MUMBAI: The first weekend of the 2016 edition of Coachella concluded with some of the finest performances to ever be executed and witnessed in its fifteen years of celebrated existence. From Kanye West to Bernie Sanders, acts across genres ensured the three-day long weekend had few of the never-seen-before contributions through songs, visuals and collaborations.
Here are five of the highlights from the first weekend -
Angus Young joined Guns N Roses and performed AC/DC songs
How often do you get to read a line like that? More so, how often do you get to see a line-up like that? But the thousands of Coachella attendees experienced something truly remarkable. The guitarist of the legendary Australian Rock n Roll band AC/DC surprised one and all with classics – ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ and ‘ Riff Raff’.
When Ice Cube made his intentions clear
Hey! It wasn’t that only ‘rockstars’ had a good weekend at the music festival, the hip-hop community offered a ‘team-up’ of equal awesome proportions. Ice Cube performed ‘Straight Outta Compton’ and ‘Fuck The Police’, joined by MC Ren and DJ Yella. The N.W.A. reunion just started the party, the icing on the cake had to be what came later. Snoop Dogg, Common and Ice Cube’s son Oshea joined the newly inducted Rock and Roll Hall of famers for ‘Go To Church’ and ‘The Next Episode’.
Possibly-the-next-American-president spreading bombing the stage with democracy
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders surprised one and all present at the Coachella with his visit to the California-based live music experience. Senator Sanders introduced Run The Jewels with a speech about the band, and the future in general. With a year to go, Run The Jewels has restlessly campaigned for Sanders, and the latter’s latest gesture seems like a favour duly returned.
Sia's unparalleled showcase
Australian singer and songwriter took the music industry by storm since her arrival in the scene, however her performance on 19 April could very well be claimed as the finest showcase her talent. The Coachella subreddit was swamped with comments like ‘magical, ‘unique’ and statements like ‘concert performance of a generation’. While the video can be streamed on Coachella links, here’s just a glimpse of what happened
LCD Soundsystem’s emotional tribute to Starman
The concluded weekend of Coachella will be remembered for reasons beyond reunions and collaborations and so forth. The New York based rock band paid tribute to its hero David Bowie with an emotionally charged cover of ‘Heroes’. Since Bowie’s death, several musicians and bands added some of Bowie’s greatest hits to their respective set-lists during tours and live performances, however LCD Soundsystem’s cover of the classic was least expected, albeit one of the highlights of the weekend.
Here’s the cover as captured by one of the fans during the show -