Coachella 2005
FYI this post has been updated! Scroll down to read more details!This year was awesome! Perfect weather, lots of friends, INCREDIBLE bands.... and the best part is that it was a total vacation for me! No email or work for 4 whole days! oh my!!! I needed that!
We got home tonite (Monday) around 7 or so & although I'd prepped myself for work, it made more sense to unpack, eat dinner, sort through my 90+ emails (oy!) and start sorting & uploading all my photos, because I knew if I didn't tackle all that tonite it would sit undone in the flurry of my upcoming week. So, that's done & the photos are uploading & now I am off to bed to get fully charged for a big day tomorrow!
Once the photos are uploaded I'll come back to this post & recap some of my highlights of the trip... but I will tell you now - my absolute favorite set hands down was M.I.A. Holy SH*T! Ask anyone who was there (in the front 1/2 of the crowd anyway) it was incredible!!!!!! Ok, more tomorrow.... :)
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OK! Photos are posted!
Here's how the weekend went down:
SATURDAY
- Woke up, got coffee, had breakfast, layed by the pool with a magazine, took a swim, got ready & hit the show. We had to wait in line for about 45 minutes to get in & it was hot!
- Finally in we hit Ambulance, Ltd. first (great as always), then...
- listened to Eisely while grabbing a bite to eat
- Went over to Snow Patrol
- While they all went to see the Kills, I stopped off to watch Moses' show (Bicycle Rodeo/Cyclecide)
- Then we all met up & watched Keane and then
- Rilo Kiley! (who I love) and Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite was on stage! Vote for Pedro!
- I listened to Wilco a bit on the way to the beer garden and then...
- Weezer! so fun to see them live! finally!
- Bloc Party - was packed! But what I saw of it was excellent
- I tried to hit the beer garden while some peeps watched Coldplay, but they closed it at like 11 - what's up with that!?
- Spoon closed the night! Fun to see him w/ a full band again... but I wished he'd played a few other songs I was hoping for :)
- Woke up, got coffee, had breakfast, got ready & hit the show.
- Hubert & I went over to Dave's RV/Tailgating party for a few beers. Dave's a regular reader of my blog who I just met in person for the first time! Very nice sharing a few beers w/ you ddc!
- Hubert & I went in, line not too long the 2nd day, and first hit Gram Rabbit and they were great! Really fun to dance to, I'd see them again for sure.
- Then we headed over to Subtle, where we thought we might find Jem & Tania
- then to Autolux, where I finally met up with Chris, Ted & Misty! Jem even found us for a bit before taking off for another show
- At this point the line up was crazy - sooo many great shows packed into about 2 hours!
- After a bit of Autolux (who was incredible as always), Hubert & I hit the beer garden where we met up with Misty, Kate, Natalie & Craig and more...
- I hit Kasabian for about 2 songs (who sounded better than I thought they would and was pretty entertaining to watch the dorky lead singer), and then...
- Went over to M.I.A. by myself, got up close and danced my ass off!!! Oh my god it was AMAZING! Ran into Kat Hunter's friend Christian right as we were all cheering like mad to have M.I.A. come out for an encore - which NEVER happens at Coachella! But we were all *so* fired up from an INCREDIBLE set... and so much the shagrin of the event coordinators (since they only have so long to prepare for the next set) the crowd wouldn't leave until she did - and so she came out & gave us a 2 song encore!! wooohoooo!!!! It was an epic show and anyone that was up front was talking about it all day - I overheard a ton of ppl that felt just like I did - totally blown away and worth the price of admission right there! It was great! Not much can make me dance my ass of like that - sooooo fun!
- I headed over to the Bravery at this point, but I was famished!!! I thought I was going to pass out, so I only watched 1 or 2 songs (one of which was a U2 cover) & text messaged peeps to find someone to grab a bite with. Chris met me in the beer garden & I scarfed down a tasty polish dog :) Hit the spot! I was ready for more! Unfortunately during this time there was SO many great acts going on, I missed seeing my boys The Futureheads - who I love, but have seen a couple times. Still I woulda liked to catch them - but alas my hunger called!
- Chris & I walked over to see Gang of Four for a bit (who was great) & then...
- We headed over to Arcade Fire which was AWESOME. The crowd was HUGE and we got relatively close considering the MASS of people there. It was like a spiritual experience - EVERYONE was singing & clapping - it was cool!!
- Then I met up with Jem & Tania again to see Dresden Dolls who were really good live
- Then we ate again and chilled out before going to see Pinback (we were a tad wiped out, so we just chilled in back & listened). It was a light crowd there, because everyone was at Nine Inch Nails, which I totally spaced going to see! oh well...
- The Faint!! was excellent.. really fun visuals too - great to dance to
- Jem & I went to check out Black Star for a bit, but weren't too into them. We both liked 1 song out of maybe 3 that we heard... and then I got accosted by some shirtless drunk frat boy wanting to "dance". eewww. Jem saved me & we took off for Bright Eyes!
- Bright Eyes was great to see live and a great way to end a fabulous weekend!!!!
Our drive home wasn't as painful as I thought it was going to be... it was actually really nice. I finished my book and we seemed to get back pretty fast - before dark! It was a fun trip!!
OK, time for work! :)
