Coachella: Day 2

• Author: Mike
• Filed under: Music, Travel
• Date: Friday, July 20, 2007

So, for those who you who didn’t read or don’t want to read my last super-long entry, here is a summary without spoilers..

Mike got up and struggled to make himself breakfast, despite the fact that everything was already prepared. He got a crappy cell phone and headed out to the festival, where he had a great time seeing so many artists. Coming back from the festival, he got into a very bad spot that he feared he would struggle to get out of.

So with that out of the way, on with Saturday at Coachella.

Three in the morning, roughly eighty degrees. I could make it out here I guess, not that I wanted to. After getting really adjudicated over my wallet, I quickly followed in a bunch of people who had returned to the festival and went straight to check-in, where I was to find no-one. I turned to look at the couches, fearing that’s where I’d end up for the night. After yelling out several times for someone, I started to walk away before a staff member came forward! Success! I explain what had happened, and it must of been the distress in my voice because she gave me a replacement room key straight away (they were those electronic punch card type ones). I headed up stairs, careful not to drop the key down the elevator crack and headed straight inside, grabbing a water out from a sink full of melted ice.

I looked over at my computer, noticing several missed calls from home. I got on the phone to hear my distressed mother wondering why I hadn’t rang, and when I relayed my story of what happened with my wallet. My biggest fear at the time was the boys could of found it and decided to go on a bit of a spending spree, rather then worrying about giving me lifts to the festival. Sure, the chances of that were slim but I had only known these guys for less then 24 hours. My parents told me to sleep on it and get on the phones in the morning.

I was woken by Skype at 10:30, with my parents wondering what the update was. I told them that they had woke me up but I would get on the phone. I rang Juan.. and it rung out. Oh shit. I ended up ringing several times only to get his message bank, so I left a message and called my parents back, telling them to cancel the credit card. There wasn’t much cash wise in there, and I had a replacement room key along with a second ATM card so I wasn’t too bad off. My dad cancelled the card, and I considered how I’d be getting to the festival for a little while.

About ten minutes later Juan rang. He said that he left his phone in the car all night, then I told him about my wallet. Sure enough, it was sitting in the back seat. He said he would bring it when they came to pick me up, then asked if I didn’t mind going to Coachella later. While their were artists I would of seen if I was there, I didn’t really care if we went late - as long as I got there before 6pm. Juan then told me to grab some lunch, and asked if I had some cash on me. I told him that I had some emergency funds and would get by for a little while.

After getting off the phone, I rang home back and explained what happened but the damage was done, the card was cancelled and there was nothing that could happen. I decided the best thing to do would be to move some funds to my Travelex ATM card so at least I could rely on the ATMs, plus it was Friday in Australia so I’d get it soon enough.

With the extra free time on my hands, I had a long shower and chucked on some clothes. I surfed the net while watching a NHL game from the East Coast, before heading out for some lunch. Finally the heat had got to scortching levels, at about 2pm when I left the hotel it was at 108 degrees (about 42 celcius), the hottest it was for my entire time in the desert. I didn’t want to go far on foot, so I headed to my local Ralph’s, figuring I can get a footlong from their deli along with some water.

The good thing about Ralph’s was the air conditioning, I spent most of the time walking around picking what water I should by. By the time I got to the deli there was a bit of line, and I ended up looking at the pre-packed sandwiches. Despite my original intentions, I ended up going with a pre-packed roast beef on rye, along with an individual slice of cherry pie. American food rocks.

I got back to the room fairly quickly, trying to avoid the heat as much as possible and cracked into my lunch. Despite it’s simplicity, it was easily the best lunch of the entire trip. I learned how well American mustard and mayo go together on roast beef, and how cherries in a pie are so much better then apple. Until I waited for the boys to rock up, I spent the rest of the time sticking ice into my sink to keep drinks icy cold and watching tv.

The boys finally rocked up at around four-ish, and seemed to be in alright spirits despite the escapades of the previous night. I’d like to say I hugged my wallet, but I just looked through it to make sure I still had my cards. Juan explained to me how lucky it was that I had told him, because he wasn’t planning on going back to that car again (they took a different car between days). He also talked about going to previous Coachella’s and how at the start it was all about getting their at the earliest, and how now it didn’t really matter.

Saturday was a semi-sleeper day for me - while there were a few essential artists I wanted to see (Girl Talk in particular) but the days were not as loaded as Friday and Sunday. We ended up getting into the place at about 5:15-5:30 despite a few small lines getting in and Juan stopping to give random people beer around the grounds. After walking we took the time to have a look at the past-year’s lineups hanging up on the palm trees, to which I said that if I could see anyone from the past year’s perform today, it would be Rilo Kiley (hopefully in ‘08). Juan ended up striking up conversation with a couple who had came over from Canada and were really excited to see Tiesto, to which I told them about my friend Kristijan seeing him at loveparade in front of 60k plus.

Walking past the main stage with Travis playing, we all ended up heading towards the Gobi again where Andrew Bird was whistling and strumming his guitar. Juan had to visit the gents so Javier and I continued watching, and after about ten minutes both had the simultaneous thought - “what the hell is this shit?” without actually saying anything. Javier wanted to head over to !!!, so he went off while I watched for a little while longer, before SMSing Juan saying that I was going to head over to see Ghostface Killah at the outdoor theater while Javier went to see !!!.

Despite only seeing a few artists at the Outdoor Theatre, it was my favourite stage of the festival. It had it’s downsides, like the fact that it was really hard to get in or out of, and suffered from some bad sound bleed from the main stage but the big advantage was that there was a heap of room to space out, so unless you really wanted to the stage or wanted to stand around a big group of people you could take up some space on the grass to the right hand side of the stage and still get an excellent view.

Should you judge a rapper by how many hypemen he has on stage? Ghostface had two, Trife and someone who I can’t remember - I think Ghost mentioned that it was his nephew. Perhaps it was the heat, perhaps it was that the crowd was 80% white (yet they still threw up their w’s on request), Ghostface put on a very average performance struggling in parts leaving his offsiders to do his hard work. The parts worth mentioning - at one stage Ghost requested that Amy Winehouse comes onstage to do a performance, to which his DJ made the drinky drinky motion - no Amy. He also asked the crowd what they wanted to hear, and when one song came up he said that it was a bit too hard to do. Disappointing all up. I decided to get myself an equally disappointing Hawaiian ice from the world food court in between the outdoor theatre and Gobi, which became cordial in my hand pretty quickly.

The next act up was playing back at the Gobi - Girl Talk. I used to be really big on mash-up music about five years ago, but eventually dropped interest in it for more hip-hop stuff. Then driving home one day from work I heard a track on Triple R and was hooked - it sounded similar to the Shadow/Cut Chemist stuff I liked but with some new music. I found out a heap more about Girl Talk and hunted down the album, and was hooked pretty quickly. After watching some videos of his live performances, I was super looking forward to his act.

The tent was about half-full as I got in, with the “Girl Talk is not a DJ” logo flashing on the stack of tv’s set up besides the stage. Gregg came out wearing a full suit and tie get-up and gave a speech talking about how excited to play at Coachella and how he was going to put on the best show of the festival. The music begins.. and out come a ton of people to the stage all holding up huge Girl Talk balloons and dancing. Then the Gobi becomes PACKED to the max. Music is pumping, I’m dancing and disaster strikes, I manage to get a blood nose in both nostrils. Wow, the heat is getting to me finally. I quickly head out of the tent rushing for the locker wanting to grab some tissues. After grabbing the pack to take with me, I go back to the tent but can’t get as good a spot, so I end up enjoying the rest of the show from the back. Gregg stripped down to his undies, Paris Hilton appears for no real reason on the stage, and a guy is flipping off another person in the crowd for reasons unknown. While the message boards were talking out Justice, Girl Talk put on an outstanding show, and I’d see him in an instant if he came out to Melbourne.

After Girl Talk, I headed out to the one trailer toilet so I could get some water to clean some of the dried blood off my hands. Once done, I walked towards the Coachella stage where the Red Hot Chili Peppers were just starting in front of a decent crowd. I decide it’s dinner time and grab myself a baked potato along with a water, and enjoy the Chili Peppers on the big screens and the Telsa Coils at the same time. I end up walking over to the Telsa Coils and watch them for a while while I decide on who I want to see last - Tiesto or Cornelius. I finally choose on Cornelius.

The guys from Cornelius played in front of a half filled to maybe three quarter filled Gobi, but they played with real passion. There act also had a great multimedia element, with Planet Of The Apes clips, stock footage and the band’s very own videos playing in the background while they played. The drummer was amazingly talented and really impressive to watch, so much so that I’d just watch her play the drums without any of the other band members. Count 5 or 6 sounded great but the rest of the set was good - just not great. I headed out one or two songs before they finished so I could get a smallish head start on the crowd going towards the car park, and on my way I passed Tiesto playing in front of at least 10k on the main stage - I had made the wrong choice, Kristijan was right all along!

I decided not to wait for the other guys and headed straight to the car on my own - figuring we would all end up there in the end anyway. I got to the car pretty quickly and decided to relieve myself at the nearby stalls.. and waited. About twenty or so minutes later Juan popped in, asking if I had seen Javier. I told him that I assumed Javier was with him - and Juan let me know what happened, quite strongly. When Juan went to the loo the first time, Juan wasn’t able to find Javier until !!! finished. Then they watched a bit of the show together for a while and Juan had to piss again, so Javier came with him and said he would wait. Juan comes out after pissing and Javier is gone once again - which in poker terms causes Juan to MEGA TILT.

Fortunately, Juan has keys so he opens the car up and grabs a few bottles of lukewarm water from the cooler in the boot. Apart from Juan telling me how he is going to go off on Javier, we talk about music, Australia and myself, while he analyses me (from memory he said he was a Psych major). Despite the bad mood, Juan attempts to trade a beer for a bootleg Coachella t-shirt without success. About fourty minutes later (it would of been about 1:15-1:20) Javier appears and the fighting begins.

The fighting lasts the entire ride to my hotel and I do my best to stay out of it, despite getting a little bit rapped up when talking about the Virginia Tech shootings. Juan is incredibly shitty at Javier. I finally get back to the hotel and tell the guys to wait for a sec, as I pop up stairs and grab the bottle of Bacardi that I brought as a thank you gift. Juan seems pretty touched and gives me a hug. He then offers a kiss but I tell him that the hug is more then enough, which causes them both to laugh. I ask what time tomorrow and Juan says early - we are going for the whole day.

I walk to my room and ring home. It’s about quarter to three so I make a quick call home letting them know that the day went well and that I’d ring back tomorrow with some more details, before setting my wake up call and heading to the world of slumber. Coachella Day 2 was all over and while only one day was left, it was the best day of the festival to come.

And all would go smoothly, or so you would think? As I soon came to find, Coachella Day 3 was going to be an even bigger battle then the first two days.