Coachella kicked off yesterday in Indio, California, and from Nero to Jon Hopkins to AC/DC, it was a sterling first day out for the iconic festival. As always, THUMP is on the ground in the desert. Here are some of the most notable developments at the festival. Call them Coachellepments if you want:
New installations
There’s a huge fucking caterpillar roaming around. Even more weirdly, there’s a three-story corporate office building on site, replete with a helicopter parked on the roof and an army of humanoid hippos living out their capitalist fantasies on each floor.
Videos by VICE
Holy shit, there’s cell phone service
There has never been such good mobile phone service at Coachella. Remember those friends you walked into the festival with? Turns out you don’t have to lose them forever if you want to relive your tween phase and see Belle and Sebastian by yourself.
Nero and Porter Love each other
You drop the remix first! No, you drop the remix first! Playing at concurrent times, both Porter Robinson and Nero dropped the former’s fresh, new remix of “The Thrill” off of Nero’s just announced second album Between II Worlds.
Stage Upgrades
The Sahara Tent debuted a new, bullseye-like rig to the middle of the stage, giving affairs a vaguely Ultra-esque vibe. The Do Lab continues to grow as it now takes up a good portion of the terrace by its lonesome and their production design was, as is typical for them, out-of-this-world.
Steamgoth style
There are significantly less flower crowns and indian headdresses amidst the crowd. Instead, the Coachella st has moved towards a mix of healthgoth and burner-influenced steampunk, as evidenced by the group of rabble rousers above.
AC/DC make a lot of noise for a bunch of old dudes
You could hear the bar-brawl guitar chuggery of Aussie legends AC/DC all the way at the other end of the grounds at The Do Lab. Respect.
