With the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival off to a somewhat rocky/underwhelming start this past weekend, it seems like a good time to spotlight some classic performances from back when the festival wasn’t a total shitshow. Granted, that may be a little harsh (I guess if you can brave the multi-hour traffic jams and have a high tolerance for the plethora of tacky/trendy Top 40 radio acts on display, it could conceivable be a swell time), but all things considered, it’s probably fair to say the festival has been well passed it’s prime for roughly a decade or so now. And that, of course, has a lot to do with the devolution of the lineup in recent years from what was typically a fresh mix of cutting-edge and legacy alt-rock bands to the decidedly more generic/soulless algorithm-flavored lineups chock-full of trendy rappers and popstars you see today. Oh well. At least we can always turn back to the clock to when Coachella was truly lit, like when Rage Against the Machine reunited for their first performance in seven years to headline the festival back in 2007.
Checkout this performance of “Testify” and “Bulls on Parade”, which kicked off that legendary set, and relive the days of peak-era Coachella:
