By Cata Greloni Pierri
On the last two weekends, Indio, California was packed with fans in a new festival created by Coachella organizers. From 7th to 9th and 14th to 16th October Desert Trip held the best rock ‘n roll line up ever: Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, Neil Young and The Who performed live in the middle of the desert.
Last Friday, Bob Dylan started the show with a short but powerful performance starting with “Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35”. The new Nobel Prize winner for Literature, which was announced the same day and who did not refer to it at any time went over several of his classics.
The Rolling Stones were in charge of closing Desert Trip´s first journey. Among their hits, they performed “Ride ‘Em on Down”, the classic blues, not played since ’62 and included in their next album, Blue & Lonesome. Halfway through the concert, Jagger surprised his fans with “Come Together”, covering The Beatles, with master guitar solos by Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood.
Neil Young & Promise of the Real opened “Oldchella” (so called for the performers´age) on Saturday with the singer at the piano and an acoustic version of “After the Gold Rush”. Young sent political and environmental messages to his crowd and joked about Trump’s candidacy. Glory times came with “Down by the River”, with an extensive improvisation session with his guitar.
With 75,000 attendees, Sir Paul McCartney gave a two hour show during the first weekend. Neil Young joined on stage to sing “A Day In The Life” and “Give Peace a Chance”, Lennon and Ono´s classic song. He also played an emotional cover of “Something” in George Harrison´s memoir and this time invited Barbadian rapper, Rihanna to perform “FourFiveSeconds”.
For the closure of the historical festival, Pete Townsend and Roger Daltrey from The Who played “I Cannot Explain”, “The Seeker” and “My Generation”. The band ended their performance with “Baba O’Riley” and “Will not Get Fooled Again”, to let Pink Floyd´s former bass player kill the last session.
The grand finale was dominated by Roger Waters, who also dispatched himself against Trump with a great audiovisual performance and swearing over the famous inflatable pig. The evening began with “Breathe”, the glorious Dark Side of the Moon song (1973) and continued with the relentless “Time”, “Money” and “Us and Them”; finally ending with powerful versions of “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” and “Wish You Were Here”.
