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For lack of a better term, these videos are random yet deserve to be revisited: from SXSW, Kid Sister's Supermarket Sweep and Cisco
Adler and Shwayze search for the Hottest Girl on 6th Street, and Blender
supergroup Tigerphone compete in a Rock Band competition.
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 “I want to send a shout-out to the sunset right now. That is some beautiful-ass sh*t!”
So said a westward-facing Kid Sister during the third and final dusk of Coachella v.9.0, and we were in no position to disagree. King Helios was riding his winged chariot over the majestic San Jacinto Mountains, the breeze was blowing, and the sky glowed crimson with satisfaction. It was indeed some beautiful-ass sh*t.
Day 3 at Coachella is an exercise in mind-over-matter. The temperatures are always hotter; the grass is yellowing from abuse; the campground hippies are running out of weed. Everyone is bushed, and no one — let’s face it — is really dying to hear more live music.
Fortunately, Gogol Bordello didn’t care about any of this. We never really “got” the whole gypsy-punk thing, but today it all made sense, as Gogol turned the Empire Polo Grounds into a big fiddling Bulgarian happiness orgy. Elijah Wood was loving it too (his girlfriend, Pamela, is one of the percussionists), and anything that makes Frodo get crunk is all right in our book. Backstage after the show we asked GB frontman Eugene Hutz how he planned to spend his evening. He looked at us like we were morons: “Um, by getting f*cking laid?” Fair enough.
The day had highlights. Justice dropped a 20-megaton awesome bomb in the Sahara tent. My Morning Jacket’s face-melting jams would have left us grinning idiotically if they hadn’t already melted our faces. Sean Penn gave an inspiring recruitment pitch for an humanitarian trip he’s organizing to New Orleans, but all we could think was, “Why is Spicoli talking about biodiesel buses?”
The day’s headliner was former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters, who came armed with a handful of Floyd classics (“Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” “Wish You Were Here”) and a stage setup that included 30-foot flame jets, a giant floating pig and a low-flying plane sprinkling the crowd with what Blender initially feared was weapons-grade anthrax. (Turns out it was just a few tons of Obama confetti.) After a quick intermission, he returned and played Dark Side of the Moon top to bottom. Substances = consumed. Minds = blown.
Back at our hotel, we stumbled our way into Waters’s post-show soiree. Sean Penn was there, reeking of cigarettes. Patrón was there, tasting delicious. Then things started to get weird. At one point we were sitting between Penn, Waters and a tequila-guzzling painter from L.A. who kept remarking, apropos of nothing, that Rod Stewart’s old bassist was “a Chinaman.” Waters was “shi*faced” (his words, not ours.) Meanwhile, somewhere, Eugene Hutz was getting laid. When a drunken cougar threw her arms around a clearly perturbed Penn and told him he was “a f*cking goddamn genius,” we took it as our cue to call it a night. And a festival.
Until next year: Shine on, Coachella, you crazy diamond. Shine on.
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Music venues aren't the only establishments plagued by long lines during SXSW; restaurants and bars can be even harder to get into. With that in mind, Chicago's hyper rhyme spitter Kid Sister avoided the mess along 6th Street and went straight to Whole Foods, where she dropped $100 worth of Blender's cash on such essentials as beer and beef jerky. She even picked up a whole ham!
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We bring you some front-row excitement from the Blender After Hours blowout (check out this gallery for even more pics from the party):
[From left: A-Trak, Diplo and Blaqstarr combine forces to up the party level approximately 18 notches.]
 
[Left: Hanson brother Zac (now 22!) takes advantage of the hidden prizes found inside the Blender goodie bag (maybe there are some eyebrow tweezers in there). Right: Hipster-hop power couple Kid Sister and A-Track are like the Brad and Angelina of SXSW.]
[Super Furry Animals front man Gruff Rhys leads his electro-pop side project Neon Neon.]
 
[Left: Rhys takes to the floor for some hot cowbell action. Right: There's really nothing better than a woman in '80s attire playing the keytar.]
[Teenage upstarts Drive A bring their Sunset Strip rock to the Blender House.] |
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