Coachella: Moving Units’ new moves

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Who: Moving Units on the main stage
In 3 or Fewer Words: Blame Dim Mak.
I’ll Remember This Until: The next time I try to feel comfortable in black drainpipe jeans on a 95-degree afternoon. “We’re usually best in dark, debaucherous and secret places,” frontman Blake Miller told a sun-besieged crowd at 3 p.m., “but I’m happy that you’re out here in the open with me.” Oh, if there were only danger in the dance-punk trio’s new music. The 2011 festival’s first main-stage act – quite unfortunately scheduled against another act of the same stripe (!!!) at the Outdoor Theatre – nailed the dark disco from its early years.  “Between Us & Them” (2002) never sounded better, and 2007’s “The Kids From Orange County” played straight to the crowd. But M>U’s newer material, perhaps reflecting Miller’s emergence as an electro party DJ, leans toward bombast, and even if you sneer a little and dressed up like a masked marauder, there’s not much danger in it.
What I’d Tell My Friends Who Were Stuck in Traffic: Hope your air conditioning was working.
– K.B.
Photo by Scott Dudelson