Slideshow: Day 3 - Gallery

Staff writers Vanessa Franko, Paul Saitowitz and Kimberly Pierceall attended the weekend's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Here are their impressions of the best and the worst of the event staged at the Empire Polo Field in Indio.

Best offbeat instrument: Accordion The accordion isn't just for polka bands anymore. A number of acts used the instrument to its fullest potential onstage. Every act that used it had a fun, happening set, including Julieta Venegas and Gogol Bordello on Friday. Both used the accordion to move people to dance. The Decemberists had some accordion action during their Saturday set and hosted a dance contest.

Best under-hyped reunion: Jesus and Mary Chain Everyone may have been talking about Rage Against the Machine, but the Jesus and Mary Chain may have been the best act on Friday. Even Hollywood starlet Scarlett Johansson joined them onstage for "Just Like Honey." The Scottish act, which hadn't played together in nine years until a show at the Glass House in Pomona last Thursday, sounded better than it did before the breakup. No offense, Crowded House.

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Rodrigo Peña / The Press-Enterprise

A world of music filled the air for fans during the three-day Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Best costume: Bjork With an initial costume that was part-Kabuki, part-snake charmer and part-ancient drapes, Bjork wins the costume contest. Then, she made a quick change into a striped dress. Other costumed performers included Peaches and Gogol Bordello.

Best theatrics: The Decemberists Bjork may have had her "It's a Small World" contingent and Gogol Bordello had a burlesque circus onstage, but the Decemberists one-upped them by acting out a song. At the end of their set, the literary group played "The Mariner's Revenge" and enlisted the help of the audience to make the sound effect of being swallowed by a whale. And then they had a whale come onstage and eat band members.

Best way to watch a show: Video When the field is packed and fans were nowhere near their favorite band, it was all right. The festival's video feed was of such high quality it looked like film instead of big projection screen video. The Coachella Stage and Sahara Tent offered simultaneous feeds and the AT&T Blue Room tent had video from the various stages.

Most D-I-Y fashion statement: Recycled hats Some concertgoers started using their heads to find shade. For those who forgot to bring a baseball cap or refused to buy one, the blue cardboard lids of the recycling bins around the grounds acted as a fine substitute. With holes already cut in the top of the square lids for dropping recyclables, users just needed to expand the hole and voila--a hat with more shade than a sombrero.

Best Thing About Expanding To Three Days: The Coachella Experience The blending of music, culture and art was heightened by adding another day. Friday seemed like a period for everyone to ease into the show and concertgoers didn't have to rush to catch all the art in a short time. Adding another 12 or so hours of music was the biggest bonus.

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Rodrigo Peña / The Press-Enterprise

At awards shows, her theatricality is seen as nuts, but on stage, Bjork is mesmerizing.

Worst Thing About Expanding To Three Days: The Heat As the temperatures soared above the century mark, walking the polo grounds became taxing. In past years, two days of Coachella was draining enough. A third day of walking around in that kind of weather is brutal. If Coachella were climate-controlled at 75 degrees, it could go on for weeks, but three days in the desert heat slowly eats away at concertgoers.

Most Alluring Performance: Regina Spektor New York by way of Russia, chanteuse Regina Spektor took the main Coachella Stage on Saturday afternoon with just her voice and a microphone. As she belted out her startlingly dynamic melody she tapped two fingers on the microphone to create a backbeat. From there she sat down at her keyboard and played with her left hand as she pounded a drumstick on a wooden chair with her right and sang. Throughout her set the crowd multiplied as she delivered a transfixing performance. With classical piano framed by a punk rock melody or rudimentary guitar playing squired by her huge voice, Spektor was the hit of the day. With just two albums under her belt, she is one to watch.

Biggest Encapsulation of a reUnion Rally: Tom Morello Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello hit the Gobi tent on Saturday armed with just his guitar and harmonica under the moniker of The Nightwatchman. Between his set of energetic and passionate protest songs the rocker seemed more like a union leader as he clamored about the rights of the working man and the ability of the common folk to change the world. He was pretty convincing. He even did a version of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land," with help from Perry Farrell and The Coup's Boots Riley that had everyone singing along. The role of a protest folkie suits him, but with Rage returning, it's difficult to know if he'll continue to pursue it.

Best Impromptu Concert: The Mormons The Mormons, an indie rock group clad in bicycle helmets, short-sleeve white buttoned shirts and skinny black ties like typical Mormon missionaries, played for the residents of Coachella's tent city with the help of portable amplifiers and a bullhorn pointing through the gate that separated them and the campers.

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Ramon Mena Owens / The Press-Enterprise

Jenny Conlee plays the accordion and the keyboards for the Decemberists.

Longest Lines: Traffic and recycling Tie between the idling cars in parking lots 3 and 4 attempting to exit single file out of the concert and the line near the end of the night to recycle 10 plastic water bottles for one filled water bottle. Hmm, thousands of idling cars and people recycling might cancel each other.

Least Shy: Speedo guys Three men from San Diego dressed in red, green and blue Speedos, fanny packs and not much else posed for photos and implored the security guards to "frisk me!" as they entered the gates on Friday.

Best cover: "Video Killed the Radio Star" British pop-rockers The Feeling served up a dose of fun when they played a cover of The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star" Sunday afternoon on the Coachella Stage. Unfortunately, only half of the crowd watching seemed to be into it, clapping, dancing and singing along. The other half stood motionless -- either drained from the heat or quite possibly born long after that song was popular.

Funniest onstage banter: The New Pornographers The Canadian indie power pop act played the Outdoor Theatre on Saturday and the comedy started immediately as a video image of the cover of the band's forthcoming album, "Challengers," graced the screen behind the drum set. "That's our new album cover behind us," singer Carl Newman noted. "We're not going to play anything from it." The band joked about wanting to see Peter, Bjorn and John, who were playing at the same time. Newman asked if they could hear the band from the Outdoor Theatre. "No? I was hoping to catch part of their set and make you wait," he cracked. The band couldn't hear Peter, Bjorn and John, but Travis, which was playing on the Coachella Stage, could be heard loud and clear as the band played the hit "Why Does It Always Rain On Me."

"Hey, Travis, keep it down," Newman called into the microphone before cajoling the crowd into singing the chorus of the Travis song.

Best imaginary instrument: Air drums Forget air guitar, the air drums were far more popular at Coachella. Maybe it was the lack of guitar-heavy bands; maybe air drums are the "in" imaginary instrument. It's doubtful the air French horn would be used beyond the Arcade Fire's symphonic set.

Most Intrusive Art Display: Clockwork Menagerie Among the creative art installations that covered the grounds of Coachella, one of them managed to impede on the music. Clockwork Menagerie, a kinetic steam-driven display by a Bay Area collective, looked like an old train but it made so much noise it became annoying. From the Outdoor Stage to the Gobi tent, you could hear its runaway-train engine at intervals. Imagine a train whistle loud enough to startle you even as blaring music played. Note to Coachella staff: Audible art doesn't really fit at concerts.