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So … OMG … after I got to see The Cure live in concert last Monday on the first night of the US leg of their Reflections Tour, I thought for sure I had seen the best Cure concert of all time. It turns out that I was wrong. Because after I got to see The Cure live in concert again last night, I know for a fact that last night’s show as a wee bit better than the one I saw last week. To be honest, I did not plan on seeing The Cure here in NYC because the shows sold out in minutes. But David’s sister Eden is a big Cure fan with a birthday coming up and I decided to see what aftermarket ticket options were available. Long story short, we found 4th row seats for a very reasonable price! And let me tell you, being that close to the stage really makes for a much more enjoyable concert experience.

So … let me tell you about my night last night. My dear friend Angie and I decided to celebrate her birthday at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, CA at a special concert performance by none other than The Cure. The band is performing a 3 night stint here in LA on their Reflections Tour where each night they perform their first 3 albums in full — Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds and Faith. Last night was night 1 of the 3 night residency and without being too hyperbolic, it was one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen in my life.

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 …

After a few unconfirmed of rumored line-ups for this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival set to take place in Indio, CA this April (one alleged that Britney Spears, with Madonna as guest star, would headline), the official band line-up was released today. The biggest news, I suppose, is that former Beatle and current Sir Paul McCartney has signed on to be the festival’s major headliner. Along with McCartney, The Killers and The Cure are also headlining the festival on Day Two and Day Three of the fest respectively. Here is the official list of all the bands scheduled to perform at Coachella this Spring:

One of winter’s annual waiting games is finally over. After days of speculation, false deadlines, more speculation and a totally bogus leaked lineup posted by none other than Ryan Seacrest, the talent roster for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was announced early Friday morning (January 30), and it’s full of surprises. In keeping with a recent trend of major heritage artists headlining on one night (Prince, Roger Waters), former Beatle Paul McCartney will top the bill for the first night of the 10th annual three-day desert fest (April 17-19) at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. It is McCartney’s first-ever U.S. festival appearance, in support of his recent release under the Fireman moniker, Electric Arguments. The Killers have the top-billing honors on the second night, along with a surprising second headliner, troubled British singer Amy Winehouse, who hasn’t played a show in the U.S. in more than a year due to her ongoing struggles with drugs and health issues. The final night is topped by goth rock legends the Cure and reunited shoegazer icons My Bloody Valentine. As always, the wildly eclectic festival will present a wide range of rock, noise, dance and indie acts, including Morrissey to Franz Ferdinand, iconic poet/crooner Leonard Cohen, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, mashup DJ Girl Talk, the Ting Tings, the Hold Steady, TV on the Radio, hush rockers Band of Horses and Fleet Foxes, pummeling metalists Mastodon, drum-and-DJ duo Travis Barker and DJ AM (a.k.a. TRAV$DJ-AM), buzzy Glaswegian rockers Glasvegas, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, possibly retiring rapper Lupe Fiasco, hip-hop legends Public Enemy and Swedish dance/trance queen Lykke Li.

The full lineup of the festival:

April 17: Paul McCartney, Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand, Leonard Cohen, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Beirut, The Black Keys, Girl Talk, Silversun Pickups, the Ting Tings, the Crystal Method, Ghostland Observatory, Crystal Castles, the Airborne Toxic Event, We Are Scientists, N.A.S.A., Patton & Rahzel, M. Ward, the Presets, tThe Hold Steady, A Place to Bury Strangers, Felix da Housecat, Buraka Som Sistema, Ryan Bingham, Bajofondo, Peanut Butter Wolf, Noah & the Whale, White Lies, the Bug, Alberta Cross, Los Campesinos!, Craze & Klever, Molotov, Switch, Gui Boratto, Steve Aoki, the Aggrolites, People Under the Stairs, the Courteeners, Cage the Elephant, Dear and the Headlights.

April 18: The Killers, Amy Winehouse, Thievery Corporation, TV on the Radio, Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes, MSTRKRFT, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Atmosphere, Mastodon, TRAV$DJ-AM, Henry Rollins, Crookers, Turbonegro, Hercules and Love Affair, Superchunk, Glasvegas, Dr. Dog, Drive-By Truckers, Booker T & the DBT’s, Amanda Palmer, the Bloody Beetroots, Surkin, Para One (Live), Calexico, Liars, Bob Mould Band, Zane Lowe, Electric Touch, Blitzen Trapper, James Morrison, Drop the Lime, Glass Candy, Thenewno2, Gang Gang Dance, Billy Talent, Ida Maria, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Zizek, Cloud Cult, Tinariwen.

April 19: The Cure, My Bloody Valentine, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Throbbing Gristle, Lupe Fiasco, Paul Weller, Peter Bjorn and John, X, Antony & the Johnsons, Roni Size, Public Enemy, Jenny Lewis, Groove Armada, Paolo Nutini, Christopher Lawrence, Lykke Li, The Kills, Okkervil River, M.A.N.D.Y., Clipse, Sebastien Tellier, Fucked Up, Perry Farrell, The Horrors, Late of the Pier, K’naan, Junior Boys, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Supermayer, No Age, Vivian Girls, Shepard Fairey, Themselves, Gaslight Anthem, the Knux, Mexican Institute of Sound, the Night Marchers, Marshall Barnes.

Tickets for the show go on sale on Friday at 12 a.m. ET, with three-day passes going for $269 and single-day tickets for $99, plus applicable fees. And, for the first time at Coachella, in a nod to the financial struggles affecting many Americans, promoters are offering the option to buy three-day tickets and onsite camping on a payment plan (50 percent down) through February 28.

The line-up looks pretty sweet but, again, I think I may have to take a pass on this fest. While it sounds like a great way to see so many amazing bands all in one weekend, in practice, it is more of a logistic nightmare … and did I mention that Coachella is in the California desert? Honestly, I prefer seeing my fave bands one or two at a time in more intimate surroundings … but, truth be told, since moving to LA my concert-going practices have slowed down significantly. When I lived in Detroit I went to shows constantly … course, then I wasn’t involved in a cross-country relationship that had me flying back and forth all the time. Mebbe now that David and I are settling in one place, there’ll be more time to see shows … but I am WAY digressing. I know that many people are very excited for the Coachella Festival each Spring … so now those folks know who they’ll be seeing this year (click HERE for a comprehensive list of My Space profile pages for the bands appearing at Coachella this Spring). And now we know for sure that Amy Winehouse is going to have to leave St. Lucia at some point … she’ll be at Coachella this year (supposedly). Tickets for the festival go on sale in about an hour from right now — click HERE to order your tickets online at 12pm ET/9am PT.

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