On the Coachella Stage, the ensemble Gogol Bordello had a very good size crowd engaged with their gypsy-rock sound. At Outdoor, new wave dance band Metric, which includes James Shaw and Emily Haines who take part in Broken Social Scene, sounded good when their equipment worked; Haines’ synthesizer was particularly moody.

Later at Coachella, Sean Penn took the stage and broke the ice by saying even his mother wondered “what the fuck Sean Penn was doing at Coachella?” He was there to tell attendees that “revolution is a young man’s job,” and the best way they could better the country was through volunteerism. He offered to anyone interested The Dirty Hands Caravan, which was going to leave Monday afternoon for Louisiana to help with rebuilding efforts and then return on May 7th. While Penn said they would take care of the parked cars, I couldn’t understand why he waited until Sunday. What time did that leave anyone to reschedule work, school, or anything already planned before taking off for 10 days. I hope he got the number of people he wanted, but idea came off poorly executed. He left the stage with a phrase he claimed he hadn’t said in over 20 years to a group he knew would likely identify with it. Everyone cheered his “Hey, Bud. Let’s Party,” even though he didn’t sound like Spicoli.

My Morning Jacket followed with some nice grooves to jam to. Singer/guitarist Jim James wore some crazy skeleton boots and stomped around the stage. They have me curious to pick up one of their albums or download a bootleg. We would have stayed longer, but had to check out one of our favorite bands.

Love and Rockets took the Outdoor Stage performing a fantastic sounding set that focused on their first four albums. They had a great background comprised of fluorescent tubes that showed different images. The guitar was lost briefly on “Dog End of a Day Gone By.” During “No New Tale to Tell,” Perry Farrell was sitting backstage, singing along like the rest of us fans in the audience. Acknowledging their influences, they dedicated “Holiday on the Moon” to headliner Roger Waters and “Kundalini Express” to Syd Barrett. Since Waters’ set was starting when L&R ended, we left during “Yin and Yang The Flower Pot Man,” a number I have seen them play many times live. According to reports, we missed an appearance by The Bubblemen who got into a pillow fight with the band.

While most were understandably surprised to hear classic rocker Roger Waters was playing Coachella, which has previously focused on alternative forms of music, the man certainly delivered a set many who witnessed won’t forget. It was filled with brilliant visuals on screen as well as live fireworks and fire, and the best use of sound of the weekend. He brought his recent “Dark Side of the Moon” tour to the desert, opening with a best-of set and then featuring the classic album in its entirety. The psychedelic classic “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” was given more of a New Age jazz feel. “Have A Cigar” suffered from some bad feedback.