for those about to rock

field notes: the coup

led by a strutting, burly mc who resembles the boondocks's huey in looks and politics and whose booming lines sometimes conjured chuck d, the coup delivered what i consider the surprise smash performance of coachella.

since the kind of deep, distorted grooves they use reminded me of some of the sounds we're making in my own band, i paid close attention to the dynamics of the performance and how they affected the crowd, hoping i could glean some strategies for approaching our own tunes and live sets.

conclusions:

- even if he or she is a ripping six-string prodigy, do not have your guitarist playing extended solos on every song

- do feature guitar and bass doubling one another in lockstep fashion

- do not mix straight-up r+b tunes into an otherwise heavy set

- do feature a beautiful, energetic female vocalist who slam dances and gyrates along with even the heaviest numbers

- do not get so caught up in your performance that you lose track of the whereabouts of the monitors on stage (see 1st video below)

- do flow without missing a beat if you do, in fact, take an accidental tumble (again, 1st video below)

- don't go pull an ed kowalcyzk (of the band live) and have a full-blown seizure or something on stage, but do, however, allow for moments where you lose yourself in the euphoria of live performance, as people watching will sense it and feed off of that energy whether they like or not not. there were moments where i sensed that boots riley, being the skilled showman that he is, had even the initial non-believers of the crowd in the palm of his hand

here's a snippet of the coup's coachella performance, followed by a full video of a great song they performed at a different show to give you a sense of what they sound like:

posted by jomilkman @ 10:31 AM