Mellow fellow Jack Johnson may have been the headliner, but day one of the 2008 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival belonged to Ireland’s The Swell Season and Brooklyn’s The National, in back-to-back to back sets on Friday (April 25th), the first date of the three-day event running through Sunday, April 27th.

Both bands appeared on the Outdoor Theater–the second “smaller” stage on the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California, the longtime home of the annual Coachella Fest.

Recent Academy Award winners for thier song “Falling Slowly” from their film Once, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova and band, played to a devoted crowd, their acoustic-based songs featuring Hansard on guitar and lead vocals, and Irglova on piano and vocals. Hansard was ever the sharp-witting, self-effacing frontman full of Irish pluck.

Having to compete with the end of The Raconteurs blasting on the main Coachella Stage and beat-boom from the dance tents, such as Aphex Twins, the group just played all the more intensely, even pulling out a cover of “Autobahn” by Kraftwerk (one of Saturday’s scheduled performers), as the fiddle player took the synth-keyboard parts. “Falling Slowly” was also the most notable audience sing-along of the day too.

Equally impressive was The National, whose sound isn’t unlike bands such as Interpol or The Editors–darkly intoned vocal brooding with racing beats and pinging guitars. But the group also adds an American heartland element that owes more to Springsteen and such, with lyrical piano flourishes, and trumpet and trombone punctuations. The longer they played, the better they got–the first band at the festival to offer a sense of greater things ahead for them, not unlike The Arcade Fire a few years back, followed by 2007’s historic performance.

While Johnson closed out the main stage, his breezy, cleanly-played folk-rock didn’t exactly fill up the field, though the beer gardens and VIP areas were packed, brew and cocktail cups clinking (sort of) for songs like “Flake.” He’s part James Taylor (though not as poetic, sorry) and part new generation Jimmy Buffet (in reflections but without the partytime fun). Despite his big record sales, this pleasant, quiet nice guy was certainly not the typical festival closer.

The reunited Verve fit that bill of someone as a big name back again, their big Brit rock sound echoing into the sky, including “Life’s an Ocean” and, of course, “Bittersweet Symphony.” It was a solid performance yet somehow lacked fully-realized impact.

Far more lively were The Raconteurs, delivering Stonesy blues-washed rock ‘n’ roll on the main stage. The band, featuring Jack White with singer-guitarist Brendan Benson and members of The Greenhornes, was full of garage bluster and roadhouse ram-thru, in new songs and older tunes like “Steady as She Goes,” which brought some crowd call-and-response.

The most-hyped band of the day was New York’s Vampire Weekend, and what is the big deal here? The group’s cutesy world music/afro-pop-influenced ditties are okay a few at time, but the entire preppy pop party approach was tiresome and witless. Singer-guitarist’s Ezra Koenig’s powder blue sleeved shirt and pink shorts were a red flag.

Vampire Weekend didn’t…uh…suck, but were utterly bloodless and gutless. Though the crowd enjoyed them, these boys have no huevos whatsoever. Some said they were fun. Yeah, if you want to be a moron. In fact, the cheery pop of Tegan and Sara and the somewhat ragged but still rockin’ along power popish set from The Breeders had more gumption and gusto.

Other performers on Friday included the aptly named Slightly Stoopid (think stoners at the beach playing what they think is reggae), Fatboy Slim, a solo Serj Tankian sounding more tuneful than his rants with System of a Down, the retro soul of Sharon Jones and the Dapp Kings, the electro-pop of Goldfrapp, and indie band Black Kids among the 40-plus acts playing.

Unlike some past years of sweltering heat, the mid-90s temps and bits of breezes made for a great opening day, even if the line-up wasn’t a massive wow, aside from a handful of artists mentioned above–especially those stunner sets from The Swell Season and The National.

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