Coachella Music Festival Weekend 1-April 14th

WOW, what a weekend!!! So, for those of you who just want to skip to the chase and get to the OMD portion (no offense taken, this is going to be a longer than normal blog so.. 😳 :lol:), scroll down to the paragragh that starts with “So Day 3”.  But for everyone else, here’s how my first Coachella experience went.

I flew into LAX and met my friend Greg before heading out to Palm Spings which was where we were staying. Unfortunately, both our flights had been delayed and we hit a ton of traffic so we didn’t get to the hotel til well after 11pm (had to stop for food). And funny thing, we go to check into our rooms and the guy at the counter says “I just don’t understand. People paying so much money for a room just to go to a music festival”. 😆 (luckily I booked early and also it was only for 1 night, then we were switching to a 2 bedroom condo in the morning. Long story but got it for a lot less than 3 more nights at the hotel so..yay :D)  It was a case of late night, early morning as I wasn’t sure about traffic and such and we had to go drop our stuff off at the condo so still half asleep, we weren’t able to actually check into the condo but the lady there was sweet and gave us our keys, took our luggage and said someone would put our stuff in when the condo  became available so we could just “go have fun and don’t worry.”

And that’s what we did! 😀  Let me explain Coachella a bit before going any further. It’s similar to other music festivals I’m sure (ie: Lollapalooza, Glastonbury etc) in that there’s a multitude of stages, music genres, various other time passers, but with Coachella, you’re out in the desert. And I’m not kidding when I say it’s literally “out there”.  More on that later but there’s a few ways to go. Camping is one but no way was I going to go for that (Greg wasn’t keen either). I need a shower after all that each night!  You can also drive and park in one of a ton of remote parking (I’ve been told some are really remote), OR, you could pay extra for a shuttle pass and pick from I believe 7 different lines and use the shuttle parking lot to park, hop the shuttle and then walk the rest of the way in through the gates. I’d read some of the parking lots could take 2-3 hours to get out so we opted for shuttle.  Driving to the public parking lot was actually quite lovely. OK, yeah, desert but mountains in the back so I thought it was really nice scenery.

Greg dubbed day 1 “learning curve” because it truly was. When we arrived and parked, we ended up getting in the line for shuttle passes…we had ours already so 10 mintues later, had to wiggle out of the line and hop the actual shuttle. It was about 25-30 minute drive to a massive open field….that took a bit to get the bus parked properly, then they drop you off and you go through a couple of security stops.  First up was scan your shuttle pass, then a pat down and purse/bag check. However, we didn’t know it was broken down by men in one line, woman in another (we hadn’t noticed) so part way through, Greg had to be bumped as we had stepped into the woman’s line. Oops 😆 I was surprised they didn’t say anything about my 20 oz Gatorade but as we walked on, scanned our 3 day wrist band and started off, we were told “that’s just the security for camping. There’s a much more thorough security check at the main gate.” 😯 OK.  So it was a long walk to get to the main gate but funnily, they dubbed it “the yellow path” which, as we continued on, there were recordings from The Wizard of Oz “Follow the yellow brick road” in all the munchkins voices. Too funny! 😆

Well, we finally made it out of the yellow path and up to the main gate. This time however, we figured out the men on one side….but we were surprised to find you weren’t allowed to bring any waters/beverages in. I say surprised as I had asked someone coming out of a 7Eleven (convenient store) and he said as long as they were sealed but nope, nothing.  Dumped the water, got the Gatorade in (I have low blood sugar so it comes in handy and I was lucky enough to get a security guard who has diabetes so he let me through the whole weekend, bless him :D) and then, one more pat down and scanning of our wrist bands then….welcome to Coachella! 😀  We came upon quite a big area that had anything from food tents to Merch tent and a ‘make your own coachella t-shirt’ tent.  Off to the left of that was the massive ferris wheel that is part of Coachella’s advertising/logo/image. I had forgotten that or I guess maybe didn’t stop to think they actually HAD one LOL but they did.  Continuing on, we came across some really cool pieces of art…well, art but not like paintings on the wall, sculptures and such. There was, well I can’t really describe it other than to say it was all white and looked like some type of unfinished house or something. One of my favorite was the variety ‘hats’ as I thought of them. When we got closer, I realized it was actually a place to go for shade (desert=no trees for shade). My other favorite was this big snail.  (funny side story about the snail….it was moved around. It looked like it was made of metal but as Greg later found out when he touched it and then told me, it  felt more like it was inflated. So anyways, part way through the day, we had split up for different acts so agreed to meet at the snail. Except when I got there…it was GONE! 😯  Coachella isn’t that big that I could have been in the wrong spot, I knew it was supposed to be where I was but this snail was really big so I couldn’t figure out how in the world it could have been moved (didn’t know it was inflatable at this point) so I tap a guy on the shoulder and say “wasn’t there a big snail here earlier?” He was like “huh?” so I said “ya know…a big snail…right there…silver with antennas”. He looked at me and was like “I don’t know what you’re on but I have NO idea what you’re talking about!” 😯 😳 so I said “no no, I SWEAR, I have pictures!” (because Greg and I got our pic in front of it). He laughed and said “I’m just joking. But I don’t know, we just got here so I can’t help you.”  I thanked him and had to then text Greg that our meeting spot had disappeared and picked a new one. Later that night…it reappeared….with people painting on it…and that was when Greg said it was more of inflatable material. 😆 ) It was exciting to enter into a new fest as I’m used to doing Chicago’s Lollapalooza so this was new, familiar, new….

The main music was divided into 5 stages but there was also Yuma which, from what I could tell, was more DJ/dance/rave type stuff. We never made it to that, too many bands to check out LOL.  One complaint about Coachella is that they don’t list the set times until 2-3 days before the fest so I hadn’t started checking out bands via their Youtube videos until Thursday in the SLC airport but we had a game plan for today, tomorrow would have to wait. 😆   (Greg pretty much went by my choices for Friday since he hadn’t done any checking though we broke up later as I figured he’d like Trent Reznors solo project How To Destroy Angels more than Stone Roses.) First up, a band I thought could be cool  They were called IO Echo and were actually on the stage OMD would be on Sunday. Quite a nice surprise as we really liked them!

A bit more about the stages (and this is something Coachella has 1 up on over Lolla), three of them were ‘tent’ stages so not only did it kind of give a more homey, party feel, but it protected us all from the heat which was nice as it was supposed to be 88F, 92F and 90F.  The other two were outdoors with Coachella Stage being the biggest/main stage and then ‘outdoor theatre’ stage being not too far from it.  Coachella is a bit smaller than Lolla so that makes it a lot easier to get to stages but that lack of space also allowed some bands to bleed into others if A)the other was doing a soft, mellow song  or B)the other band stopped to talk to the crowd or tune up or something.  But imho, the  convenience is worth having to hear a bit in the background at times.

Well, I won’t go into detail of all the bands we saw, suffice it to say we had a great day, got good spots for most, liked all but 1 (and that was one of the bands I really wanted to see Friday but it was just, er, strange.  I won’t drop a name but it was a mix between a rock opera and, er, well some broadway something or other. I was expecting a line of woman to come out kicking and at one point, even the guard was giving out a look like “OMG, who IS that behind me, Seriously?” and surpressed a laugh as he shook his head. Ah well…nothing ventured, nothing gained.  We also got to experience a gorgeous sunset courtesy of the band we were seeing at that time pointing it out and having us all turn around to view it.  Being in the desert, all around were palm trees and mountains so it really lent for some beautifully special moments!

I had read that a lot of things that you see in the daytime light up at night and boy, people weren’t kidding. It was gorgeous! All the palm trees had various colored lights shining on them and they’d change colors as time went by. The praying mantis’s head was lite, all the tents by the main stage went back and forth rainbow, single  colors etc, the Ferris Wheel flashed on and off, I could go on but there was a lot to see and it really added to the festivities! 😀

So once the bands were done, we met up and headed to the shuttles along the ‘yellow path’. Except TONS of others were going for shuttles too so it took quite awhile and it got pretty dark at times but it was a case of follow the person in front of you and you’re bound to get there.  They still had the Wizard of Oz stuff going on but it sounded a bit more ominous in the dark night. Greg joked that “I’m expecting a midget to come out with a chainsaw and go at us all”. 😆  The exact same check points to swipe the pass and then a line to get on the shuttle before we were finally heading to our parking lot. Once there, it was another 30 minutes drive to the condo so by the time we walked in the door, it was almost 2 hours later…2:45am 😯  Ah well…fun day! 😀

Day 2 was actually similar to day 1 except our shuttle driver started things off by announcing (when she stopped to let us off but hadn’t opened the door yet) that there were “two rules I have for you all that MUST be followed. First, you exit holding the rail…and second…you make this the BEST day of your life! *insert cheers from us all* Make it a blessed day and have fun!”  Awww…gotta love it! 😀  There was a police officer on a horse near the end of the yellow path and, after saying ‘hi’ I joked “you know it’s so tempting to want to pet him.” He said “you can pet him, just not on his face. He gets pet a lot and people go to his face so the first few are fine but after awhile if people kept petting you on the face, you’d probably get annoyed so pet his side but go ahead.” 😯 😀 So  I did….sweet heart!

There was a major clash of bands at the end of the day as I had really wanted to see Booka Shade (next to OMD, they and Stone Roses were my ‘ must sees’ but after them was Sigur Rios)  Take a guess who were pitted against each other…yup! So I was leaning towards SR but after noticing I was getting tired late night prior when I wasn’t dancing, I realized SR would be way too mellow for me. BS are TOTAL dance party so they won out if not just because I’d be wide awake for their entire show. 😳 😆 😉 One thing we noticed about Coachella vs. Lolla was there was a LOT more  people smoking pot…and right in front of the guards! 😯 🙄 Can’t stand that smell. 🙁  But also, a lot of pushing and just rude people. I know it’s hard when you’re trying to move around  the field in a big mass of people but many wouldn’t even attempt to move around, they’d just plow right into you. 🙁  We had stayed at one stage most of the day (Mohave….tented stage so nice to not be in the heat!) but when we were finally trying to get out, people shoved so much that we couldn’t even get out.  Um…if you would all just hold off a second, we’d give you our spots.  Then there was the evening when I left Greg to go see Two Door Cinema Club before heading to BS (he stayed at main stage as we had gotten a good spot so he didn’t want to leave). I THOUGHT I was following the crowd to the other outdoor stage and people were pushing and smashing so badly that guards had to tell everyone to “BACK UP!” because the barrier was actually starting to come down 😕 But as it turned out, it was just to get the beer garden! 😯  I didn’t want to go there as I’m not a fan of beer and wasn’t going to be drinking so hadn’t gotten a wristband for it but since no one was going anywhere else but into it due to the amount of shoving, I got pushed through the first guard (who was trying to see every ones wristbands as they scrambled in). I got stopped however by a female guard who wouldn’t let me go through. I kept telling her I didn’t want to drink, I just wanted to get to the other stage (which was quite close) but that I got shoved in, literally.  It’s funny now but at the time she was all “you’ll need a wristband, you can go right there for one” and points to a tent that’s not far but past the shoving crowd. I’m thinking “lady are you KIDDING me? Do you not see the crazy mob at the gate shoving in? You actually want me to go against the tide to get there? Sorry but that’s not gonna happen..I’d like to live to see Sunday (and OMD :lol:)”  Well, I tried to explain I wasn’t going to be able to get out through there but she wasn’t helpful so I went back to the first guard that I had gotten pushed past but his partner saw me so I explained and he was sweet and told me “well, then you’ll have to go out one of the exits.” and points to both of them. Unfortunately, that meant having to get past the girl guard so I told him I couldn’t get to the exits due to the guard saying I couldn’t come in without a wristband. It was a catch 22 really. All this time, people are still flocking in so he asked who was stopping me, I pointed to the female guard and said she wanted a wristband and he took me over and OK’d me to go to the one exit, which I happily did! Sheesh, crazy!

Heading out to the shuttles went better today since we knew exactly how it was going down but it was still really crowded and took just as long but it wasn’t difficult. Just time consuming. The day had turned windy too and had really cooled down so it was quite cold waiting for the shuttle but eh, I guess better to shiver than melt (I was wearing tank tops all weekend since it was hot during the day).

So Day 3….and OMD :wink:. Well, when looking through the little Coachella booklet that was given out at various info kiosks, I had seen there was an area for band signings and OMD were going to be one of the bands for Sunday. When we got in, we checked to see what time as Greg wanted to go….6:30. It was inside Zia Records tent and apparently (because Greg tried to get a Metric CD signed Friday but they never showed up and instead, he was told they’d be back Saturday :sad:), you have to buy something from Zia before you could line up. So that was our first stop as he wanted to get something to have signed.  It was then a day of various bands…again, a few real dudes (OMG…are they over yet? :lol:) but a few decent ones too. Greg made it to the signing, as did not only Mr. M. and Mr. H. (which I warned Greg it may be only the two of them) but Mr. H.#2 and Mr. C.! 😯 😀  so he got a CD signed before we headed to the  Gobi Stage which was to be where the best performance of the weekend was going to take place (yeah, I’m biased I know 😆 :wink:)  And this was where I had what was probably the strangest thing of the weekend happen. So I’m wiggling around the people (an act was playing when we got there. I knew enough to get there a couple bands early so as to get to the front as each time a band ends) and Greg and I had both hit the toilets plus I had gotten dinner (he ate earlier before the signing) as we were going to be at the stage for awhile. So there I am trying to worm around as close as possible without being rude but I had a chicken salad in my hand so not only was I trying to not bop people with my purse, but I also didn’t want to bop them with salad/dressing. 😆  I finally find a small opening about half way through and we settle in. Many had looked at me coming in with my salad and kind of chuckled but as everyone was getting all “whoooooo” to the act on stage, I’m just eating casually, minding my own business because I wasn’t there for this act. So I’m munching when all of a sudden a guy from behind me kind of leans in which got my attention. I look at him (couldn’t speak as I had just taken a bite) and he takes the fork from my hand all “do da do da doooo”, then takes my salad plate from me and brings it to him.  At this point I’m thinking “oh he is NOT going to take a bite of my salad is he?” and thought of saying something but I didn’t know WHAT to say so I just stood there and that’s exactly what he did!  He then put the fork back into the salad, hands it back to me, swallows and gives me a thumbs up while nodding his head with a “mmmm, yummy” look on his face. … 😯 Well, I was shocked so just took it back and turned around thinking “thank goodness I keep extra spoons and forks in my purse cause I am NOT using that one now.”   Greg had been standing to the side of me so he leans in and says “you want me to punch him for you?” I told him no (and I don’t think he’d do it anyways as he’s not that kind of person to pick a fight and knew I’d say no) but I quickly got us to a new spot so as not to have him decide it was super yummy and he wants another bite! (though tbh, I don’t think I’d have let him have another bite now that I knew what was gonna happen :roll:) Greg then says “I think he was either hitting on you in an unusual way or he was high”  Yeah…I’m betting on the second! 🙄 😆

When that act was done, we went up further and originally I was second row but the guy in front of me left.  Sadly, the act before OMD got a late start of about 6 minutes and where I had thought they’d cut him off at his time, they didn’t so I worried Mr. M. and Co. would get cut off instead.  By this time Miles and his close friend Tiffany had found us so I leaned over to Miles and said “if they let the last act go late but they cut OMD, I’m gonna be ticked!” 🙁 Visions of SXSW came into my head.  A bit of a commotion due to someone to our left being sick and again, I found myself wishing hard that this fest would go much better than the last fest the guys played here in the states! 🙁

It did! As many of you I’m sure watched, the gig went down great! :D.  (forgot to mention, their stage was the only 1 of the 3 tent stages that stayed ‘open’ so to speak behind them….no black sheet/screen etc…so the lovely back drop of lit up palm trees.  Never seen THAT before at an OMD gig! :lol:) I had tried to think of what song they’d open with. I didn’t think they’d do Metroland as usually with fests, they seem to start off with an older hit to get the crowds attention so I was betting on Messages. Imagine my surprise when the intro to Enola Gay came on as the guys walked out on stage. That’s different!  Mr. M. made a comment about it being cold (the wind had REALLY picked up…literally a sand storm out there it was miserable! :sad:) and get ready to dance. He then said “This band is called Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark…and this song is Enola Gay”  After that…they took offf.  The stage had LED lights above the guys so during Enola Gay, the letters O.M.D. scrolled across, nice! Well, Messages wasn’t far away and right off the bat Mr. M. coaxed the crowd into dancing…not much needed as from the area around me, everyone was ready to party.

My friend Missy had texted me Friday about a setlist change but I didn’t want to know what it was going to be. I had my guess (I was wrong LOL) but tonight I found out…Tesla Girls.  It was the first song I really saw people starting to bounce to and I could hear the “no, no NO” coming from many. Massive smiles on Mr. C.s face as he looked like he was going to laugh from joy and Mr. H.#2 kept grinning from ear to ear.

When Mr. M. put the bass down, I immediately thought it was going to be HoMPart 1 so I proceeded to apologize to a guy behind me as I told him I’d be bouncing…but it wasn’t HOM, it was Metroland.  Mr. M. joked by saying that they were now about to do a new song…”that’s over 7 minutes long! But don’t worry, it’s fantastic. Just sway back and forth.”  Well, even in an environment like Coachella where you don’t have 100% fans just to see the  current on stage band, that song went over well which says a lot!  There was a girl behind us who we’d been talking to before the show and after a few songs, she was like “OMG I can’t believe how GOOD they still are! ” (she’d seen them back in 1988 but not since) and during Metroland, she laughed and said “oh yeah, ‘he’s still got the moves.” From the looks on the guys faces, I think they seemed surprised (happily) by the response. Mr. H. kept bopping around gleefully and when it was over, Mr. M. said “the moral of the story is, don’t be scared by middle aged men playing synthesizers”. Don’t worry, we’re not! 😆

Well, HoM was next (another apology, this time for real to the guys LOL) and I was happy to see I had bouncing buddies in Tiffany, Miles’ friend, and others.  It was great and Mr. M. looked out at the crowd nodding his approval.  When that was over, Mr. M. said “you’ll all in for a real treat….Mr. Humphreys is going to sing for you” and Mr. H. came out to do FLaD but not before dedicating it to his daughter who was in the crowd…awww! 😀  He seemed to really be having a blast, I’m sure powered by it being California so semi-home turf, family around etc.

What’s been interesting with American crowds is that we tend to have a younger population coming vs. in the UK and Europe. I had chatted with a girl earlier in the day as we compared who we were going to see while waiting for DIIV and she was going to be at the OMD stage early as she wanted to see the final band Disclosure. She was like “what’s their biggest hit?” so I told her “If you Leave” and she said “oh yeah! My mom listens to them but I like them too.” I looked over and saw her smack middle and second row…nice smile on her face so I’m sure her mom isn’t going to be the only big fan in the family anymore! But she wasn’t the only youngin…it’s really neat to see! 😀

They obviously couldn’t do an American gig without doing IYL and wow, the cheer that went up. You’d think it was popular or something. 🙄 😉 Great sing along but then, it was time for the amazing MoA…..I didn’t look around too much (sorry, probably should have done that a bit more but I was having so much fun and knew 50 minutes was going to be a quickie I just focused on trying to enjoy what was happening in front and near me) but I’m sure jaws dropped and Mr. M. was greeted with yet more massive cheering.  All four guys were just in their glory and I was thrilled! 😀 I don’t know if they had any idea what was going to happen for the gig but they all seemed to be really enjoying it.   Lots of thank yous, clapping back to us etc.  YAY! 😀

So 50 minutes means a condensed version of OMD….which could only mean one thing….more dancing and bouncing. 😆  SMS found bodies moving up and down, this way and that and there was a definite feel that the gig had turned triumphantly nostalgic but in an exciting way…like “wow, these guys can really still do their thing! Old AND new!”  When SotSS came, Mr. M. stepped down onto some big monitors/speakers that were in front of the stage and began to sing. There had been a security guard standing and as always, they’re not really allowed to look back so before he knew it, Mr. M. tapped him and said “how ya doing?” much to the amusement of both the guard and the crowd. 😆  There was a guy right next to me who seemed to be totally reliving things because he kept swaying, bouncing, moving his arms to the beat and/or to the lyrics and their breakdowns and though, each time I looked over I couldn’t see his actual face much (he had a bandana all the way up over his face to just under his eyes due to the sand storm), I just knew it had a massive smile on it!  The girl next to him was like Tiffany…giddy to be there and when they announced they were ending with their oldest and fastest song, that was it….everyone just let loose.  I can’t say how exciting and satisfying it was to see the crowd really get into the guys! When it was all over and goodbyes ensued, hands went up high in the air, cheers all over and it was obvious that, at least for those 50 minutes, the guys got the love and admiration they always deserve! 😀

When they were off stage, some fans stayed to try and get a set list and such but my friends and I all just smiled and laughed and said how amazing the gig was! Gotta say, I’m glad that OMD were literally at the end of the fest (well, I stayed to see Dead Can Dance as I’d waited about 15 years to see them…cool and interesting but couldn’t fully enjoy it as by this time, my sinuses were beyond bonkers, my throat killed and I had only half a voice due to the sand storm…glad I stayed though :wink:)  because they are definitely a hard act to follow. 😆 😀   I had wanted to ask the girl who I’d talked to earlier (who’s mother was a fan) what she thought but people were shifting around and by the time I got done saying goodbyes, I didn’t see her and didn’t want to fight the crowd but I’m sure she was impressed.  We had all been kind of unsure what was going to happen since Coachella brings people of all music genre loves together and you never know if a mixed crowd like that will be receptive or not but this one was for sure! Like I said earlier, when a band can win over a crowd who aren’t all there to see THEM, that speaks volumes! OMD should be proud as I felt they put on a performance that could be argued to be one of the best of the fest. I know I could be called biased but even just stepping back and looking from a distance (the best I can), they gave 110%, got the crowd engaged, put out some infectiously catchy and poppy songs that were both older and newer, got the crowd dancing and having  fun, and did it in a way that spoke to people. There’s no airs with OMD, they come out, do what they love to do and hope you love it just as much.  And when the crowd DOES end up loving it, they’re honestly surprised and appreciative.  I think people can pick up on that and for a festival that’s filled with people who just want to let go of things and have fun for a few days, it’s definitely appreciated I’m sure.

And so….after DCD, we headed off to follow the yellow path one last time. The festival stages ended an hour early (midnight vs. 1am) and we noticed there were less people walking with us, were able to get right on a bus and got to our car early. However, we experienced some scary driving conditions coming back as we’d never thought about what a sand storm could be like on an open highway…not fun! 🙁  But we made it back safely and can now say we’ve experience Coachella. One more thing crossed off my bucket list LOL.  Would I do it again? Well, yes, I think I would though, since I have Lolla, it doesn’t often make sense to pay the price of coming out for Coachella when usually about 1/3 of their acts come to Chicago but it’s a great festival, lovely area and set up, and now that I know more about the ins and outs and such, I may end up at it again at some point…maybe….who knows. 😉 😆