Ten years ago Faith No More were well into the second year of their reunion tour. On April 17th 2010 the band were second on the bill at Californian festival Coachella.
LA Weekly | Reunited and it feels so good.
It's half-way through Faith No More's Saturday night set at Coachella and Mike Patton is already being groped and grabbed by the audience. No sooner had the band begun to wind down its cheeky rendition of Michael Jackson's “Ben” than the crooner leapt into the pit of festival-goers, his microphone clenched in his mouth, as a sea of sweaty hands tumbled the crowd-surfing frontman back toward the stage. “Yee-haw!” someone shouted high above the festival roar. It might have taken over a decade for Faith No More to reunite after the band's 1998 split, but it took only 20 minutes in the desert for the audience to fall back in love with them. Patton's stage presence with Faith No More has always bordered on maniacal, and his playful yet aggressive interaction with the audience is what people come to expect (and want), like they'd be disappointed if they weren't getting slapped around or barked at. Prior to Coachella, I asked Patton some questions on the subject of audience interaction and about Faith No More's reunion during our interview for CAMP magazine, an exclusive put together by URB, Golden Voice and Vans, and distributed solely for die-hard campers at this year's music and arts festival. “With Faith No More, even though we're a bunch of old men, what I remember about our best shows is some sort of confrontation with the audience,” Patton said. “I didn't even have to think about it … When we started doing these shows, that element about what I do when I perform came back. It's not planned, it's not thought out. I really even sometimes think to myself, 'Hey let's just play the show tonight, don't be an asshole, don't pick a fight, don't do this, don't do that…' and then things happen, you know?” Patton continued, “Part of what Faith No More shows are is chaos and unpredictability. Just trying to keep that alive and survive at the same time. Let's just take Fantomas at Coachella [in 2005]. Really my issue was not to stir up any shit or even talk to the crowd or even acknowledge the crowd. I want to play the music as best as I can. I want to make it as perfect as I can. Really it's more like a classical music recital. It's a completely different approach and completely different results. With Faith No More I'm a little more free. To me it's more like rock and pop music so I've got a chance to 'entertain the crowd' or fuck with the crowd and I try and play that up.” Playing it up is an understatement. Saturday night at Coachella the band took the stage dressed in suits, Patton slowly making his way to the mic stand using a walking cane, and started the set slow with a cover of “Reunited” by Peaches and Herb. Yeah, the Faith No More guys still have their senses of humor firmly intact, but the old man schtick only lasted so long before Patton ditched the cane, rolled up his sleeves and the band launched into the decidedly more aggro “From Out of Nowhere.” Like a maestro pugilist Patton crouched and hovered on stage as if to pounce, and then leapt towards the audience with a flick of his tongue, cracking his microphone chord like a whip. The rest of the set included “Caffeine,” “We Care a Lot” (and we cared even more that Chuck Mosely wasn't in attendance to botch sing it like he did earlier in the week at San Francisco's Warfield gig), “Last Cup of Sorrow,” “Surprise! You're Dead,” “Midlife Crisis,” and “Epic,” amongst others. Added bonus? During Faith No More's last song “Just a Man,” Danny DeVito (actor and Limoncello enthusiast) darted across the sage, all smiles and with his shirt flying wide open. DeVito wasn't the only return Coachella attendee still stoked on the thee-day festival, however. There's a reason Patton keeps coming back as well, whether with Faith No More this year or with Fantomas, Peeping Tom or Rahzel in years past. “To be honest, [Coachella] is one of the few festivals that I will play at and also go see a bunch of bands,” Patton said. “I feel like in some strange way I am in decent company. That alone gives me the comfort to want to keep coming back with whatever configuration I may have, and this time it's a no-brainer with Faith No More. Most festivals you get in and you get the hell out [laughs]. You don't want to talk to anyone; you don't want to see anyone. That's kind of my festival etiquette. I'm not proud of it. [Festivals can be] incredibly impersonal and not conducive to making good music.” He continued, “There's good shit at Coachella and that tells me that the people that book it know what they're doing. Seriously, all you gotta do is make a list [of bands you want to see] and then do your best to follow through on it. The hardest part is you're going to miss about half of what you want to do because the stages are so far away.” So who was on Patton's list of bands to check out this year? “Ooh. Well, this is a guilty pleasure: Corrine Bailey Rae. I know. It's so embarrassing but I have to say it. I love her voice. I want to see her sing. So I'm going to see her. I'm going to see a moment of Jay-Z, of course. Gorillaz I am curious about. Gil Scott Heron, come on! I want to see that. I want to see Sly and the Family Stone. Is there any really new vital stuff? Oh, Dillinger Escape Plan! I'll go see them.” Bummer about Sly Stone, but we hope Patton got to enjoy the others. 'Til next year…
Spin | Big Pimping Their Coachella Reunion!
There he was: Wearing a crimson leisure suit with a gold chain around his neck, track shoes on his feet, and a cane in his hand — dressed, essentially, like a trashy Italian pimp. The inimitable Mike Patton led Faith No More through a Saturday night Coachella set that was excellent, but over too soon. The reunited seminal funk/pop/metal act opened, fittingly enough, with “Reunited” by Peaches and Herb. Their straight-faced delivery of that smooth, sexual R&B hit wouldn’t have been possible without Patton’s propensity for impeccable crooning — an ability he turned on its head moments later for the infinitely more raucous 1989 FNM track “From Out of Nowhere.” Barking, shouting, spitting and growling, Patton hurdled his walking stick into the blood-red curtain behind his band before executing a gymnastic series of leaps and lurches. When he came up for air, he had a question for the crowd: “Are we having fun, Coachella?” Hearty applause. “I don’t know — you look confused. I know we look like we’re 80 years old, but give us a fucking break.” Truth be told, the rest of the band showed its age. Drummer Mike Borden’s trademark waist-length dreadlocks had long gone gray, keyboardist Roddy Bottum looked like a loopy banker in his tie and dress shirt, guitarist Jon Hudson wore the dour visage of a mortician, and original bassist Billy Gould nursed a glass of red wine between songs. But Patton? The project-hopping evil genius — the erstwhile voice of Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, Peeping Tom, Tomahawk, and what seems like a dozen other bands — was virility personified. Which isn’t to say the others didn’t pull their weight. Faith No More were exceptionally heavy, bearing all the hallmarks of late ’80s/ early ’90s metal: outsize bass, skittering guitar effects, synthesized strings, and drums that thud and thump. The four-piece played fast and loose with its catalog, going as far back as debut single “We Care a Lot” (which solicited a sing-along despite being 22 years old and relatively obscure) and as recent as “Last Cup of Sorrow,” from FNM’s final 1997 release, Album of the Year. Naturally, they hit a lot of favorites along the way — including “Surprise! You’re Dead,” “Midlife Crisis,” and “The Gentle Art of Making Enemies,” — and delivered a couple of surprises. A cover of Michael Jackson’s “Ben” found Patton out among the masses and, eventually, crowd-surfing his way back to the stage. And during the slow-grooving closer “Just a Man,” actor Danny Devito ran across the stage with his shirt wide open and an even wider grin on his face. “Alright, Coachella, you still fuckin’ horny?” Patton snarled before the band dove into its only megahit, the still inescapable “Epic.” If there was a problem with the set, it was that despite his amped-up spazzy rapping and Faith No More’s full-tilt approach, this show felt like foreplay to a much greater, more epic performance. Maybe that’s still to come.
Metal Injection| Faith No More at Coachella 2010: Reunited And It Feels So Good! I've spent most summers of my adult life running the festival circuit throughout Europe, though oddly enough, I've never experienced their American counterparts until this weekend. Coachella 2010 marked my first large-scale festival on American soil, and while I only took part in Saturday's festivities, I was utterly impressed by the entire production. Truth be told, the newly reformed FAITH NO MORE are, in complete entirety, what drew me to Coachella this year. Although many other bands that I love performed over the weekend (BARONESS, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN), none were nearly as anticipated. And while Coachella wasn't necessarily the impetus for FAITH NO MORE's reunion, they did use the event to mark their official US return, flashing "FAITH NO MORE: Second Coming" in anticipation prior to their set. Against a theatrical red curtain backdrop, FAITH NO MORE took the stage with an overtly appropriate cover of PEACHES AND HERB's Reunited. Covering tracks from 1985's We Care A Lot all the way to the band's final offering Album of the Year, FAITH NO MORE made the most out of their shortened, 12 song set (check the fan filmed footage of "Epic" below). Following up "From Out of Nowhere", Patton questioned the crowd, "Are we having fun, Coachella? You look confused. I know we look like we're 80 years old, but give us a fucking break!" A cover of Michael Jackson's "Ben" found Patton (literally) frolicking amongst the crowd, rolling atop the mass of fans while keeping a tight hold on his extra-long mic cord. And during the King for a Day closer "Just a Man", actor Danny Devito made a surprise set appearance, sashaying across the stage with his shirt wide open. FAITH NO MORE's entire set was well thought out and perfectly executed, living up to the hype that has been surrounding them since their reunion rumors proved true. The performance itself, as well as the massive crowd that came to witness it, proved that FAITH NO MORE's second coming is definitely here.
Set List Reunited [ Peaches & Herb ] From Out of Nowhere Caffeine We Care a Lot Last Cup of Sorrow Ben [ Michael Jackson ] Surprise! You're Dead! The Gentle Art of Making Enemies Midlife Crisis Epic Ashes to Ashes Just a Man