I left roughly one month ago on my recent trip to LA to see my brother and attend the Coachella Festival. My girlfriend Daniela was nice enough to drop me off on the night of Friday April 20th at the SeaTac Airport. To be honest with you, I hated to see her while I was leaving. It was truly hard to say goodbye to her and I must admit that I cried after looking at her for the last time. Sitting on the plane was the first time that I realized how crazy flying coach truly is. I always request a window seat so that I can look out of the window from time to time to see the lights of the city. I had to sit next to this guy who irritated me the entire trip. He kept making certain gestures everytime he looked at my reading material. I wasn't about to strangle anyone so I just proceeding in reading my "Foreign Policy" magazine.
When I landed in LA, I noticed how much warmer it felt and how dirty the air was. When I went down the ramp I made 3 phone calls. I called Phil to let him know that my plane had landed, Daniela to tell her how much I love her, and my Mom to let her know that I landed safely. I've been afraid of flying before...September 13th, 2001 to be exact. You can imagine how insane that flight was. However, unlike other people, I've changed. I'm no longer afraid of what lies ahead of me and what could possibly happen.
Spending time in LA with my brother was going to be great...for the most part. There were negatives and there were positives, but I'm satisfied with the entire trip. Rage Against the Machine reunion show was amazing and one of the things that I will always remember. Hanging out with my brother was awesome, but I would've loved to hang out with him more. I got to meet Tom Morello, walk through LA, eat interesting food, meet interesting people, and I got to come to the conclusion that I don't like LA as much as I thought I would. I love Washington and I love the respect it's citizens have for it. California residents, for the most part, could care less about the quality of living in their home state.
The camping trip was something to remember and something to learn a lesson by. I arrived around 12am on Thursday night and there was a one hour wait in line just to get into the campground (polo field). On the way in there, my shoulder strap broke on my duffel bag. Ouch! That bag was almost too heavy to carry with one arm, but I managed to get it up into the line. While waiting in line, I noticed that the guy in front of me had a tattoo of John Lennon. It was the famous picture of John on a NY rooftop wearing glasses and a sleeveless New York City shirt. I complimented him for having such an awesome inking. I've always considered getting inked, but I can't imagine having anything attached to my body for that long.
After checking in, I made my way over to my spot. I set up my tent in the warm California desert air and got to know a few of the other folks around me. The people I met that night, I never spoke to again during the next 3 days. I tried to go to sleep that night, but it was really hard. I, not surprisingly, was lonely and was feeling completely vulnerable. There was a massive party that night and it got so loud that sleeping wasn't possible at all. I did manage to get a few hours of sleep, but the morning heat came as a surprise. 6:15 in the morning...my tent reached sweatlodge temperatures. I was sweating profusely at 6:30am and I was forced to be up for the rest of the day. I didn't think this would be a problem until later that night.
The opening day performances started at 12:15 on Friday April 27th, 2007. I felt like heading in early to catch some of the performances, but I hesitated because of what other people were telling me. They told me that they wouldn't let anyone re-enter the venue after checking in and that it would get unbearably hot. Well, I was already burning up and I wanted to find a place to catch some shade and I heard of the shade tents inside. I finally got into the venue around 2pm Friday afternoon. I had no idea what was in store for me.
Just walking in I could see how huge this place was. I remember seeing the map on the Coachella website, but I never imagined to see this. They had 8 palm trees in the front and each of the trees had the concert poster of each year of Coachella dating all the way back to 1999 (when TOOL and Rage Against the Machine closed out the festival). I noticed how much this festival has grown over the years. After mindlessly walking around for a few hours I noticed fast the number of people increased. It went from walking around at the Puyallup Fair to walking through WalMart during the Christmas season. I've never shopped at WalMart, but I can imagine what it's like.
I managed to catch the Silversun Pickups, the Comedians of Comedy, some Of Montreal, Arctic Monkeys, and Interpol. I didn't stay to see Bjork because I was cold and extremely tired. After it was all said and done...I was walking around in the 100 degree sun for over 10 hours. I managed to get back to my tent and I headed over to the showering facilities. To be honest with you, I was surprised how nice these things were. I did have one minor setback. Every two shower stalls had ONE drain and I happened to get into the one with drain. The guy next to me managed to urinate in his stall and I noticed the yellow stream coming towards my feet...which were right near the drain. I stepped out of the stall long enough for this to pass and I didn't go back into the stall until the guy had left. That was gross, but I wasn't feeling good enough to let that bother me. I had two more days of brutal sun to battle. After the shower I plopped my head down on my pillow and fell fast asleep at around 11pm.
At 6:25 I was woken by the steaming heat that had woken me up the morning previous. At that point in time, I felt as if my shower never happened. I was soaking wet from head to toe and I immediately flew out of my tent. I walked back over to the showering facility and took another shower...a cold one. After that, I headed back to my tent and proceeded with applying the sun screen that my brother's girlfriend Nikki loaned me. That little bottle proved to be a life-saver. There were some people who were cherry red already because they failed to put on sun screen. I'm just glad that it wasn't me. However, I managed to wear my sandals the day before and I noticed that I had 3 or 4 blisters on my right foot. I promised myself that I would wear shoes from that point on.
Some people can wear open-toed shoes...I can't. I feel much more comfortable in shoes and socks.
I managed to catch The Nightwatchman, Ghostface Killah, Arcade Fire, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. That day went by really fast and I never noticed much of what was going on. The main reason for me being there was only 22 short hours away...or so I thought. That night...helicopters and screaming woke me up.
That was pretty intense and I never saw myself in the middle of something like this. I finally went back to bed and woke up around 6:30 (for the LAST time) covered in sweat. The day I had been longing for...had arrived.
Sunday was one of the longest days of my life. For one, I was dying to see Rage. Two, I was tired, dehydrated, and sick of the heat. Oh, how I longed for a Washington spring rain. I managed to meet two very cool guys from Vermont, of all places. Ken and Lucas. I told them that their names were easy to memorize because the Seahawks had a player named Ken Lucas. They found that humorous. We started talking because they were camping right next to me and they had on TOOL shirts and Boston Red Sox caps. Immediately I knew that we had two things in common. We spent all of day talking about music, religion, politics, and more music. These guys were cool and I'm glad to have met them.
I don't remember much of Sunday...except for Rage. I remember standing fairly close to the stage and I heard something that I've never heard before. Mind you, this was well before Rage was set to go on. I heard a group called Manu Chao...completely breathtaking in a musical sense. The lead singer, Manu Chao, is Latin fellow from Paris. He has other bandmembers from all of the points on the globe. Their sound was completely awesome and I fell in love with a type of music that I've never listened to. Their performance set the tone for Rage...in fact they were on right before Rage. If you ever get a chance to, listen to their stuff. Awesome.
The Rage show was everything I expected and imagined that it would be. I would have liked to see them in a much more intimate venue, but it was their reunion show...it was HUGE. As soon as Morello's guitar took off, so did my emotions. I forgot where I was and who I was for roughly 2 hours. It was almost like being high, but without the THC. Zach's political rant towards the Bush Administration during an extended version of "Wake Up" was surprising. I knew that they would say something, but nothing to that extreme. Their entire set was awesome and I never thought twice about how much money I paid for this entire trip...it was worth every penny.
I reached my tent before most people and waited around for Ken & Lucas to arrive. As soon as they did, they hit the sack and promised to keep in touch with me. I told the two other guys next to me that I would give them a ride into town so that they wouldn't be rushed in the morning. They thought that my offer was a great idea and agreed to take me up on it. I was already packed at that point and I was hearing of 3-4 hour wait...just to GET OUT of the parking lot! I didn't care because I was NOT going to pack up my stuff in the sweltering heat Monday morning. I needed to get to my brother's and sleep. I got to the car and waited for the guys to show up. I was in line in the parking lot and I wasn't going anywhere, so waiting wasn't that hard. As soon as the line started moving...I got worried. Where were those guys? The show got out at 12:30 and it was almost 3am at that point. I decided that I would never see them again and I made up my mind to leave. I felt really bad, but oh well.
The drive home was okay because the roads were open and I was flying all the way back. It was 5am when I reached LA and I called Phil to give me a few directions back to his place. He gave me good directions and I was at his place and in bed by 6am. I took a shower that night and slept until noon.
Nikki and I hung out the next day. We had breakfast at restaurant where they filmed "American Graffiti." It was good food and I was still riding on high from the Rage show. She then took me to her nail place...and she talked me into getting a pedicure. That was a bad idea. I'm not blaming her at all, but the lady doing my feet neglected to notice the 4 blisters on my right foot. She grinded those things down to the point of pain and horror. I tell you, most people just pop their blisters...she managed to grind them completely off. I didn't know what to do because I've never had a pedicure and I thought that she knew what she was doing. Wrong!
After that was done, we went back to drop off my rental car. That we smoothly and easier than I had expected.
Phil and I had a TOOL show to go to before I would be leaving. We managed to pack up my things before the show and give Nikki cab fare for her ride home. Apparently, she won't take a metro bus (which would have only costed $2.50) and decided to take the cab which cost $38 just to take her a few miles. I don't know...which figure looks more appealing to you?
The TOOL show was awesome. Phil and I had front row seats in the lower bowl area and we also had aisle seats. Man, I'm good at getting great seats. The TOOL show was every song I wanted to hear and the lasers were beyond amazing. The security guys were being real uptight about people taking pictures and video clips of the show and threatened to take Phil & I's phone if we didn't put them away. I still got some great shots and clips. After the show, Phil drove me to LAX and dropped me off around 1:30 am or so. I got teary eyed just trying to say good-bye to my brother, but I knew he needed to get home and get some sleep. I realized that the check-in stands didn't open until 4 am. I managed to walk around all of LAX with my huge bags just to find a place to lay down. As soon as I was on the plane I got really tired. I was scheduled to arrive in Seattle around 9 am. I told my boss that I would arrive at work at 1pm. This was going to be done with absolutely NO SLEEP. That was a rough afternoon.
All in all, this trip was great and I don' t regret anything I did. I would've liked to go out with my brother more, but that didn't happen. I love my brother and I support everything that he does...well almost everything. This was a great trip that I will never forget...never.
