Coachella

I know all you political types get squirrely when I blog too much about music. I do know that. But it's my blog, right? And they won't let me blog about stuff like this at club.kingsnake, dance music is the last taboo there. Hard to imagine for a site that launched with a big photo of Alice Cooper with a snake in his mouth, that they'd draw the line at dance music. I need to think about that.

I really would have liked to go to the  Coachella music festival down in Indio, but it was going to be like forty million degrees in the shade and I just can't do that, not to mention I couldn't have gone anywhere this weekend anyway. So because I simply don't spend enough time on the computer already, they put the freaking thing online for me to watch. I wasn't sure whether to thank them or curse them.

I picked up the stream with Depeche Mode doing "Enjoy the Silence." I love Depeche Mode, I love that song. But I could so have lived without the sight of David Gahan's pasty body. I understand it's hot there and he had to take off his shirt but this wasn't right. So I minimized it and just listened while I worked. So possibly I could have just listened to the CD? Technology can be so confusing sometimes.

Fortunately, he left the stage after that, presumably to drink the blood of a virgin so as to have the strength to go on with the set. A fully-clothed Martin Gore sang "Shake the Disease"  - a less prettied-up version than the album cut. A song called "Shake the Disease" should never be prettied up. As a closer, a semi-clad Gahan did "Never Let Me Down Again," which is such a drug song, isn't it? It sounded desperate. I'm not saying that in a bad way. But I do think Gahan needs to stop doing drugs and get a tan.

She Wants Revenge came on next, all wearing not just shirts but jackets, so I'm now thinking Gahan was just being an exhibitionist and not suffering from the heat. (Or was he showing off his tattoos? I wish I could get the image out of my head.) Everything they sang was extremely depressing, very very very dark and delivered in a despairing monotone. I seriously think this guy should have been prevented from listening to Joy Division during his formative years. I couldn't stick with it. I like dance music that makes me happy.

Sunday was Madonna. And  something like forty million other bands. (Forty million is my number of the day.) I decided not to watch, though, in case any more pasty boys took off their shirts in public. And while I'm sure it would have been more comfy being glued to the computer in my office than in all the heat and sweat in Indio,  it was nicer still sitting out on the deck looking at the creek with my dogs around me.

Click on "Coachella" here if you want to watch - they claim they'll be repeating the stream at some point. And hopefully they've updated the feed to put up an advisory when the pasty boys are on.

Comments

[ooogyfan2]

David Gahan without a shirt. Talk about teh horror.

[Sighthound Ma]

Sounds like the dogs were the right decision. As they usually are.

[KathyF]

At the last Depeche Mode concert I went to, as I was leaving, a young girl and her little sister saw my shirt, with the Mode on the front. "That man there, he's God," she told the little girl.

I've never felt the same about Dave Gahan since.

[Christie Keith]

I once felt sure that Peter Gabriel was god, after seeing him on a tour for Amnesty International at the Oakland Coliseum (Stadium?). He introduced a song by saying something about the love between "a man and a woman or a man and a man or a woman and a woman," and there was a small amount of booing. He turned up the house lights and told the people who booed to get out, and he didn't start playing again until at least some people did leave. It was very very wonderful and I had that "may I genuflect now" feeling.

But David Gahan? No. I like DM but, no.