See also
*The Best Of Coachella: Saturday, April 14
*Top Ten Awkward Coachella Dance Move GIFs
*Coachella: Five Signs You're An Aging Hipster
*Radiohead at Coachella: No Alarms and No Surprises
This year's Coachella lineup mostly favored artists not necessarily
known for guitar prowess, but let it be known this year's festival did
feature some fantastic fretwork. And we're not even counting the Black
Lips going full monty on the guitar here; that deserves it's own hall of
fame entry. (If only more people saw their 2:15 p.m. set on Saturday!) Texas
blues appears to be on its way back in vogue if Gary Clarke Jr.'s
Coachella reception means anything, but the proggy art rockers did what
they do best, as did the indie surprises. Here are five standout
moments that happened on six-strings this past weekend.
]
Friday, April 13
Gary Clarke, Jr., “Third Stone from the Sun” into “Bright Lights”
Comparing
a guitarist to Jimi Hendrix is pretty annoying, but hey, that's what
happens whenever a young, black man stands out playing blues-based rock & roll. Clark, Jr. made good on this comparison with this tribute to
the god of the electric guitar, winning a huge reception at Coachella.
Saturday, April 14
Manchester Orchestra, “Shake It Out”
The
fierce double-guitar attack of guitarists Andy Hull and Robert McDowell
rattled the collective solar plexus of the Mojave Stage this weekend.
The climax came in the intense ascending outro of this 2009 hit during
which the festival audience worked itself into a frenzied, sustained
applause–definitely a high-energy point of the weekend.
St. Vincent, “Black Rainbow”
Annie
Clark may have been pissed-off this weekend. The first sign was her
near-destruction of a theramin during the set opener on Saturday night.
Another indicator was this brutal jam from her 2009 Actor album, which
she completely annihilated during the discordant final throes of the
closing chord progession.
Radiohead, “15 Step”
It's
tough to select one moment from this set. During the second song from
Saturday's headliner, Radiohead lead guitar player Jonny Greenwood
kicked on his POG (Polyphonic Octave Generator, duh) for a quick solo.
Coupled with the eerie light-blue digital wash of the onstage visuals,
the solo took on an awesome icy ambiance. That shit was glacial, man.
Sunday, April 15
Wild Flag, “Carrie”
Sometimes
it takes witnessing live performance to “get it.” Having never seen
Sleater-Kinney live, then, this meant that watching Wild Flag shed light
on the greatness that is Carrie Brownstein's approach to the guitar.
Classically speaking, her technique is rudimentary at best; but what
comes out is pure steeze: visceral and unique to the player–unafraid
and unabashed to play what she wants when she wants to.
