My Coachella: MGMT Moments after MGMT’s Saturday show in the Mojave tent, Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told us that they might need to “learn how to play for a large crowd.” Why is that? “We’re just not ones for stage banter,” said VanWyngarden. “But this crowd loves that. We said ‘fuck yeah’ once and they went crazy. And when our sound guy shouted out the word alcohol at sound check, that got the crowd going too. So, maybe we should do more of that.” Rock Daily made the band chat a bit more with our Coachella quiz: Best show seen so far: VanWyngarden: The Verve Friday night was the best so far, and Aphex Twin. I can’t wait to see Kraftwerk and Prince tonight. He’s gonna do all the hits. I know it. He knows what people want. Best Coachella drug: Both: Marijuana. VanWyngarden: We were given a tree branch of marijuana in San Francisco. It was a lot. And, we have to smoke it all because we’re going to Europe on Monday and you can’t bring it with you. We took it to a party last night and took it to a level ten and we were rewarded for smoking pot all day with a Siberian tiger. There was a Siberian tiger at the party, a baby tiger. We got to pet the tiger. A baby Siberian tiger on a leash and we were so high. It was pretty cool. If I had five minutes alone with Prince: VanWyngarden: I’d want him to just spin around and look at me and then snarl and say something like, a sound, just like an, awww. If he did that to me I’d probably get a boner. Best backstage perk? VanWyngarden: Percacet. [Laughs]
|
Published: 2008-04-27
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Rock News, Coachella
|
|
Coachella Day One Wrap-Up: Jack Johnson, The Raconteurs, The Verve As the afternoon of Coachella Day One wore on, the sounds of electric guitars getting jacked into high gear called everyone’s attention back to the main stage, where the Raconteurs were settling in. “I haven’t seen the sun in weeks,” goes the first line of “The Saboteurs” (though nobody in the heat-baked crowd could truly make that claim), and Jack White, decked out in all black, moseyed over to Brendan Benson as the two guitarists faced off and worked at their instruments. “How are you doing, you desert people?” White later asked before launching into the country-blues groove of “Top Yourself” from the band’s new LP Consolers of the Lonely. While the bedraggled Benson was an able frontman, the crowd was arrested by the natural leader White, whose guitar playing took center stage on “Blue Veins.” The track began with a lengthy, squealing solo that demanded he pause and catch his breath. White ended the song scratching a pad that made his axe stutter as the song built into a giant jam. The set demonstrated how White has taken the band to a new level, stretching out songs and turning up the volume. White and Benson cranked up the distortion even on pop hit “Steady As She Goes,” giving a desperate edge to White’s refrain, “Are you steady now? Are you steady now?” Click here for photos from Day One of Coachella The sun fully set during the Raconteurs set, leaving the Verve to soundtrack the magical part of the Coachella day when the temperatures drop, stars dot the sky and the Port-a-Potties start to ripen. The band didn’t disappoint, breaking out epic Britpop anthems that set shimmers of sound across the desert night. Singer Richard Ashcroft looked the part of the perfect frontman, tapping his chest or pointing skyward, crooning with his eyes closed in bare feet and sounding every bit as sharp as he did ten years ago when the band broke in the States. When Ashcroft strapped on an acoustic guitar and strummed the opening chords of the aching “The Drugs Don’t Work,” a
|
Published: 2008-04-26
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Rock News, Coachella
|
|
Privacy PolicyTerms of UseContact Us