Poptimist

Brooklyns finest Jay- Z closed Day One of Coachella with a 90 minute set that we enjoyed every moment of. It was hip-hop at its best mixed with a bit rock n’ roll through backing tracks by the Doors, Prodigy and U2. The set included a complete “crowd cover” of Oasis’ Wonderwall and a massive “Hard Knock Life” sing-along. The beautiful Beyoncé Knowles graced us with her presence and joined her man on stage to guest on the Jay-Z/Mr. Hudson collaboration, “Young Forever.”

Happy happy Vampire Weekend. While other Coachella acts took the dark and/or introspective routes, these East Coasters kept it light with bouncy tunes and playful lyrics. Even the song “One (Blake’s Got a New Face),” where frontman Ezra Koenig does his fair share of shrieking, sounded soothing compared to the audio assault of LCD Soundsystem which was playing on the next stage over. The jury’s still out on Vampire Weekend’s live act: on one hand, the band is perfectly pleasant, doling out “Horchata” and the Dick Dale-inspired “Cousins” with sure hands, but one can’t help thinking that a little more heft and edge would do this outfit good.

New York’s Yeasayer squeezed in a Friday afternoon Coachella appearance amidst a North American tour that puts them in San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver and Salt Lake City within the next week. They’re on the road in support of their sophomore album, “Odd Blood,” and weren’t shy about playing the new material: the set included “One,” “Rome,” and a rousing “Ambling Alp” that whipped the crowd into sing-along mode at the chorus. Singer Chris Keating led the band with his usual herky jerky moves and credit goes to the multi-instrumentalists for focusing on their sound rather than fashion — what other hipster-magnet band would dare to take the stage with a member sporting a low-slung wife beater?

She & Him aren’t breaking any new ground but they are quite good at setting the right mood for their throwback sound. Zooey Deschanel’s vocals are whispy and pleasant and M. Ward’s guitar skills are a cut above the band’s cutesy fare but you’ll only get to know this when he gets to cut loose like he did on “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here.” The duo and their backup band played a good deal off their latest effort, “She & Him: Volume Two,” with a performance that stayed pretty close to the record’s sound.

James Murphy is not losing his edge, despite what he says in his song. The white-clad frontman of the influential electro-dance band threw down the gauntlet for other main stage acts to follow with a mix of the familiar (“Us Vs. Them,” “Losing My Edge”) and unfamiliar (“Pow Pow,” “Drunk Girls) that turned the polo field into a gigantic rave by set’s end. Murphy had the balls to play back-to-back songs off of LCD’s upcoming album, “This Is Happening,” and even left his most popular tune, “Daft Punk is Playing at My House,” off the playlist. He gave shout-outs to Gil Scott-Heron and Them Crooked Vultures and converted the uninitiated into fans with a blistering, nine minute-plus rendition of “Yeah.” Hells yeah!

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