Brian Clements

Siouxsie and the Banshees – During Siouxsie’s set, Jon sent me to FOH to relieve Brian Clements, who often works for Schubert, so he could grab some dinner. I did not envy her mixer, it is a loud and messy assortment of sounds he is presented with, but he managed to get across the swashbuckling style of the band just fine. I went to throw my dinner plate away and ran into Siouxsie’s agent, Mitch Okmin, who also represents No Doubt and Berlin. Mitch is the one who hooked me up to do monitors for Morrissey, three years ago, for the very first Coachella festival, after I had done some tour managing and mixing for Berlin.

Running into unexpected folks like that is one of the good parts of festivals.

Macs’n’harps

Bjork – Sonically, Bjork was the high point of the weekend for me. We did not have a lot to do, as they carried their own Midas monitor desk, and a calm and competent crew. There was a row of string players upstage, a woman playing harps and keyboard stage right, a pair of nerdy computer guys stage left, and Bjork up the middle doing her thing. The sound for her was so clean and scrupulously detailed, it felt like watching a National Geographic documentary, if that makes sense.

At one point, I went and stood by the corner fills on the deck, and looked out at the crowd. Night had fallen, and being able to watch the audience eating it up, while she was totally going off, to my right, in real time, summed up what I love about outdoor shows in the summertime. CD’s, DVD’s, HDTV, none of those are never going to bring it to you this full-bandwidth, with the vibe of the artist and the crowd and the site.

Chemical Brothers - I’m still holding a grudge against these guys, from the Free Jazz festival in Sao Paulo, Brasil three years ago. The promoter rep promised me that he would not start the Chemical Brothers just across the way until I was done mixing Cake at a lower volume. Well, the Brothers started in with their damn’d techno just as we were heading into a great encore with Tom Zé of Brasil sitting in. I got so mad I started to wild-pan his incredible water-gargling solo, to the beat. I’ll show these kids what psychedelia is!

Thought for the day

With that and a buck fifty, I can get on a city bus, right? The Chemical Brothers continue to wow the fans, and drag around their gigantic circular reflective thing that hangs above them. Loud as hell. I went and ate dinner, once we got over a strange crisis wherein we line checked their stuff and it all worked, but it strangely disappeared when the riser got moved, and then seemingly re-appeared, after a great deal of panic-stricken hubbub.

Day Two:

After I drove in from the hotel, I stopped by the “Out Door Theatre” to say hi to Roz Jones of US Audio. He was getting Roger Lindsey set up to mix Belle and Sebastian on a Midas Heritage they were touring with, set up on the ground in front of the riser where the rest of Roz’ gear was living. Roger and I recognized each other from somewhere in the mists of time. I told him about PSW, and we had a good chat about his time with Sade and Prince. I looked at my watch and had to run get set up on our Coachella Stage.

Gabe Nelson (bass) and Will Cotter (FOH) of Cake

Sean Lyons, king of the off-topics

The day before, my old colleagues Will Cotter (FOH) and Gabe Nelson (bass) from Cake had come over to say hi. I was too tired to see their whole set the night before, but Will’s mix sounded great for the tunes I did hear. Sean Lyons, from the House of Blues and El Rey Theatre, was there watching over the off-topics rig being operated by Cake’s Lori Turncrantz.

Mixmaster Mike – Jon said something to me that made me smile. “C.K., do you know what I like about you?” No, Jon. It turned out the fact that I can still get thrilled about someone’s music is really wild to him, as he has disappeared over the horizon into pure logistics – gear and people and schedules and contracts and all that.