Yesterday was the third and final day of the 2009 installment of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, CA and, despite the soaring temperatures, folks streamed out for the last day of the fest to take in acts like Lykke Li, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Public Enemy and headliners The Cure. Here are a few photos of these acts on the performance stage yesterday and some info about how the fest got all wrapped up:

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 …

READ THE REST OF THIS POST »

Sad news this AM … Kirsten Dunst and Justin Long have, according to In Touch Weekly magazine, decided to end their fairytale romance after being together for only about 2 months. I, for one, am aghast that things didn’t work out between these two but … whatevs … Dunst-in are dunzo now:

Just two weeks after Drew Barrymore and Justin Long broke up, he was spotted getting cozy with Kirsten Dunst. But after two months of dating, Justin and Kirsten, 26, have split. “They are taking some time off for now,” reveals an insider. Kirsten, who also dated Fabrizio Moretti, another of Drew’s exes, ended the relationship. Still, the insider insists that there is no bad blood between the two: “Kirsten gets bored really easily and she needs a break from men right now. They are still both friends and will hang out.” Meanwhile, a rep for Justin says that he and Kirsten have always just been friends.

I suppose it’s possible that these two were never actually together together but I do believe that something was going on betwixt the two of them. Two months may not seem like a long time to most for a relationship/fling/rebound/whatever but the loss of lurve is sad nonetheless. Every time a Hollywood couple decides to call it quits an Angel in heaven dies so … this is really sad, y’all.

[Photo credit: X17; Source]

Kirsten Dunst is featured on the cover of the new issue of Harper’s Bazaar magazine and in her coverstory interview she talks about the usual sorts of things that get asked of covermodels (the blah blah blah). I am most intrigued by her comments about a possible relationship with actor Justin Long (newly separated from Drew Barrymore). In her Harper’s interview Kirsten claims that she doesn’t know Justin despite the fact that the two have been photographed together, as recently as August 31. HMMM:

Kirsten Dunst says rumors she is romancing Justin Long “are the funniest thing on planet Earth.” “I don’t know him from Adam,” she says in the October issue of Harper’s Bazaar, per USA Today. The two have been photographed repeatedly over the summer. On August 29, Us Weekly reports, he invited her to his $2 million L.A. home. After a sleepover, they hit the Joe Purdy show at Saint Rocke in Hermosa Beach, Calif., and lunched a day later at the Chateau Marmont, where Long, 30, got them a room. Still, Dunst, 26, insists, “I met him once and he and his friend were kind enough to walk me home. I’ve never seen him since.” She adds that she is still looking for The One.

Uh huh. Here are pics of Kirsten and Justin, or Dunst-in as I like to call them, lunching and driving together on August 31:

Now, either A.) this Harper’s Bazzar interview took place before these most recent hook-ups or B.) Kirsten has no idea that we the people are already well aware of their creepin’ around together. I suppose it’s *possible* that the two are just friends … but it strikes me as being strange that she wouldn’t just say that. What’s the big secret? I think they make a cute couple … they should totally go for it! That is, you know, if they’re not going for it already.

[Photo credit: X17; Source, Source]

Last week we heard that Justin Long, newly separated from Drew Barrymore, had moved on from his recent break-up to couple up with Kirsten Dunst (the couple were spied “making out hardcore” at Sunset Junction here in LA) and now the new duo have been photographed together at the Chateau Marmont engaged in a steamy act of … eating together. Cue the romantic music, we’ve got ourselves a new Hollywood couple, y’all … meet Dunst-in:

I must admit, I’m pretty surprised that Justin has moved on with Kirsten so soon after his break-up with Drew. Word on the street is that Justin was fed up with Drew’s “excessive drinking” and that was the reason for the split … which sounds suspicious if you consider that Justin and Kirsten, sorry, Dunst-in’s first sighting together was in a margarita line at a bar. Ah well … here’s hoping that Cupid’s arrow hit more squarely for the new lovebirds and that they find happiness together forever and ever … or, at least until the end of the year.

[Photo credit: X17]