Coachella 2015 Saturday Brings Jack White, Jungle, and ‘Jungle Love’

“I hope you all realize for a few seconds out of your day, every day, that music is sacred. MUSIC IS SACRED!” Saturday headliner Jack White earnestly hollered onstage at Southern California’s Coachella festival. (This came not too long after he’d gently scolded spectators to “put your cell phones down for five f—ing seconds and have a good time.”) The grand statement was a welcome reminder of what Coachella is supposed to be all about — not the flower crowns and facepaint and culturally appropriating feather headdresses, not festival fashion guides, not the Kardashian and Lohan and Bieber sightings, not the celebrity pool parties taking place in Palm Springs 20 miles away from the actual festival grounds. It’s about the music, man. And the sacred ground of Indio’s Empire Polo Field offered plenty of great music on Coachella day two.

The afternoon began with a jolt thanks to nervy Brooklyn garage rockers Parquet Courts (who actually released a live album on White’s Third Man Records label earlier this year), followed by Mike Hadreas, aka avant provocateur and queer hero Perfume Genius — a sight to behold in a mod minidress, crimson lipstick, and fishnet stockings in the glaring 2 p.m. sunlight. Shrieking and screaming his way through a cover of Mary Margaret O'Hara’s “My Body’s in Trouble” and his own epic glam anthem “Queen,” Hadreas wasn’t exactly a fun-in-the-sun sort of festival act, and his twisted alt-cabaret act may have been suited to a darkened tent. But he was definitely one of Saturday’s most compelling and unforgettable performers.

More light-hearted sets came courtesy of funky-fresh Mercury Music Prize nominees Jungle (imagine Soul II Soul meets the Bee Gees), who drew a massive crowd to the Mojave Tent that included the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne, and Scottish merrymakers Belle & Sebastian, who played their first Coachella show since 2002 and celebrated by inviting the first few rows of the Outdoor Theatre audience to hop onstage for an impromptu dance party during “The Boy With the Arab Strap.”

Bringing the Britrock were the Jimmy Page-championed, actually White Stripes-like duo Royal Blood, whose hard-charging, eardrum-bludgeoning rock ‘n’ roll made for one of the day’s most intense sets, and U.K. rock royalty Kasabian. The latter actually headlined Britain’s massive Glastonbury festival just last year, and while on this side of the pond they obviously play much, much smaller venues, Kasabian rocked Coachella’s Mojave Tent like it was the Glasto main stage, thrilling Union Jack-waving spectators with their cocksure swagger and druggy, groove-heavy rock ‘n’ soul.

Another band of cranked-up guitar-rockers, reunited San Diego post-hardcore cult band Drive Like Jehu, unfortunately played to a near-empty Gobi Tent. But the few people who showed up for the Rocket From the Crypt associates/emo forefathers’ blistering set seemed thrilled to be there. Three guys up in front even kept a tiny moshpit going the entire time.

Over the past few years, Coachella has become “Cameochella,” with various surprise guests generating more headlines than the actual officially billed acts. Coachella Saturday carried on this tradition, with Marina Diamandis of Marina & the Diamonds and Glee’s gender-bending boy diva Alex Newell joining house music collective Clean Bandit on the main stage; Bryan Ferry making a surprise appearance during Norwegian DJ Todd Terje’s set to croon his cover of Robert Palmer’s “John and Mary”; and, most amusingly, Este Haim singing the Time’s “Jungle Love” with Hozier. (Este and her fellow HAIM sisters performed that song with Morris Day on Jimmy Kimmel Live back in February, and this reprise was just as entertaining and unexpected. “That was so fun! Holy s—!” Este exclaimed to the cheering Coachella masses.)

The night ended with the aforementioned Jack White, who once appeared on Coachella’s main stage in 2003 as one-half of the stripped-down White Stripes. Twelve years later he was back on that stage, this time backed by a massive Americana backing band featuring fiddle, standup bass, two pianos, slide guitar… and a Theremin, just for kicks. The drastically expanded band lineup didn’t stop White from blasting through nine Stripes hits, however, starting with “Icky Thump” and encoring with “Seven Nation Army”; other highlights included “Hotel Yorba,” “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” “We Are Going to Be Friends,” “I’m Slowly Turning Into You,” “Hello Operator,” and “Ball and Biscuit.” He also tossed in the Raconteurs’ “Steady As She Goes” and a cover of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.”

This wasn’t a flawless concert — at times it seemed like White’s band was struggling to keep up with his constant noodling and improvising, and he missed his cues for both “Dead Leaves” and “Seven Nation Army” — but it was raw and real, and hey, that’s what rock 'n’ roll is all about.

Saturday ended with a moody, groovy set by the Weeknd… but the weekend isn’t over yet! Coachella 2015 wraps up Sunday with Drake, Florence & the Machine, St. Vincent, Ryan Adams, David Guetta, and more. See you in the desert.

All photos: Getty Images

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