Gig played on 28/04/07

Well, while most scenesters are still lazing by hotel pools or snagging swag at the nearby Hugo Boss and DKNY parties, Yahoo! Music is incredibly already on the festival grounds. And arriving at the crack of noon certainly has its perks - like actually making it on time to the relatively uncrowded early-afternoon Mojave Tent sets by dreamy psych-folk rockers Fields and cheeky Brit punks The Cribs.

However, that calm before the desert storm is short-lived, for when buzz band du jour The Fratellis begin their set, the fashionably late crowd files in and the tent's temperature suddenly jumps from a moderately uncomfortable 35 degrees to a hallucination-inducing heat level more typical of Native American sweatlodges. That's the power of a ubiquitous iPod ad for you. To the crowd's credit, though, most of the punters seem familiar with Fratellis' tunes other than the jaunty Apple jingle "Flathead". In fact, the song that elicits the biggest response is "Chelsea Dagger", a glammy football-terrace anthem that ought to replace Gary Glitter's "Rock & Roll Part 2" at sporting matches, now that the infamous Glitter's music has been banned from such family-friendly events.

Unfortunately, The Fratellis' fellow Scotsmen indie elder statesmen Travis, are unable to maintain that momentum over on the Main Stage. Yes, this is the band that was Coldplay before Coldplay were Coldplay, but they never became a huge US sensation as predicted. And sadly, after this lacklustre performance, it's obvious that A-list success will forever elude Travis in America. Suffice it to say that when Fran Healy sings "All I Wanna Do Is Rock", no one in the audience really seems to believe him. Because he just doesn't.

Luckily, the next two Main Stage bands - Kings Of Leon and Arcade Fire - rock hard enough to compensate for that Travis-administered lull. As do the expertly executed INXS/Lil' Mama and Smashing Pumpkins/Fergie mash-ups of DJs extraordinaire Girl Talk and the Hi-NRG sets by electro-rock New Yorkers LCD Soundsystem and The Rapture, all in the Dance Tent.

But the day still concludes on a downer, when The Good, The Bad & The Queen hit the Second Stage (35 minutes late) and proceed to dash all high expectations by joyously, sluggishly running through what sounds like the same song over and over and over. And over. It's almost like they've been scheduled by Coachella organizers at 11pm as some sort of crowd-control measure, to drive people off the festival grounds at a decent hour. Additionally, those concertgoers patient/masochistic enough to make it through the band's third song can barely hear it over the bleepy din of Tiesto's nearby set - "That is one LOUD ice cream truck", Damon quips bitterly. Sadly, tonight only a third of this not-so-supergroup's name seems appropriate.

by Lyndsey Parker