On day 2 I woke up refreshed and well rested, but still nervous on how I was going to get in (hoping it wouldn't be as much of a hassle as the first day). I had spoken to two friends the previous night and morning (one whom were in my crew) to see if they had any leads for my entrance. One of the girls I was staying with had a friend whom was working for one of the sponsor companies and he was pretty sure that he could help me out. We had to meet him in one of the parking lots so that he could pick her and I up on an employee golf cart. He gave me a wristband that wasn't the official festival bracelet but thought if I just wore it while on the golf cart just in case the staff was checking us back by the employee entrance. We rode right through the first check point and then right through the second one! Well that was quite a difference to the first day, fewwwwf! I was so excited for all of the bands I wanted to see that day and that I knew now I was going to see.
First stop was the end of The Almighty Defenders at the Gobi tent, which was a fun way to start the day and my first time being with my four friends I had come with. The crowd was in between still being tired and/or hungover from the day before and some people that had started swaying and dancing a little (especially those at the front, of course). That was the start of an amazing day.
I heard Camera Obscura for a second on the way to the beer tent for some refreshments and it sounded just as I had imagined, whimsical and pretty. Although I wanted to stay longer, we had an agenda to follow!
We all headed over to Temper Trap at the Outdoor Theatre and I'm glad we were able to see most of the show because they really played a great show with lots of emotion especially through the singer, Dougy Mandagi's voice. The Outdoor Theatre was really the hot spot for the day because following T.T. was Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, the XX, Hot Chip, MGMT and Dead Weather (although I didn't catch last two because I was running around elsewhere networking!).
For Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros we were pretty close up because we all really wanted to see them badly. Their song, "Home" had been our theme song the entire trip. My friend who helped me get in that day was the group photographer and videographer and she made sure to make a video of all of us in the car, dancing and singing to "Home" on the way down to Palm Desert on Friday. It was awesome!
The show was all we had expected and more. It was such a heartfelt, fun and so well instrumented show because of the chemistry between all members and especially by the lead singer, Alex Ebert and lead female vocalist, Jade Castrinos. During the show, Alex Ebert accidentally dropped the mic on a guy's forehead in the front row and gave him a nice gash that started to bleed. Alex took off his tank top and wrapped it around the guy's forehead! The guy seemed to be alright because he just stayed there the whole show and enjoyed it to the fullest like the rest of us did. Of course "Home" their big hit was played last and the whole crowd went as crazy as they could. It was a perfect ending to one of the best shows that weekend.
Our crew went for a little break after it was over and of course should have known we'd get split up from each other but the rest of the day was spent with various other groups of friends from MIA and NYC.
When realizing the XX was on, a group of us went running back to the Outdoor Theatre. Being as close as I was for the last show, I didn't mind standing back quite further as thousands of people were already close to the stage. The XX was one of my very anticipated bands on my list to see and I have to say they were just good not excellent. All the other bands had played such great live shows and the XX just sounded like the album (which I absolutely love) but there was no added goodness and extended rocking out like other bands had already done. The Outdoor Theatre is a huge stage and c'mon it's Coachella! They really needed to take it up a couple notches. Perhaps if they would have played on a smaller stage the impact would have been larger. Nonetheless, I danced and enjoyed myself especially to my favorite song, "VCR".
Over and over it was and Hot Chip was on! I've seen them 2 other times (Miami - Winter Music Conference 06 & Coachella 07) and it's always been a great show full of energy from the quirky band members and a whole lot of jumping and dancing coming from everywhere. We had about 7 of us there from Miami and all of us have done a lot of Hot Chipping & dancing at parties so we were all smiling from ear to ear and singing loud... awesomeness! I ended up standing right next to my friend's girlfriend from NYC whom was by herself (and her phone was dead so told her she should stick with me!). You never know who, when and where you are going to run into somebody at a festival of this magnitude!
Her and I ended up running through Faith No More's crowd to go meet her boyfriend at the beer tent and do some mingling and networking. We heard a little bit of Muse while being up there but at that point I was just enjoying being right where I was.
With my new group of friends I had met we went off to Die Antwood (rave crew from South Africa as noted on their site) at the last tent, Sahara, all the way on the other side of the festival. I had never heard of them and it was definitely an interesting show to see with their costumes and visuals. I would have rather seen Dead Weather but because of who I was with really wanted to see them and having to leave with them afterwards, I really didn't have much of a choice at that point. I enjoyed myself of course and danced my little toosh off with the last bit of my energy left after 11 hours of goodness.
After Coachella we went to the Armani Exchange and 944 Neon Carnival party which was a lot of fun and a whole other story! Let's just say some of Temper Trap and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros crew were there and I got to pick up an Oompa Loompa! Haha
Coachella Day 3 very soon!
Here are some of my favorite songs from that day!
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