Of the many ways to interpret the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, one is through the metaphors of anatomy. The fest immerses participants physically and otherwise -- it's intensely hot, there's nonstop visual stimu- lation, friends and strangers are constantly connecting, and the panoply of sounds boggles the ears.
But it's possible to make a decision to honor one part of your being more than another. Hang out in the dance tent to work your hips. Seek out reuniting favorites for that rush to the heart. Or turn to the more philosophical artists if you're into the reverie-stimulating experience sometimes called "head music."
Sunday, after the ultimate body-honoring band played its main stage set -- that would be New York's Gogol Bordello, whose "gypsy punk" celebrates sensuality in both words and raucous, joyful internationalist dance rock -- head music took over much of the festival. The night built toward a dazzling, career-spanning performance by Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd composer and bassist, which included a full rendition of the ultimate "head" album, 1973's "Dark Side of the Moon."
Before that dramatic climax, other notable performers explored how pop can serve contemplative pursuits. Sometimes the music these artists made was pointedly soulful; in other moments, it reached toward the magnitude of the sublime. And sometimes its drive was unmistakably druggy, meant to simulate (if not aid) inward journeys taken with some chemical assistance.
Spiritualized countered Coachella's dominant mood of hedonism with an introverted, beautiful presentation of leader Jason Pierce's agnostic devotional songs. Pierce has been one of the most revered mystics of the English neo-psychedelic scene for a quarter-century, in this group and the earlier Spacemen 3. Though not a practitioner of a particular faith, he's obsessed with the human need to call upon forces -- gods, drugs and lovers, particularly -- that can obliterate or uplift the rational self.
This "Acoustic Mainline" show resembled last fall's performances at the Vista Theatre in Los Angeles, with Pierce and keyboardist Doggen (a.k.a. Tony Foster) backed by a string section and three-woman choir. At first, the group struggled with serious sound problems, but after those were solved Pierce and company soon found a delicate sweet spot.
