COACHELLA

I walked into work (one of the three) looking like something the cat just dragged in, looked at my boss and told her I wouldn't have the time to do one of my blog posts for the week as I was still exhausted from the weekend.

I finished my work as quickly as I could and came home and napped for a good hour and a half. One extra long week of work, playing catch up for the 4ish days I didn't work to  experience one of the grandest music festivals is a small price to pay.
 
 However, although I loved every minute of the weekend, my allergies hated every minute of it. What I find ironic is that people use marijuana medicinally (not that these people were using it medicinally) to cure headaches and nausea, but the smell of it all gave me a headache and made me nauseous.  

The weather was fairly nice, not unbearably hot. The food was pricey but actually very good. What pissed me off, however, is that people could smuggle in pounds of illegal drugs, but I couldn't get a stash of almonds and crackers through the entrance.

But enough about the food and such, the music is what it's about.

Maybe I'm being rash, but Arcade Fire's performance was worth the money for the entire ticket, which was equally expensive as one month's rent. Even though they didn't play "Half-Light II" from their new album, they played every other song I wanted to hear and more.

I actually have this weird tradition––ask me about how it started if you care––where I listen to "Rebellion (Lies)" at the same location (starting around the Garnet exit) every time I drive up the 5 freeway from San Diego. That song has a lot of memories attached to it, so seeing it live made my weekend. I also waited patiently for "Crown of Love."

I can't go into too much detail about each band or I will be up all night so here is a concise statement rundown of my opinions on who I saw:

• The Drums: Terrible. 80's music was bad then, don't try to bring it back. The lead singer very creepy. I think the only thing redeeming them was their drummer, but I usually have a thing for all drummers.
• The Morning Benders: I didn't like them. They were boring and sounded like something a high school student would listen to. 
• Cold War Kids: Wonderful, engaging, loved the random banging on the piano. I wish the rest of their set didn't overlap Interpol.
• Interpol: so fun to watch even if it was just on the screen. I loved, loved, loved, watching their drummer. 
• Black Keys: I had seen them before and liked them much better this time. They aren't the most fun to watch since there are only two of them, but Patrick (drummer) has such crazy concentration and the lead singer (don't know his name) has a great voice. It was also fun because we could see the stage and there were actually cool people standing around us. 
• Kings of Leon: I also only got to hear them from afar and even though they aren't my favorite, I wanted to see them live. I do really like the lead singer's voice.
• Crystal Castles: She was just insane, but had a really great sound.
• Tallest Man on Earth: my chance to indulge in my love for folk singer songwriters. 
• Gogol Bordello: Thank you Nicole for going with me to this. I hadn't heard of them before and they were so fun to dance to and watch everyone else dance to. My initial description of their sound is Flogging Molly with an accordion. 
• Delta Spirit: Local San Diego band, so automatically awesome. They have a good raw blues/rock sound.
• Broken Social Scene: I missed the first few songs, damn merch tent and friends who don't truly appreciate BSS, but what I saw won my approval. 
• Bright Eyes: whiny as usual and I haven't changed my mind about them since high school. They still suck. There just wasn't much else to see during their set, so I took a much needed nap. 
• Animal Collective: So sad I didn't really get to see them, no one really wanted to go with me and I was too afraid to separate everyone. However, they didn't show them playing on the screens so I wouldn't have been able to watch anyways. 
• Fun: The lead singer of the Format has created a new group and on recording I think his voice is whiny and annoying. However, live he had a great voice, and like their name implies, they were, well, fun. 
• Whiz Califa (sp?) yeah, went with Jared to see him. Not a bad rapper, but when people use Fuck and Shit instead of real words, I just can't get past that. 
• The National: I had never heard them before, but they were one of my favorite performers. I hate this phrase, but, they rocked. 
• The Strokes: Meh, they have maybe two songs I like. They sounded a little off, and they are just a bunch of drugged out prima donnas who can't get along. 
• Kanye: Despite his very touching song at the end, he is still comes off as douche bag. He didn't have any guest performers, since he is so self-absorbed, which led to a boring performance. Hi Fireworks weren't even pretty colors and his ballerinas/back up dancers weren't very good. 

Oh and one shout out to Coachella. Thank you so much for the air-conditioned H&M tent with good cold water and Origin products so I could clean the yuck off my face.

Will, I go next year? Meh, probably not, as of now. It was an awesome experience and I loved it. However, it's a lot of money and a little too overly stimulating and drug filled for my taste. We'll see, maybe I will change my mind.

Sorry, no pictures yet, but the video is better than any picture of myself.