Coachella 2012: Hotshot the Robot is still my No. 1 man

Two years ago I blogged about my unlikely love affair with Hotshot the Robot, who roams the grounds of Coachella every year hitting on the ladies.

This year was no different, but I was. I had moved on. It was hard, but Hotshot was a distant memory.

Still, as he approached me on his three wheels in the VIP beer garden Saturday night -- wearing nothing but a sexy silver helmet over his sensitive digital screen of a face, I steadied myself, getting ready for the onslaught of pickup lines he was sure to lob at me.

"You're twice as beautiful now as you were in 2010," he said, a cigarette stuck in his metallic jaw, Lionel Richie's "All Night Long" playing low and smooth from somewhere inside his heartless chest.

I swallowed hard. This wasn't going to be easy.

"Were you here last weekend?" I asked, looking shyly up at him.

"Yes, it was like 40 degrees cooler," he said, puffing hard on his smoke. "But I'm a robot so it doesn't really matter."

Yes, that's right, I remembered. He was a robot and he'd never be mine.

"This is my favorite Coachella because it's twice as long," he continued, raising his cold arms to hug me. "And American Spirits are my favorite cigarettes because they last twice as long."

I turned away, crushed. Twice as hurt.

"Coachella is for lovers!" he shouted after me, his Lionel Richie playing twice as loud.

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-- Jessica Gelt

Photo: Hotshot the Robot, one of the many art pieces at Coachella, interacts with music fans at the 2010 Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival, on the Empire Polo Club grounds in Indio, Calif. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times

Coachella 2012: In pursuit of Oberhofer

At Coachella, sometimes the bands you remember best are the bands you missed. With more than 100 musicians playing during a three-day period, it's easy to find yourself running toward a stage just as a particular artist -- whom you really, really love and swore you wouldn't miss -- is saying  goodnight.

Which is exactly what happened  Sunday as my friend Emily and I found ourselves stuck in traffic in our tiny red rental Fiat, trying to catch the indie band Oberhofer's 1 p.m. set.

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It's not that we didn't get up early enough. We did. It's just that the act of getting ready for Coachella on a super-hot day is a feat in  itself. There is the long shower, the decision to be made about how many -- or how few -- clothes to wear, and whether a swimsuit underneath is appropriate. There is the whining about how hard it is to eat breakfast when it's so hot, and the debate about what kind of traffic you might hit on your way there.

And then you blow it.

For us, missing Oberhofer was a tough pill to swallow. We had  been listening to its CD, "Time Capsules II," on repeat since we drove to the desert Friday. The band's name is the surname of lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Brad Oberhofer, who has barely cracked drinking age, if at all. But his inexperience only makes his tragedy-tinged love ballads all the more poignant.

Your heart breaks best -- and most -- when you're still very young, and if you happen to be Oberhofer, you know how to write about the experience in a way that makes grown women cry.

Which is exactly what we did when we realized we would miss his early set. We'll catch you next time, Oberhofer. We'll never be uber, over, Oberhofer.

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-- Jessica Gelt

Photo: Musician Brad Oberhofer of Oberhofer performs during Day 3 of the 2012 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club on April 15, 2012 in Indio, Calif. Credit: Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Coachella

Coachella 2012: The Shins and the anatomy of heartbreak

Heartbreak is the universal currency of good music, and the Shins are rich with it. The band, which has mellowed and refined itself with age (it formed in Albuquerque in 1996), can cause pangs of sadness in even the stoutest of souls.

The scene was no different on Saturday night at Coachella as the Shins played a slow but driven set tinged with sorrow and loneliness, like the sound of a train whistle or a fog horn on a rainy night at sea.

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And based on the tone of the voices singing along with the band's catalog of hits, hearts were broken across the field -- or had been, were currently being, or would be broken soon.

Coachella 2012: Lost and found: Your phone

What is the most lost item at Coachella?

"Phones, phones, phones," says Kimberly Galdamez, who works both the information kiosk and lost and found at the festival. "We have whole sections of just iPhones, and then just phones."

There are hundreds, she laments.

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"It's more common than you'd think. People leave them in Porta Potties, they drop them, they get stolen," she says. The list goes on and on.

"But people are turning them in, that's what's really weird," says another information officer working with Galdamez, who requested anonymity.

Coachella 2012: The Skyy Coconut Escape pool party keeps it cool

How I came to be the official Coachella pool party beat reporter is still somewhat of a mystery to me. Perhaps because I love pools. And vodka. But for whatever reason, for six years running now I have faithfully represented the L.A. Times at various hedonistic enterprises in the desert involving water, beach balls and copious amounts of alcohol.

The second weekend of Coachella -- although much, much hotter (think of crawling into your oven wearing a sleeping bag and you'll get the idea) -- boasted fewer pool parties. The cruel irony! However, Skyy vodka and Spin magazine represented with one of the weekend's largest offerings at the lush Renaissance Esmeralda Indian Wells Resort & Spa.

The Esmeralda, as it is lovingly referred to by its guests (many of whom are artists playing at Coachella), is a fantastic location for a pool party. It has waterfalls and an honest-to-god sand beach. Skyy poured stiff drinks, infused with (you guessed it) all kinds of coconut water. The vodka company knows that getting your electrolytes while simultaneously depleting them is essential to a quality afternoon.

Coachella 2012: John Fogerty joins Black Keys in Levon Helm tribute

Yes, weekend two of Coachella can still present surprises. And so it was when rock legend John Fogerty joined Friday night's headliners the Black Keys to pay tribute to Levon Helm, who died Thursday from cancer.

Black Keys singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach called Helm, who was the drummer and a singer of the Band, "amazing and inspiring," and performed a soulful cover of "The Weight" with Fogerty. Earlier in the day another Helm tribute was made as the punk band Refused taped "RIP Levon Helm" to their bass drum.

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The gesture by the Black Keys was touching and fitting in a set packed with explosive and gritty roots rock, including hits "I Got Mine" and "Lonely Boy."

Coachella 2012: Pulp's Jarvis Cocker labeled 'sexiest frontman'

The reunited Brit-pop band Pulp may have just played at the Fox Theater in Pomona on Thursday night, but it didn't diminish the excitement for those who took in the band's set at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival the following evening.

"They haven't played the U.S. since 1998 and probably won't again so you have to take every chance you can get to see them," said fan Charlie Ittner as the gloaming closed in on the sweltering polo field Friday night.

"If I were closer I would have thrown my bra onstage," said Ittner's girlfriend, Arwen Byrd. "Jarvis Cocker is still the sexiest frontman I've ever seen."

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And it was hard to argue with her. Cocker, looking emaciated and electric in all the right ways, writhed on the main stage. When the band launched into its hit "Common People," the generational gap amongst the Coachella crowd seemed to close. The song's keyboard strains sliced through the hot night air like a pulsing knife, and tweens and Gen-Xers melted together.

Coachella has the ability to teach the young'uns about the music they missed, just as much as it can educate the the aged about the current music they need to know. When it works, the give and take is luxurious and magical. It is the stuff that massive festivals are made of.

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-- Jessica Gelt

Image: Pulp's Jarvis Cocker at the first weekend of Coachella on April 13. Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times

Coachella 2012: Arctic Monkeys survive the heat

British indie rock band Arctic Monkeys took the main stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on weekend No. 2 at 6:30 p.m. on a scorching hot Friday evening. Yet, even in the sweltering desert sun, the band's rhythmic beats moved the crowd and ultimately signaled the tribal togetherness that would hopefully bind this weekend's installment of rock 'n' roll devotees.

As the sun dipped and the clothes tipped off tan bodies everywhere, the first moment of festival unity took hold.

The second of two festival weekends, which has drawn converts from around the world spending more than $300 for a three-day wristband, became grounds for a religious musical fervor. Fans fighting to avoid heatstroke bowed down to a bass-laden groove.

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It didn't matter what music you liked, what kind of person you were or how long you had waited outside for admittance. Unity was gained in 100-degree weather, as those in attendance became soldiers for rock.

Word is Saturday will be hotter, but we will still be here, loving our favorite bands more than ever.

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Image: The Coachella crowd Friday. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Coachella 2012: California dreamin' at the Saguaro and Ace hotels

Party people arriving at Palm Springs' new Saguaro Hotel on Sunday afternoon were greeted with a mellow pool party scene that made it easy to forget that one of the country's most massive music festivals was taking place just down the road.

Eight-dollar margaritas, ample parking at the hotel, no lines to get in and no lines for the bathroom were among the perks on the sunniest day of the first Coachella weekend. And while KCRW DJ Garth Trinidad laid down the beats, tattooed revelers floated lazily around the luxurious pool.

However, it soon became apparent that the festival party glitterati -- the ones who make it their life's mission to be at the weekend's coolest throw-downs -- were confused by how easy it was to get in. They had come in their most ragged and minuscule Daisy dukes and donned their skinniest headbands and tiniest cut-off shirts, but the event staff didn't even pretend to look them up on the list they thought it essential that they RSVP to last week.

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"Come on, we're going to the Lacoste party," said a girl in the bathroom, wearing what looked to be a three-piece suit (it's hard to explain).

There she would be faced with crushing lines that would make it nearly impossible for her to meet the basic requirements of the party lifestyle -- namely get in and get a drink. But she would feel like someone when she finally did get in. (What's that line about not wanting to be a part of a club that would have you as a member? Yeah, it's kind of like that.)

A mile down the road at the Ace Hotel, which has long held the mantle of being one of the most reassuringly difficult parties to get into, the situation wasn't much better. While the L.A.-based club Do Over spun tunes, guests waltzed through the doors at will. Even the fashion-challenged went unchecked as evidenced by a man who literally skipped in wearing tie dye (?!) and a green bandanna.

Still the music was fresh and dance floor lively. But something was missing from this year's crop of hotel parties. Perhaps the 10-day, double-weekend festival sprawl had diluted the fierce must-party-now imperative of years past. 

Whatever it was, it made it possible for just about anybody to sit by the pool.

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-- Jessica Gelt

Photo: The scene at the Saguaro Hotel on Sunday. Credit: Jessica Gelt / Los Angeles Times

Coachella 2012: The Hives demand your love

From the moment he took the main stage at Coachella on Sunday night wearing a dapper tux and tails and a black top hat, Howlin' Pelle Almqvist -- lead singer of the Swedish garage-revival band the Hives -- could not stop asking for the audience's adoration.

"Do you looovvveee me, people?" Almqvist shouted, as the crowd hollered its affirmation. "I think you can do better, DO YOU LOOOOVVVVVVEEEEE ME?"

More shouting as Almqvist launched himself from atop an amp and into the crowd, singing the band's 2001 hit, "Hate To Say I Told You So."

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The Hives played the exact same main-stage time slot -- 6 p.m. Sunday evening -- nine years ago, around the same time they were destroying American fans with devastatingly energetic sets at industry-heavy festivals including Austin's South by Southwest.

Almost a decade later, not much has changed. The band even looks the same. And Almqvist is still one of rock's most engaging frontmen -- bringing to mind a young Mick Jagger with the way he struts around the stage with his hands on his hips before suddenly leaping in the air with a scissor kick.

Almqvist is known for his ironically arrogant stage banter -- and with Sunday's set he proved he has had plenty of time to refine that routine.

"Do you love the sun?" he asked the crowd at one point. "That's good because I'm the closest cousin to the sun on planet Earth."

The women in the audience giggled as his face stared out from the Jumbotron with mock gravity, while a number of bros looked awkwardly down at the grass.

By the end of the show, Almqvist proved that he was right -- the crowd did love him. They loved him and the Hives enough to sit down when he asked them to -- creating a vast ocean of seated bodies, arms flailing like quirky sea-bottom creatures.

Then, when Almqvist demanded it, during the middle of the closing song, "Tick Tick Boom, " they leaped to their feet in unison. It was a moment that live festivals are made for.

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--Jessica Gelt

Photo: Singer Pelle Almqvist of the Hives performs onstage during Day 3 of the 2012 Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio. Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella