Aside from a small hiccup due to an unorganized day 1 at the entrance (they ran out of wristbands mid-day), we hit the Coachella grounds sprinting…straight to the Sahara tent. As Coachella newbies this year, we made sure to exploit all that the festival had to offer and made a valiant attempt at seeing a little bit of everyone at every stage but alas, nothing could quite compare to what the Sahara was dishing out that Friday.
While we missed out on Proxy because of the whole entry mess, we made it just in time to catch Aeroplane. It was the first time we had ever seen them live and they were nothing short of spectacular. Wolfgang Gartner came on right afterward and followed suit with an incredible set which included his most recent hit, Undertaker. After bouncing around a bit following Gartner, we got a chance to hear some other notable performances from Passion Pit, La Roux, Imogen Heap, and LCD Soundsystem. Of those, we’d have to say that La Roux put on the most impressive showing albeit that their tent was utterly packed beyond toleration. Thus, we inevitably found ourselves back raging at the Sahara tent for the end of Erol Alkan and Benny Benassi. This, of course, culminated to the mind-blowing performance by deadmau5.
Although there were a few close competitors, we’d have to say that deadmau5 came out on top as our favorite performance of Coachella 2010. All personal biases aside, our reasoning behind that claim is because he signed, sealed and delivered the full package. Not only did he work in a handful of brand-new songs and unique improv beats, but what really stole the show was the unveiling of his new stage setup. As the very same individuals who were responsible for the lighting in Kanye West’s Glow In The Dark Tour and the infamous pyramid from Daft Punk’s 2007 Alive Tour, Lighting/Set Designer Martin Phillips and Catalyst/LED technician John McGuire stopped short of nothing in the creation and premiere of deadmau5′s new DJ podium/cube, stage lighting, and revolutionary LED mau5head. What makes this all the more epic is that Daft Punk’s pyramid also happened to debut for the first time at Coachella in 2006. As mentioned in a previous post, rumor has it that deadmau5 has a set of virtual reality screens within this new mau5head that allows him to view all of his monitors at one time. We’ll have to confirm this and get back to ya.
There were no port-a-potty lines from 11:30 onwards since no one wanted to miss a beat of what Joel and his new LED mask had in store. Throughout the entire show, different patterns and images flashed across this new helmet in sync with both the music and the lights shown on the cube. At one point, the Disney-like mouse outline of a head suddenly came to life and started wickedly singing along with the song, “Sometimes Things Get, Whatever.” Needless to say, deadmau5 successfully captivated and enthralled a tent full of beat-hungry electro heads for an incredible close of the first day at Coachella. We’ve compiled a few of the best videos from across the web for you to get a true sense of how awesome it really was…
Wait for 3:23 when “Sometimes Things Get, Whatever kicks in…
“Moar Ghosts N Whatever”/”Ghosts N Stuff” feat. Rob Swire
“Sophie Needs a Ladder” (tentative name) feat. vocals by Sofia Toufa (Tommy Lee’s GF…both of which performed live with deadmau5 at Ultra Music Festival this year)
“Strobe”
“Arguru” (closing)
And last but not least…here’s some footage of Danny DeVito trancing out with some topless girls at the deadmau5 performance (compliments of TMZ):
