MuchMusic.com

The Coachella Valley Music Festival rocked the Californian desert this weekend with some of the biggest acts in music right now and some of the buzziest bands that hope to play the main stage next year. This was the festival’s twelfth year and featured headliners Kings of Leon, my band Arcade Fire and Kanye West. Lucky for us losers (just kidding) who were stuck in the wintery north, the festival was streamed live online and we picked out some of our favourite moments. Watch them below.

Arcade Fire blew up their regular suburb themed performance and went all out with a small town movie theatre marquee and an amazing visual projection show. But the moment that is standing out in everyone’s memories is during their final song before the encore, “Wake Up.” The band released dozens of big white balls that flashed and glowed in synch with the music. Talk about memorable.

Wiz Khalifa played on a hot Sanday afternoon in front of one of the biggest crowds of the festival. He played songs from his whole catalogue but mostly stuck with tracks from his new album Rolling Papers. Khalifa suggested that a combination of kush and orange juice was the best way to enjoy Coachella. But, he also got serious and paid tribute to iconic artists past by dedicating his set to the late Nate Dogg.

Kanye West closed the whole festival on Sunday night with a big spectacle of his own. Kanye came in on a pimped out crane and then recreated his video for “Runaway” complete with a couple dozen beautiful ballerinas. Some fans were disappointed that many of his collaborators who were watching the show didn’t come on stage even for a measly little verse. But, one of my favourite of his music partners, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, did join Weezy on stage.

Tune in to New.Music.Live. today at 5 pm/ET to see Kathleen and Phoebe talk about the best performances, celebrity sightings and check in with our special correspondent Vanessa from California.

- Jessica
New.Music.Live. Team
@nml