Coldplay News

The triumphant returns of Coldplay, New Order, Wilco, Weezer, Nine Inch Nails, Bauhaus, and the recently reunited Gang Of Four--along with starmaking appearances by newbies like the Bravery, the Secret Machines, Bloc Party, Keane, Razorlight, Snow Patrol, the Kills, the Futureheads, the Faint, and Kasabian--were just some of the highlights of the sixth annual Coachella Music & Arts Festival, held this past weekend at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California.

Although attendance was down 30,000 from last year's record-breaking Coachella (which featured the Cure, Radiohead, and a much-hyped Pixies reunion), the smaller crowds and much milder weather (83 degrees, compared to last year's heatstroke-inducing 110) made for perhaps the most pleasant Coachella experience yet. The festival certainly attracted the usual number of celebrity spectators, including A-list couple Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz, *NSYNC's JC Chasez, Danny DeVito, Vincent Gallo, Saturday Night Live alumnus Chris Kattan, That '70s Show's Danny Masterson with girlfriend Bijou Phillips, Nicole Richie, Giovanni Ribisi, Rebecca Romijn with new boyfriend Jerry O'Connell, Chloe Sevigny, several C.S.I. cast members, and of course, Gwyneth Paltrow, who was there to see husband Chris Martin headline with his band Coldplay on Saturday night.

Coldplay were indeed one of Saturday's biggest highlights, with a massive performance that unified indie-rock hipsters, hackeysack-playing hippies, top 40-loving frat boys, and every other type of music fan in a way that perhaps only U2 could pull off these days. Emerging onstage to the celebratory strains of Richard Strauss's pounding 2001: A Space Odyssey theme, they opened with the epic first track off their upcoming third album X&Y, "Square One"--a bold statement of intent that took their stage show to a whole new level of bombast and grandeur. Highlights of their galvanizing 85-minute set included "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" with the 40,000-strong audience clapping in unison; an acoustic snippet of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" (a tribute to Sunday headliners NIN); Chris Martin instructing concertgoers to whip out their cameras and simultaneously snap a photo of the stage; and a whimsical performance of the country-tinged X&Y secret track "Till Kingdom Come" with Coldplay drummer Will Champion stepping out from behind his kit to play piano. The excitable crowd seemed extremely impressed with the setlist's several new Coldplay tunes (especially current top 10 single "Speed Of Sound")--as did Martin, who described future single "Love" as "orgasm-inducing," and introduced "What If" as "maybe the best song I ever wrote" and "Fix You" as "this song is f--ked-up brilliant." The set culminated with Martin's security-guard-assisted strut through the crowd during "In My Place"; during that moment, it seemed as if Coldplay were the biggest band on the planet. And perhaps they are, if this spectacular performance is anything to go by.

Other high points of the day included British piano man Jamie Cullum performing cocktail-lounge interpretations of Coldplay's "We Never Change" and Pharrell's "Frontin'"; fearsomely rockin' Anglo-American boy/girl duo the Kills generating some seriously electric sexual chemistry in the Mojave Tent; the Raveonettes' Sharrin Foo (the Grace Kelly of garage rock, a platinum-blonde ice queen resplendent in a '50s sundress and Jackie O shades) cooing lead vocals on a cover of the Angels' 1963 girl-group classic "My Boyfriend's Back"; bad-boy Brit-rockers Razorlight declaring, "This is how to end a rock 'n' roll show!" as a gaggle of nubile hotties jumped onstage for their finale; Welsh roots-rock power-trio Stereophonics drawing on their years of experience playing stadiums in their native U.K. to create a massive rock 'n' roll spectacle on the intimate Mojave stage; Wilco making up for 2004's cancelled Coachella appearance ("We were supposed to be here last year, but I was too f--ked up," rehab-refugee frontman Jay Tweedy explained); Weezer launching their set with the triple-punch of "Say It Ain't So," "Photograph," and "Undone (The Sweater Song)"; and New York's Secret Machines literally living up to their song lyric "blowing all the other kids away" with a heady and hallucinogenic set of OTP art-rock that left all witnesses pleasantly dazed and confused.

But no Saturday Coachella report would be complete without a mention of gothic granddaddies Bauhaus, who returned to the stage for the first time since their 1998 reunion tour. Descending from the ceiling in an inverted Christ pose, the emergence of white-haired, black-trenchcoated frontman Peter Murphy Saturday night seemed to create a near-religious experience for the hundreds of Bauhaus fans who had braved the heat all day in sticky PVC trousers, melting pancake makeup, and layers of velvet and lace. (The goth contingent was particularly prominent at this year's Coachella, due to the participation of Bauhaus as well as Nine Inch Nails and New Order). Opening with their definitive minimalist signature song, "Bela Lugosi's Dead," Bauhaus instantly transformed the previously sunshine-filled festival grounds into a creepy Blair Witch field; when it was all over, Murphy intoned, "You can say now that you were there!" before vanishing into the desert darkness like a vampire bat.

Sunday was also filled with triumphant comebacks, with elder statesmen (Nine Inch Nails, Gang Of Four, New Order) really showing today's second-generation upstarts (the Bravery, Bloc Party, the Faint) how it's done. The most notable of these performances was that of Trent Reznor and his headlining band NIN; still angry after all these years, a faux-hawked, snarling Reznor was in positively ferocious form, tearing through songs from NIN's upcoming With Teeth album as well as classics like "Hurt," "Terrible Lie," "March Of The Pigs," "Head Like A Hole," and last but not least, "Closer" (which prompted an amusingly bizarre crowd singalong of the refrain "I want to f--k you like an animal").

Unlike the black-clad, spiky-haired NIN, Gang Of Four may have looked like normal suburban dads (one teenage concertgoer was overheard dubbing them "Gang Of Four-Hundred Years Old"), but sonically they were as fresh and of-the-moment as any of the current buzz bands they have so obviously inspired. New Order--a band that's clearly influenced bands like Interpol and the Bravery--also sounded incredibly modern, whether they were performing beloved N.O. standards like "Bizarre Love Triangle" and "Regret," songs from their new LP Waiting For The Siren's Call, or a rare triad of Joy Division tunes ("Atmosphere," "Love Will Tear Us Apart," and "Transmission") in a fitting tribute to fallen Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. If only Curtis, who committed suicide 25 years ago this month, could have lived to see how far his bandmates' influence would extend.

Other notable Sunday moments included a rousing early-afternoon performance by undersung Nova Scotian powerpoppers Sloan, with a rabid crowd of fans hoisting Canadian maple-leaf flags in their honor; Welsh songbird Jem crooning Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed" (which she recently sang on The O.C.) and Stevie Wonder's "Master Blaster (Jammin')"; electro-country outfit Gram Rabbit passing out Halloween-costume bunny-ears, which festival-goers then proudly wore all day long; Sri Lankan-born, London-based rapper M.I.A. giving a quite literally "stinging" performance when the Gobi Tent inexplicably filled with swarms of bees, causing her audience to momentarily flee; the Bravery covering U2's "Electric Co"; Linkin Park's Chester Bennington guesting with DJ Z-Trip; and synth-rockers the Faint putting on two back-to-back Outdoor Theatre Stage performances (one on their own, one as the backing band for Saddle Creek Records labelmate Conor Oberst, aka Bright Eyes).

After 48 hours, 112 performers, hundreds of bees, and countless beers, it was all over. Another fine weekend of nonstop music under the California sun and stars had come to an end. However, there was little doubt that many of this year's festival attendees were already eagerly anticipating Coachella 2006.