I’m Meant To Be In Coachella Right Now, Instead I’m Getting EMO Watching Their 20th Anniversary Documentary
Couple weeks ago, I was nominated by a friend to post on my Insta story on what is so far, one of the best moments of my life, and in a heartbeat, all these memories came rushing back to last year when me and my best friend attended Coachella 2019. I remember on the first night we got back to our hotel after seeing Childish Gambino headline, we sat on our beds and firmly agreed to each other that “we have to come back next year”.
So, we stuck to our plan and bought tickets to Coachella 2020. Well, at least that was our plan, until COVID-19 hit, resulting in the festival being postponed until October, which of course was quite depressing for all those who had a ticket. Fast forward a few months and here we are on what would have been Coachella Weekend 1 and I’m sitting on my couch bored scrolling through the timelines, and then my friend lets me know that the ‘Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert’ documentary just dropped on YouTube.
This documentary could not have come at a better time, and I suspect it was done on purpose. With almost everyone being stuck in home isolation and having nothing better to do this weekend, watching this documentary, aka Couchella was the perfect way to compensate for not being able to physically be there.
There were so many mixed emotions when I was watching this documentary, knowing that if we weren’t in this current situation, I’d be making my way to Day 1, to witness the reunion of Rage Against the Machine, but instead, I’m in my living room, watching Rage Against the Machine headline the first ever Coachella in October of 1999 on a screen. While watching this, I couldn’t help but think, woah, is this postponement fate? Moving Coachella to October, when the first one was held, with the exact same headliner they had when they started, 20 years later? There was something wonderful about how that panned out, providing a strange sense of comfort amidst these crazy times.
The opening to the documentary showed a line-up of all the artists that have played throughout the years, one that really caught my attention was Billie Ellish as she performed last year, which FYI was absolutely an insane set. She said:
Everyone knows what Coachella is, even if you don’t care about music, you know.
Hearing that, made me realise just how important Coachella is and this documentary beautifully shows us how from humble beginnings it became the iconic cultural event it is today. In this little piece, to celebrate Coachella, and to make you go watch this documentary if you haven’t already, I’ve noted down my favourite parts that really struck me as defining moments for the festival and music at large.
How it Started (via beef with Ticketmaster)
Let’s take it back to around 20 years ago, when the team behind Coachella i.e. Goldenvoice, were just a Californian based concert promoter. They wanted to put on a show for rock legends Pearl Jam, however, the band didn’t want to play at a venue in L.A that was ticketed by Ticketmaster, because the band was against the ticket company’s high booking fees and was actually taking them to court for it. The problem with that is nearly every large sized venue was ticketed by Ticketmaster, so the promoters bravely scouted Indio as an alternative location. As it’s a little while away from L.A, there was doubt that L.A locals would travel that far for a gig. However, the event actually sold out, was a massive success and it planted the seed in Goldenvoice to start a whole new music festival there. Paul Tolet, Goldenvoice guy and to-be festival founder, eventually made his dreams a reality by announcing the very first Coachella in October of 1999 at Indio.
With huge headliners in Beck, Rage Against the Machine and Tool, Coachella saw a crowd between 35,000–40,000 people attending, although this may seem like a lot for Australian standards, behind the scenes, the festival actually lost close to a million dollars, and at the time, they had believed that the future of Coachella had come to an end. Luckily corporate giant AEG acquired Goldenvoice and wanted Coachella to keep going, which resulted in their return in 2001, and thank god for that! Could you imagine if Coachella was just a one time thing, the music industry would just not be the same.
How it became known for reunions
Since picking it back up in 2001, Coachella definitely struggled in their early years to build up the massive festival it is today. Prior to attending the festival last year, one of the main things that really stuck out to me, was how Coachella was able to bring back bands, and artists who have not performed solo or together in years, such as Guns N Roses, Outkast, Destiny’s Child and, Ariana Grande bringing back NSYNC, which I was lucky enough to witness last year. But not only that, but she also brought out Hip-Hop legends P. Diddy and Mase, to perform Mo Money Mo Problems, which by far for me was the highlight of Coachella 2019, as listening to Old School R&B pretty much defined my childhood. You can bet, in that moment I lost my absolute shit.
This whole tradition roots back to 2004, where Coachella had this brilliant idea to bring back alternative rock band, The Pixies to perform at the main-stage. The success of this reunion became a turning point for the future of Coachella, as they continued to surprise fans with these massive reunions again and again. Not to mention, having a Rage Against the Machine reunion in this years’ 2020 line up, which, after seeing their electrifying performances throughout the documentary, I am most certain is going to be a special moment for the festival, and I’ll definitely (even though I’m not the biggest fan of rock) be finding myself in a mosh pit.
The EDM Wave
Being a major fan of EDM, there was nothing better to watch than all the huge dance acts that have graced the Coachella stage over the years. Coachella 2006 was a massive game-changer for the electronic scene, bringing in Daft Punk to perform in the Sahara Tent, was huge and beyond anything they could have imagined at the time. EDM’s beloved DJ, Steve Aoki talks about Daft Punk’s set saying:
it changed people’s lives forever, including mine... it was kinda the birth of EDM.
What we’re used to now with DJ’s headlining multi-genre festivals wasn’t a thing before Coachella did this. From 2011 onwards, Coachella took a major leap by having EDM artists take the main-stage as closing acts, starting with Tiesto in 2010, Swedish House Mafia in 2012, and Kasade in 2015. Coachella essentially helped pave the way for EDM to hold a prominent place in live music, hats off Coachella. Also, last year, seeing Zedd take on the main stage, was the most beautiful and euphoric experience, especially as he’s one of my favourite DJ’s, seeing him for the first time ever at Coachella, was a memory I’ll cherish forever.
The Tupac Moment
2011 was the first year that Coachella started live streaming all acts on YouTube, this was a huge deal for those who weren’t able to attend the festival, and came at a perfect time for 2012’s headliners Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. Well, why is this such a big deal? Not only did they bring out big acts such as Eminem, 50 Cent, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, Kurupt and Warren G, but as Ice Cube said “Only Dre would take it to this level” — bring out a holographic version of the late great Tupac and let me tell you if you haven’t already seen it, YouTube that shit right now, because it could not have looked any more legit. It was in that surreal moment, that Coachella started to become one of the most talked-about festivals, and even for myself, it is one of my very first memories of Coachella. Paul Tolett mentions in this documentary “It was the single most popular thing to ever happen to Coachella.” And boy, was he right…. the whole world was talking about it.
What I find amazing about this is, it was an idea Dr Dre had and Coachella made it happen without any hesitation, when most festivals would have been nervous debuting something ground-breaking like this. This is why Coachella is as important as it is, they take big risks to provide punters with unforgettable experiences we won’t get anywhere else.
Every. Single. Kanye Performance
The 2010s definitely saw Coachella adapting to Hip-Hop’s rise as the dominant music genre, with the biggest star of the genre, and one of my personal favourites, Kanye West bringing in the main stage in 2006, then again to headline 2011, and then to his very own campground set up last year… pretty amazing trajectory huh. So amazing that the documentary showed all three of his Coachella sets. Young, wild and reckless 2006 Kanye (not going to lie, I miss old Kanye), had his first debut on the main stage, but of course, he was 20 minutes late, and on top of that, he begged organisers to perform one more song, in typical Kanye style. Although, in 2011 he headlined Coachella, and luckily, he was on time. To this day, this performance has become one of the most iconic moments for the festival, as he was touring what is widely believed to be his best a general classic Hip-Hop album — My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. But just when we think that couldn’t be topped, last year Kanye brought his Sunday Service show to Coachella.
Even though I was gutted I couldn’t attend (it was on Weekend 2, and we only had tickets to Weekend 1) the documentary gave me an insight into what it felt like if I was actually there. The time, and the production that went into building that set was impressive, I mean they really had a whole hill built for the performance, a week out from show date. Goldenvoice team member, Noelle Chestnut Whitemore said in her interview that Kanye didn’t want this set to be about him; “It was not about him, it was about the choir, the music, it was about the songs that the experience of what Sunday Service is”, and just from watching the documentary and videos of the set, it looked like everything she says. Again, another testament to Coachella’s risk taking and giving its attendees unique experiences.
Beychella
2018, was by far the best year Coachella has had in my opinion, and the biggest performance it ever delivered, i.e. Beychella. Being the first black woman to ever headline the festival, her performance definitely goes down in not only Coachella history books but live music history books. “That opened the door so wide, she is now the biggest performance Coachella has ever had... A black woman.” Goldenvoice’s Raymond Roker expresses his thoughts on this iconic moment. It was after this performance, that I knew I had to attend Coachella, although I wasn’t able to catch it on livestream, the Netflix film ‘Homecoming’ which showed her entire performance, gave me peak FOMO.
The documentary showed a snippet of Jay-Z headlining Coachella in 2010, which showed Beyonce casually standing side of stage showing her support for her husband, which of course back then she would have had no idea that in 8 years she was going to be the most iconic thing that ever happened on that stage. Her 2-hour performance is undeniably the best that Coachella has ever had, the production, the band, the costumes, the choreography, reuniting with Destiny’s Child, bringing Jay-Z out, man it’s going to be hard to ever top off that headline. Obviously, I am super jealous to anyone who was able to witness this spectacle in real life.
Although every inch of my body would rather be at Coachella right now, this documentary, had to be the best way to compensate for its change of date. Watching it from beginning to end, there was not only so much that I had learnt about my favourite festival, but it takes you to emotional highs seeing how positively the festival has impacted so many lives of those that attended and were a part of it. There is no doubt that they have come out and proven themselves to be the most influential festival in the world and they keep getting better every year, which is why I have officially started counting down the days to October, to experience the 20th anniversary of Coachella Arts and Music Festival.
To top it off here are some fun little facts that I had learnt throughout the documentary:
- Tyler, The Creator and Odd Future crew got kicked out of the festival in 2011 for going around wetting people with super-soakers and wreaking general havoc
- In 2001, founder Paul Tolett forgot to put trash cans around the festival.
- Kanye West was meant to headline 2019, but Goldenvoice couldn’t accommodate Kanye’s initial stage requests
- Everyone at Goldenvoice was strongly against the name Coachella and wanted it to be called something else.
- 2012 was the year that introduced the second weekend.
The documentary is free to watch on YouTube, it’s a must watch for any live music fan and it’ll hit you right in the feels if you’ve already been as it did for me.
