.....shark party.: Coachella, Day One: Ghostland and the Presets Steal The Show.....Until They're Forced To Hand It Back

So by this point, everyone knows that Paul McCartney came and conquered. He played for nearly 3 hours, and gave me an experience I never fully thought through until it actually happened. But we'll get there.....

LOS CAMPESINOS!

The first act I caught was Los Campesinos!, whom, as I predicted, delivered the sleeper set of Friday afternoon. Unlike my prediction, however, they pulled a surprisingly large crowd, especially considering they played the smallest tent. People were pouring out of every exit, and dancing like jackasses to the big British band, who overcame minor technical gaffes to start the weekend in grand fashion.

WHITE LIES

Well hot damn. These guys came to play. Of all the bands I nominated before as future headliners, White Lies' star seemed to shine brightest. It was by no means a perfect set, but these guys showcased that indelible X factor that some bands never attain - the rock star charisma. Frontman Harry McVeigh's voice was spellbinding, and the band somehow managed to take songs that could be considered high school goth poetry in the wrong hands, and delivered them with feverish aplomb. With one solid radio hit, these guys could snowball into a very big deal in the US, much as they've begun to overseas. And if you've written them off as another Joy Division clone, listen again. There's a lot more going on here.

CRYSTAL CASTLES

Well, they brought the crazy all right. But not entirely the good kind, especially after all the backstage gossip got sorted out. In a move that echoed their much-discussed cancelled gig in Texas last week, Crystal Castles pulled some seriously diva-esque behavior, refusing to come onstage until at least half an hour past their scheduled set time, then refusing to leave once they had run way over time (don't get me wrong.....I'm being a partial hypocrite here, if you read my Sunday re-cap, but whatever). That said, the show was pretty nuts, with lots of microphone smashing, strangling and general debauchery to go around. But besides not playing "Vanished", there seemed to be something missing to the overall performance. The energy was there, but it was a drugged out, soulless kind of energy. And overall a great time was had watching these two do their thing, and I seemed to like them a bit more than most of the other folks I spoke with did, but I just couldn't wash the weird aftertaste of it all from my mouth. Maybe it was the news of their backstage antics that got to me, but something just seemed a tad off.

GHOSTLAND OBSERVATORY

After all the raves i'd heard about their live show, it really shouldn't surprise me that this was the best (non-Paul) full show that I saw all Friday, but somehow these guys snuck up on me. First of all: I'm certainly no rave kid, but the 3-D lasers Ghostland Observatory used were enough to make me wanna stare at them all night in a pretend-drug stupor. Honestly, words can't describe how cool these things were. Other than having the festival's best special effects, the Austin, TX duo also had the stage presence of demented Lewis Carrol characters, and had the crowd flat-out dumbfounded. For the uninitiated, they didn't know quite what to make of it all, but they sure liked it. There's no one moment for me to single out as the best of the show, but they all blended together for one hell of a party. Here's a small taste of the madness:

GIRL TALK

After a nice detour back to the Mojave tent for some of Beirut's set (as well as walking by the outdoor theatre just in time to hear Mr. Cohen's glorious "Hallelujah"), it was right back to the Sahara again for the next set, which damn near came close to matching the power of Ghostland, using only the power of two laptops. Seriously, if anyone missed this set just because they thought it'd be lame to watch a DJ at a concert festival, they missed out, because it turns out that the dude is just as skilled at putting together awesome visuals as he is at arranging mash-ups. The show began with Mr. Gillis onstage, surrounded by inflatable cacti and a football style inflatable entrance ramp, shaped like a dark figure with glowing eyes. As soon as the music started, the entrance exploded with what looked to be 100 or so white, rhinestone-covered revelers, who surrounded the DJ for the whole set, dancing their asses off and suitably hyping up the crowd (alas, Ms. Paris Hilton did not make a return appearance, like she did in '07). Gillis even managed to work in a psuedo-encore, and finished off with the best exit I saw all weekend. To catch a quick, Cloverfield-style glimpse into the chaos, click below. And believe me, it was even more fun in there than it looks:

btw.........here's a hilariously well-timed "part two" that I just found, from one of the onstage revelers. Seriously, it picks up almost exactly where the one above leaves off:

PAUL McCARTNEY

There's really not much to say that hasn't been said. I began watching his set fairly deep in the crowd, and once I got over the kick of seeing him out there, I honestly got a tad restless, and decided to check out The Presets' set back in the Sahara. As amazing as that show turned out to be (what I saw of it anyway), I realized it was time to get back. And obviously, it was. Two songs into my return, he delivered the emotional words about Linda, and took his set to the next level. It was fairly easy to move right near the front for the rest of the show, as nostalgia melted away to living, breathing rock glory. Anything slightly off the beaten path that you'd want him to play ("Get Back"), he did. Stuff you'd never dream he'd play ("GIve Peace A Chance"?!) he did. The pyro on "Live and Let Die" was amazing. Hearing "Blackbird" as an acoustic solo was even better. The second encore was so beautiful that it seemed to go by in 30 seconds. Being there, especially alongside fans who were old enough to have seen him in his original band, was the sort of experience that you just can't fully describe. It was a chance to see songs that, 50 years from now, will be as timeless as church hymns, sung by their creator, with all the spirit he had when he first wrote them. It was an emotional night, and one that no one in the crowd will ever forget. Unfortunately, it also set the bar rather high for the weekend, and everyone I talked to was convinced Saturday and Sunday would be anticlimactic affairs. Lucky for us, that wouldn't be true at all, as the weekend had many more memories in store......albeit slightly different kinds of memories than those found on Friday. But we'll get to that.

TOP FIVE MOMENTS FROM FRIDAY:

5. Los Campesinos End Their Set With "Sweet Dreams, Sweetheart".....With A Broken Guitar

After Noah's gutiar fails him, Garreth takes over and goes apeshit, scaling a vast array of surfaces within a very short period of time. Now that's the way to send a crowd home happy. Or just make them happy, since no one was planning to go home at 5:00 on Friday.

4. Girl Talk's Exit

OMFG, to the max.

3. Leonard Cohen - "Hallelujah" (even from the back of the crowd)

Yeah. I walked by the Outdoor Theatre at the right freakin' time.

2. The Presets - "This Boy's In Love"

Like I said, I caught a solid 20 min of Beirut, as well as two Leonard Cohen songs and about ten minutes of whatever the hell kind of party NASA was throwing. But the slice I saw that had me jones-ing most for the full set was the 20 minutes or so I saw of The Presets, which was closing out the Sahara tent as McCartney burned off his newer tracks. Everything I saw was spectacular, but once I'd heard "This Boy's in Love" and "My People", I knew I could walk away somewhat satisfied. If the rest of the set matched what I saw, I totally buy into the rumors that these guys stole the tent scene for the whole weekend. It was that good. Too bad they were opposite a living legend. PS: Sorry the song cuts off right when it's getting good, but videos of this performance have been slow to leak.