If you were hoping to read a music column chronicling the stellar performances going on right now at the Coachella music festival in Indio California read no further. This is going to be more about the impossibility of seeing anything at a concert with too much to choose from. This is the story of one girls futile attempt at creating the perfect time schedule.
It all started about a month ago when my boyfriend and I had some friends over to start listening to the lineup that had been posted on the Coachella website so we could casually decide who would be worth checking out and who we should just skip. Well, what started out as casual was quickly transformed into a type A mission of Excel sheet proportions. We listened to the whole Friday lineup and kept track of our likes and dislikes using an Excel sheet. Seriously. Who does that? Anyway, this continued for the next 3 weekends until we had successfully listened and commented about every band on the list (including ALL of the French DJ’s).
Needless to say, I was prepared. When the official times were posted I thought we were in great shape because whoever was in charge of the time slots seemed to have done an excellent job of not overlapping everything I wanted to see! There was 5 minutes in between my favorite acts! Just enough time to be able to walk the length of a polo field! Literally! Armed with the set list and excel sheet printouts, I walked into the concert as excited (and tipsy) as any self serving festival attendee could possibly be.
And then it began. Immediately my group was split up and it took us awhile to regroup at the VIP bar(VIP at Chochella simply means one can purchase drinks with a slight more kick). Tegan and Sara were playing and we had a great view from the side stairs next to the bar. After about 10 minutes we decided to get a move on over to Goldfrapp which was one of the bands I really wanted to see. After trekking back over to where I came in, it turns out the boys wanted to see Diplo and the girls needed the bathroom. The lines were horrendous but this was to be expected but the trouble started with a little man named Aerosmith.
After coming out of the bathroom my girlfriend exclaimed…”It’s Steven Tyler! Look!” Before I even had time to think we were being swept up in the wake of the boat that is a five foot nothing and maybe 130 pounds but pulls like a 100 ton cruise ship. I dont know how we did it but we ended up side stage at Goldfrapp which was right where I wanted to be! I couldnt believe my good fortune and I wanted to stay there all night but we were informed by a security guard that we had to have one of these (*pulls out a piece of paper with some printing about access only on it) in order to be where we were. He didn’t kick us out of the backstage area but made us go and stand on the other side. By walking around the back of the stage. Odd but fine considering we were still technically “backstage”. Anyway, moving on. From the other side the view still just as good if not better but the Raconteours were starting soon and it was almost time to get up and go. I didnt really notice the fact that I hadnt really even seen one song yet on account of the whole hustle and bustle of being swept in with a rock star and then moved from stage left to stage right because I was technically where I wanted to be for the specified amount of time.
It was still just myself and my two girlfriends (we had totally lost the boys by now) but we were on schedule. But, on the way to Racontours, one of my comrades got a phone call from her man to come to Santogold which was the opposite direction of where we had been heading. We lost her somewhere in the fray and now there were two. The Racontours were rocking and then we came a knocking. My friend Lynn decided that we needed to get backstage again so she marched us right up to the doorman and tried (for about 20 unsuccessful minutes) to get us in. All the while I was missing my bands! And where were those people I was supposed to be watching with? My whole plan was melting like a chocolate bar on the sidewalk. I’d never get it back now. The only thing to do was to regroup, decide on one act, and get there to see it before it was too late.
To make a long story even longer, I made it to the front row of Spankrock (my absolute favorite for the day) and even though spankrock himself was out sick, his aura remained alive in the lithe body of Amanda Blank. She rocked it and even managed to fit in some wicked freestyling.
Overall, it was a great day. I had a fun time drinking with friends and wandering the neatly manicured desert scene. I saw one great act and now I have a great story to write home about. Well at least to write here about.
Photo by refractor
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5 responses so far ↓
1 steven // Apr 26, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I wish I could be at Coachella, what a sweet article though, thank you so much..
2 Nora // Apr 26, 2008 at 11:54 pm
great story!
3 kiira // Apr 28, 2008 at 10:50 pm
yah thats it in a nutshell, but we had fun!!!
talk about texting your fingers off, thank god for it though or we’d all be lost
4 Emberly Modine // Apr 29, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Great article Jess.
5 bozho // May 1, 2008 at 4:40 pm
thats pretty much it.
but still, wouldn’t have changed it for the world.
well, maybe a couple things.
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