Willo O'Brien

view coachella 2006 photo album

So apparently Radiohead is going to be playing 2 shows at the Greek Theatre this summer! SWEET! It was originally posted as an unconfirmed date on the greenplastic site, and so I’d asked a connection about it and she’d said they might be for sale through ConcertTickets.org. So, I used the handy dandy change detection tool to see when this page was updated & it just was: Anyone wanna buy a Radiohead ticket for $480? JEESHK! That will go down, obviously, but it’s comical to see that number there. Can I get an AS IF ?!

All that said, can you all pretty please be my eyes & ears on any advance tickets? It says tickets go on sale May 14, but they’re going to sell out in mere seconds I’m sure. But I know at least 5 people who will want one, so let me know what you hear peeps!

What a fun weekend!! Here’s who I saw:

Saturday ~

• 12:45pm: Celebration – I’ve been way into their CD and so I was so stoked my housemates were down with showing up for their early set. I loved them live, the last song especially! The lead singer chic has great stage presence and although their songs seemed a tad long for our Coachella-first-show-A.D.D., I still enjoyed every single bit of it and was really stoked we caught their set. They’re opening for TV on the Radio here in SF this week if you’re going! Don’t miss em!
• 1:30pm: The Like – caught the tail end of their set & they sounded great! We agreed they seemed to have tightened up since their show @ du Nord. I like The Like.
• 1:45: Painfully sat through the New Amsterdams waiting for the Walkmen to come on. However, sitting on the lawn in the beautiful Palm Springs desert sun made it all OK. :)
• 2:30: The Walkmen! Misty, Ali & I were all very excited to see ‘our boyfriend’ Hamilton play. Unfortunately the jackass thinks he’s so cool he can chew gum & sing at the same time. Hi, you’re on a HUMONGOUS SCREEN doood. Spit out the fucking gum. Misty was pissed for different reasons, but of course they have to do with how he’s chosen to wear the hair on his body. haha. With Misty, it’s either your hair or your shoes. She should publish a rule book.
• 3:00: Left the Walkmen early to check out Lady Sovereign. Only saw maybe 2 songs before I decided it was high time I get a ID (aka beer garden/drinking) wristband!
• 3:-3:25: Listened to Nine Black Alps from Beer Garden #3. I’m excited to see their show here in SF!
• 3:50: Wolfmother – AWESOME!!!! One of the most kick ass shows off the weekend. It was really excellent!! They’re like (as Ted so accurately describes) Led Zepplin meets Black Sabbath. And the lead singer has a fro… which, as some of you know, I totally have Fro Envy. So ya, their show was truly EPIC!
• I think I got some food at this point.
• 5:30 or so: Deerhoof! The lead singer is sooo little! I’ve meant to catch a show of theirs a number of times, so it was super fun to finally see them live. They were good.
• 6:15: Caught the first few songs of TV on the Radio. For some reason I can’t get into them live. I saw them first at SXSW 2004, but couldn’t get into them then, and still can’t seem to get into them live now apparently, but I like them on CD!
• 6:35: Imogen Heap! She sounded beautiful and I got some great shots of her I’m excited about, for as far away as we were.
• 7:35: Ladytron for a few songs, heard one of my favs which was cool
• 8:30: Eagles of Death Metal! SO fun!
• 9:30: Depeche Mode (from beer garden #1) – really cool to see them! They played some classics, so I was stoked!
• 11:15: The Rakes – lead singer has got some fierce dance moves. Daft Punk was goin on at the same time & I got to hear a good song from them, but by that point we were all ready to go, so we did! Overall a great first day!

Sunday ~

• 1:15: Youth Group
• 2:15: Mates of State
• 3:15: Listened to Ted Leo from Beer Garden 2, let the drinking begin! :)
• 4:15: Metric! I love them!!!
• 4:45: Minus the Bear – I hadn’t really listened to them before this, but they were GREAT live! I can’t wait to get some of their stuff.
• 5:30: Wolf Parade – this show was probably the best show of the weekend for me, besides Wolfmother. I absolutely LOVE Wolf Parade!!! The last song had me dancing and just absolutely high on life. KICK ASS!!!
• 6:00: Listened to Bloc Party from Beer Garden 2…. Ali, Glen & I were joined by Xis, Mario, Harry, Aubrey, Jason and Sumir. Good times!
• 7:30: Still in the beer garden… hahaa…. realizing a glass of white wine is totally the best bang for your buck. ;) Listening to a bit of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and Digable Planets on the other side.
• 8:15: Went & had dinner w/ Mario
• 8:30: Mario talks me into going straight back to Beer Garden 2. hahaha! Fortuitously we ran into the whole Cameron crew there – yay!! Cam & I had a reunion like nobody has ever seen before, rolling on the ground like two mad woman. haha! I love her!!!!
• 9:00: I had told everyone to meet at Beer Garden 3 at 9 (you can see where this night is going, huh? hahhaa Most of the bands at this point were background music, but as you can imagine, we had a BLAST! :) Anyway, getting over there was INSANE!!! Come nightfall at Coachella, especially Sunday, there are so many people – toooo many people!* Our trying to get from one side of the field to the other was like going against a stampede of people… totally scary, really! But even scarier was getting into Beer Garden 3, it was seriously almost a total stampede… humans can gets so nuts so fast. CHAOS! *Coachella organizers you have officially oversold this event waaay too much!! They ran out of water, booze and the port-a-potties were completely overflowing… DISGUSTING! grrr!
• Ali & Glen find us there, and shortly after, Jenna & her cutie new boyfriend Cary. yay!! The gangs all here!! SO FUN!!!!
• 10:15: Listened to Dungen from there
• 11:15: Saw a bit of the Scissor Sisters before taking off. Totally fun day!!!

Pool time: Friday afternoon, Saturday morning & even a quick dip this morning after waking up. Swimming in a pool in 90 degree weather with the sun shining and palm trees everywhere = paradise.

Best surprise of the whole weekend: Our kick ass place had an iPod dock that plugged directly into their stereo – aww yaaa! :)

Today’s travel time was kinda long, but it wasn’t as bad as sitting in a car for 8-9 hours. I really enjoyed getting to know Aubrey more over the weekend, too! I’m now drinking a glass of wine as I post this & am about to make myself some dinner why I download my photos. Kazoobie is glad I’m home, as well… it’s snuggle time! :)

:::

5/2/06 UPDATE: Coachella photos are posted!

I’m dodgeballing my blog. hahaa. I’m here! And so far it’s SWEET! Here’s a quick summary of my day thus far:

Aubrey & I flew down this morning, which meant we both had to wake up at the crack of dawn to catch our 8:20 flight, but there are worse times, so it wasn’t all thaaat bad, but still (I usually sleep till 8:45 :p). The good news was our flight was super easy & quick, we got our rental car & next thing we know we were on the road.

Ontario was all foggy and then all of a sudden BOOM there was this huge snow covered mountain in front of us. Here I thought we were driving into the super flat desert and wham – big huge mountain. It was surreal!

I had originally thought it would be nice for Aubrey & I to slide into Indio, grab lunch and get settled into our place… but right as we cruised into Palm Springs, Misty called and after her mentioning the exit we would take to get to their place, we happened to right there! So we went for it, and I’m so glad we did. It wasn’t that far off the freeway and it’s AWESOME. Plus, Ted was broadcasting his Bagel Radio Friday live show from there while we all hung out by the pool drinking mamosas. ROCKSTARS. So ya, needless to say, it was tempting to stay there all day, but we finally pulled ourselves away from the luxxxxury. Except total surprise… getting back to our place (after lunch & grocery shopping) it turns out our place this year is SO much nicer than last year! Our place is sweeeeeet!!! yay!!

Glen showed up shortly after we got here, and we all decided reading, napping & sunning by the pool was in order. The best part was even though it was 4pm or so, it was still so hot out! YAY for Palm Springs heat!

For dinner we picked up Aubrey’s Google friend Jason, hit Target quickly (seriously), and then went to dinner at the ever classy Red Robin. POO BURGER! HOUDINI! (inside jokes that made tonite a hilarious kick off to a super fun weekend).

Now we’re back here with Jem & Ali (who showed up around 10pm) watching bad TV and waiting for Jason’s ride to come grab him. I’m stoked for tomorrow. The first thing I’m going to see is Celebration, whose CD I’ve fallen in love with lately. Hope they’re as good live! :)

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