Coachella, Day 3

 Day 3 was a little sad because we knew that there would be a lot of awesome bands we would miss since we had to get back.  That’s sort of the nature of Coachella though since neither one of us had Monday off plus we were starting to lose energy.  Bands we missed that I wanted to see included Rodriguez, Wu-Tang, Vampire Weekend and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  

Coachella Fashion!  This conversation started when
the guy in the pink spandex complimented the girl on
HER spandex.  The dude in the short shorts tried to
 get in on the fashion game too.

  BUT, we did see some great shows.  After realizing that we had totally, 100% drained Jenny’s battery, we tried to jump from a neighbor’s car which didn’t work.  After we saw the sets we wanted, we called the tow truck who had to call into dispatch to figure out how to jump a hybrid.  The complicating bit was that we had drained the battery so completely, that the security system also had to be reset.  I felt like we got our $40 worth but whatever company was staffing the lots were making a KILLING.

  So what sets did we see?  The Airborne Toxic Event who were surprisingly good.  Surprising in the sense that I had heard the group name but never any of their songs and it was awesome.  The Gaslight Anthem was also quite good but the high point and where we called it good was seeing the Lumineers. They are so good live and I had really wanted to see them so I left Coachella pretty happy with all the bands I had managed to see.  Of course there were conflicts on the schedule but overall, it was another great experience.

  

The drive home was uneventful once the battery was charged and we were on our way. 

Setlists

The Airborne Toxic Event

All At Once 

All I Ever Wanted 

Does This Mean You're Moving On? 

Changing 

Wishing Well 

Safe 

Timeless 

Sometime Around Midnight 

Missy 

(with I Fought the Law cover/medley)

The Gaslight Anthem

Howl 
The '59 Sound 
Biloxi Parish 
Handwritten 
Old Haunts 
45 
Old White Lincoln 
Mulholland Drive 
Too Much Blood 
American Slang 
The Queen of Lower Chelsea 
Here Comes My Man 
Great Expectations 

The Lumineers

Submarines 
I Ain't Nobody's Problem 
Classy Girls 
Ho Hey 
Flowers In Your Hair 
Dead Sea 
Falling In Love 
Charlie Boy 
Stubborn Love 
Big Parade 
Flapper Girl 

Coachella, Day 2

Saturday started off with a pretty early wake-up.  While it wasn’t as hot as my first Coachella, the heat and the light woke us up around 7.  That morning, we hung out and read our Kindles/book, took a brief nap later in the morning and just generally hung out.  Our nearby neighbors were a bunch of Marines from 29 Palms and they were pretty hilarious.  They weren’t obnoxious at all (aka, they were quiet late at night), but they were definitely having a good time.  They were also concerned that we might not be having a good time since we were so mellow so they very nicely came over to share their sweet tea liquor and also asked if we were doing alright.  We assured them that yes, we were having fun so they were relieved. 

Our Neighbors

Our Neighbors on top of their car

  Tawnne and I headed in around 3 and had no problems sneaking in our Everclear to spike our drinks inside because a girl smooth passed out in front of us as we were walking in.  There was much more passing out this year than what I remember last time but she seemed fine and security was distracted.  We saw the entire Dropkick Murphys set and they were so high energy and such amazing musicians that it was an awesome start to the day.  We stayed around and watched the Violent Femmes, who played their whole first album.  They sounded great but looked like Jimmy Buffett with aloha shirts and the suggestion of manboobs so it was sort of depressing that yes, high school was a long time ago for the two of us!

Violent Femmes

  We saw a little bit of 2 Chainz who was totally tearing it up on the Mojave stage.  He was awesome and I definitely want to listen to more of his stuff.  Then we had a break until the Postal Service.  Afterwards, we saw Franz Ferdinand, which was definitely a highlight.  It was hard b/c The XX and Two Door Cinema Club were playing but we stayed for the entire FF set and it was totally worth it.  We then saw the tail end of Janelle Monae, who was INCREDIBLE.  She had the most energy of anyone I saw that weekend and she did a great cover of “I want you back.”  After her set, Tawnne headed back and I stuck around for a little bit of Phoenix and Sigur Ros.  They were both good and cool points if I had stayed but I was so tired I just decided to head back to the tent.  I stopped in the shower trailer on the way and then went to bed.

Setlists

Dropkick Murphys

The Boys Are Back 

Burn 

Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya 

Prisoner's Song 

Out On The Town 

Citizen C.I.A. 

Jimmy Collins' Wake 

Rose Tattoo 

Out of Our Heads 

The Irish Rover 

(with James Fearnley)

I'm Shipping Up to Boston 

T.N.T. (AC/DC cover)

Franz Ferdinand

No You Girls 
The Dark of the Matinée 
Evil Eye 
Do You Want To 
Michael 
The Blackpool Illuminati 
Walk Away 
Right Thoughts! Right Words! Right Action! 
Take Me Out 
Ulysses 
Can't Stop Feeling 
Outsiders (with Drum Jam outro)

Janelle Monae

Suite II Overture 
Dance or Die 
Faster 
Locked Inside 
Sincerely, Jane. 
I Want You Back 
(The Jackson 5 cover)
Cold War 
Tightrope 

Two Door Cinema Club

Sleep Alone 
Undercover Martyn 
Do You Want It All? 
This Is the Life 
Wake Up 
Sun 
I Can Talk 
Next Year 
Something Good Can Work 
Handshake 
Eat That Up, It's Good for You 
Someday 
What You Know

Coachella, Day 1

So, Tawnne and I borrowed Jenny’s MASSIVE car (a Toyota Highlander) and made our way over to Coachella.  Tawnne had bought tickets several months before when the went on general sale.  Unfortunately, only she got into the ticketmaster queue and there was a two ticket per person limit so we couldn’t go group-style but she and I had fun before and were super-excited for the weekend.

  
We got there Friday.  SMS and I went cake-tasting at VG donuts that morning and it was awesome!  The cakes were so good and the samples provided were ridiculous in size.  To clarify, they were ridiculously big since I have heard of other places that provide teeny-tiny samples.  Two were free and we bought two more and we pretty much decided on our cake that day. [Although we ended up going back one more time, picking another flavor and tinkering with the design.  But now we’re done.  Three tiers, chocolate cake w/cookies and cream filling and vanilla cake with bavarian cream w/chooped fresh strawberries.  Yum!]

  Ok!  Back to Coachella!  So, we left SD shortly before lunch and arrived in Indio about 2.5 hours later.  There was no traffic (yay!) but we were really slowed down in Indio between that BevMo shopping and the longest wait at a “quick” Mexican restaurant for a late lunch.  The food WAS delicious though!  I had an amazing shrimp taco, El Gubernator!  

  We got to the campgrounds and set up our tent.  Super annoyingly, Tawnne’s tent stakes were confiscated because they said the polo ponies could step on any forgotten ones and injure themselves.  While I certainly don’t want a horse getting hurt, wtf?  They was no mention of it on the website and since they have so many people CAMPING, how else are tents secured.  Especially during wind storms, which happened later in the weekend.  Honestly, I think the guy at our station may have misinterpreted the policy because there were lots of metal stakes being hammered in.  I had another tent so we used those stakes rather than purchase plastic stakes from Coachella.  

  By the time we walked in, we had our first scheduling conundrum.  We had heard really good things about Alt-J, but they essentially overlapped Of Monsters and Men.  While it is possible to go back and forth, it takes longer than I would think to walk across the Fairgrounds and we really wanted to see all of M&M.  They were great!  We were really close to the front and they played beautifully.  They’re a little more musically complex than I had initially appreciated on the cd. I was also happy to see them b/c I missed them in December when I hedged my bets that my co-chief resident’s wife would deliver early and I wouldn’t be on call.  I lost that “bet” so I couldn’t travel to see them.

Of Monsters and Men

  Just before we went to M&M, we heard the last two songs of Metric.  That’s definitely a band I want to hear more of.  We didn’t hear Local Natives, another band that I heard is worth checking out.  We saw bits of the Beach House, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Band of Horses.  I really liked Band of Horses, although I want to look at the setlist to get an idea of songs to look up.  

  The end of the night was definitely a highlight.  Jurassic 5 were awesome and so upbeat with tons of energy.  Following their act was Tegan and Sara, who totally rocked.  I really love their music, although I only know their new stuff which was pretty much all they played.  

  After the concerts, we headed back to tent camping and crashed.  Tawnne went for a shower but I was done.  

Coachella set-lists

M&M

Dirty Paws

From Finner

Slow and Steady

Mountain Sound

Skeletons (Yeah Yeah Yeahs Cover)

King and Lionheart

Lakehouse

Little Talks

Six Weeks

Metric

artificial nocturne  
youth without youth  
help, i’m alive 
synthetica 
breathing underwater 
sick muse 
dead disco 
gold guns girls 
gimme sympathy 

Band of Horses

Is There a Ghost 
The Great Salt Lake 
Laredo 
No One's Gonna Love You 
The Funeral 
Knock Knock 
Ode to LRC 
The General Specific 
Am I a Good Man (Them Two cover)

Jurassic 5

Back 4 U 
I Am Somebody 
Jayou 
Nu-Mark desk solo 
Hip-Hop History 
Break 
Monkey Bars 
Improvise 
Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark solo 
Quality Control 
Concrete Schoolyard 
Countdown 
In the House 
Freedom 
King Tee 
Red Hot 
A Day at the Races 
What's Golden 
This Is 
(outro)


Tegan and Sara

I'm Not Your Hero 
I Was A Fool 
I Couldn't Be Your Friend 
Back In Your Head 
The Con 
Walking With A Ghost 
Shock To Your System 
Call It Off (Impromptu because of drummer delays)
Living Room 
How Come You Don't Want Me 
Now I'm All Messed Up 
Closer