The best birthday gift of all time!
Douse yourself in 45 SPF, Hydrate your body with gallons of Water/Gatorade, and take a deep breath of fresh air...
Yet still be prepared to be sunburnt, dehydrated and stoned anyway...
Friday morning, one of those mornings you just wake up and feel so great. I knew what I was about to experience and now looking back, it was one of the greatest things Ive ever done. A new tradition, a new way of looking at life and a new found faith in the human race. Packing was a bit of trouble because we didnt know what the weather would be like, we were afraid that it would be cold so we packed jeans and tanktops with sweaters...we packed fashionably...oh what a mistake we came to find out that was. We also packed alot, or what we thought was alot we felt like paris and nicole on "interns" with way to many bags,
but in the long run we didnt pack enough, not enough of the right things anyway.
Driving all the way to Indio was no picnic. I Had to take the 215 and I was a little worried about that considering Nicole C. and I had gotten lost on it once before but it was a total piece of cake... Once we got into Indio we were led on a wild goose chase turning lefts and rights and following the "Event Camping" signs, but eventually we found it.
A really large Polo field out in the middle of nowhere in what could easily be mistaken for the center of the sun. Little did we know we hadnt even begun to know what sweating was all about. We parked the car in the unloading zone and signed in, unloaded all our shit and thats when the realization hit, we did NOT pack enough food! Who the hell thought 4 sandwhiches each 6 waters and a bag of half eaten chips would last us 4 days and 3 nights?? LMAO oh...that would be me. Oh Lord, I just crack up thinking back to the loads and loads of ice chests I saw piling into this campground. Ofcourse these ice chests were being escorted in by veteran Coachellians. It was our first time and oh lord it was not being gentle with us. It was fuckin scorching hot and it was only about noon, our 1 bag of ice (Oh!) was very quickly melting and oh yeah our only source of food those measly 8 sandwhiches were being soaked by the melting ice right through the cheap celophane we wrapped them in...:/ LOVE IT! Time drug on and we set up camp. The way this thing works is you have a small little cubicle of grass outlined in chalk that you and 3 other people are assigned to. So molly and i make two and we had another couple "tenting" with us. Well... our tent was rather large...
lmao so the people next to us ended up having to squeeze over into part of the other square next to us. hehe We made friends left and right. Nice people everywhere willing to help and saying hello and we even made a friend named adam who drove in the stakes to our tent for us and then invited us back to his tent with his buddies for beers that they smuggled in. LOL People were defintly being friendly.
So as we sweated to death in our tent
(because we didnt have chairs to sit outside with that woulda been to smart of us.) we decided that we would leave and go pick up more ice and waters and bikini tops! We drove and found a Walmart and stopped in there to pick up our stuff. It was funny we must have looked like bums too with our hair up, feet disustingly dirty from wearing sandals in the dirt, and jeans rolled up into capris. Such a pretty sight ;) After that adventure we sat for the rest of the day bored out of our minds we walked around checking everything out they had little stands with food set up
and portable showers in this big truck actually pretty nice. From what we heard thy were better then last years because they had stalls and a little curtain.
Night time slowly came and it cooled down alot.
We actually had to wear our sweters that we packed. For all the people that got there this day early they set up a really big blow-up movie screen.
One of the camp counselors (who almost all happened to be good looking) told us they were going to be playing Charlie and the chocolate factory once it got dark :) So we waited for that to start. We sat in the tent making scary faces with the flashlight
and then going to check out all the drunk people sing karaoke and make a fool out of themselves. we couldnt actually go in there because im not 21 yet (which as a reminder to you all I will be in 22 days Thank you) but we watched through a chain link fence. LOL i felt like a child. So the movie started at about 9 and we grabbed our sleeping bag and headed over to the open field area. It was truly an amazing experience. Hard to explain what it was like without you being there, There were so many people just sitting out there relaxing watching the same kickass movie bundled up in blankets watching a massive blow-up movie screen, It just felt like it was you and all your friends and you were doing something really special.
The Big Day! We woke up on saturday at about 6:30 from the sun already baking us in our tent. We got dressed in our skimpy ass shorts and bikini tops and walked around to find out what was going on. Nobody could really tell us anything for sure which i thought was a little unorganized, but eventually we figured everything out. We heard the gates to the field were going to be opened at 9:30am, so we gathered all our stuff our purses our 3 cameras, money, water! and we each had a shirt for later incase it got cold...lmao. So we went to stand in the lines that they had formed so we could go through the scrutiny of the yellow clothed security guards.
Well...they finally let us in...except instead of 9:30, it was 11:00! The sun had beat down on us for an hour and a half and we were already withering away from sweating. And they also informed of us that there would be absoltely NO water bottles or outside food allowed in. So we ended up waisting two bottles of water that we drenched ourselves in and also a big thing of gatorade...:( But we got in and our tickets from the intenet worked! Yeay! The second we walked in our eyes were on sensory overload!
There was a really large merch table and thats where we headed immediately! Molly bought a t shirt with the band info on it and a cute little logo on the front and i bought a black tanktop that has coachella written across it in pink...very cute. I just wish it would have had the band info on the back or something. Oh well though it was only 20$. After that we had until 12:30 for the first band to start. "The sexy Magazines" We sat down under the food court tent and had to get water and food. I went for the cheapest and waht seemed to be the best food there...
and molly went for a chinese chicken bowl that we thought for sure would make her sick
Then we went and waited for them to start.
and so did alot of other people.
It was nice though because the stage was under a tent! shade! The first band of Coachella 2005.
They were pretty kickass. Kind of punkrock. All the members were pretty cool too. The singers outfit was totally rad. After the sexy magazines we were gonna rest but realized that the Coachella stage where all of our faves were playing consecutively was already being sat by. Great! So we went over there fond the closest grass spot to the stage and sat there...It was about 1:00 and we still had to get through, Buck 65 and The Raveonettes, before our perfect lineup began. Buck 65 was pretty fuckin cool.
However i did not like the Raveonettes.
(Total girl band nic ;) lol) I littered the floor with my acrylic nails working on chomping them off during that and inbetween sets. lmao After them we worked our way up a little further and it seemed after each band we had less and less room to sit down for the 30 minutes inbetween sets. It was scorching hot and we were running low on our bottles of water. Snow patrol,
who rocked! Keane
and Wilco played and I really enjoyed them. Keane sounded pretty bad live, but still they had a cool key boardist who really got into it all maron five style
. It was fun.All the while we noticed these little brats sneaking closer and closer to the front and we had two annoying girls next to us who came out of nowhere and a girl that we have decided to call "josie" who somehow got in front of us. We made friends with these two older guys who we talked with inbetween sets and they were here to see bauhaus, the group playing before coldplay. We agreed that wed take there spots in front of us once coldplay came on which got us only about 3 ft from the stage. Amazing! So next up was weezer. And oh lord, ive never disliked a band so much. But all you weezer fans just stop and let me explain why. Because as they started playing I to really enjoyed it they played all there hits and some new songs but..all of a sudden out of NOWHERE! There was a surge of people that pushed us to the front, they were totaly trying to bumrush the stage. Totally unexpected. Molly and I and the girls around us all had our purses on the floor. We rushed to grab those beofre the next surge and i just got considerably worse. All through weezer I was littlerally being smothered int peoples bodies. We were totally in a moshpit, and Im sorry, you just dont fuckin mosh to weezer. On the other side of the barcades the people were fine, noone was getting hurt and they could enjoy the show molly and I on the other hand were on the side with a bunch of fuckin moron kids who all happened to be about 2 feet taller and alot wider then us. I was completely miserable and quite frankly scared for my life. Security guards were lagging getting crowd surfers out and away from us and the girl "josie" had become our new friend. We had started chatting with her about all the people that were crowding around and we were talking about how theyd hopefully leave after weezer, and i was very glad we had befriended her because later on she completely saved me. Slowly I lost sight of molly and there was a very large black woman beside us now. Molly josie the black woman and I formed an alliance and pushed against the people in front of us that were holding onto the baracade wall and pushed back to try and gather us some room, but our strength had been completely zapped from sweating our asses off hours before. Keep in mind it was dusk while weezer was on but i still felt like it was dad heat and I was getting really claustrophobic. The black ladies hair was being smushed into my face and later I had came to find out she had helped protect molly and mollys face was practically squished into her boobs...ewww gross. LMAO the things we go through for good music, the things i went through for coldplay :) sigh So Molly and i even though were seperated from each other now (me up in front between josie and a tall old man 1 person away from the stage! and molly about three people behind me) were both thinking wow...we made it weezer is over now and we'll make it for coldplay...ofcourse i forgot that we had to get through bauhaus (which our older friend informed us is goth kind of dark music...great. Maybe more moshing? I thought that i could make it if the crowd would just let up! Weezer was gone yet still the insistent pushing and elbows being jammed into your arms and face. Josie had her leg up around me pressing against the baracde wall wich helped a bit she was pushing people back but even up there she lost hold of the baracade and I had to get out. I knew I was going to lose my spot for coldplay though, so i changed my mind, josie kept reminding me that coldplay was on and i should try and make it. But she was taller then me and she had obviously moshed before and in about two more minutes as my fear of smothering to death closed in I was crawling toward the boyfriend that was protecting his girlfriend against the baracrde wall I got there and they called for security to lift me out. There was a huge! black guy who walked towards me after two minutes of calling for him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he pulled me out of the 4 foot baracdes that had become my sardine can. The second I was lifted I felt both regret and relief. I felt like crying and I felt like cheering. I could breathe but as i saw the very large crowd gathering for coldplay I knew id have to stand all the way in the back. I found molly and shrugged as i felt even more relief for leaving. We had stood there all day elbowed guys in the gut and were smothered and now were being forced to the back. Molly was pulled also and we were for a second hoping we could stand in the center aisle that was kept clear by the two baracdes creating a left and right side of crowd. It was for seurity and for the VIP seating in the soundbooth in the middle of the grass area. We worked our way back a bit as the security guards told us to leave. We smuggled our way into the corner of the ailse and sat there through all of bauhaus and just as coldplay was setting up, they checked for our wristbands and sent us packing. I couldnt help it I cried...I had done all of that to see my favorite band and gotten nothing in return. "Tears streaming down your face you lost something you cant replace" (
The next day we were more prepared. Emptied out our purses a bit more, we had the schedule and we knew we had time before jem played so it wasnt a huge rush. We took showers and got clean. And its funny even though we couldnt get that clean lie you can at home, we felt like a million bucks because we were so filthy! Gross! So we went to the security line again to get into the venus and this time, i guess since they almost ran out of water the day before they were allowing us to bring in unopened waterbottles! Score since we were totally poor and had no money! So we walked back to the tent :p and grabbed two aters each and headed back. We went to eat first (Because remember were living on nothing but a couple of bites off of a soaked soggy snadwhich each day. Coachella is definitely my new diet ;). Fter that we went to sit by the outdoor stage where jem would play at 3:00 There was already people waiting there too...and so we decided that we wanted really goo seats so we sat it out under the scorching sin again! Before jem the Shout out louds played. We remained sitting for the entire set so i dont know what they look like but after that we scooted up really close and then there was this really nice guy who let us stand in front of him since he was like 7ft tall. So next up was Donavon Frankenreiter. Very cool 70s rock. I really enjoyed it. Got some aweosme pics too because we were so close!
Next up was Jem and I was really glad we were so close because alot of people came to watch her. It was so cool.
I was pretty smitten with her guitarist
but molly and i both decided they defintely have something going on....lucky bitch LOL anyway she played all our favorites! And was really nice! We could have had front row to Bright eyes, who was playing on that same stage at 11:10pm because we were talking to the people in front of us and they were leaving at about 7:30... but we still had new order and NIN to see on the coachella stage. That and we really didnt want to sit in the sun for the rest of the day. Besides molly isnt a huge fan of BE. So after jem we had a while and so we went to relax under on of the tent stages. We randomly picked Ben Watt to go to. Which ended up being tehno dance stuff. But i didnt care it was shady and cool under there and it gave us a chance to see some real weirdos.
After that we headed over to the coachella stage which was pretty full already but nothing compared to the night before. We listened to the futureheads (didnt like) Gang of Four (wasnt really paying attention) Then New Order which i enjoyed.
Then came NIN. We were up against the baracades this time and pretty far back...so wasnt that worried all though it did get kind of crazy for like a second. It was definitely a smokers crowd and my lungs are still feeling it today. I think we probably smelt just about everything we could smell. The majority ofcourse being weed and cigarettes.We were ok though and molly really enjoyed that. And also we were right next to where the VIP people stand and who walks in but jonathan davis from korn and his bodyguard and one of his friends. There was a guy snapping pictures so i looked over and i was like hey molly isnt that...LMAO and yeah that was pretty cool. Also forgot to mention that during bauhaus when we were trying to be discreet sitting in the VIP corner The lead singer from Keane walked right by us. I was gonna have him sign my cd cover but i couldnt get it out in time and i wasnt gonna chase him because i wanted to see coldplay. -sigh- Oh yeah...then during NIN I almost got into a fight with a crazy bitch. Her and her boyfriend pull up next to us and were already squished into the baracades...she tells him i wanna move up closer. which is fine we'll let her pass through especially since she cant stand up straight and she smells like alcohol. Later on I say to her...why dont you guys go on through. And she says "Oh hunny theres no room" Like im a dipshit or a little kid or something. I said yeah but theres no room here either you cant stay here. We get into it and im screaming at her and shes like you know what why dont you go through and she touches my shoulder and moves motions for me to move. And i said no i was here first you need to go. And shes like are you bitter? I was thinking wtf is this bitch talking about? She goes on to ask are you crazy? do you need to be on prozac? I wanted to laugh and fuckin hit her at the same time. I ended up screaming at her that i didnt want to talk to her anymore. And later she "whispers" in a loud way about the "crazy girl shes standing next to" hmm meaning yours truly. Then in about 10 minutes she goes through. Glad you could fuckin find the space now you fat bitch. Oh! Just thinking about it makes me wish i woulda hit her. Just think of Coldplay...sigh ok im calm again
After NIN we went back to the other stage for Bright Eyes.
(
Courtney :)