Coachell-Shock Day 2: Reviews, Rants & WOWs

Coachella Day 2 was certainly much crazier than Coachella Day 1, however everything was so much more organized than the first day that there was no way anybody walked into the festival not totally relieved, and not ready to rage- in celebration of the fact the Coachella staff finally got their shit together.
It was such an incredible day of high-energy, upbeat music: Discovering some seriously talented musicians and experiencing a whole aural explosion of fresh new sounds hotter than the desert heat and those furry boot-covered feet.

Craze and Klever (4:05-5:25pm) Sahara Stage
Sounds Like: The Crystal Method, The Chemical Brothers
Craze & Klever were absolutely mad on the decks. They brought out two unknown hip hop performers at the end of their set that I actually thought were pretty legit — although their set did consist of mostly mixed- upbeat dance drops, ending with the hip hop set gave everyone an opportunity to catch a breath before Dirty South dropped down his massive electronic set of dance-electro bangers.

Craze & Klever at Coachella 2010 from Taylor Doms on Vimeo.

Dirty South (5:25pm-6:35pm) Sahara Stage
Sounds Like: Axwell
Dirty South certainly did not offer any remorse for tired feet – he hit the decks with a serious campaign that aimed to ABSOLUTELY KILL IT. I’m not just saying that because I love any DJ that covers Prodigy’s “Smack my Bitch Up” but seriously his set totally took the tent by fast-paced, jungle-tech, bass-laden storm.

Dirty South at Coachella 2010 – “Smack My Bitch Up” Remix from Taylor Doms on Vimeo.

Bassnectar (6:40-7:40pm) Sahara Stage
Sounds Like: STS9, Vibesquad, Lotus
I’ve seen Bassnectar live before but man has the guy come back with a more seriously intensive electro dub bang! I’m absolutely loving the energy he is throwing out there.

His set was chock-full of heavy hitters but the two that absolutely blew the crowd away were the remixes he did of the Pixies “Where is my Mind?” and Metallica’s “Seek and Destroy”. Talk about sensory overload in the Sahara tent!

Bassnectar Live at Coachella 2010- “Where is my Mind” remix from Taylor Doms on Vimeo.

Kaskade (7:45-8:45pm) Sahara Stage
Sounds Like: Deadmau5, Armin van Buuren, Karen Overton

Kaskade came out with guns blazing for his set! It was absolutely insane how packed the Sahara tent was and the energy that was vibing sand to ceiling! Between the light shows,  the countless giant balloons floating around the tent, and his non-stop set packed full of bangers- Kaskade did a serious number to the decks! Coachella became Ibiza for an hour of the night. If you’re into hot young sweaty bi-curious girls making out and getting weird, then this would’ve been the show for you!

Kaskade Live At Coachella 2010 – “Satisfaction” vs. Kaskade from Taylor Doms on Vimeo.

MGMT (8:50-9:40pm) Outdoor Theatre
Sounds Like: Empire of the Sun, Passion Pit

Having been to a few MGMT performances in the past, I knew what to expect musically– They consistently put on a great live show. However, their new album certainly falls way below the bar in comparison to their previous album, Oracular Spectacular, in my opinion – in just the lack of energy and profound lyricism. But, when performed live, their new songs are given a bit more life. Aside from their disappointing new additions to their set list, MGMT was certainly on point when they played Electric Feel and, personally what I thought was the best song they performed all night, The Youth; amplified by the somber yet powerful glow of blue and green iredoscent lights across the darkened stage and throughout the crowd – pretty powerful stuff.

MGMT Live at Coachella 2010 – The Youth from Taylor Doms on Vimeo.

Major Lazer (9:25-10:10pm) Mojave Stage
Sounds Like: Crookers

I was so excited to see this set, only because you never hear about Major Lazer performing live very often around here. When Major Lazer’s “Pon de Floor“, which is and probably will be the most remixed song of 2010, hit the decks, the crowd went absolutely NUTS! Only disappointing part of his set was the fact I wasn’t closer to the stage to really get a good view of the air to floor “daggering” action that was going down! He’s a pretty weird looking dude, and has a totally nonsensical Chinese dragon creature hanging out with him on stage, but his oddities make for a pretty engaging performance.

Major Lazer Live at Coachella 2010 – “Pon de Floor” from Taylor Doms on Vimeo.

Die Antwoord (11:35-11:55) Sahara Stage
Sounds Like: It came from a different hemisphere…

Although Die Antwoord’s performance was undoubtedly the shortest set in probably the history of Coachella, Die Antwoord is a group to W-A-T-C-H. A trio straight out of South Africa featuring two MCs and what appears to be a pre-adolescent girl with a serious attitude. Despite their short set, Die Antwoord’s high-energy electro punk hip hop tracks, including songs like “Beat Boy” and “Ninja,” which samples the DDR song “Butterfly” by SMiLE.dk, are super catchy! And their rambunctiousness is kind of contagious – Let’s go break some shit bro!

Die Antwoord Live at Coachella 2010 – Beat Boy from Taylor Doms on Vimeo.

Die Antwoord Live at Coachella 2010 from Taylor Doms on Vimeo.

2ManyDJs (12:05-12:55) Sahara Stage

Sounds Like: Boys Noize

I have been dying to see 2ManyDJs live, and their Coachella performance was well worth the wait!

Probably one of the coolest most “fuck-it-LET’S-DO-THIS” entrances I’ve ever seen: Literally seconds after Die Antwoord left the stage 2ManyDJs decided to begin their set– before the production team had even begun to set up the equipment for their set. 2ManyDJs start working the knobs and decks even while the crew members were still plugging them in… So awesome.

Watch for the guy frantically packing confetti into the machine below the stage – it makes me laugh every time I watch this video.

Musically however, 2ManyDJs are a talented duo of sound engineers and keen party-initiators. Their live-mixed dance set was pretty incredible, and although I think these are great videos of their set, they just simply don’t do justice to the experience of witnessing these professionals artfully mix AND master their own tracks live — All while getting down to the aural  magic of course.

2ManyDJs Live at Coachella – “Hey Boys, Hey Girls” from Taylor Doms on Vimeo.

More Live Mixing by 2ManyDJs:

2ManyDJs Live at Coachella 2010: from Taylor Doms on Vimeo.