It took a while to get to the last day of this year’s Coachella Festival, but just a few notes from the voice of Antony made it all worth it. Dressed in a baggy cream shirt & black pants, the leader of Antony & the Johnsons proved once again to be what I hope Heaven sounds like. His show on the Outdoor Stage, where more and more I think the truly best bands were this year, was a swirl of the romantic, the exotic and the amazing. That standard continued with the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs. Karen O, whose multi-leafed golden frock reminded everyone why she is the most captivating fashion forward person in music right now, held the Main stage masses in her hands & never let go through a string of Alt-rock classics and classics to be. As with TV On The Radio on Saturday, the NYC band showed the sunset slot is where the bands that will define this year’s Coachella showed their stuff. Plus, there can be no doubt that the equally effortlessly cool Nick Zinner has become one of the great guitar heroes of our time and that in Brian Chase he is anchored by one of the best drummers around. If you weren’t at Coachella this year, see if you can find a clip of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs doing “Gold Lion” from Coachella 2009 and you’ll understand … My Bloody Valentine weren’t anywhere near as punishingly loud as I remember them being back in the early 1990s, but they were certainly as good. Their set on the Main Stage seemed to start off almost tame and then it began to build and build over an hour into a 20 minute hypnotic frenzy that redefined what guitars should do. MBV then lapsed back into conventional song structure – conventional for MBV that is – before going right back into the madness. By the time the Cure came out to finish off the night, despite rumors floating around that the Beastie Boys were going to make a surprise appearance to cap Coachella’s 10th anniversary, the main field looked almost full of fans. Robert Smith, still significantly supporting the hair spray industry with his crazy puffed out hair, and crew put on an exhaustive show that bordered on the psychedelic. The girls all danced and the men they were there with tried to not let it show that they were remembering the bad depressive Cure inspired verse they used to write to pick up girls. Sadly for the Cure, slabs of the audience lacked the endurance the band had and started streaming out. The festival organizers lacked some of that enthusiasm too. The plug was pulled on the band at 12:30, leaving the Cure to end the last few songs of their set with only their onstage monitors as amplification. In true Coachella sprit, despite the Coachella organizers themselves, the band played on. They only finally left the stage, to wild applause from the loyal remaining few, when the stage lights were turned off and the field lights were turned on.

It’s a bummer that The Cure had to have the plug pulled on them but I understand that there is a very expensive fine for going past the noise curfew. The fest is reportedly charged $1,000. for every minute past 12AM that a band performs … Paul McCartney went over by 50 minutes on Friday night so I’m sure the festival decided to cut their losses and pull the plug on The Cure as quickly as they could (after all, there was no way they were gonna cut off Sir Paul). And with that … another Coachella goes into the record books. I understand that attendance was pretty good this year, despite the flailing economy … which is a good sign that the fest will continue for many years to come. After the jump, check out some photos of some of the celebs who came out for Coachella this weekend — you’ll be happy to know that Paris Hilton and Doug Reinhardt made an appearance …

Even with all of the VIP treatment afforded to celebs at a festival like this, heat is a great equalizer … it’s nice to see the celebs all sweaty and gross just like everyone else … it’s all part of the fun!! I gotta say, I’m not really feeling any pangs of regret over missing this year’s Coachella. The temps here in LA were in the high 90s yesterday so I can only imagine how hellish it must’ve been in the desert. Hearing about how great the festival was is good enough for me. I guess we’ll just have to do it all again next year!

[Photo credit: Wireimage, Splash News; Source]