One weekend a year, the Coachella Arts and Music Festival springs to life on pristine polo fields in the little desert town of Indio, CA, bringing sideshow-worthy performers and the most impressive gathering of bands this side of the Atlantic together for an experience that people travel thousands of miles to be a part of. The lineup is so varied that even the most fickle of music fans can’t help but rock out. Coachella 2007 promises even more diversity, spanning three days (April 27-29) instead of the normal two. This is where I discovered the Mars Volta and Dieselboy; where I was lucky enough to witness a tyrannical Jack White, furious at his inability to hear himself over the howl of the wind in the mic, channel his energy into the most blistering, passionate performance I’ve ever witnessed an individual musician display. Lady Sovereign, Electric Six, Aesop Rock, Mos Def… the list and the accompanying stories go on and on. Beginning in 1999, Coachella’s always been known for making the near-impossible a reality. From reuniting Iggy Pop and the Stooges to a rare, star-studded Massive Attack performance, the unexpected is always a part of the equation. This year promises to raise the bar to an entirely new level with the surprise announcement of Sunday’s headliner, Rage Against the Machine. Ask any kid who grew up in the nineties what band he wishes were still together, what band he’d give his left arm to see, just once, and there’s a good bet you’ll hear one word: Rage. Rage played the first Coachella festival in 1999, and the setting was less than ideal. In addition to the sweltering October heat, frontman Zach De La Rocha was suffering from, in his own words, “a fucked up case of laryngitis.” Nevertheless, they tore through their set with a feverish passion, and though Zach was clearly in agony they still rocked the shit out of the pulsing masses, myself included. Their unique voice fell silent when Rage disbanded in 2001, at the height of their popularity. The absence of Zach De La Rocha’s rapid-fire venomous flow makes me long for the days when bands like Papa Roach hung their pathetic heads in shame, their lame-ass suburban angst a transparent hoax by comparison. Rage Against The Machine have left behind a void that a hundred lesser bands haven’t been able to so much as scratch the surface of in the past seven years. With their crushing sonic assault and lyrical tirades, they set an impossible high-water mark for political activism and defiant wisdom, never compromising, never backing down. De La Rocha has been a ghost for the past six years, rumors of his solo album circulating on par with those of Chinese Democracy, while the rest of the band formed Audioslave with Soundgarden wailer Chris Cornell. Audioslave is good, but they're not great, and certainly not the greater sum of two legendary bands. Something is missing, and that something is Zach. Who’s-broken-up, who’s-back-together questions abound, but let’s deal in absolutes here: Audioslave is on hiatus while Chris Cornell finishes and tours behind his next solo album. This Coachella performance is intended to be a one-off show, so I don’t suggest missing it if you’re a die-hard RATM fan. That’s all you need to know.   Whether or not you're a Rage Against the Machine fan is irrelevant. The Coachella Arts and Music Festival has something for everyone, and it gets better every year. With $2 bottled water, on-site camping, many bathrooms and a general atmosphere of fun and peace, this is the perfect answer to the failed Woodstock revivals and one-dimensional rock festivals. I haven’t missed a Coachella yet, and I don’t ever plan to.  This year is going to be a great one. And of course, you can bet your sweet ass CraveOnline will bring it all to you.