Coachella Baby!

So it turns out, I was right. I cannot party like a rock star. But what I can do is go to a three day long music and arts festival, take in the sights and sounds, discover new music (like Vampire Weekend) and get to see one of my favorite bands live (Muse). Exhilarating and exhausting all at the same time, it was the experience of a lifetime. So much fun!

Day one: Rose and I drove in to Palm Springs and did some window shopping for the new house at Cost Plus World Market and then pigged out at Chiptole so we wouldn't have to buy over-priced festival food once inside. We then sat in traffic for TWO HOURS to get into the festival and just made it on time to catch the last few songs from Passion Pit before bouncing back and forth between the two bigger stages for Them Crooked Vultures (not as good as I had thought they would be) Vampire Weekend (AMAZING!!!!) and Jay Z. Unfortunately, I could not get into Jay-Z. He kept telling the crowd to get their diamonds out and I just wasn't feeling it. The good news about this is that we beat the crowd out for the evening. The bad news is we missed Beyonce joining him on stage. Guess you can't win them all.

Here are some pictures capturing the scene as we arrived:

Day Two: So since none of the bands we were interested in seeing started until later in the day, Rose and I both put back on our Mommy hats Saturday and went to our boys' t-ball games. I was glad since it was opening ceremonies and Jake's first game of the season (more on this to come). We then sat in traffic AGAIN before heading back into the festival. We caught the tail end of Band of Skulls, checked out Tokyo Police Club and scoped out the rest of the festival scene before MGMT. While they were awesome, their set overlapped with the beginning of Muse so we had to make our way over to the main stage. I will always remember dancing in a conga line type set-up to Time to Pretend. Fun, fun, fun. And then of course we saw Muse who were everything I expected and more. We also stuck around for Dead Weather before heading back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

Mr. Muse himself on the big screen:

My allergies are working for me here. I DO NOT have a contact buzz:


It seemed like such a waste to stay in such a nice hotel when we had not the time or energy to enjoy the beautiful pools and grounds

Day Three: Rested and ready for the home stretch, we dined on wonderful Asian cuisine before heading back for the last day of the festival. We arrived to see DJ Lance (for Yo Gabba Gabba) closing out the set for King Khan and The Shrines and packed ourselves in the tent to see Mutemath up close. Then things got a little crazy. All weekend I had been waiting for the concert scene that I remember from my youth - crowd surfing, mosh pits, jumping up and down and general screaming until you have no voice. I just didn't expect it to come on day three, on one of the smaller stages from a band made of two people: Matt&Kim. I managed to stay up close and get pushed around for "Good Ole Fashioned Nightmare" but after that I wimped out and went to the back of the tent for the rest of the set while Rose remained in the thick of it all.

It took awhile to recover from that show but we mustered up the energy to go back towards the bigger stage for Phoenix, Thom Yorke and finished out the festival with Goralliz.

Settle down children. Don't get overly excited. But yes, that is the guy from Yo Gabba Gabba:

This is me saying I am hot and tired and want to get away from smelly backpack guy:

And this is me taking a picture of Rose as she continually wandered closer and I mysteriously kept drifting further and further back:

Matt&Kim right before it got too crazy to have my camera out:

This is me demonstrating what I have to do in order to see anything. I have never felt so short in all my life. Everyone there was SO tall even Rose aka Mr. Tall Woman:

Just to give you an idea of how close to the stage we got for several of the bands. Check out the crowd behind us. I believe this was during Pheonix:

The ferris wheel was a major backdrop for the weekend. Of course since Rose and I were not chemically altered or feeling the need to have a cool place to make out, we did not ever ride it:

So by this time it is midnight Sunday and we are ready to make the hour long drive home and get some sleep since Monday is well, Monday. Instead we are stuck in the parking lot for two hours waiting for our turn to get out. The driver behind us passed out, his car running in park and his head completely hanging out the window. It was hilarious. You'd be surprised what one might fun funny when you are deliriously tired and have nothing but time on your hands.

But in the end, the whole experience was SO worth it. Such a fun time and maybe, just maybe I will be recovered in time to consider doing it all again next year.