meant we got to head back to the desert and enjoy three more days
of music-filled greatness. The weather change was crazy; for the first week, we had to battle a storm. The second, it was triple-digit temperatures. We still can't decide what was worse–dancing our asses off
in the cold rain or missing lots of DJs because it was too hot to go
in early.
as week one, with the exception of celebrity surprise guests. Week one
David Guetta brought out Usher to sing “Without You” and Calvin
Harris had Rihanna perform “Where Have You Been” and “We Found
Love.” Week one was also noticeably more crowded and flooded with
celebrity guests.
]
The hype and the energy at the festival in general was more
magical week one because no one really knew what to expect. They
hadn't been bombarded through Facebook updates, Twitter news feeds,
and Instagram posts yet so there was a lot more anticipation and
excitement. Regardless, having two weeks of Coachella meant you could
see acts you missed the week before…and in my case (gasp!), venture out
of the Sahara tent. Week one we featured Dada Life, Madeon, Alesso,
Calvin Harris, Kaskade and Swedish House Mafia as the top EDM
favorites. Since their sets were pretty much exactly the same, here
are our the top five favorites of week two.
5. Avicii
Sunday April 22
Changing the Avicii time slot to 9:40 p.m.
made it so that most fans could watch the beginning of Avicii and
then still make it to see the epic Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg reunion on
the main stage at 10:35pm. He opened his set with Vitzis' Old School
intro of “Levels” and the crowd went wild! The Sahara tent was
filled with colorful lights, lasers, and crazy shapes from the entire
stage to the ceiling. Tim Bergling aka Avicii was actually on top of
a giant LED head that seemed to be changing effects along with the
music. The giant head actually sang to the vocals as he played a
mash-up of Gotye “Somebody That I Used to Know” and “Levels.”
With all the stimulating visuals and graphics getting to see Avicii
was a week two highlight and preview to his upcoming L7els tour.
4. David Guetta
Saturday April 21
After an embarrassing set at Ultra
Music Festival I wasn't even going to check out David Guetta at
Coachella, but as luck or fate would have it I ended up in the Sahara
tent when he opened with Alesso's remix of “Titanium” featuring
vocals by Sia. The crowd was singing along word for word with their
glow stick hands in the air. The energy was great everyone was
clapping and jumping up and down as he played the Nicky Romero remix
of Flo Rida's “Wild Ones.” At one point he turned off all the
lasers, lights and crazy production to drop Laidback Luke's “1, 2.
3. 4” featuring Chuckie and Martin Solveig and the crowd just kept
raging! By playing all his top hits like “love is gone” and
having Sia come out on stage to perform “Titanium” at the end
when he closed out I'd say not only did he redeem himself, but made
the Sahara tent dance party straight into the Kaskade set.
3. Sebastian Ingrosso
Saturday April 21
It's no surprise that Ingrosso, who is one third of the super DJ group Swedish House Mafia, would be a stand out
favorite of the weekend. It pretty much was like watching Swedish
House Mafia in the Sahara tent sans the fireworks and fire
production. As he played the Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike vs. SHM Dark
Forest Edit of “Leave The World Behind” the entire tent went
bananas into a hard hitting dance party! The flashing lights went
along with the music but were different from what I remembered week
one proving that he's not just a DJ pressing play on stage and rather
feeding off the energy and crowd. The build up was amazing and by the
time he dropped “Greyhound” fog blasted into the crowd, lasers
were going all different directions and everyone had surrendered to
the music.
2. Porter Robinson
Sunday April 22
Porter Robinson has come quite a long
way in the few years he has been producing and DJing. His Coachella
set was a perfect example of how progressive his music has become.
From hard hitting electro, dubstep inspired sounds and amazing vocals
Porter's 4 p.m. set was definitely one not to miss! Everyone was dancing
their asses off in the Sahara tent as he played the perfect blend of
his own produced songs like “Say My Name” and “Language”
mixed with other hard hitting songs of the moment like Knife Party's
“Internet Friends” and Bingo Players' “Rattle.” He even
included classics like Deadmau5's “Animal Rights” mashed up with
Benni Benassi's “Satisfaction.” You could only imagine how
delighted the crowd was as he blew us away with his performance. He
didn't even need all the fancy lights, logos and visuals to keep us
entertained, his music was enough to keep us raging!
1. Nero
Sunday April 22
The stand out EDM performance week two
which I missed on week one was Nero who performed live with the
beautiful Alana Watson. Nero's music is where EDM is headed in the
next generations. The fact that they play with keyboards which they
use to control Ableton and have a third member who's actually singing
vocals to their songs makes it a much more “band” experience with
the electronic drops, sounds and distortions that EDM fans love. Even
though their set was moved to be mostly in the day it didn't seem to
phase anyone. Sure the visuals might not have been as cool as if they
were in the dark but from what I experienced they still melted
everyone's faces off with their dirty dubstep songs and futuristic
electronic sound. When they played their song “Promises” which
they collaborated with Skrillex the entire Sahara got down with the
bass drops and cheered for Alana's enchanting voice.
Honorable Mention
Sub Focus
Saturday April 21
Even though he was not in the Sahara
tent Sub Focus managed to blow the crowd away as he closed out the
Mojave stage. He was inside of an enclosed fish eye orbital looking
contraption that changed colors and flashed LED visuals to his drum
and bass, dubstep, and electro songs. Sub Focus was the best dance
party of the whole weekend as he played “Rock It” and “Out the
Blue.” The LED circle he was in was a visual stimulation unlike any
I have seen since the likes of Daft Punk, Deadmau5 and Skrillex. Also
equally outstanding was the MC who was speaking over the beats to get
the crowd rowdy and vibing all the beats. The whole time in the
Mojave tent I felt like I was in the Sahara dancing up a storm. With
crazy visuals, live elements, and amazing bass kicks this had to be
my favorite performance of week two.
