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Picture: The Verve Reportedly Break Up For the Third Time

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Picture: The Verve Return To America With Coachella Set

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