Coachella 2014 has announced its line-up, and it’s weird because this year I didn’t feel any hype and anticipation like last year. In 2013, I had seen a lot of fake posters at this point, this year, I may have seen one, which was actually pretty close to the real one! This is true that headliner Outkast had already been announced a long time ago, that Arcade Fire was a given, as they have been playing literally everywhere lately, but Muse? I can already see your excitation, but I basically have none at this point. They excite me as much as Phoenix, and Phoenix is very low on my list of headliners. Muse are the stadium fillers and stuck between Outkast-Friday and Arcade Fire-Sunday, Muse-Saturday will certainly achieve the same thing… strong headliners? Yes, but original and bold headliners they aren’t. Just be ready for that space-rock-opera of coliseum dimension with crescendos of falsettos… I was kind of hoping for Queens of the Stone Age to be the headliner, but they haven’t reached that spot yet I guess, still they will go second the same day.
Beside this, there are a few interesting bands, just a few I would say compared to the usual avalanche of names on the poster: Beck, Neutral Milk Hotel, Motorhead (yeah!) the Afghan Whigs… but I have to look in the myopic letters to get more excitement with Mogwai, Ty Segall, the Jon Spencer Blues explosion… and tons of people I have never heard of. But why the hell are Skrillex, Lorde, Foster the People, HAIM so high in the lettering?
Coachella-goers will also get some classic old school acts (Bryan Ferry, Pet Shop Boys, Motorhead, the Replacements), some fluffy spur-of-the-moment act (Lorde) and some fluffy lasting-for-the-moment act (Lana Del Rey)… Have you noticed how small Solange is on that poster? The poor girl is in need of some big sister power! Overall, not a lot of punk, lots of pop, electronic, rap, blablabla and not super exciting. The only exciting thing that could happen would be David Bowie joining Arcade Fire on stage! Now that would be dreamy! Of course the action will last for two weekends like before, on April 11-14th and on April 18-20th.