I am a 4-time Coachella veteran ('04, '06, 07, 08) and I can honestly say that Coachella 2008 was the best Coachella I've been to.  Ironically, I was so pissed off when the original line up was posted in February due to lack of interest in the headliners (Jack Johnson and Portishead).  When Prince replaced Portishead as the Saturday headliner, the lineup became exponentially better.  I think you will see what I'm talking about as I walk you through the chronology of awesomeness that I was a part of this past weekend.

Thursday:

Flanagan and I pick Clarke up at John Wayne Airport and immediately hit the road.  It's only about a 2 hour drive from the OC to Indio and time really flew by for me because I spent a good hour trying to unclog a bol by straightening out a key ring with my bare hands.  By the time we were able to smoke, we were only about a half hour away.  This made the final decent to the campgrounds a tad bit convaluted.  After we got stoned to the bee-jesus, we started cranking some Portishead and literally spiraled our way down the poorly lit roads towards the campsite. I wish there was a beacon on Flanagan's truck because I kid you not when I say we made about 7 left turns as we got closer and closer to the spot-lights that marked our final destination.  If we were to follow our "progress" on a map, it would look like a hawk circling it's pray before going in for the kill.  That, or a bunch of stoned guys in a pick up truck driving in circles.

Basford arrived from Tucson about a half hour after us, which worked out nice.  Then we began the ridiculous procedure that is Coachella camping.  I think I could sneak a nuclear bomb into Fort Knox with less hassle then it took to sneak a hammer into the Coachella campgrounds.  First off, there is no alcohol allowed... which sucks, but somewhat understandable because it's 18 and over for camping.  Obviously you are not allowed to bring drugs, but the other restrictions such as no hammers, no instruments, no sharp objects, no glass bottles, etc. is absolutely in-sane.  How do you set up camp without a hammer? They have one single entrance into the fenced-off campgrounds.  At the entrance, they rip apart your stuff looking for whatever they can find.  They guy in front of me got his whole tent taken out of his tightly packed bag, stakes and poles searched (for what?) and then the asshole who did this just left his stuff sitting there and said "Next".  The guy was like "What the Fuck!... are you going to at least pack my stuff back togeather".  I felt bad for the guy... but not as bad as I felt for Basford et al when the Camping-Nazi's confiscated 3/4 oz of pot.  They took his sleeping bag out of his bag, unrolled the whole thing and reached there hand all the way to the bottom.  We were so pissed. Luckily we are getting crafty at our old age and were able to sneak in a bottle of whisky and 54 out of 60 beers (I had a six pack confiscated by the CM).  

I'm not exactly sure at what point Walter arrived.  For those of you who don't know, Walter is Clarke's friend from Arizona who absolutely idolizes Clarke as is evident by his actions on Sunday (See below).  Another fine example of Walter's obsession with Clarke is last Coachella when Walter brought a tent and set it up, but insisted on sleeping outside with Clarke.  This year Walter didn't even bring a tent, not too surprising, as he never brings much to the table. 

After we finally got set up, it was after 2:00 am.  We shot the shit for a little bit, drank some beers and went to bed.  

Friday:

Woke up around 7:00.  Basford, Clarke, and Walter were still sleeping, so Flanagan and I drove into town to run some errands.  We picked up some beer, ice, a couple styrofoam coolers, and some snacks from Albertsons.  Then we went to McDonald's for breakfast. 

 I think one of the reasons this Coachella was so good was because each day I spent at least 2 hours inside an air conditioned building.  Each hour out of the sun adds so much energy on the back end of the day.  Which is important because in year's past, there has been times when I would not try to get up close to see a band simply because I didn't feel like exerting the energy. This year, I felt awesome at the end of each night.

Anyway, when Flanagan and I made it back to camp, the rest of the gang was awake and thus it was time to begin boozing.  They had done a nice job setting up some shade so we made some whisky's and coke and  started on our way.  The next two hours were filled with ridiculous coversations, a failed atempt to play Trivial Pursuit, and smoking pot with Holly and Shannon, our neighbors.  At one point, we made the observation that Travis Henry must have the strongest sperm in the NFL.

Determined not to drink any of the beer that we were able to sneak in, we decided that it would be good idea to go drink some (all) of the beers we had in the truck and play corn hole and polish horseshoes.  Bringing sidewalk games was such a great idea.  We played everyday.  Met some interesting people including Monica and Kili.  I'm pretty sure that Monica wanted me as we dominated in corn hole.  When we saw them later inside the concert, I gave her my last slice of pizza, which I'm pretty sure sold her on me being the coolest guy she had ever met.  The "Joke for a Smoke" program was in full affect.  Amazingly, I have yet to ever hear a good joke or a really funny story since we started doing this. 

On to the music.  The first band we saw was group from southern california named Slightly Stoopid.  They are a really chill group from Southern California which recalls some of Sublime's music.  I actually like listening to their cd more than seeing them in concert.  It's good music for tossing bags of corn into holes cut into plywood, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see there concert again.

If you haven't listened to Vampire Weekend yet, you should.  There album is so enjoyable.  Oxford Comma should be the most popular song on the radio.  The band seems to have a smart sense of humor, which makes sense for a group of guys who met at Columbia.  We were up close for their show which always makes the act that much better.  At one point, the band was having the crowd do the "repeat after me" routine which I never like regardless of how popular the song.  First they preference the song by saying "We've never tried this at a festival before."  No shit, you are like 18 years old and just released your first album, I'm pretty sure this was your first festival.  Here's the thing about this band that I love.  At this point in the concert I feel like they may be losing it a little bit.  They're about to do the dreadful "repeat after me" routine, and the lead singer just said something that could suggest that they think they are more important than they really are.  But they pull out of this tailspin when the lead singer says "repeat after me"....

LEAD SINGER: "Jake's got a new face"

AUDIENCE: "Jake's got a new face"

Do you see why this is awesome?  Everyone of their songs seems to be about something that just happened to them and they write about it.  There friend Jake probably got punched in the face by Jacoby Ellisbury after an ill-fated atempt to hit on the Redsox's outfielder's girlfriend.  So instead of sounding like egomaniac college kids, they come off as a fun-loving, smart band.  These guys have a really bright future.  I'm looking forward for their follow-up album.