Last weekend saw the first weekend of the highly anticipated classic rock wet-dream that is Desert Trip. You may also know it by it’s popular colloquial name – “Oldchella”. Here are the top five reasons that we are drooling at the mouth ahead of being on the ground for Weekend Two!
Money talks
After years of playing lesser-known Frank Sinatra songs and where you need a lucky charm to hear Bob Dylan play a handful of his classic songs –Dylan played a hit-laden set (following a multi-million dollar pay day that requested he do so). Appearances of “Rain Day Women #12 & 35”, “Highway 61 Revisited”, “Simple Twist of Fate”, “Tangled Up in Blue” and “Ballad of a Thin Man” were growled under the setting sun, before an encore of the 1963 epic “Masters of War” closed out Bob Dylan for Weekend 1. An anticipated duet of “Like A Rolling Stone” with The Rolling Stones (as has happened once before in 1990) did not eventuate. Our fingers are crossed for Weekend 2.
The 60s clashed
“This may be strange to you now. We’re gonna do a cover of a sort of unknown beat group,” Mick Jagger said to the crowd before The Rolling Stones covered The Beatles. What a line to read. For decades the argument of The Rolling Stones v. The Beatles has sat on the brains of classic rock fans, and although this is not the first time The Stones have honoured the Fab Four, it is the first time they’ve covered “Come Together”.
Two heads are better than one
Following his two hour set, Neil Young joined Paul McCartney to duet for three songs. “A Day In The Life”, “Give Peace a Chance” and the first ever live performance of “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road” saw two masterful songwriters trade smiles as well as make and share history.
Rock activism is alive and well
Roger Waters performed a 27-song, almost 3 hour set to close out the festival. Those in attendance witnessed the classic Pink Floyd albums of ‘Animals’, ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’ almost performed in their entireties. During Pigs (Three Different Ones), Waters flashed images of Donald Trump wearing a Klu Klux Klan hood as the iconic floating pig rose above the crowd with the words “ignorant, lying, racist, sexist pig, fuck Trump” sprawled across it before enormous lettering on the video screens wrote “Trump is a pig”, just in case Waters’ hate wasn’t coming through clear enough.
Music AND comedy
Amidst amazing setlists of two-hour plus performances, the weekend’s rock royalty also produced some killer quips. “Come back tomorrow night, Roger’s going to build a wall and make Mexico great again,” Neil Young teased before propelling into a 20-minute version of Down By The River. Pete Townshend joked about the demographic of the festival – “You young ones, we love you for coming to see us. It must be pretty tough out there for the old ones. Why don’t you make a little chair for them, and they can sit down and rest” he said before later noting, “We were a 1967 version of Adele or Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber…We were a bunch of reprobates actually.”
Don’t miss our live coverage of the second weekend of Desert Trip from Coachella Valley, California this weekend!
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