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When Arcade Fire closed out weekend one of Coachella, they brought out Blondie's Debbie Harry and marched through the audience with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Even Aaron Paul was hiding under a Pope Francis bobblehead on stage. What did the folks who attended weekend two get on Sunday night? Fake Daft Punk and a real-life Beck as special guests.
It's no secret that Coachella-goers have been praying every year for Daft Punk to get on stage (except in 2006 when the French duo actually did perform)—and every year fans go home disappointed. That's why it was a little painful when people at Coachella got excited when they saw two performers wearing white robotic helmets (a signature of Daft Punk's look) got on stage, playing a slow, chopped & screwed (sizzurp-esque) version of "Get Lucky." That is, until Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler interrupted them and said, "What the fuck is happening? What is this?"
Although we can't say for sure that the people under the helmets weren't in fact Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk, Consequence of Sound pointed out that the dudes on stage weren't the same height as the real pair. Onlookers also heard Butler call them "Paft Dunk," which is pretty amusing. Billboard reported that during weekend one, Butler dedicated one of his songs "for all the bands at this festival playing real instruments"—so he might have already been miffed a bit by the electronic music at the desert fest. Plus, would Daft Punk really ever play that sad version of "Get Lucky?"
Here is a photo @robm73 posted on Instagram of "Daft Punk" backstage:
You can check out a clip of the performance (if you can call it that) here:
But on a good note, the real-life Beck performed with Arcade Fire for a cover of Prince's 1981 song "Controversy." He was donning the same Pope Francis bobblehead that Breaking Bad's Paul had worn last weekend.
Beck had done an acoustic cover of Arcade Fire's "Rebellion (Lies)" track earlier in day, probably hinting at things to come that evening:
And if you didn't get a chance to check out Arcade Fire in Indio these past two weekends, they announced on their Facebook page today that they'll be giving away free tickets to their secret show at the Roxy tonight. It read:
We’re playing a small show at The Roxy in Los Angeles tonight and have 30 pairs of tickets to give away. Upload your Reflektor photos to our Facebook wall or Instagram Gallery for the chance to win a pair. Winners will be contacted at 4pm PDT.
Well, hopefully they don't pull another heart-wrenching Daft Punk prank. We don't know if we can take it again.
