Sunday morning we were all a little bit slower waking up and took our time getting motivated. My family has always equally appreciated/disdained that I'm bossy and seem to always have a plan for things, and I was trying not to be too assertive with my friends since I felt like I was just along for the ride, but I figured that ideally, we would head to Coachella for Fanfarlo, Housse de Racket, and Band of Skulls and then go back to the hotel until later in the evening when it wasn't quite so hot. Fortunately, the boys seemed okay with my logic, so we enacted the plan, though by the time we caught the shuttle, went through the full on pat down by security (which seemed to get worse over the course of the weekend), and the boys got lunch, we missed Fanfarlo. Mostly I wanted them to see Housse de Racket, though it always makes me a little nervous to gush about a band because you never know if your friends will agree or feel like you've wasted their time.
We got to the tent and the boys hung back closer to the soundboard while I went all the way up front along the rail in hopes of shooting video. Housse de Racket totally delivered and the set was awesome. Even though the tent wasn't full (and the majority of people were sprawled out on the grass, the 15 or so rows of people dancing along was pretty epic, especially with the security guard keeping the crowd moist with a water hose with a pressure wash attachment on it. When the set was over and I rejoined my friends to see what they thought, their jaws were to the floor. Later that night, when we were returning to Coachella, we ran into Pierre and Victor in the Artist parking lot, and we're already having a conversation about getting them back to San Diego. On top of that, David and Dustin are going to Paris in a couple weeks, and they're trying to make arrangements to see HdR at a festival taking place the day they arrive. I would say that they kinda loved Housse De Racket.
After the set, we attempted to go to the Outdoor Theatre stage for Metronomy. This is definitely the worst stage at Coachella. Obstructed sight lines, video screens that are way too low, sound bleed from every other stage and the DoLab, and no shade to be found. We watched a couple songs before seeking the shelter of the VIP tent to listen to Band Of Skulls. While there, we bumped into Fitz and said hi and chatted briefly. I love Fitz but his 4:30 set wasn't in the plan.
After Band of Skulls, we returned to our shuttle and started making our way back to the resort. The driver told us it was slow, so shuttles would be on hiatus until later, so despite being more than halfway back, we asked him to loop around back to Coachella so we could get Eli who was just a few minutes behind us at the shuttle pick-up area. The fun thing about travel is that you get these intimate snapshots of friends that you might not otherwise ever capture, you create memories together, you get these little inside jokes that weave themselves into the group's vernacular. As we were heading back for Eli, I really had to use the restroom. "Eli better appreciate this because I really have to pee!!" The boys mocked me, "Quit complaining!!" "I'm not complaining, I'm just saying out loud." I will never live that one down, because it became the running joke the rest of the trip. We got Eli, returned to the hotel, then all decided to go to Five Guys for some grub and Vons for some supplies.
I know it sounds super lame to admit that we were exhausted, but we took some power naps before finally refreshing and making our way back to the fields. We rushed off to catch the remainder of Gotye and there was a special magic in how the tent was spilling out the sides and back. Of course everyone was waiting for the single, but hearing everyone sing along word-for-word was another of those powerful "Coachella moments". Of course, as soon as the song was done the crowd emptied the tent, so we moved closer to the sound booth for the remainder of the set. Afterward, we ate in the Rose Garden (why we were hungry again is beyond me, but that was some kick ass paella) then returned to the tent for Beirut. I shot a bunch of video but we were pretty far away so the quality just isn't worth sharing. I'm sure there's better and closer footage online. I do have to say that the sound bleed during Beirut was especially bad, with Calvin Harris at the Sahara Stage, Company Flow at the Gobi stage and Girl Talk at the Outdoor Theatre, the band even commented about competing for sound. Fortunately they busted out a full horn section that attempted to melt away the surrounding noise.
The rest of the night was pretty chill for us. We went to see Florence and the Machine on the Outdoor Theatre Stage, then went back to the VIP area and found some space on the grass to chill for Dre and Snoop and all the guests...50 Cent and Wiz Khalifa and hologram Tupac before we headed back to the shuttle to wrap up our Coachella experience. We checked out in the morning and were back in San Diego by 10 am. I crawled into bed and tried to catch up on some much needed sleep.
I didn't do much in the way of photography during the weekend, but you can see my photos here.
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