If Saturday was dominated by heat, Sunday brought the winds. Desert breezes took some steroids for the festival’s closing day, and by evening, gusty winds cooled down the grateful crowds as they took picture after picture of the day’s massively beautiful sunset: a red, glowing cloud backdrop as the Ferris wheel, palm trees and balloon chains arched across the sky.

The day’s lineup also breezed through a variety of genres, featuring acts as different from one another as Jimmy Eat World and Bloody Beetroots. By the end of the weekend, campers’ hair and bodies were painted and airbrushed beyond recognition, feet were sore and ears were ringing. But once Kanye’s last note echoed across the polo grounds, winds once again swept the crowds out and away, back from whence they came, scattering across the state and the country.

Duck Sauce
A migration was in the air as crowds took the long walk together toward the far-back Sahara tent for Duck Sauce, whose act filled the biggest tent and spilled out beyond its edges. Dwarfed by the giant inflatable duck on stage, duo A-Trak and Armand van Helden pumped through hits like the requisite “Barbra Streisand” but also a “Big Bad Wolf” track that A-Trak has been floating in sets elsewhere for a couple months.

Ratatat

If the glimmering ceiling of the tent (a new and highly welcome addition to the venue) was too much for crowds, Ratatat took over the migration as soon as Duck Sauce ended, drawing crowds into their wordless but stunning beats. Tracks like “Wildcat” and “Shempi” were cast in front of a shimmering backdrop of bizarre videos — birds, smiling faces, colorful skulls, scenes from “Predator.” Mike Stroud ripped out incendiary improvs on his guitar during and in between songs, culminating with “Seventeen Years” and leaving the crowd moved into wordlessness.

The Strokes
“The Strokes” played at Coachella as a band, its members were still in their 20s, enjoying the rise of then buzz album “Is This It?” and reveling in the “saviors of rock” label that comes with the territory of rapid acceleration. But that was 2002. Nine years ago. Since then, The Strokes’ ascent has only been matched by their burnout, proof that a business that is always looking for heroes can dehumanize, dull and deaden even New York City’s finest. Since then, it’s been a process of discovery and individual exploration, a time which has yielded solo acts, families and, perhaps most importantly, the desire to save The Strokes as we know it. The quintet’s show at Coachella on Sunday was a testament to that desire, the latest step in the band’s slow ascent to the prowess they enjoyed after their 2001 debut.

Opening with “I Can’t Win,” The Strokes recalled the best of times on Sunday night, mixing in new release “Angles” with a plethora of songs from across their four-album discography. With Casablancas stoic if not coolly apathetic, the rest of the band fell into place. Fab Moretti was clean on the drums, Nikolai Fraiture’s bass could be heard from the outskirts of the grounds and Albert Hammond Jr. and Nick Valensi traded guitar exchanges that were classic Strokes. For the most part, the new material fit in with ease. “Undercover of Darkness” drove the crowd into a DFA 1979-esque crush, while “NYC Cops” found a place in the hearts and ears of the most dedicated fans — as well as Dave Chappelle and Erykah Badu, who watched from the front. Between songs, Casablancas, sporting a white baseball cap and his trademark sunglasses, played the sarcastic oddball, grasping for banter and one-liners.

“You guys heard a lot of shit this weekend?” he asked, sipping San Pellegrino. “I wouldn’t know, I was flying on my diamond-encrusted jet.” The other members remained silent throughout, letting the frontman do the talking, while they jammed through new cuts, “Taken For A Fool” and “Someday,” backed by Pong and Tetris 8-bit displays. And with Kanye up after, the band frenetically crammed through “Take It Or Leave It” before dropping their instruments where they stood and exiting with a swift goodbye.

Kanye West

Kanye West’s two-hour showcase may have been stripped down in comparison to his regular shows, but it didn’t skimp compared to most other headlining acts at Coachella. The set’s opening established that from the start: dramatic intro music ushered a couple dozen backup dancers on stage as West appeared, rising above the audience on a crane-like platform as he began his odyssey. He ran through his discography with a showy display reminiscent of last year’s Jay-Z performance, shooting up fireworks with each Zeus-like shout of “Power” and returning both to more emotional older works like “Jesus Walks” and crowd hits like “Gold Digger.” Although Rihanna and Katy Perry were rumored to have been sighted around the festival grounds this weekend, only Justin Vernon, better known as Bon Iver, actually performed onstage with West, and West kept it simple in his closing, ending the set with “Hey Mama” — given extra significance by him telling the crowd that this was the “most important” show he’d played since his mother’s death.

A version of this review appeared on treeswingers.