Coachella 2005: by Robyn, age 24.98
The saga begins!
Well, if you haven't already heard, Carrie crashed her dad's car on the way to the airport. Thus she was unable to come, and I am assuming this is why she is not around, as she is probably suffering the wrath of Marv and will be doing so for some time. From her voicemail she sounded like she was physically okay, but I didn't have a signal the entire time I was in Indio (plus my battery was dying) so I couldn't talk to her.
The guys I met up with were nice, although young and sort of immature. Apparently they never made final confirmations with their friend who lives in LA, so the LA guy did not know that he was supposed to pick us up, or even if he was going for certain. He couldn't take off early from work, so he said that if we wanted, he would pick us up after he got off and let us borrow one of his cars. However, he got off work at 7pm. We eventually took him up on this offer, and it turned out he picked us up at 5. However, before this happened we tried a multitude of other options, such as renting a car (all the under-25 places were booked up, and the normal ones would not allow me to rent one even though I turn 25 next Monday) or taking the bus (the next bus to Palm Springs was leaving at 6:45pm).
We saw Dave Grohl; the guys went nuts while I sat and turned away. It's strange how I'm not very impressed or interested in celebrities anymore. Except the Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt thing intrigues me, if only cos they are two of the most attractive people ever and I hope they have babies. Then I saw Taylor Hawkins and pointed him out, but they didn't care. Which is so fucking typical, when you think about it. Fuck the rest of the band, especially the drummer. I wonder if Dave Grohl suffered from Invisible Drummer Syndrome when he was in Nirvana? I can't remember. Anyway in the excitement over Dave and the confusion over how we were going to get to the venue, I didn't realize I left my backpack behind. An hour later, I went back for it only to be told by the LAPD officer who had found it that the airport police had taken it away. But not before bringing out the dogs to sniff it for drugs and bombs. She managed to intercept the airport police before they booked my backpack. If that had happened, it would have been a lot harder to get it back. I got a lecture about how my forgetfulness wasted valuable airport resources. I had to bite back a comment about how it seemed he was disappointed my bag didn't contain explosives or the like.
So we finally got on the road and I swear it took us four hours to get there. It was dark and for some reason, the guys decided to deviate from Mapquest's directions right as we hit Indio. We wandered around until we finally found Empire Polo Field. At this point I was seriously irritated. It didn't help that when we got to the venue, it was nearly 11pm and we had to wait in a very long line in order to check into the on-site campgrounds. But the line went fairly fast, and before I knew it I was setting up my tent. I bonded with the people camping across from me, and they are hilarious. Very random, loved the same bands I do, quotes movies like crazy, and other things like that. So I was able to hang out with them the entire time I was there, thank goodness.
It wasn't burning hot, just in the 80s or so. But the heat struck early in the morning so it was impossible to stay in the tent past 8am without feeling like I was trying to sleep in a sauna. It took us nearly an hour to get inside the festival gates on the first day; on the second it took maybe 10 minutes. We showed up around 3pm both days. It got extremely windy at night, so much so that I thought my tent was going to cave in on me. It didn't, but I felt like I was on a fucking mountain or something.
On to the show! I'm going to attempt to write something about everything I saw/heard.
Saturday
Upon entering, we headed towards the blessed beer garden. From there we listened to the Raveonettes on the main stage. I'm not a big fan, but they were good.
We wandered around for a bit, finally settling down at the secondary outdoor stage as Eisley played. They had a multitude of technical problems... and they called a lot of attention to said problems. It felt sort of unprofessional, actually. I'm sure knowing what to do in those situations comes with experience, but they seemed very upset and bewildered by what was happening. Their songs were also really boring, so we moved on to Snow Patrol or SnowPatch as my friend dubbed them. Heh. A good time. Gary was very talkative to the crowd. They played a few new songs from their forthcoming album, and they sound excellent, although more in the key of Final Straw than something earlier in the SnowPatch catalogue.
During this time we did more wandering as Keane played in the background. I'm not a huge Keane fan, but the music they made was very pretty and served as good background music for our meanderings. Keane also played a few new songs. This is a theme that will run throughout Coachella. Playing new songs, that is. I think Bright Eyes played a set comprising of mostly new songs.
Randomly, somewhere around this time we saw Danny DeVito. My friend pointed him out to him with this weird sense of glee. "OMG IT'S DANNY DEVITO!" She even stopped me to point him out. He was probably the only celebrity I saw whose short height did not surprise me.
We headed over to the Sahara tent, which was the biggest of the tents, where UNKLE was DJng. Or rather, the one half UNKLE that was there, James Lavelle. He was most excellent. However we couldn't stay for long, as we had to go back to the main stage for Wilco. Running back and forth between the main outdoor stage and the Sahara tent is also a recurring theme throughout my Coachella experience.
Wilco, while putting on a nice performance, didn't seem to be very keen (Keane? Haha) to be there. The lead singer actually said that he hates festivals, and then lamely added, "But not Coachella." Thanks, fuckbucket. Hope you don't mind that we left your set to go see Swayzak at the Gobi tent, who was pretty damn cool and certainly beat the pants off fucking Wilco.
I thought I saw Katie Holmes around this time, but I'm fairly certain it was just a lookalike. Also, speaking of celebrity lookalikes, a guy in the general store looked exactly like Ewan McGregor. It really freaked me out. I didn't want to stare at him so I just gave him these brief intense gazes in which I tried to figure out if he really did look like Ewan, if he really WAS Ewan, or if I was just on crack. He sounded like him doing an American accent, too.
After Swayzak we went back to the main stage to see Weezer. Rivers seemed impossibly bored by the setting. I'd never seen Weezer before, so maybe this is just he is in concert. They were having sound problems--they sounded very muffled. They failed to draw me in, so I took everyone over to the Mojave tent to see the Secret Machines. They were a definite highlight for me. I was physically affected by their music, to the point where I was getting dizzy and felt my heartbeat accelerate. They ended and we ran back yet again to the main stage to see Bauhaus, who deserve their own paragraph.
If Chris Martin saw any part of Bauhaus, he probably kicked himself in the ass and used it as further material for his self-flagellation. And I really do think that happened, cos when he was onstage he was a little more humble and shy than in previous years. He also kept saying that he couldn't believe that his band was on last. But anyway, back to Bauhaus. We got there right as the first song was beginning, and something seemed... off. Peter Murphy was hanging upside down from a rope suspended. He sang the entire song that way. It was just impressive as fuck-all. He struck all kinds of poses. I felt like I was at a ballet, an opera, a musical. Not a mere concert. It was seriously spellbinding, and I'm not even a huge Bauhaus fan. Peter Murphy is the ultimate frontman. I can see how so many rock stars have attempted to copy him, only to fail. He's very elegant and graceful. He didn't dance, or shake his ass. It's difficult to describe unless you actually see him.
Oh, I almost got into a fight during Bauhaus. This older lady was pushing her way through the crowd and was being unnecessarily rude and rough. So I elbowed her as she pushed her way past us. She came back and thumped me in the back. I turned around, shoved her hard and called her a haggard old fucking cunt. She shouted something and then ran away. I was really tempted to go after her but I didn't want to get banned. Heh.
The Chemical Brothers started their set at Sahara, and it was incredibly crowded. At this time I saw Scott Speedman and I didn't really recognize him til I got up close. I started to laugh and then I began to look for Keri Russell. Are they still dating? Or is that soooo late 90s? I didn't see her. There was no room in the tent, so we just stood outside it with several hundred others. After 20 minutes, I had to do another loop back to the main stage to see Coldplay.
Like I said before, Chris seemed more humble and a little more down to earth than he's been when I've seen Coldplay before. Maybe it was seeing Bauhaus before him, maybe it's just the fact that he's Gwyneth Paltrow's baby's daddy. Who knows? They played six songs, three of which were new, before I left to go back to the Chems. They played Warning Sign, a song I love for its sadness, as well as Politik and Yellow. On my way back, I checked out Fantomas who were alright. After the Chemical Brothers ended their set, we walked back to the mainstage and saw Coldplay perform their last two songs--In My Place and another new one. As soon as I got back to my tent I fell asleep.
Sunday
We left the campgrounds to get booze and eat Mexican food. It was nice being in an air-conditioned building. We went back and entered the grounds around 3. This time I had to empty my purse. On Saturday, the security guy merely looked into it as he mumbled something about hating his job.
We headed straight to Mojave for Autolux, whom I'd never heard before and enjoyed quite a bit. Somewhere around this time I saw Shannyn Sossamon wandering about by the tent. She's cute. After that, we saw the Fiery Furnaces who didn't pause between songs. As a result it became difficult to know when one song ended and the next began. Good energy, but a bit tiresome after awhile. We had some downtime, so we watched Beans, who sucked, before heading to the beer garden. We killed some time there before leaving early to get good places for the Arcade Fire. They were awesome, as promised. The crowd was very large and appreciative of the band. We had a good view, and I couldn't take my eyes off of them. Of course, that didn't mean I recognize them when I saw them later as they checked out other bands.
I had to leave their set early to get to New Order. It was finally time to see the main reason I was there. I have now seen 4 of my top 5 living bands live in concert. They were incredible, suffice to say. They opened with Atmosphere, and played four songs from the new album, as well as Regret, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Transmission, Crystal, Bizarre Love Triangle and Blue Monday. Not in that order, but almost. Barney said he had torn a ligament in his foot, so he couldn't dance around. He also kept apologizing for not being able to play longer. Watching Hooky play his bass live was spellbinding. It was also great to see the way they both gave Steve props. I was totally swoony after it was over. Also, apparently I saw Olivia Wilde (Bisexual Alex from the OC). I didn't recognize her, because I suck at recognizing people. I knew she looked familiar, but someone else in
coachella knew it was her.
Since Nine Inch Nails was on after New Order, I just stayed where I was and started talking to a random girl, now known as Random NIN Girl. We talked about Bauhaus (she agreed they rocked) and a few other bands we'd seen. Then it was time for NIN, who were fucking fantastic. Trent came out by himself and began playing the keyboard slowly. Then, as the rest of the band flowed on the stage, he stepped up to the mic and began to sing. The crowd was pretty polite, when I think about it. Except for a group of seven or so teenagers bludgeoning their way through the crowd. After the fifth one passed I threw my water bottle at them and received a round of applause.
Random NIN Girl and I left to get ready for the Faint. Except I misjudged the set times and left too early, so we ended up seeing the last 15 minutes of British Sea Power. They were good, but nothing special. We headed towards the fringes of the crowd to listen to NIN play Closer. It made me want to roll around on the grass, except at this point it was a fucking mess.
The Faint had great projections. At this point my back had been really hurting and I sort of wanted to sit on the bleachers, but it's impossible to listen to the Faint and not dance. So I did. Afterwards we headed over to the Sahara tent to see Prodigy. Of course, we all cheered when they played tracks from Fat of the Land. It was still a great time. We started in the back and danced our way forward. We'd target groups where no one was dancing, or if they were it was that pathetic little head bob thing. By the time we left they would always be busting full out moves. We were true dancing queens. As Jay Kay would say, nothing left for me to do but dance! Oooh, Jamiroquai in the Sahara tent would be such a fun time.
On my way back to the campground I wandered past the main stage so I could listen to Black Star, which is the duo of Mos Def and Talib Kweli. They were good, and I believe Common Sense also came out to play along, but at that point I was really sore, tired and it was windy as fuck all. I walked back to my tent, got in, and went to sleep.
Thankfully the trip back to LA didn't take four hours, and I made it to the airport with more than enough time to spare. In fact, I bought Death of an Ordinary Man by Glen Duncan and nearly finished it by the time my plane landed.
Coming back to the real world has been a bit surreal. I had a great weekend surrounded by people who were strangers, yet to whom I felt close. I finally succeeded in attending Coachella and I'm determined to make this an annual thing. It was heaven for me, having so many musical choices. I did miss a few acts I wanted to see, such as Jem, Jamie Cullum and Kasabian. However, I find it hard to regret missing them as I have no regrets about the weekend whatsoever. For those who want to attend and never have, I highly recommend doing anything and everything possible to go.
Well, if you haven't already heard, Carrie crashed her dad's car on the way to the airport. Thus she was unable to come, and I am assuming this is why she is not around, as she is probably suffering the wrath of Marv and will be doing so for some time. From her voicemail she sounded like she was physically okay, but I didn't have a signal the entire time I was in Indio (plus my battery was dying) so I couldn't talk to her.
The guys I met up with were nice, although young and sort of immature. Apparently they never made final confirmations with their friend who lives in LA, so the LA guy did not know that he was supposed to pick us up, or even if he was going for certain. He couldn't take off early from work, so he said that if we wanted, he would pick us up after he got off and let us borrow one of his cars. However, he got off work at 7pm. We eventually took him up on this offer, and it turned out he picked us up at 5. However, before this happened we tried a multitude of other options, such as renting a car (all the under-25 places were booked up, and the normal ones would not allow me to rent one even though I turn 25 next Monday) or taking the bus (the next bus to Palm Springs was leaving at 6:45pm).
We saw Dave Grohl; the guys went nuts while I sat and turned away. It's strange how I'm not very impressed or interested in celebrities anymore. Except the Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt thing intrigues me, if only cos they are two of the most attractive people ever and I hope they have babies. Then I saw Taylor Hawkins and pointed him out, but they didn't care. Which is so fucking typical, when you think about it. Fuck the rest of the band, especially the drummer. I wonder if Dave Grohl suffered from Invisible Drummer Syndrome when he was in Nirvana? I can't remember. Anyway in the excitement over Dave and the confusion over how we were going to get to the venue, I didn't realize I left my backpack behind. An hour later, I went back for it only to be told by the LAPD officer who had found it that the airport police had taken it away. But not before bringing out the dogs to sniff it for drugs and bombs. She managed to intercept the airport police before they booked my backpack. If that had happened, it would have been a lot harder to get it back. I got a lecture about how my forgetfulness wasted valuable airport resources. I had to bite back a comment about how it seemed he was disappointed my bag didn't contain explosives or the like.
So we finally got on the road and I swear it took us four hours to get there. It was dark and for some reason, the guys decided to deviate from Mapquest's directions right as we hit Indio. We wandered around until we finally found Empire Polo Field. At this point I was seriously irritated. It didn't help that when we got to the venue, it was nearly 11pm and we had to wait in a very long line in order to check into the on-site campgrounds. But the line went fairly fast, and before I knew it I was setting up my tent. I bonded with the people camping across from me, and they are hilarious. Very random, loved the same bands I do, quotes movies like crazy, and other things like that. So I was able to hang out with them the entire time I was there, thank goodness.
It wasn't burning hot, just in the 80s or so. But the heat struck early in the morning so it was impossible to stay in the tent past 8am without feeling like I was trying to sleep in a sauna. It took us nearly an hour to get inside the festival gates on the first day; on the second it took maybe 10 minutes. We showed up around 3pm both days. It got extremely windy at night, so much so that I thought my tent was going to cave in on me. It didn't, but I felt like I was on a fucking mountain or something.
On to the show! I'm going to attempt to write something about everything I saw/heard.
Saturday
Upon entering, we headed towards the blessed beer garden. From there we listened to the Raveonettes on the main stage. I'm not a big fan, but they were good.
We wandered around for a bit, finally settling down at the secondary outdoor stage as Eisley played. They had a multitude of technical problems... and they called a lot of attention to said problems. It felt sort of unprofessional, actually. I'm sure knowing what to do in those situations comes with experience, but they seemed very upset and bewildered by what was happening. Their songs were also really boring, so we moved on to Snow Patrol or SnowPatch as my friend dubbed them. Heh. A good time. Gary was very talkative to the crowd. They played a few new songs from their forthcoming album, and they sound excellent, although more in the key of Final Straw than something earlier in the SnowPatch catalogue.
During this time we did more wandering as Keane played in the background. I'm not a huge Keane fan, but the music they made was very pretty and served as good background music for our meanderings. Keane also played a few new songs. This is a theme that will run throughout Coachella. Playing new songs, that is. I think Bright Eyes played a set comprising of mostly new songs.
Randomly, somewhere around this time we saw Danny DeVito. My friend pointed him out to him with this weird sense of glee. "OMG IT'S DANNY DEVITO!" She even stopped me to point him out. He was probably the only celebrity I saw whose short height did not surprise me.
We headed over to the Sahara tent, which was the biggest of the tents, where UNKLE was DJng. Or rather, the one half UNKLE that was there, James Lavelle. He was most excellent. However we couldn't stay for long, as we had to go back to the main stage for Wilco. Running back and forth between the main outdoor stage and the Sahara tent is also a recurring theme throughout my Coachella experience.
Wilco, while putting on a nice performance, didn't seem to be very keen (Keane? Haha) to be there. The lead singer actually said that he hates festivals, and then lamely added, "But not Coachella." Thanks, fuckbucket. Hope you don't mind that we left your set to go see Swayzak at the Gobi tent, who was pretty damn cool and certainly beat the pants off fucking Wilco.
I thought I saw Katie Holmes around this time, but I'm fairly certain it was just a lookalike. Also, speaking of celebrity lookalikes, a guy in the general store looked exactly like Ewan McGregor. It really freaked me out. I didn't want to stare at him so I just gave him these brief intense gazes in which I tried to figure out if he really did look like Ewan, if he really WAS Ewan, or if I was just on crack. He sounded like him doing an American accent, too.
After Swayzak we went back to the main stage to see Weezer. Rivers seemed impossibly bored by the setting. I'd never seen Weezer before, so maybe this is just he is in concert. They were having sound problems--they sounded very muffled. They failed to draw me in, so I took everyone over to the Mojave tent to see the Secret Machines. They were a definite highlight for me. I was physically affected by their music, to the point where I was getting dizzy and felt my heartbeat accelerate. They ended and we ran back yet again to the main stage to see Bauhaus, who deserve their own paragraph.
If Chris Martin saw any part of Bauhaus, he probably kicked himself in the ass and used it as further material for his self-flagellation. And I really do think that happened, cos when he was onstage he was a little more humble and shy than in previous years. He also kept saying that he couldn't believe that his band was on last. But anyway, back to Bauhaus. We got there right as the first song was beginning, and something seemed... off. Peter Murphy was hanging upside down from a rope suspended. He sang the entire song that way. It was just impressive as fuck-all. He struck all kinds of poses. I felt like I was at a ballet, an opera, a musical. Not a mere concert. It was seriously spellbinding, and I'm not even a huge Bauhaus fan. Peter Murphy is the ultimate frontman. I can see how so many rock stars have attempted to copy him, only to fail. He's very elegant and graceful. He didn't dance, or shake his ass. It's difficult to describe unless you actually see him.
Oh, I almost got into a fight during Bauhaus. This older lady was pushing her way through the crowd and was being unnecessarily rude and rough. So I elbowed her as she pushed her way past us. She came back and thumped me in the back. I turned around, shoved her hard and called her a haggard old fucking cunt. She shouted something and then ran away. I was really tempted to go after her but I didn't want to get banned. Heh.
The Chemical Brothers started their set at Sahara, and it was incredibly crowded. At this time I saw Scott Speedman and I didn't really recognize him til I got up close. I started to laugh and then I began to look for Keri Russell. Are they still dating? Or is that soooo late 90s? I didn't see her. There was no room in the tent, so we just stood outside it with several hundred others. After 20 minutes, I had to do another loop back to the main stage to see Coldplay.
Like I said before, Chris seemed more humble and a little more down to earth than he's been when I've seen Coldplay before. Maybe it was seeing Bauhaus before him, maybe it's just the fact that he's Gwyneth Paltrow's baby's daddy. Who knows? They played six songs, three of which were new, before I left to go back to the Chems. They played Warning Sign, a song I love for its sadness, as well as Politik and Yellow. On my way back, I checked out Fantomas who were alright. After the Chemical Brothers ended their set, we walked back to the mainstage and saw Coldplay perform their last two songs--In My Place and another new one. As soon as I got back to my tent I fell asleep.
Sunday
We left the campgrounds to get booze and eat Mexican food. It was nice being in an air-conditioned building. We went back and entered the grounds around 3. This time I had to empty my purse. On Saturday, the security guy merely looked into it as he mumbled something about hating his job.
We headed straight to Mojave for Autolux, whom I'd never heard before and enjoyed quite a bit. Somewhere around this time I saw Shannyn Sossamon wandering about by the tent. She's cute. After that, we saw the Fiery Furnaces who didn't pause between songs. As a result it became difficult to know when one song ended and the next began. Good energy, but a bit tiresome after awhile. We had some downtime, so we watched Beans, who sucked, before heading to the beer garden. We killed some time there before leaving early to get good places for the Arcade Fire. They were awesome, as promised. The crowd was very large and appreciative of the band. We had a good view, and I couldn't take my eyes off of them. Of course, that didn't mean I recognize them when I saw them later as they checked out other bands.
I had to leave their set early to get to New Order. It was finally time to see the main reason I was there. I have now seen 4 of my top 5 living bands live in concert. They were incredible, suffice to say. They opened with Atmosphere, and played four songs from the new album, as well as Regret, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Transmission, Crystal, Bizarre Love Triangle and Blue Monday. Not in that order, but almost. Barney said he had torn a ligament in his foot, so he couldn't dance around. He also kept apologizing for not being able to play longer. Watching Hooky play his bass live was spellbinding. It was also great to see the way they both gave Steve props. I was totally swoony after it was over. Also, apparently I saw Olivia Wilde (Bisexual Alex from the OC). I didn't recognize her, because I suck at recognizing people. I knew she looked familiar, but someone else in
coachella knew it was her.Since Nine Inch Nails was on after New Order, I just stayed where I was and started talking to a random girl, now known as Random NIN Girl. We talked about Bauhaus (she agreed they rocked) and a few other bands we'd seen. Then it was time for NIN, who were fucking fantastic. Trent came out by himself and began playing the keyboard slowly. Then, as the rest of the band flowed on the stage, he stepped up to the mic and began to sing. The crowd was pretty polite, when I think about it. Except for a group of seven or so teenagers bludgeoning their way through the crowd. After the fifth one passed I threw my water bottle at them and received a round of applause.
Random NIN Girl and I left to get ready for the Faint. Except I misjudged the set times and left too early, so we ended up seeing the last 15 minutes of British Sea Power. They were good, but nothing special. We headed towards the fringes of the crowd to listen to NIN play Closer. It made me want to roll around on the grass, except at this point it was a fucking mess.
The Faint had great projections. At this point my back had been really hurting and I sort of wanted to sit on the bleachers, but it's impossible to listen to the Faint and not dance. So I did. Afterwards we headed over to the Sahara tent to see Prodigy. Of course, we all cheered when they played tracks from Fat of the Land. It was still a great time. We started in the back and danced our way forward. We'd target groups where no one was dancing, or if they were it was that pathetic little head bob thing. By the time we left they would always be busting full out moves. We were true dancing queens. As Jay Kay would say, nothing left for me to do but dance! Oooh, Jamiroquai in the Sahara tent would be such a fun time.
On my way back to the campground I wandered past the main stage so I could listen to Black Star, which is the duo of Mos Def and Talib Kweli. They were good, and I believe Common Sense also came out to play along, but at that point I was really sore, tired and it was windy as fuck all. I walked back to my tent, got in, and went to sleep.
Thankfully the trip back to LA didn't take four hours, and I made it to the airport with more than enough time to spare. In fact, I bought Death of an Ordinary Man by Glen Duncan and nearly finished it by the time my plane landed.
Coming back to the real world has been a bit surreal. I had a great weekend surrounded by people who were strangers, yet to whom I felt close. I finally succeeded in attending Coachella and I'm determined to make this an annual thing. It was heaven for me, having so many musical choices. I did miss a few acts I wanted to see, such as Jem, Jamie Cullum and Kasabian. However, I find it hard to regret missing them as I have no regrets about the weekend whatsoever. For those who want to attend and never have, I highly recommend doing anything and everything possible to go.