A HOT TIME HAD BY ALL AT COACHELLA.

DAY 1

The rumor was that Radiohead might not play its headlining spot during Saturday's edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio.

The band canceled a show in Melbourne, Australia, earlier in the week after lead vocalist Thom Yorke developed voice problems.

Just four days later, though, Radiohead took the stage in front of an estimated 40,000 people and put on a show to remember.

The band started its set with tunes from its latest album, ``Hail to the Thief,'' including ``There There,'' ``2+2=5'' and ``Myxomatosis.''

Yorke then moved through the set in what seemed like one fluid motion, performing ``Exit Music (For a Film),'' ``Sail to the Moon,'' ``I Might Be Wrong'' and ``Sit Down. Stand Up.''

One standout was ``Paranoid Android,'' off the band's 1997 album ``OK Computer.'' It's this song's blend of up-tempo beats and melodic hooks that makes for a great live performance. During ``Idioteque,'' Yorke performed a spasm-like dance, singing ``Ice age coming, ice age coming/ Throw me in the fire/ Throw me the fire/Throw me in the fire.''

``Let me catch my breath,'' said Yorke while the crowd cheered.

``Creep,'' off the 1993 debut CD ``Pablo Honey,'' was a disappointment. Sure, this song is what put Radiohead on the map, but their music has come such a long way since then.

Earlier in the day, on the Outdoor Theatre stage, Desert Sessions performed. It's what some may consider another ``super group,'' featuring Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, QOTSA), Samantha Maloney (Hole), Nick Eldorado (Like Hell) and others. They performed jam session-like songs for sweaty concertgoers. Hard rock was in the mix, along with death metal and even darker music with a Middle Eastern feel. To get that feeling for yourself, Desert Sessions has released its debut CD, ``Desert Sessions Volumes 7 & 8.''

Honorable mention must go to German electronic group Kraftwerk, and other bands of note in Saturday's lineup, including the Pixies, Sparta, Kinky, Phantom Planet, Death Cab for Cutie, MF Doom, Kool Keith and others.

- Jocelyn Cahir-Rangel

DAY 2

Juxtapose polar opposites and, sometimes, a certain alchemy occurs.

Whoever had final say over the Sunday lineup on the Coachella Stage during the Coachella Valley Music and Art Festival is either in deep trouble right now or is being celebrated as an inspired genius, depending on how you look at it.

Topping off two sold-out days of more live music than most people experience in a year or more, two final bands highlighted the extremes possible at a single event as the Flaming Lips, as the second-to-last act of the night on the main Coachella Stage, goofed and giggled their way through a head-tripping set that started with its singer floating atop the crowd in a huge plastic bubble. Their brief, bubbly set, filled with a motley puppet crew of furry dancing animals and aliens and psychedelic effects, ended with a happy-birthday audience sing-along for Beck's soon-due baby. Against the band's shifting, swirling show, the crowd was as effervescent as the music, their every move marked by glowstick trails. And throughout it all, lead singer Wayne Coyne played the role of a white-suited merry prankster to his joyous masses.

The night closed with a brooding 75 minutes from the Cure, with frontman Robert Smith offering up curtains of opaque sound woven from notes that, like poems, grip on visceral levels.

Two bands couldn't be more different.

Given Coachella's nature - five stages of music to choose from at any given time, and plenty more than music as well, it's a given that fans will watch a band's set, then migrate elsewhere. But the shift between the Flaming Lips and the Cure was one of the most dramatic of the evening, as flowing skirts and uninhibited movement was replaced by a darker crowd. When the Cure finally took the stage 20 minutes beyond their scheduled start time, gone were the balloons, the dancing glowsticks and the blissful vibe of the previous set.

A few songs into its set, the band offered up ``The End of the World,'' a track debuted Friday on ``The Tonight Show With Jay Leno'' from a yet-to-be-released album. The crowd's unfamiliarity with the song was more than apparent, as a steady flow of the unconvinced headed for other venues. But perhaps at this point Smith doesn't feel the need to win over more fans - those he has are often nearly religious in their devotion.

True to form, Smith said little, not even introducing the song or talking about the album and only offering a few quiet ``thank yous'' all night.

- Marie Vasari

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Photo:

Recent concert-canceling voice trouble didn't keep Thom Yorke of Radiohead off the Coachella stage on Saturday.

Marc Campos/Staff Photographer