Mini review: Chris Lake kicks off Coachella with first-ever Desert Sky performance on Day Zero
Coachella's newest venue is within striking distance of greatness
(Note: this is a lil palate cleanser between posts in the “Love Letter to Berghain” series to cover an excellent event that I attended last night. Normally, wouldn’t cover a highly commercial DJ like Chris Lake, but the new venue is especially interesting to me because it’s a brand new dancefloor from Goldenvoice, and I wanted to see how well they build new floors in 2025.)
DPARTI Scorecard --
(D) DJ -- 8/10: Lake's massive, bassy drops undergird artful pop remixes for a hardcore dance party. Want some bass with that singalong energy? How about a juicy side of Sammy Virji (who surprise guested)? Lake mixes quickly -- not a lot of layering; he makes his magic in the studio where he produces tracks for dream rooms like this one.
(P) People -- 7/10: The social media industrial complex has deeply infested Coachella: too many kids performing "I'm at Coachella" for their Insta-friends, coupled with Lake's drop-heavy style results in some 20% - 60% standing still with phones aloft, four or five times per hour. The crowd does stow their phones to dance once tracks get rolling, and some of these beautiful people bring amazing dancefloor energy.
(A) Acoustics -- 9/10: Ace sound production that has us inserting ear protection 100 yards from center thanks to field repeaters. Sounded amazing in the center of the tent, where the system aced the "hand on heart" test (bass reverb in my chest vibrated my fingertips and palms). Major win. No notes.
(R) Rules/Governance -- 7/10: The camp entry fiasco (some people took 10+ hours to get in on Thursday) suggests Goldenvoice's ambitions exceeded operations capabilities. But once the party was rolling, all was forgiven because the event itself (never mind getting to it) couldn't have been better produced. If they hammer out the kinks by weekend 2, this component could be a 9.
(T) THEATRICALS -- 6.5/10: Undercooked. Lighting underwhelmed due to spillover light from nearby food vendors. 100+ moving heads (Robe MegaPointes?) should've produced wow, but their beams were washed out by ambient light, and amatuerish, repeat patterns. Strobe and laser afterimages faded more quickly than they would have done in a properly dark tent. On this windless night, a near total absence of dust was no help either. Laser patterns on the round ceiling have potential for truly trippy effects. With some upgrades and fixes, this could be a 9.
(I) Intentionality & Infrastructure -- 8.5/10: Goldenvoice's focus on innovation (last year Quasar, this year Desert Sky) show why Coachella continues to sell a few hundred thousand expensive wristbands every year. It's one of the best festival-style dance parties on Earth. Comfortable facilities, professional, ample health and safety support, and thoughtful design touches abound. Con: the stage-centric design of Desert Sky pushes this particular experience into concert in the concert vs. dancefloor continuum. Deemphasize the DJ and zhuzh the lighting to pick up a point.
Completely agree with your comment on People 👍, but my score would be 2/10. I can't _stand_ 😤phones on dance floors or anywhere in event spaces (Coachella, Berghain, Kitkat, similar). OK, rant part over. More broadly, and more reflectively (if that doesn't sound too pompous), I see lots of photo-taking in places of worship/awe (like event spaces I've mentioned earlier, nature, other awe-inspiring settings) as taking energy from these settings rather than giving our presence, our energy to these settings. At the same time, even though it may seem counterintuitive, just based on my experience, it seems that when we take energy from settings through constant snapping of photos, this energy is just dissipated for everyone. _We_ don't gain this energy, and our energy is also dissipated. When I want to be fully present and imbibe the energies that I feel all settings always give out, I don't take photos. It's... magical. 🩵 love your posts.