The staff at Goldenvoice has succeeded again in creating one of the most comfortable and consistently exciting US festivals. This year's line up boasted a handful of big names, but overall a collection of buzzbands and cult favorites drew a crowd that stacked up among some of this festival's most crowded years. I was impressed to see that things ran more smoothly then ever, and how many of the performers were at the top of their game. This year's other impressive features were a temperature in the low 90s, shortest bathroom lines I have experienced and higher quality state fair food. All of these details are very important in creating the ultimate festival environment. Here is a run-down of all of the best moments of the festival that I was able to see, in the order I was able to see it.

Saturday

The Raveonettes

Very confident set, not as animated as I had hoped they'd be, but The Ravonettes performance was extremely energetic, and impressed an early afternoon crowd. I think in a dark club they would really excel, but I had a great time watching them work through a set of what I consider to be almost all of their best tracks in the midday sun.

M83

Rocking a lot harder live, the four-piece live band worked it's way through a very MBV-esque set. I wasn't around for the entire set, but thought I would rather see them live again then listen to the albums. I will say I have seen many bands do what they do better, but they weren't at the festival, and it was nice to sit and relax to while you're still able to have a conversation with your friends before the volume of all the stages gets amped past comfort.

The Kills

They blow away their records live! The Kills to me exist primarily as a live band, and the album is mostly a souvenir you keep to remind you how great they were. If you have heard the albums and weren't impressed, give them another chance live, the recordings are a shell of the energy and punch the give their music when they are working at full power on stage. Played mostly new stuff from No Wow, but there wasn't a single dull moment during the entire set. Every time I see them I like them more.

Keane

Listened to while chilling in the beer garden by the main stage. Great pretty-songs to drink to when you're hot and tired. This year they had han soju cocktails, and it was great to have a relaxing time with quality elevator music in the background. I think this band is good, but it would have had to at least had been Coldplay to get me to stand anywhere near the stage. A lot of people had wondered why I didn't make it over to see Razorlight at this time slot. "Golden Touch" hasn't exactly won me over yet, if it ever does I might go and check them out when I don't have to walk across a giant polo field when I would rather drink.

Due to human problems of having to eat dinner, go to the bathroom and purchase churros, UNKLE were sadly missed. As were Swayzak, Four Tet and MF Doom in the resulting post-food confusion.

Weezer

I, like very many of you was a gigantic Weezer fan in high school. Being one of the few bands I had ever joined the fan club for (Suede being the other), I felt I had to give them another chance after so many years have passed between seeing them in their prime with Teenage Fanclub, hell they were even pretty good in 1996 playing with Ash for Pinkerton. But the crimes committed against music on the "Green Album" tour made me swear off of them. It was great to see them again, they played the songs with great care, and the 3 new tracks they played were a small price to pay for above average set of hits.

Bauhaus

Very impressed by not only how good they sound, but how great their stage show was. Peter Murphy can really move! He entered suspended from his feet, hanging upside-down, as he slowly drifted over to his mic where he performed all of "Bella Lugosi's Dead" upside down. I only stayed for 4 songs before heading over to see Mercury Rev, but wished I could have seen it all. Nice to see them have big-time dollars to stage the live show they've always deserved.

Mercury Rev

One of the highlights of the whole festival! One of my favorite sets among all of the past festivals as well. Mostly new tracks, which were all great, performed with great precision and emotion that most bands cannot match. They closed with the epic "Dark Is Rising" from their last record All Is Dream which is one of the defining songs I've seen live. I could have watched them for two more hours, it was better than wonderful.

Coldplay

You've got to want to hear Coldplay songs to deal with them live, but deal I did. It was nice to hear them again, after a 3 year or so break I was ready for "Yellow" and some of the other Parachutes tracks again. They sound good, just not much to look at on stage. I'm not into the whole hyperboy thing when their music deserves something with a little more grace and dignity. But they are all qualified players and aside from butchering "Yellow" with shoutouts about being at Coachella, I had a good time watching the end of their set.

Sunday

Diplo

Above average DJ set, can't tell exactly what was going on up there, but there was a laptop. I kept telling myself it was only for the projections, but another part of me says all of the music was coming from it. There was a great version of "Bombs Over Baghdad" mixed with "Lovesong" by The Cure that was awesome. I wanted it to choose more of a direction, but it sorta wondered in and out of both, the best moments being with the organ riff under Andre 3000's rapping.

Autolux

I don't get their stuff, but I'm guessing it's not supposed to be for me. It's not really tuneful, and it's not edgy enough to be Sonic Youth, which again to me is pretty tuneful and I''m always down for them. The audience seemed to really enjoy Autolux, so you might be better off to take your que from them. I haven't been able to get into their record either. To me they just fall short of all the many marks they try to hit in my eyes. I didn't hang out long here.

M.I.A.
I liked this set a lot! I chose to start here and work over to the Fiery Furnaces due to a ten minute lag in set times. But this definitely was the winner between the two. Almost as good as Basement Jaxx last year. M.I.A. and another female MC had some of the best interplay I've seen in a long time, I haven't been into that many of the live hip hop sets I've seen, but this was awesome. I ended up staying a few songs into the F.F. set, but was glad I did. There was so much hype around this album that I thought there was no way it could be good, but her stuff is solid.

Fiery Furnaces

The first time I ever wished a live band had brought their samples on a laptop. I'm really back and forth about this set, but I will say they tightened up significantly towards the end. I like intense, and maybe they would have been a bit more sinister in the dark, but it was mid-afternoon and there was no atmosphere and they were light on intensity.

Tegan & Sara

I think these girls are great, they've got solid songs, and they perform them well. Never seen them before, but I was impressed at the vocals harmonies and how emotional the set was. One of the top 5 performances of Coachella 2005.

Gang Of Four

Played to an audience who didn't appreciate their stuff, and who already were queued up for NIN. But this aside the people who were into it, were really into it. I loved it as well, and I haven't listened to them in quite sometime. I would definitely go if they came back through LA.

New Order

I was only marginally into this, and so were New Order. They did mostly new tracks, and they were okay. New Order doing Joy Division stuff didn't sound great either. Taking a stab at "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "Transmission" fell short of what I had expected. The best song they played was "Crystal," but "Regret" and "Bizarre Love Triangle" sounded good too. I had expected their set to be the highlight of the second day, and was a little bit let down.

NIN

I crowd surfed for the first time, and it was away from the very close spot I had worked up to for New Order. I listened to various moments of this set as I wondered around, and walked up to look at the monitors, but I just wasn't in the mood for Trent Reznor at all. They sound exactly like the records if not better, but I was just really turned off by his lyrics tonight.

Matmos

Surprisingly entertaining after a long day, they just muck about on stage until their sounds turn into music. They are more then Bjork's music bitches. Great visuals, but I don't understand why they have to burn their pal with a cigarette to show us the process of how a blister forms. I'm sure we have all seen that, and some of us would rather see their maps or the inner-ear footage again.

Pinback

Sound great, but I wasn't into it either, maybe a lyrical problem, maybe it was a tiredness problem. I've seen them before, and it was very good, but that was a few tours back, and I'm not familiar with the new tracks.

The Faint

The Faint are at the top of their game right now, and this set was wall to wall energy. They dance full-on the whole set, and didn't slow it down at all like they did on the Danse Macabre tour. One of the best dance bands playing today, one of the highlights from the 2nd day.

Black Star/Bright Eyes

Barely passable for both. So anti-climatic I had to get a churro as fast as I could to stay awake. Should have left after the Faint.

Prodigy

Why not have Prodigy at Coachella. It's as good as you'd think they'd be, on either side of the coin. But again, I should have left after the Faint.