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PrintableThe 'Material Girl' cranks up Coachella's glitz factor
Though critics assert that she's too mainstream for the indie music fest, her six song set packs them in the tent. By Chris Lee Special to The Times May 1, 2006 INDIO, Calif. -- Madonna was barely through her second song at the Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival tonight when she addressed what was on almost every festival-goer's mind. "This is my first festival," she said to wild applause from the capacity crowd of several thousand. Madonna paused a moment and then joked: "Now who's going to share their drugs with me?" Far and away the most commercial artist in the festival's seven-year history, pop music's Material Girl arrived with six dancers in tow amid controversy. Some critics and alternative music fans complained that her inclusion among the festival's alterna-rock stars and underground electronica and rap acts signaled a shift toward a more mainstream Coachella. Bowing to that perception somewhat, Madonna opted to bill herself as a "dance act" and played in the Sahara Tent - the so-called "dance tent" here. One T-shirt being sold near the tent this weekend addressed the mixture of bewilderment and excitement surrounding her set. It read simply: "Madonna in the dance tent!" Although she has performed individual songs at MTV Europe's Video Music Awards and with the Gorillaz at the Grammys in February, Madonna's 40-minute, six-song Coachella appearance marked the first time the singer performed an extended set in two years. (On May 21, 23 and 24 she will perform at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles.) Tonight she stripped down onstage (behind a screen), from a glittering purple jacket and velvet pants to a blue violet leotard, knee-high boots and a purple feathered boa. The outfit highlighted the 47-year-old's well-muscled physique. "She looks so skinny, it's amazing," said Julianna Shepard of Thousand Oaks. Her 14-year-old son, Sam, put a finer point on Madonna's appearance. "She looks hot," he said. The singer's physicality was put through its paces as she karate kicked, writhed on the floor and thrust her pelvis through three songs from her latest album, "Confessions on a Dance Floor," and three older hits. During her closing number, her first hit single, "Everybody," Madonna appeared visibly out of breath. "She looks tired," someone in the crowd was heard to say. The crowd cheered wholeheartedly during her performance but once she left the stage, fans didn't sustain their applause - hence, no encore. Asked if a performer of Madonna's stature belonged at Coachella, Roger Vambrazano of Los Angeles, 24, said: "Look around. This is the most crowded any tent has been all day. I had no expectations coming in, but she blew me away." | |
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Madonna, Franz Heat Up Coachella Tool, Depeche Mode, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and more also dominate desert fest Link | |
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from my live journal
we got ready to head further into the Desert and Coachella Music festival. There was no traffic on the 10, which was cool. Off the 10 was a different story. it took 2 hours to travel from the 10 to the gates of the festival and the Sahara Dance Tent. The tent was huge. A bigger stage than the main stage and 4 rather large screens set up on the side of the stage and outside of the tent. I can't imagine why in the dance tent they would need monitors like that? 
One rather hot dj was spinning as we worked our way up to through the crowd. I guess the montiors were working to let us know he was hot. We found a spot for the 6 of us. Jeff and Dan backed out of going. However Rachel wanted to get closer so the girls kept on making their way to the front. The first dj stopped and they set up for Paul Oakenfield. I think at this time it was safe to say there were close to 10,000 in the tent. Not much room to dance or anything. People kept pushing a head or trying to get through. As Paul's set wore on people were less and less inclincded to let people through. Just as Paul ended these 3 girls probably not much older than 18 forced their way in front of us, but first they had some words with the guy standing next to them. He was not thrilled to see them. Soon after some Asian chick pushed her way up from behind me with her boyfriend. They stood there for a second and than asked if i'd help her get on his shoulders so she could see. i said no because they'd be in my way, and she said they wouldn't stand in front of me. Once again i said no, because than they would be infront of my friends and hundreds of other people. The 3 girls from before however decided they'd help her up. At which point Tim, Rich and myself asked them to get down. When they didn't everyone behind them started chanting Get Down! I then called the girl a fucking cunt. One of the 3 girls thought i called her friend a cunt and spun around and got all in my face and was like what did you say. I looked down at her, cause she was short and said you heard me. she stopped for a second turned to her friends turned back at me and all she could come up with was You fucking Fag. My reply was along the lines of yes i suck better cock than you and probably every guy you see here does too. the asian chick was still refusing to get down. i told her get down and watch the monitors that's what there were for. she said no. Tim and Rich started pusing the boyfriend. people started throwing water bottles at her. Tim was like Bitch i'm going to light you on fire if you don't get your ass down. The other girls kept calling me a fag, and i was like does your mother know you are here on a school night? than tim asked one if she spent her boob job money on tickets. the girls just kept calling us fags. Why is that straight people always refer to calling us what we are? Finally Rich was like bitch if you don't get down i'm going pull you down by your fucking hair. She got down. than they appoliogized and went on their way outside to one of the monitors. the three girls however kept trying to show how cool they were. i went on ignore mood. After about 20mins of waiting for her to go on Tick Tick Tick And we were off. i could tell from the set-up she was going to do the same gig from KoKo and the G-A-Y performance. I just didn't know what color of leotard she'd wear. She came out in purple. A few minor changes. She played guitar on I Love New York. At first i was scared because in the past her guitar playing was a little shaky. Last night it was much better. The Line in the song "If you don't like my attitude you can just F off, just go to Texas isn't that where they golf." was changed to "If you don't like my attitude you can Fuck off, just go to texas and suck George Bush's Cock." She added Ray of Light to the set. Which was great. and than the Performance of Let It Will Be was alot better than at KoKo. Finally she ended with the one song i was dying to hear. Everybody!!!! Dance and Sing get up and do your thing!!!! They ended up taking down the walls of the tent and expanding the standing room into the next two tents to accommadate the crowd. They sold 100,000 tickets for yesterday and about a good half were all eyes on Madonna. great show and we were only 100 ft if that far away from her. You CANNOT use the name of God, or religion, to justify acts of violence, to hurt, to hate, to discriminate- Madonna
authentic power is service- Pope Francis | |
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L.A. Times: Madonna Electrifies Coachella
Pop goes a haven of rock An electrifying set by Madonna confirms the changing identity of the indie fest. INDIO, Calif. — You could say she was like a virgin when it comes to playing festivals, but Madonna acted as if she owned the place on Sunday in her much-anticipated, much-debated appearance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Haughty and swaggering (in a good way), the pop star made her first appearance at a music festival, and Coachella hosted its first bona fide pop star. For Madonna it was just another notch on her career belt, but for Coachella it was the dawning of a new era. Actually, the dawning began the previous day, when rap star Kanye West appeared on the main stage at the Empire Polo Club. Madonna, though, is a much more polarizing cultural figure, and when she was added to this year's lineup you could feel the shudders throughout the community of serious rock followers who regarded Coachella as their unsullied haven. So the Madonna moment was more high noon, a showdown between Coachella's past and future. Say what you will about the material girl, there's no denying her magnetism, and with no one playing the main stage opposite her, it seemed as if many concertgoers were simply pulled by her gravity to the area of the Sahara Tent, the hangar-like canopy where DJs keep the dance-music crowd sweating all day. She sold tickets, generated conversation and finally delivered a scene packed with excitement and intensity — like Saturday, Sunday logged a Coachella record attendance of 60,000, and an estimated 30,000 people were in the tent and on the field outside for her show. It was one of those peak moments that Madonna lives for, and when the curtain rose about 20 minutes past her scheduled 8:10 p.m. start time, she absorbed and magnified the crowd's energy and anticipation and sent it back on the giddy, ABBA-based "Hung Up," from her recent album of disco-flavored dance music. The singer, backed by a four-member band and a troupe of dancers, never let the energy — nor the attitude — flag. Playfully imperious in manner, she vamped through songs old and new, including a couple of more from the new album as well as "Ray of Light" and the vintage "Everybody." She played guitar for a good stretch of rock-flavored music, summoning feedback and bumping instruments with her bass player. And, of course, she did the sex thing, leaving no horizontal surface unwrithed upon and eventually removing her pants to finish up in leotard and tights. "Does my ass look OK?" she asked the audience. And perhaps getting into the Coachella rock spirit, she stopped things at one point and glared at some ringside fans. "There's water on my stage," she yelled, adding a salty expletive to describe those fans. "Don't throw [stuff] on my stage." Then she got down on her hands and knees, wiped the floor with a towel and tossed it into the crowd. Thanks for the souvenir, lady. So Coachella came through the Madonna experiment unscathed, for now anyway. Whether it will result in some deeper institutional damage to its soul and credibility remains to be seen, as does the direction its new vision will take. But the audience's embrace of the winds of change over the weekend suggests there's no turning back. | |
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I wish she'd add "Nobody Knows Me." That song was the bomb on the last tour!!! | |
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purpleunderground said: I wish she'd add "Nobody Knows Me." That song was the bomb on the last tour!!!
me too You CANNOT use the name of God, or religion, to justify acts of violence, to hurt, to hate, to discriminate- Madonna
authentic power is service- Pope Francis | |
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DavidEye said: Wow...sounds like a great performance! I wish I had been there.
Tour update: it looks like this is the final setlist... Future Lovers Get Together Like A Virgin Jump Live To Tell Forbidden Love Isaac Sorry Like It Or Not Sorry (remix) I Love New York Let It Will Be Ray Of Light Drowned World/Substitute For Love Paradise (Not For Me) Music La Isla Bonita Erotica/You Thrill Me Lucky Star Hung Up Unless there are some last-minute changes,those are the songs we will hear on tour.I'm seeing her at the end of this month! a lot of casual fan/concertgoers will not like this. how many old songs? like a virgin live to tell music la isla (???!) erotica (oh yeah, people who aren't hardcore fans are gonna love that one) lucky star that's it?? what about 'everybody'? i'm glad i went to coachella cuz hearing that one was the bomb. i hope this is wrong. 'forbidden love' through 'paradise' will be  I'll leave it alone babe...just be me | |
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badujunkie said: DavidEye said: Wow...sounds like a great performance! I wish I had been there.
Tour update: it looks like this is the final setlist... Future Lovers Get Together Like A Virgin Jump Live To Tell Forbidden Love Isaac Sorry Like It Or Not Sorry (remix) I Love New York Let It Will Be Ray Of Light Drowned World/Substitute For Love Paradise (Not For Me) Music La Isla Bonita Erotica/You Thrill Me Lucky Star Hung Up Unless there are some last-minute changes,those are the songs we will hear on tour.I'm seeing her at the end of this month! a lot of casual fan/concertgoers will not like this. how many old songs? like a virgin live to tell music la isla (???!) erotica (oh yeah, people who aren't hardcore fans are gonna love that one) lucky star that's it?? what about 'everybody'? i'm glad i went to coachella cuz hearing that one was the bomb. i hope this is wrong. 'forbidden love' through 'paradise' will be aprrently the person who cherographed Everybody and Deeper and Deeper had a falling out with Madonna and they nixed them from the show You CANNOT use the name of God, or religion, to justify acts of violence, to hurt, to hate, to discriminate- Madonna
authentic power is service- Pope Francis | |
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badujunkie said: DavidEye said: Wow...sounds like a great performance! I wish I had been there.
Tour update: it looks like this is the final setlist... Future Lovers Get Together Like A Virgin Jump Live To Tell Forbidden Love Isaac Sorry Like It Or Not Sorry (remix) I Love New York Let It Will Be Ray Of Light Drowned World/Substitute For Love Paradise (Not For Me) Music La Isla Bonita Erotica/You Thrill Me Lucky Star Hung Up Unless there are some last-minute changes,those are the songs we will hear on tour.I'm seeing her at the end of this month! a lot of casual fan/concertgoers will not like this. how many old songs? like a virgin live to tell music la isla (???!) erotica (oh yeah, people who aren't hardcore fans are gonna love that one) lucky star that's it?? what about 'everybody'? i'm glad i went to coachella cuz hearing that one was the bomb. i hope this is wrong. 'forbidden love' through 'paradise' will be Yeah,this setlist is strictly for the diehard fans and for those who love 'COADF'.This is not a Greatest Hits tour,and I'm thrilled  I want to hear the new songs played live. | |
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Tour update
from Drownedmadonna... Our friends Val and ATC had the chance to see today's rehearsals at Los Angeles Forum.They have heard "Lucky Star","Like A Virgin","Drowned World/Substitute For Love","Get Together","I Love New York","Sorry" and "Paradise (Not For Me)".Here's what they have to say.... *Lucky Star---same intro as album version *La Isla Bonita---very fast *Isaac---very similar to album version *Drowned World/Substitute For Love---identitical to the Drowned World Tour version *Get Together---same version as Koko *Like A Virgin---very similiar but music was total rock *Paradise (Not For Me)---absolutley insane,there's a vocoder present,it's acoustic and it's completely different from the album version.Madonna plays guitar. There are lights on each side of the catwalk lining it.There is a huge screen that stretches from left to right and one smaller screen that's on each side of the stage.The big screen will rise up to reveal the stage in the beginning.There's a "Sorry" cage (like in the video) that lowers from the ceiling.  | |
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purpleunderground said: I wish she'd add "Nobody Knows Me." That song was the bomb on the last tour!!!
That song kicks ass 
btw,Madonna has just added two more dates to her tour schedule: June 3 Staples Center,Los Angeles July 19th Madison Square Garden,New York I don't think there will be any more North America dates,but it's still possible that she could add a few more European dates | |
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Not sure I'm feelin' this. | |
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I'm glad she's focusing on the album for the tour. It's a great album and should be even better live.
It also shows that she doesn't have to bill her show as a GH show to sell tickets. | |
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jayaredee said: I'm glad she's focusing on the album for the tour. It's a great album and should be even better live.
It also shows that she doesn't have to bill her show as a GH show to sell tickets. Exactly.Madonna is known as a risk-taker,and she has said that she won't tour unless it is challenging and interesting,for her as well as the audience.How much fun can it be for her to get up onstage everynight and sing "Holiday" for the billionth time? I think she'd rather focus on the new album and where she is at right now,musically speaking.There is plenty of time in the future for a "greatest hits" show. | |
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GangstaFam said: Not sure I'm feelin' this.
so,I guess you're gonna sit this tour out? | |
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this picture is just begging for a caption...lol | |
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DavidEye said: I so want that 'Cloud' guy!
Daniel Campos is so darn hawt 
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I'm beginning to wonder if something is going on between Maddy and Cloud 
Guy should be jealous,lol. | |
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DavidEye said: I'm beginning to wonder if something is going on between Maddy and Cloud
Guy should be jealous,lol. I love those rumors..
They also say that she's having an affair with Stuart, and that was the idea of "Forbidden Love." | |
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jayaredee said: DavidEye said: I'm beginning to wonder if something is going on between Maddy and Cloud
Guy should be jealous,lol. I love those rumors..
They also say that she's having an affair with Stuart, and that was the idea of "Forbidden Love." Forbidden love...are we supposed to be together? Forbidden love...forbidden love Forbidden love....we sealed our destiny forever Forbidden love....forbidden love yeah,those rumors are crazy. | |
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still can't believe you left during Massive Attack   looking for you in the woods tonight Switch FC SW-2874-2863-4789 (Rum&Coke) | |
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AnckSuNamun said: still can't believe you left during Massive Attack
leave and get home at a decent hour? stay and be stuck in gridlock for 5 hours? You CANNOT use the name of God, or religion, to justify acts of violence, to hurt, to hate, to discriminate- Madonna
authentic power is service- Pope Francis | |
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DavidEye said: GangstaFam said: Not sure I'm feelin' this.
so,I guess you're gonna sit this tour out? No. I'll probably still go. But it just seems a little too heavy on the new album and like an awkward mix of older songs. | |
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GangstaFam said: DavidEye said: so,I guess you're gonna sit this tour out? No. I'll probably still go. But it just seems a little too heavy on the new album and like an awkward mix of older songs. The setlist isn't definitive yet, drownedmadonna have been known to mess up. They did last tour. Even if it is the setlist i'd give Madonna the benefit of the doubt that she knows how to make this setlist into a great performance, and she knows if she doesn't not to expect much response next tour. | |
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jayaredee said: GangstaFam said: No. I'll probably still go. But it just seems a little too heavy on the new album and like an awkward mix of older songs. The setlist isn't definitive yet, drownedmadonna have been known to mess up. They did last tour. Even if it is the setlist i'd give Madonna the benefit of the doubt that she knows how to make this setlist into a great performance, and she knows if she doesn't not to expect much response next tour. Doesn't she shake up the setlist a bit during the tour sometimes, too? | |
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jayaredee said: The setlist isn't definitive yet, drownedmadonna have been known to mess up. They did last tour.
Even if it is the setlist i'd give Madonna the benefit of the doubt that she knows how to make this setlist into a great performance, and she knows if she doesn't not to expect much response next tour. The kinds of songs I'd like to hear bumping up against the newer stuff are ones like Everybody Physical Attraction Lucky Star Borderline Angel Dress You Up Into the Groove Open Your Heart Where's the Party? Who's That Girl? Causing a Commotion As much as I love "Live To Tell", "Drowned World" and "Paradise", they just don't gel well with Confessions in my mind. | |
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VoicesCarry said: jayaredee said: The setlist isn't definitive yet, drownedmadonna have been known to mess up. They did last tour. Even if it is the setlist i'd give Madonna the benefit of the doubt that she knows how to make this setlist into a great performance, and she knows if she doesn't not to expect much response next tour. Doesn't she shake up the setlist a bit during the tour sometimes, too? Hardly. During DWT she performed You'll See in some venues instead of Gone. | |
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jayaredee said: VoicesCarry said: Doesn't she shake up the setlist a bit during the tour sometimes, too? Hardly. During DWT she performed You'll See in some venues instead of Gone. Ok, I think it would be cool if she had a sort of rotating setlist or something like that. She's dynamic enough to make it work. Gangsta, Where's The Party was on an early version of the setlist I believe. | |
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VoicesCarry said: Ok, I think it would be cool if she had a sort of rotating setlist or something like that. She's dynamic enough to make it work.
Gangsta, Where's The Party was on an early version of the setlist I believe. Yes, but too much of a control freak. I think if every last second of a Madonna show wasn't planned out, she wouldn't know what to do with herself. | |
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