Coachella Day 2

We started day two by venturing into the camp grounds, which were right outside Coachella. The mission was to find the Coachella Art Studios. We hit the corner and entered into a whole new world lol. They had their own little community back there. Coachella gives you the option of doing car camping where you park your car and put a tent up behind it. It definitely saves you a ton on hotel costs, but you have to live out in that heat. Kudos to them for sticking that out. I don't know how they survived those extremes all day long, but it seemed like an awesome experience to have. I would need a break from the sun personally, but if you can swing that life, I recommend it. The car camping option definitely sold out, so there are clearly a lot of people out there that are willing to do it. They had their tarps, tents, blankets covering windows to keep cars as cool as possible...I think some people had generators, there were people sleeping under cars, grills out front, and we even saw a car with fake flowers and a picket fence in the front lol...made themselves at home for real. There were also a lot of cars that were decorated to celebrate Coachella. On our quest to find the art studios, we even got invited to a friendly game of frisbee. After failing to catch it a couple of times, I slowly stepped to the side and let them continue on lol. The people we ran into out there were really friendly and everybody was just really excited to be at Coachella. I got a "Happy Coachelllaaa!!!" greeting quite often.

They also had quite a few activities and amenities nearby for the campers. They had a makeshift super market with snacks, water and some toiletries, water on tap, trailers for taking showers, an area selling vintage coachella tees for the low...but they weren't really THAT vintage. I did get some cool postcards that I'm going to make into some memorabilia or gifts...havent decided. They had games of dodgeball, ping pong, and later into the night after all the concerts were done, they had a silent dance party. I loafed by not going to see that lol. That has to be the funniest thing in life to walk up on. For the night owls that don't feel like going to bed, they have a silent dance party where you put on headphones (wireless I'm assuming) and dance the night away. It's silent because they don't want you to disturb the other campers. I looked it up online after hearing about it at Coachella and it's actually a thing that's been going on for years. Interesting. Most importantly, however, they have the Coachella Art Studios over there. We finally found it!! We were too late to actually do some arts and crafts, but at least we knew where it was.

After finding what we were looking for...which seemed like it took forever, we made our way to the stages. The first act we saw for the day was Mt. Eden. They are two dubstep (a genre of electronic dance music) producers from New Zealand. I can't remember if they were DJing...or were on beat machines...or both, but their set featured them two and a drummer. It was pretty cool. After leaving their tent, we walked up on a band called Black Lips. We didn't stay for their whole performance but THIS is the band I tweeted about that had the cardboard Biggie lol. They were like, "So everyone's excited about Tupac being here...well, look who we got!" Then they sat the cardboard cutout in front of a mic and dropped "Hypnotize". I was dying of laughter. I did NOT see that coming lol.

Before we moved on to another act, some water and a cool off session was most necessary. Now you get to see what I was talking about in day one. Coachella had quite a few places for cooling down, but the absolute livest area seemed to be this oddly shaped structure that had a stage with a DJ and like 2 or 3 dudes spraying the crowd with water. The music they played was ROCKING! I don't even know how to describe it...electronic/house/hip hop??*shrug* It also had two structures off to the side that blew out mist and provided some shade. It felt awesome.

I'm going to try to add video for this later because these pics look a lot dryer than what was actually happening lol...

We also came across another interesting art installation that wasn't there day one...this thing. They felt like black trash bag material full of air and they just waved up and down in the breeze. No explanation anywhere to be found for this either..other than the fact that I wasn't supposed to have touched it lol.

Next, we hit the outdoor stage and came upon indie rock group Destroyer. I wasn't really paying attention at this point but, I know I did like their sound...don't ask me what the singer was singing about though lol. The outdoor stage is right next to the main stage where Childish Gambino was about to perform so we just stopped there along the way. I wasn't not paying attention because they weren't good, there is just so much to look at out there lol. Anywho, Childish hit the main stage and we moved on over there. I don't really follow his music...I watch him on Community...but apparently, he has a rather decent flow lol. He seems like a really cool, down-to-earth dude like I thought he would be. He's a good performer. He hit a freestyle that was cool...but I don't trust "freestyles" anymore lol and he did a "Rolling in the Deep" remix that started with a John Legend version. It's probably a song fans know about...but that was my first time hearing it.

Things started going downhill health-wise during this performance lol...for me and my best friend. It was peak-heat and the main stage has no shade. They had an area not too far away with shade, water, and food though, so we went and sat over there. I was doing okay until I went to the porter potty. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was too hot in that small space, but I was definitely on lean when I stepped out and had to take a sit down. I bought me some ice cold water and we even went to CVS earlier that day and got small personal fans. They did a little somethin-somethin...not much. Then we made the trek back to the car. We just couldn't do the whole day. The plan was to come back later...after sunset lol.

Next on my list was Flying Lotus!!!! I love Flying Lotus. Loved his set. He's a multi-genre producer from Cali. Going to watch producers/DJs at Coachella was pretty much like going to a one-hour party lol. They were rocking and the crowd was partying. Flying Lotus definitely did his thing. After that, we hit the main stage to catch indie folk band, Bon Iver. I don't follow this band super close...like I don't have albums or anything...but I've heard a bit of their music and I like. A little after their performance, Radiohead hit the main stage. We sat off to the side and watched the performances and I started daydreaming again. I was hypnotized by all of the liiights lol. Coachella is beautiful at night. Everything is lit up. The tents, the palm trees, the art installations, the ferris wheel..my pictures just don't do it any justice but I'll put them up anyway.

The arch during the day..

The arch by night.. 

That mechanical flower from Day 1. 

They came out a little blurry but you get an idea. Here's some random pics from when I started playing with the "light trails" function in one of my camera apps lol...

That was a person that had lights on them lol...you can kind of see the feet walking at the bottom.

These were balloons that were attached to a wire of some sort...or maybe string...that floated through the air. This is what they looked like during the day. See the arch going across the picture...that lit up at night. You can kind of see it in the picture with the lit up ferris wheel.

The last act we saw for the day was A$AP Rocky. Don't have much to say here as I am not a fan...at all lol. I hardly paid attention. Not my taste...to each his own though. He did bring out Master P and Lil' Romeo for a quick moment...random, but I loved Master P back in the day so that was cool. Master P did a Trayvon Martin tribute and hit "I Miss My Homies". Lil' Romeo was just there...with no shirt. After all of that was over...we made the long journey back to the car and rested up for the finale...it was going to be a looooooooong day.

To be continued...