Overall, there has been precious little in the way of political statements at Coachella ‘08 — maybe everybody was too busy in the dance tents? — but Love and Rockets (of all groups) did their part, if only for five minutes, Sunday night at the Outdoor Theatre.

The trio of Daniel Ash, David J and Kevin Haskins opened with a blistering version of “Ball of Confusion,” and, yeah, that’s what the world is today. Uh huh.

To a spectacular light show, the offshoot of Bauhaus (who played a reunion show at Coachella in 2005) stormed through a battery of fan favorites in mostly workmanlike fashion, perhaps regretting the mid-set ballad that was tainted by noise bleeding over from the earache-inducing drum ‘n’ bass area in the middle of the festival grounds.

Of course, the Bubblemen emerged late in the set, the band’s alter egos (and residents of Planet Girl) dancing during “Yin and Yang and the Flower Pot Man.” The show ended with the Bubblemen battling the band in a pillowfight, and feathers were flying — a nod to that song’s video.

The band’s familiar blasts were welcome noise for weary festivalgoers gearing up for Roger Waters’ mainstage show.

– Kevin Bronson

“Everybody, look at the sunset,” exclaimed Kid Sister from her late-afternoon set in the Gobi Tent. “That is some beautful, awesome stuff” (we may have paraphrased a bit for family audiences). That’s the kind of rapper Kid Sister is: in love with simple pleasures like Aqua Net, elaborate fingernails and the sound of her own elastic, hugely charismatic voice. Jacking samples from Cajmere and riffing on Fam-Lay’s corner boy anthem “Beeper,” she spat pure fire in an abbreviated set backed by A-Trak’s virtuosic DJ’ing (the difference between a great DJ and an okay one is huge).

She’s begun to make the rounds on MTV, and it couldn’t come a moment sooner, as hip-hop is in desperate, chronic need of some new female stars. Her electro-infused single “Pro-Nails,” a jump-roping ode to all things acrylic and manicured, has become a calling card of sorts — a shot across the bow to a time when hip-hop was giddy, boastful, fun, and kids wore electric colors while spinning like dervishes on club floors.  It’s coming at just the right time.

– August Brown

Photo by Karl Walter/Getty Images

Sean Penn took a drag off his cigarette, stared down at his work boots and conceded that, as political activism goes, he’s not usually on the side that wins. “I am a person who does care,” Penn said, sitting in his trailer backstage, “but I have only ever failed.” He started rattling off his activism resume — candidates he has supported, the war he has opposed, the policies he has protested. “But I am an optimist and this young generation right now is so much smarter than us. That’s why we’re here.”

Penn spoke twice Sunday, including an early evening speech on the main stage, where he looked out over a huge and somewhat puzzled audience. “It was nerve-racking, public speaking is not my thing.”

Coachella founder Paul Tollett reached out to Penn a few weeks ago (mutual pal Rosanna Arquette helped the two connect) to ask him to speak. The reason: Both agree that the MySpace Generation is the most connected ever, but somehow also becoming the most isolated. Penn came to invite them “to turn off their computers and come see some things in the world in person.”

Penn’s plan is to take a convoy of buses to New Orleans on a 10-day tour that will make multiple stops along the way to give his band of Coachella fans a tune-up in activism. They will protest the war, talk up green issues and, in Louisiana, do some construction work to help the still-beleaguered congregation of a church that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. As of 8 p.m. Sunday, there were more than 100 people signed up for his Dirty Hands Caravan. “Paul called me up and said he didn’t want the young fans at this festival to be asked by their grandkids someday ‘What did you do during the war?’ and have to answer, ‘I had a MySpace page.’ This generation is smarter, funnier and better than the 1960s generation and the generation I grew up with. This is a chance to tap into their imaginations.’”

– Geoff Boucher

Eat your heart out, Prince. You may have cornered the market on hot love jams, but did you bring a man to his knees? Jim Becker of Philadelphia popped the question to his girlfriend, Elizabeth Hahn, on one knee at Spiritualized’s Mojave set during their cover of Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You in the End.”

“If they hadn’t played that song we might not be together here,” Becker said. She said yes (phew!). The couple, naturally, have tagged the song for the first dance.

Coachella dudes, the bar is now set very high.

– Margaret Wappler

Photo by Vanessa Herzog

Meritocracy apparently doesn’t factor into Coachella’s unique temporary housing complex in the v.v.i.p. area. Back there, where white picket fences set apart picturesque RV dressing rooms for every act on the festival roster (each of which is custom decorated by a team of Coachella art experts to appeal to the individual pecadillos of each performer — perceived or otherwise), everyone from Kid Sister to My Morning Jacket to Aphex Twin gets a temporary berth. But not all are created equal.

If you have the right all-access bracelet, you (like certain Soundboard operatives) could observe that reggae legend Linton Kwesi Johnson, French dance duo Justice and Lollapallooza founder Perry Ferrell are confined to tiny-ass dressing rooms that measure no more than 125 square feet.

Not so headliner Roger Waters. Sure, dude may be the most recognizable face of the late, great Pink Floyd - a dyspeptic dinosaur rocker whose presence as a headliner at indie music’s preeminent platform many industry observers have questioned. Waters has his own Branch Davidian-esque compound in the backstage area, a larger than usual staging area cordoned off by tasteful wicker fencing, covered by an attractive pointed tent and bounded on one side by a gigantic RV (Soundboard couldn’t get in but the thing is at least 700 square feet).

–Chris Lee

Maybe it was just me, but for some reason I felt like Gogol Bordello didn’t really fit as a main stage act. Sure they were fun, crazy, musical, dynamic and definitely a band that could hold an audience’s attention, but weren’t they a group that was better in a smaller, friendlier confine than the vastness of Coachella’s main stage?

Apparently they can bring their Pogues/Clash/Borat gypsy punk anywhere they damn well please.

The New York band brought their ethno-centric party freakshow in full force and had concertgoers dancing to all sorts of folk/roots/rock for the entire 45 minutes that they had the main stage.

In fact, one audience member, inspired by the set, suggested that the Lakers should incorporate the single “Start Wearing Purple” to the Staples Center playlist. Especially when new power forward Pau Gasol heats up during the game.

– photo and post by Tony Pierce

Swervedriver was more the sonic kin of Nirvana or Dinosaur Jr. than late-’80s/early-’90s shoegazers such as My Bloody Valentine and Ride, with whom they are often linked. The Oxford, England, quartet could fashion a wall of sound, to be sure, but their churning, aggressive guitar rock over four albums (1991-98) was the kind of music that could shake you to your foundation rather than seep, midtempo, into your soul.

The foursome’s reunion for Coachella (they were a late add to the lineup) was largely unheralded, except by a few passionate fans who were keenly tuned into the band’s recipe of guitar riffs and effects.

Swervedriver’s set before a one-third-full Mojave Tent on Sunday afternoon certainly ranked as a triumph artistically, as Adam Franklin and mates bathed the faithful in angsty roaring and subtler noodling. Ever stoic as a frontman, Franklin remained expressionless throughout (save for a smile of acknowledgment to a friend sidestage), but the music and the obvious joy with which drummer Jez Hindmarsh played spread smiles all around.

If Sunday was any indication, Franklin, who has released a fine solo album and has a buzzworthy side project with Interpol drummer Sam Fogarino called Magnetic Morning, might have more work to do with Swervedriver.

– Kevin Bronson

Photo: Kevin Bronson / Los Angeles Times

Yes, yes, we know what you’re thinking: “Oh boy, a smarmy techno-punk quartet with a completely egregious band name in a terrible font screaming shrill commands to make out with them. Sign us up!” But please, before you consign Does It Offend You, Yeah? to the Island of Misfit Post-Punks, consider this caveat: They’re actually pretty good. Leaving out the screamy Jesse Keeler collaboration “Let’s Make Out,” there’s good bit of bottom-heavy funk and squiggly monster-movie arpeggios to hold your attention beyond the murderous house stomp. Their debut, “You have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into” might be the most hyped sleeper pick of the year.

It’s even better in person, when singers Morgan Quaintence and James Rushent are free to do goofy running-man dances and play guitar solos behind their heads (with a tongue in cheek, I think). The live instruments make all the difference in the world — their songs sound like the Justice-y French crossovers of last year, but they can play like a rock band and engage the audience with infinitely more charisma and spontaneity. And that, kids, makes all the difference on a hot slog like today.

– August Brown

The debut album by 23-year-old Welsh songstress Duffy won’t be released in the U.S. for two weeks yet, but a crowd of listeners who were feeling her heat — and knew plenty of her lyrics — crowded the Mojave Tent for her midafternoon set at Coachella on Sunday.

Duffy (born Aimee Anne Duffy) apparently was feeling the heat too, and the humidity, as she sweated through a 45-minute set plagued by a couple of false starts and some tech hiccups at the outset. “You can’t hear me?” she joked at the beginning. “I’ve never heard anyone say that in my life.” Still, her countrified, Dusty-Springfieldesque soul proved swoon-worthy, getting a big ovation for “Mercy” (which has been used in an American TV show) and melting a few hearts with her lilting vocals.

Fans who remember Lulu wouldn’t have been surprised if Duffy had busted into “To Sir With Love.” But despite her trying set, Duffy’s estimable charm, coupled with the material on the forthcoming “Rockferry,” makes it clear her time is now.

– Kevin Bronson

Photo: Kevin Bronson / Los Angeles Times

Deadmau5,  the Canadian DJ and producer, showed up about 2 p.m. Sunday with his trademark mask on — it’s a huge, red grinning mouse head — and he was whisked around the dusty backstage roads in a golf cart that gave him a bit of a fright. ”My ears stick out pretty far, and the driver likes to negotiate these tight corners and I almost got taken out by a tree branch.”

The mask was custom made by Warren Keillor, the film production artist, and it makes it a bit unnerving to chat with Deadmau5 (whose nonrodent name is Joel Zimmerman). Do you look him in the eye or the mouth, which is where he’s looking out?

“Always go with the eye. It’s the way to go.”

Deadmau5 is about halfway done with his third album and expects to wrap it up this summer. He’s also been working with Tommy Lee (”He’s a sweetheart,” the mouse said of the Motley Crue drummer). Deadmau5 goes on at 4 p.m. in the Sahara. “The next thing I’m excited about doing is taking my show up to the next level. I already have some live elements incorporated and I want to build on it and make it more of a show.”

– Geoff Boucher

    Photo by Charley Gallay / Getty Images