23 Hot Coachella Moments: Ellie Goulding Cheers, Beyoncé Covers & Prince Sightings Day 1
Coachella 2014 got underway in Indio, Calif. Friday (April 11) with huge sets by The Replacements, Ellie Goulding, Girl Talk and headliners OutKast among the dozens of acts rocking the desert. Take a time-stamped look at the 23 hottest happenings on the festival's first day. Find out why Ellie Goulding elicited a huge mainstage cheer, where Outkast spotted Prince, and who covered Beyonce.
3:08 PM: MS MR's Lizzy Plapinger introduces a cover song as a new take on "one of our favorite songs of 2013," and the indie-pop group proceeds to unpack an austere version of Arctic Monkeys' "Do I Wanna Know?"
3:39 PM: While Jagwar Ma continues bestowing the Gobi tent with psychedelic vibes, a herd of muscular dudes is spotted in the center of the crowd, all while tank tops with the word BROCHELLA printed on the back. Apparently, the rest of the festival didn't get the name-change memo.
3:59 PM: A giant astronaut surfaces near the Sahara tent and begins making floating across the festival grounds. Coachella has officially lifted off.
4:03 PM: Diorro drops a killer remix of the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" in the Sahara Tent, sending the dancing teens into a time warp.
4:32 PM: As if a cameo from A$AP Rocky wasn't enough of a finale, A$AP Ferg ended his set by strapping on a brown jacket that was hooked up to some type of air pump, and proceeded to blast puffs of smoke out of the arm holes. The stunt was strangely cool, and the MC had a gleeful smile on his face all the while.
4:38 PM: Grouplove plays an earnest and uneven cover of Beyoncé's "Drunk In Love," really going for the gusto on the "surfbordt" line.
5:35 PM: HAIM tells a story about how they've gone to Coachella every year since 2004... but never with purchased tickets. "We snuck in... we hopped over fences," Alana Haim says with a shrug.
5:58 PM: Winding down its excellent set on the main stage, AFI sends rock fans running toward their midday audience when a piano intro indicates that fan favorite "Silver & Cold" is right around the corner.
6:03 PM: Bastille’s popularity outgrows the space of the Mojave tent. The band draws the stages biggest crowd yet, making it impossible for latecomers to approach the stage. ‘Pompeii,’ unsurprisingly, brings down the house.
6:43 PM: Perennial Coachella attendee Joe Jonas takes a tour through the main stage VIP area, drawing whispers from everyone he passes.
7:20 PM: A leather halter-top-and-shorts-wearing Ellie Goulding gets the biggest main-stage cheer yet as she breaks into her Calvin Harris collaboration “I Need Your Love.” The U.K dance-pop satr barely has to sing a word of her hit, as each mouth in the pit screams the lyrics back at her.
7:51 PM: Attempt to make it into the enclosed Yuma tent in enough time to see Nicholas Jaar from DARKSIDE do his thing. Hopes are destroyed as the line snakes across the grounds like an amusement park ride. Oh well.
8:13 PM: Two years after Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and a hologram of Tupac were the talk of Coachella, Chromeo gives their audience a dose of G-funk when the group's P-Thugg plays some of "California Love" on his vocoder.
8:26 PM: While Glitch Mob drops devious bass tones in the nearby Sahara tent, a group of 200 festival-goers sit at a private table in the Rose Garden and dine on a feast provided by Outstanding in the Field, who make their debut appearance at the festival. Those without tickets stare on, salivating from behind a picket fence.
8:47 PM: The Replacements' Paul Westerberg begins the reunited group's Coachella showcase with some cheerful self-deprecation. "Well hello!" he tells his onlookers. "There's been a lot of good music here today, huh? We'll put a fucking stop to that right now."
"A lot of good music here today? We'll put a f*cking stop to that."-The Replacements' Paul Westerberg at Coachella
9:57 PM: The video feed at the main stage gets screwed up, so that Bryan Ferry's Mojave Tent performance is being shown while Girl Talk is onstage. Intoxicated members of Girl Talk's dance party must have been DEEPLY confused.
10:37 PM: Zedd plays to Sahara crowd so massive, navigating around the swarm of gyrating bodies becomes an impossibility. Only option is to jump up and get down with the rest of the mob.
10:41 PM: The Knife transform their spooky electronic track "We Share Our Mother's Health" into a handclap-led shout-along, one of the Swedish group's many song reorganization a during their bizarre, wholly fascinating set.
11:31 PM: Outkast returns. Starting the set with "B.O.B.," the long-dormant rap duo ends their hiatus -- with the ever-stylish Andre 3000 in overalls and a hoodie, no less!
12:17 AM: Outkast's Andre 3000 gushes to the crowd. “One of my idols is here tonight. Prince is standing right over there, y’all.” The crowd cheers wildly at the mere thought of the Purple One’s presence.
1:00 AM: Outkast brings out Killer Mike, presumably for a night-closing rendition of "The Whole World," but are told that they can't break the 1 o'clock curfew. Frustrated, the duo and Mike apologize, thank the crowd, and leave the stage.
1:19 AM: Skrillex is spotted walking out to the VIP parking lot with a group of friends. The Saturday night performer looks at a pal's phone, says "That's a whack-ass picture of me," and proceeds to pose for another.