Coachella: The Movie

Last night, Ben and I went to see the first screening of the new Coachella movie. Now, let it be said that as much as I love music -- and as much as I love festivals -- I often find live music DVDs, shows, etc, relatively dull. Some of them ("I am trying to break your heart" comes to mind) are great, but others (like the record of the Gram Parsons tribute show) make a night that often is trancendental look incendental.

So that's what's so great about the Coachella movie: it's not like that. At all.

The colors are super-vibrant. The vibe comes through. And the "importance" is there as well.

Yeah, it's a bit long; I could have done without the Kool Keith segment, even though it added to the range of music, and there are a couple of others (um, Oasis?) that fall into that this-is-boring-on-screen-category.

BUT, as a longtime attendee, the coolest thing is seeing performances you missed -- like FIscherspooner, who look incredible, or Saul Williams, who stirred the pot. There's a great segment with both Williams and Noel Gallagher talking about politics in music (guess who doesn't like it?) THe lips are edited together to make it look like Wayne rolled the bubble DURING yoshimi (instead of at the beginning of what ended up being a sliced set), and it looks amazing.

I learned that I never want to camp at Coachella, thanks to heat and wind, though it does suggest that everyone that's camping is a hot, hot hippie girl. I learned that I should make my way to the dance tent more often: that place pulses.

I feel like people who dont "get" festivals should see this movie: it doesn't slight the bad (and those huge audience shots give the impression that, yes, it's shoulder-to-shoulder people, and that sucks sometimes) but it give the impression of the magic of a great performance, too. When the Arcade Fire come on, the energy is palpable; I talked with Goldenvoice's Paul Tollett about it after the screening, and he told me they almost didn't play.

That's where it's at, though: the career-making performance that nearly didn't happen. That's good viewing, and it totally, totally works.

A+.