The Best of Coachella 2010

Like a lot of people I’m sure, I took the day off from work on Friday and went to Coachella with a few friends. Some of the best musical moments from the three-day festival were:

-Thom Yorke pleasantly surprising on the Outdoor stage with an acoustic version of “Airbag”—during the encore of his 9 p.m. Sunday set with Flea and friends. I hadn’t been expecting any Radiohead songs from the electro-rock supergroup, which has been performing under the name “Atoms for Peace,” a song title off of Thom’s solo album, “Eraser.”

-Jay Z coming onstage (the main Coachella stage) and going right into “Run This Town.” The rap heavyweight headlined on Friday night.

-Leaving Jay Z around midnight to catch the last hour of deadmau5, a buzz DJ that the L.A. Times ran a story on in Friday’s Calendar section (apparently the versatile electro-spinster spent eight months preparing for his Coachella performance). Before Coachella, I hadn’t heard of deadmau5. It was my one of my friends who insisted we make our way all the way across the huge polo fields to check him out in the sweaty Sahara tent. It was good that we did. We had to fight for our spot—the tent that was way too small to accommodate the masses spilling out of it—but it was worth it. We danced.

-My other friend screaming out, “I LOVE YOU VICTORIA!” to the lead singer of Beach House in the Mojave tent. Our band choices on Saturday afternoon would’ve made the editors at Pitchfork proud if only they would read this blog. We squeezed in Girls, the XX (whom Jay Z watched from somewhere in the back) and Dirty Projectors.

-Indie alt-rockers Spoon seriously kicking ass on the main stage on Sunday—I’ve always heard great things about these

Brits

. Now I understand why. It was too bad we couldn’t stay long—we had to hurry over to the adjacent stage to see Phoenix.

(Spoon is actually from Austin, Texas. The lead singer’s name is Britt Daniel, so I guess I got used to seeing that name in articles about the band and assumed they were British. Thanks to a commenter for pointing that out.)