S.S. Coachella Cruise, Day One: Father John Misty, Yeasayer, !!!, Pulp

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Photo by Ian Witlen
Jarvis Cocker and Pulp aboard the S.S. Coachella.



By: Liz Tracy

The S.S. Coachella set out to sea rather unceremoniously. There weren't horns, not a streamer in sight, and no one smashed bottles against the body of the ship.
But we'd all been aboard the Celebrity Silhouette for about four hours at that point, and Father John Misty was launching our oceanic musical journey in the Sky Lounge. A 180-degree view of the sea spread in front of us, and a group of maybe 100 music fans with stars in their eyes didn't even notice where we were as the shore lights faded away.

 
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They couldn't have picked a better act to start out with. After watching
former Fleet Foxes member Joshua Tillman, AKA Father John Misty, shake
his hips, raising his mic stand to the sky (he was one of three dude
singers swaying their hips sensually on Sunday night), and then Monday
morning on the “lawn” playing with only his guitar, it's clear that he's
the new man's cool guy. A world awash in talk of “hipsters” with
internet access has changed the way music nerds are able to express
themselves apart from the masses who all love all the music all
the time.

This cruise is populated with foreigners, people ready to rave,
fashionistas, and all of the other types of people whom you'd expect
both on a cruise and/or backstage at a music festival. But it seems many
of the main acts are here to perform for a postcool world. And that is
what, in some ways, Father John Misty represents.

At his first show, he made the requisite “end of the world” and hipster
joke, suggesting the Coachella cruisers would be the final people
on the planet. (Oh, the horror!) He lamented that there wasn't a chance
to break a bottle on the side of the boat (seriously, though, that's
why we came), adding that he'd still drink the bottle and pass out in
his own vomit. “When God closes a door, he opens a vomit side-window,”
he sagely announced.

Mentioning God seems to be something Father John Misty does frequently.
On the ship's grassy knoll Monday afternoon, he sang tunes with lines
about Joseph Campbell and the Rolling Stones. The music was familiar
Americana folk. The themes were personal and universal enough. And it
seemed this guy was speaking for the heart of the S.S. Coachella
cruise.

Just when I thought there were only, like, 200 people on the whole ship,
a long line snaking out from the Silhouette Theater waiting for
Yeasayer proved otherwise. Inside, the show started late, and Aaliyah's
“Rock the Boat” played ironically or comically or perfectly. Whichever
you prefer.
A terrible recording of a woman saying, over and over “Good Evening, S.S. Coachella
coaxed people to push toward the stage. Two guys in full-body, tie-dyed
onesies modeled for the cameras. A few glow-stick bracelets lit up the
crowd, and one person wore a Santa hat. People with glow sticks really
do enjoy the live musical experience more than everyone else.

Then the groovy stuff started and the glow sticks bounced. The first two
songs sounded a little funny, and after the third, Chris Keating, the
singer, said, “Hello, boat! Real talk. This is totally fucking weird.”
He was the first of two frontmen to complain of feeling queasy.
It is surreal watching these big acts playing in an enclosed room on a
boat. In your head, you're grappling with the idea of being on a huge
building that's swaying in the ocean. But then I didn't care so much and
hungrily wandered around wishing there was an onboard diner. In this
quest for more food, I ran into James Murphy in the elevator and had to
pretend to not recognize him. That's why they do these cruises, of
course. So that you can tell your friends again and again that you
shared an elevator with James Murphy on the high seas until they really
hate you.

It took awhile, but people finally started filling up the pool deck area
where DJs were spinning. This is probably the only place in the world
where “indie” music triumphs pop dubstep mixes.

Back in the Sky Lounge, !!! was, again, probably the most awesome band
I've ever seen. I caught them at Ultra Music Festival two years ago
performing under the Miami sun for about 50 people. But singer Nic Offer
knows how to make any tiny crowd into a fucking fantastic otherworldly
experience. A man after my own heart, he seems to always be wearing
inappropriately short shorts. These were printed with the album cover of
the Stones' Some Girls. And yes, he was the second of the
three to throw his arms up and shake his hips. Fantastic. The lady next
to me in a mod yellow dress said she'd seen !!! four times and flew here
from Australia to watch them again.
[

Later, she was dancing like crazy to Pulp in the Silhouette Theater.
Jarvis Cocker and his band had a sort of corny green laser light show
going on with a hanging sheet as a projection screen displaying
sentences like: “Are you feeling alright?” and “OK, I will meet you at
the bar.” There was even a Santa doing the running man.

Cocker (third hip-shaking dude!) sang in his deep delicious voice,
donning a brownish suit with tie. As the sheet dropped, the whole
theater danced. Pulp definitely brought the yummiest of Brit pop. This
was the group's first time on a cruise, joking “We're all in the same
boat together,” calling it “a voyage of discovery.”

That same sly British humor coursed through both the lyrics and Cocker's
between-song banter. He joked about the letters “PULP” above the stage,
lit up in blue and pink, swaying back and forth, saying he had a “sick
feeling in my stomach, like I'm standing in the middle of a cruise
ship.”

But the ship isn't making anyone sick. More like it's making them drink
and dance and making the men move their hips like ladies. Very sexy
ladies.

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