys, Chemical Brothers and Craigslist)
Colin Young-Wolff
Check out photos from day one at "Coachella 2011: Day One with Boys Noize, Kings of Leon, The Black Keys and More"
Compared to last year's problems with wristbands and overcrowding, the first day of Coachella 2011 was smooth sailing. Greasy even.
Let's take a look at yesterday's GOODs, BADs and UGLYs.
GOOD: Paul McCartney returned to Coachella for a surprise DJ set with Afrojack. We originally thought this news was a joke. It seemed a bit like those random Coachella pairings you come up with for kicks. Prince and Pantera in the Sahara Tent... Elton John and the ghost of Freddie Mercury perform a duet backed by Cut Copy... Arcade Fire and Ozzie Osbourne selling jumbo pretzels in the beer garden... But no, this was the real deal.
BAD: No one seems to have a good photo of Sir Paul on the stage. Fists and lighters held aloft at concerts are a thing of the past. Now we're all about cameras and smartphones. But still no one got a good shot of McCartney? The truth is out there. We'll find it.
GOOD: Tame Impala. A big stage at a large outdoor festival was a good place for this Aussie foursome. Slowly building, psychedelic rock is a groove best served while hanging out on the grass. Minimal noodling might not have appeased the jam-band aficionados in the crowd, but that's what happens when psych rock goes mainstream.
GOOD: Nosaj Thing. "L.A.'s own Nosaj Thing turned the festival's Gobi tent into an aural igloo to weather Coachella's blizzard of white noise," says Drew Tewksbury, who thinks the Low End Theory alum could be the next Flying Lotus.
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