Heather Barton

Self Dyed my Hair this year

Yes….another year, another Coachella.  (and only 2 months late on blogging it! I’m improving! ha)   Since we just purchased presale for 2020, it seemed appropriate to get this blog going.

Carpoolchella Artwork. Steampunk Charlotte’s Web

This year we had 6 people & 3 cars camping with us.   Nobody felt I needed to do any camp set up “rehearsal” as 4 of us learned enough from last year to realize a few facts.  1.  Only bring food for communal breakfasts.  Everyone can bring their own lunch/dinner/snacks if they so choose.  2. With three spots & six people it was obvious we were going to have three in one tent, three in another, and a communal space in between!  3. Cots are great but only IN TENTS!

So basically, I only had to make sure there were enough seats for people to gather and enough canopies and tents & sleeping blankets and tent sides. lol  Sex God only had to make sure his truck was running, would hold what we needed only in the bed and was decked out for Carpoolchella!  Luckily the other two cars with us, easily handled the luggage overflow lol.  We DID get pulled over for Carpoolchella and I did the pick from the bag.  Sadly, we only got $20 in food vouchers for  each of us.  Maybe next year we’ll get the grand prize of VIP for Life!

We all vowed to crash at my house the Wednesday night before so we could be up and on the road early Thursday.  Last year they didn’t open camping until 2am Friday  due to winds but told most people it wouldn’t be open until 10 am Friday, so we missed some choice camping spots.  This year we landed before noon and since we were with a group, we got moved off to a waiting area for group campers.  I must tell you, it was a sweet spot we got!  A bit far from the porta-potties but right next to a large structure that was a wonderful wind break!  Because the wind DID pick up by Friday night and Saturday.  But I get ahead of myself.

Sex God did his usual “I’m in charge of setting up” thing, but with 5 willing helpers he had it all up pretty fast.  Four of us were now old hands at Coachella but two of our group were newbies.  Ali (a friend from working at Target) had come with us one year to Bottlerock and didn’t really know my co-workers from IKEA, Martha and Monica.  So Ali crashed in our tent and Camille, Martha’s friend, crashed between their cots in another tent. Campsite all up we scampered off to see the campgrounds.   Most everything was the same as last year.   We’d managed to bring in ALL our alcohol and paraphernalia and proceeded to enjoy our pre-party day at Coachella!   We made a few plans for Friday and that was a serious as the day got!

Id didn’t wear my Chinese hat for the photo but I did wear it all that 1st day.

Friday morning, Sex God cooked his usual scrambled egg with veggies and cheese.   Our group decided we needed a lot more ice and food and snacks so they took the town shuttle to get groceries.  While they did that Sex God and I went to see the show playing in the big structure next to us.  It was a movie done by Childish Gambino called Guava Island.  And it was wonderful.  PLEASE see it!  I think it’s playing on Amazon Prime.  It is many of Gambino’s best songs supporting a moving storyline.  Seeing that Friday really excited me to see him headline that night.

This year’s Coachella lineup wasn’t packed full of people I wanted to see.  Which actually wasn’t a bad thing!  It meant we had more leisure time, it meant we didn’t have to actually pick and choose who to miss.  Although the place opened at 11 am, we didn’t have anyone to see before 2pm which was Let’s Eat Grandma at the enclosed & AC’d Gobi tent (cute, young twin girls band).  I did stand in line for a looooong time trying to get into the merch tent but gave up to join my Sex God to enjoy the music.  Everyone else was smart enough to get on their phone and order their merch thru Postmates to be picked up.  I might try that next year if I decide I REALLY need merch lol.   We saw Rat Boy (adorable British punks) and Fisher, then relaxed & danced with Calypso Rose who brought out younger relatives to liven it up.  We wanted to see The Frights or Ella Mai but ended up popping back to the campsite to change into warmer clothes, get our drink on snack a bit.

DJ graphics at their best!

Sex  God was hyped to see The 1975 but they started halfway through Black Pink’s set.  All the girls were jacked to see the BP, so we went with them to see what the fuss was about.  EVERYONE was there to see this K-pop group.  I lasted 2 songs before I realized this level of “POP” hit me like 90’s pop music.  To me, it was like watching 4 Korean Brittany Spears dancing on the stage.  If you’re not already familiar with the songs, they are incomprehensible.  If you’re not a Hello Kitty type of fan, it’s nauseating.  I turned to Sex God and happily said, “Shall we go to 1975 now!?    We stayed there for the rest of the night, seeing an AMAZING performance by Janelle Monae, popped over to check out DJ Snake (who was harshin my mello vibe and my feet were getting sore from standing) and ended the night with Childish Gambino.   Who Sex God felt killed it!  Considering he probably got bumped up to headliner when Kanye pulled out (Thank God!) he didn’t do a bad job, but after watching his brilliant movie, I felt let down by his show.

Blurry is exactly how we felt!

I was dog tired by the time we got back to the campsite.  Sex God told me I wouldn’t be able to sleep and I told him he was wrong.  Sadly, he was right!  The combination of ingested entertainment had me giggling off and on with Sex God all night.  Just when I thought I’d be able to drift off the wind would wake me with dreams of being beaten by giant ribbons or thoughts of “why are there birds trying to get in!”   We gave up trying to sleep by the early morning and just started our day!

Day 2 so windy we skipped hats for bandanas

So my Saturday was veeeery low key!  Early on a guy came around telling everyone they should strip their canopies because of the wind.  So we did, and for some crazy reason our tent cover wasn’t put on (Sex God felt it made the tent too stuffy forgetting it also provided shade and privacy!) so lots of dirt and wind blew through our tent.   Despite that I did a lot of trying to nap that day.  No one else felt the need to go in before 4 so we had a hugely lazy day!

Martha, Monica & Sex God watching Bazzi

I think we got there in time to see The Interrupters.  I know we saw Bazzi.  Sex God was jazzed to see him but while I enjoy his music, he’s a bit dull live.  We saw Smino for a bit and then went over to see Billie Eilish.  I LOVE her music, but we got there late so didn’t find a good place to see her, and boy were my feet hurting.  She is Wonderful to WATCH live, but her soft voice doesn’t really play well at a festival.  We ended up moving off to enjoy Parcels before heading to the Main stage to see Tame Impala.   To be honest… I don’t think I knew ANY of their songs! lol

The wind wasn’t as bad as past Coachella’s where it’s blowing heavy grit off the desert, but it was gusting pretty well that night.  I tried to lie in my sleeping bag, but gave up after 5 minutes and dragged bag, pillow and myself into the backseat of the truck.  I knew I needed the quiet and warmth if I wasn’t going to be drained for the rest of my vacation!  It was perfect. lol

6 people snacking & eventually I get a pickle half in my donuts!

Sex God was up early thinking he’d get a good seat for the Kanye Easter Service.  Everyone else went in at a reasonable hour.  I chose that time to hit the showers!  It was a first time for me at these facilities.  Things I didn’t know…. There are no benches for your shit.  There are are hooks but best to bring a bag to hold ALL your clothes, clean and dirty!  There will be a line no matter when you go!

Truly LOADED fries! Good way to spend our free food $$$

Sex God came back from the Kanye thing ALL upset.  He waited forever.  Kanye never sang just sat with family like some king.  It was hot, it was long (like over 3 hours) and my squirrel bf got fed up quick.  The rest of the group stayed a bit longer but they also felt it was pretty disappointing and pretentious.   We cooked up bacon with breakfast, making a mess in the process! lol and hung out.  We weren’t overly hot with the canopies stripped and lowered even in the sun due to the light breeze so it was a nice relaxing time.

I’ll be honest…this is my favorite way to Coachella

We tried to get into the venue early enough to see Boy Pablo.  Then we stopped over to sleep through Dennis Lloyd waiting for Lizzo!  She was just amazing!!  Fantastic live and her voice was wonderful.  Everyone else went off to see Zedd and we popped over to see Hyukon.  I really liked them and the AC in the Gobi tent was nice!  We listened to about 20 minutes of Sofi Tucker and then scampered off to see Khalid.  Sex God loves Khalid, but I was a bit underwhelmed.  He was a bit boring to me.  Nice songs but they made me want to lie down and sleep. lol.  With Khalid done we walked over to catch some Chvrches before heading over to Ariana Grande.  I will say, I wasn’t impressed with her.  Her show looked an awful lot like a little girl emulating Beyonce… and she was no Beyonce!

Ali’s pretty pink hair! And Martha’s butt

We ended Sunday with Sex God joining me sleeping in the truck, me in the back and him in the passenger front seat.  Ali had also abandoned our tent to cram in with the other girls!   Monday had us a leisurely morning before sorting through the rest of the food, emptying water filled coolers and taking down the campsite.

This year’s Coachella vacation  was pretty perfect as Ali was the same age as my other friends and she rounded them out into four.  They hung mostly together and my love and I got to enjoy a festival alone.  And when we wanted to hang with friends we did.  I’m looking forward to next year!

Sex God delighted everyone by occasionally disappearing & showing up with food!

In February Sex God and I celebrated 9 years together.  We always combine these celebrations with Valentines Day, since the anniversary is so close to that day and I was lucky enough to think of the perfect gift!

There is this building in downtown Los Angeles that has an exterior slide made of strong clear plastic that goes from one floor to another floor.  Doesn’t sound very cool until you know that the floors are the 70th floors!  So at the top of a building with terrific views of Los Angles they installed a Sky Slide for people to ride.  When Sex God heard of this he repeatedly talked about it being on his bucket list.   Every time we’d go through downtown he’d remember this and try to look at the buildings to find the slide.   This happened again when we went to see AlterEgo, so shortly after that I googled it!

They had several tiers of pricing with the lowest being a particular day and time for $25 a ticket.  So I chose a day I had off from work, near our anniversary and Valentines Day and tried to choose a time where we would have a daytime view, sunset view and night view.  So much research for a slide!

Sex God was pretty thrilled when I finally told him a few days before the event.   Yet, even on that day we both kind of forgot about it and didn’t leave enough time to get there, through traffic, by 4pm!  So I was freaking out that our tickets would be voided if we weren’t there on time and when we finally got there we couldn’t find parking ANYWHERE!   We went to what looked like a public parking lot and drove all through it looking for a single spot and while we saw many they were all 3 car deep spots and the attendants were not cooperating in helping us in any way.  I was so upset I was in tears in trying to get to this event.  We finally turned a corner and found parking for $20, threw the cash at the guy and hurried to the event.  Well, Sex God would have hurried but he could  only go as fast as my rehabing ankle could hobble!

The slide

We entered the building and was told at the front desk that the Sky Space entrance was around the corner and up the steps.   Still worried at the time crunch….we were 45 minutes past the designated 4pm point… I hobbled up the steps as quickly as I could and was SO relieved when our tickets were happily received.   Oddly, there was a security screening point and then we entered the elevator which only went to floor 65.   Once off the elevator we were ushered to a photo place, then around to ANOTHER elevator to ride up to the 78th floor.  Oh the ear popping!

So finally arriving at the Sky Space it was pretty empty!  It was all the exterior rooms of 2 floors packed with viewing windows, a bar, snack bar and 2 outdoor areas.   There were maybe 30 some odd people, almost all tourists, with about 6 or so people using professional cameras taking pictures.  Since I’d bought 2 tickets to the Sky Slide, the first thing he did was ride it.  And the poor man was sadly disappointed.   It was too short to get a feeling of fun or even danger for him.  And when he rode it again before we left, the thing gave him a shot of static electricity!

Visions of phone overboard made this difficult to watch!

I will say the views were beautiful.  Thankfully it wasn’t raining nor too cold, but it WAS cloudy so we didn’t get any gorgeous sunsets and no stars in the sky! lol   We decided we didn’t want to spend the money on over priced drinks so after about an hour looking at the view and realizing we aren’t getting any sunset, we left.

And hobbled our way to our car, cutting through the downtown library instead of going around.  Then we got to sit in traffic on the way home!  ha!   Overall it was a good night, although Sex God might rethink his bucket list if any more of them are as much of a let down as this last one!

      When we saw this lineup last year, I thought it looked good but the price of the tickets for an iHeartRadio concert seemed not worth it to me, so I passed & thought I’d convinced Sex God to pass also.  But, flush with the money from a medical study, he bought 2 tickets!!  So we went… with me in a wheelchair!

I will admit it was everything I expected from an iHeart Radio show.  The concert was pretty rushed with every band playing about 6 or 7 of their most popular songs with only about 10 minutes between bands.   But, other than The Revivalists who were horrible (too country & hurt my ears!), ALL the bands were amazing!

21 Pilots!

They were smart enough to START with 21Pilots.  The only time I’ve been able to see them live was at a KROQ event where I was so short I saw NOTHING!  So this time it was a true, true joy to see them live!  They said, “Lets make the phrase ‘Save the Best for First'” and boy they sure lived up to it.  They were just perfect to start this concert.  They had great effects (fire!), great energy and the crowd (who showed up early for them) loved it.  For them alone, I’m really glad I went.

Rise Against

The next band up that was good was Rise Against.  I’ve never really been a fan of them, thinking they were a bit metal for me, but boy I really enjoyed them live.  I guess, it really means something to watch a band perform their hit music live.   And everyone was thrilled (meant little to me cuz I don’t know the bands) when a guitarists from Rage Against the Machine showed up to play a song they co-wrote.  He was pretty amazing too!

Bishop Briggs was next up and she kept the energy high even with a slight malfunction with her dub system.  She did a great shout out as the ONLY female in the lineup on the day of the Women’s March in Los Angeles.   We’ve seen her several times now and she never disappoints live.

Weezer played ALL their hits, doing a shout out to 21 Pilots by saying “Save the best for the middle!”  I love spontaneity at concerts!!  Last time I saw Weezer was at a KROQ festival and they played after Panic! at the Disco and I felt they were soooooo old and slow that I was disappointed.  But they were actually very good at AlterEgo!  Right until they played their new hit Africa.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great performance of a great song, but I got worn out on it when Toto made it a hit!  And if they’re a conflict with another band when they play Coachella in a few months, I’m ok with missing them!

The Killers

After Weezer, The Killers came on stage.  Brendan Flowers is quite the performer…very Vegas.  But I’m spoiled by the beauty and sensual joy of Brandon’s (also from Vegas) performances in Panic! concerts.   Don’t get me wrong… great performance, great songs, glad I saw them live (so I don’t need to again), but they’re not my favorite band to see live.

Ending the night WAS a favorite band to see…. Muse!!  And wow… just wow.  I’ve seen them several times live and until you SEE Matt Bellemy belt out those lyrics you COMPLETELY forget how amazing his voice is!   I’m glad we went to this concert just to be able to see Muse & 21 Pilots, although to be honest I’d have rather we’d just spent the money seeing just Muse or 21 Pilots!  But Lesson learned and I don’t think we’ll be buying tickets to another iHeart concert event.  Particularly when the radio station often does a live broadcast we can watch directly from home!!!

MUSE!!!

Color in the Hair!

Yes… yes, this post happened over a year ago, but I’m catching up!  Bee happy!

So Sex God turned to me one day and said, “Lets go to EDC!?”   (he recently did this to me again saying ‘lets go to Burning Man!’ which was a definite and resounding NO!)   My response was, “How about we try a baby rave first.”  I began to research and found several rave events but settled on Nocturnal in September.  It was nicely priced, set on grass and not cement (a negative in my books for events), had several stages which meant choices, and most importantly it had a camping option!  I got a cortisone shot for my heel spur to survive walking and dancing.  And for the first time I dyed my hair!  Two colors, a mix of red and blue.

Relaxing in the tent

We didn’t spring for the exorbitantly priced car camping just the tent camping so it was a little different than Coachella.  Once we parked the car we had to drag ALL our stuff to the site.  The problem with this was 1. we’re doing this at night, 2. we foolishly thought we should do this in one trip, 3.  we had to also go through security!  (they confiscated ALL my glow sticks!!)  So by the time we got through all THAT we were so tired we picked the first spot we saw.  It quickly became apparent the 10×10 allotted space was rather small for our large tent/canopy AND that we’d forgot the blow up bed & sleeping bags!

Painted accessories drying!

The first day doesn’t start until sunset, so there is lots of relaxation time and time to explore.  And time to let my Sex God painted shoes and hat to dry!  Nocturnal was held at the Glen Helen Regional Park and there’s a water slide plus a large wading pool!   From the camping to the event there was snacks sold and space with house music dancing which turned into a silent disco at midnight.

Silly Sex God!

There was a long line to get into the event and they separated the lines into two sections, male and female.  Of course the girl lines went SLOW since we carry purses to inspect!  But the BONDING that was happening in line was wonderful.   When I told them I was over 50 it seemed to inspire the youngsters that they wouldn’t get boring in the future when they got old . lol…if they only knew how unique I am!   The kids quickly introduced me to P.L.U.R. which is Peace, Love, Unity & Respect, with all the corresponding hand motions and bracelet exchange!  Like I said, it was delightful!

The Beautiful Grounds

That wonderful acceptance and instant friendship was continued through the weekend!  I noticed that whenever Sex God left me comfortably sitting on the grass, happily watching everything to go off to get food or drink or the bathroom or do something I chose not to do… I was ALWAYS inexplicably joined by a single woman who would sit and chat.   And when he returned, I’d introduce her and after a minute she’d abruptly off and go.  At first I thought it was them who needed the company, but by day three when it also happened at the pool during the day I was realizing they thought I needed taken care of or protecting!  I’ve never experienced

Fun florescence!

such female solidarity!  Say WHATEVER you want about this new generation and raves, but they are truly wonderful people who look after each other.

I’ll be honest, I really don’t remember “who we saw” as it was all more of a random wandering lead by our ears, and there was alcohol.  There was A LOT of walking.  A locker we purchased but NEVER used because Sex God never goes anywhere without his small backpack.  Probably the reason people often asked us if we were “carrying”  lol.  Since we knew none of the artists… and since my hard rap nephew was our sole suggestion source… we just let the music and the moments guide us each night.

Do I fit it? lol

The drink choices weren’t that thrilling but it was more like Bottlerock than Coachella in that it didn’t have a special fenced off drinking area and just let you walk around with your drink.  It lived up to all our hopes!   Oh and did I mention there were costumes? hahaha!   The naked guy was great but the guy dancing in the disco outside of the venue in a Big Hero 6 costume was a lot of fun too!

Must take picture!

The El Rey is one of my favorite venues to see a band.   They often host my favorite

Waiting in line with fellow Nothing But Thieves fans is half the fun!

types… up and coming musicians…. in a wonderfully intimate atmosphere.  It used to be a theater and the decor represents that with two raised areas on each side and a balcony in the back.  Once of the things I very much enjoy is the full bar!

I saw Nothing but Thieves there twice and it was the best performance of my life! Of course, it could be because they are just the best young band out there!  And if I don’t say it enough… you should be listening to this band!!

My BFF Gloria dancing at Nothing But Thieves!

We also saw Sir Sly play at The El Rey and that was a lot of fun.  We were completely unfamiliar with the band beyond the one hit playing on the radio.  And they were very good!  With a bit of a heartbreaking back story they maintain a positive music vibe.

I fell in love with Mondo Cuzmo from their hit Shine on the radio and jumped at the opportunity when I found them playing at The El Rey!  What I’ve downloaded from iTunes I’ve loved and I hear they have a new album coming out!

Sex God and I always check in with The El Rey to see if there are any favorites we want to see playing there.  I hope you have a favorite venue also!