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This was our first festival and very excited were we to represent not only Triple J but all of Australia at the Coachella Festival in Indio, California, USA.

Shannon's thoughts:  The Dresden Dolls Coachella was only my second festival experience, Big Day Out Gold Coast 2005 being my first.  It was weird especially after Big Day Out where the crowd is constantly moving either to the music or from one venue to another, at Coachella on the other hand whereas a lot of people were chilling out in the beer and food tents missing lots of bands.  Michael I'm sure will further elaborate on this in his sum-up.  But I got to see heaps of bands I've only ever heard their music on the radio or just heard of.  Weezer, Cold Play, Nine Inch Nails and my personal favourite The Dresden Dolls.  I bought their album in November 2004 and was blown away by the richness of their music and then blown away all over again after I lined up for ages to meet them and get their autograph, they were so patient and nice.  How could their live show live up to what is on the cd when their is only two of them?  Holy Shit!  They blew my mind, they aren't crossed between punk and cabaret for nothing!  Onstage they give a sweaty, physical, entertaining and gut grabbing performance.  Both painted up and in 'costume' they command the space in such a way that having them on opposite sides of the stage ends up leaving the audience looking like they are watching a tennis match.  Both Amanda and Brian put on a great show and really draw the eye. Seeing these guys really made Coachella for me.           Alicia's thoughts: Blah..... Coachella, well were do I begin? I suppose I will begin with the highlight of my festival, Warren and Barbara. What beautiful people to put up 4 excited Aussies, firstly not only to be in an English speaking country but also to be at our first festival on our world tour. We didn’t just rock up in a car and ask to camp, we rocked up in a 32ft motor home and asked to park! This must have been a little daunting for Warren to see two burly Aussie blokes (as burly as these two get) strolling down his drive and then to see our “RV” drive down his drive way. Warren was amazing he gave us his garden furniture, let us park on his hybrid lawn from a golf course somewhere across the country, park under his Silky oak tree, drive his old Mercedes, hook up cable TV and give us the material to make a cricket bat to keep us occupied whilst waiting for the festival. In return for his generosity we cooked him an Aussie BBQ and return of the cricket bat complete with signatures of us four. What else could we have done?     Ok on to the actual festival part. I must say my highlight of Coachella was just being there, I have only been too one Big Day Out on the Gold Coast in 2001 and when I was little my mum took me to a Bon Jovi Concert. I was a little surprised with the atmosphere of the festival goers though as we all walked in or rather ran in as Barbara and Warren insisted on dropping us off at the front gates and made as all put sunscreen on in front of them (partly because we turned up to their place red as lobsters from Mexico and Malaria tablets.) So once we did that we ran in to see Donovan Frankenrieter only for Cookie to get smacked in the face by a flying water bottle straight from the hands of Donovan! Not only did he get smacked in the face by the water bottle he also got punched in the face at the Dresden Dolls. I think this must have been my highlight. We also got to see the Dresden Dolls, Cold Play (really disappointing), Weezer, Stereophonics and Nine Inch Nails. Coachella is great!!!!
Cookie's thoughts:  Coachella People sleep at Coachella. After the mind blowing excitement of getting to Indio California in a 32 Foot Winnebago, finding the most welcoming couple on earth to stay with next door to the festival, and listening to sound checks the morning of the event, running to the bar as fast as humanly possible to find the tents filled with sleeping American’s was a bit of a let down.   Saturday was what could only be described as a strange festival experience. The urgency that I’d come to associate with festivals like the big day out was in short supply at Coachella, and if you let it get to you it could bring the mood of your festival down a touch.   All that being said, Coachella did absolutely bring the shit. With performers like Donovan Frankenrieter and Connor Oberst (Bright Eyes) you can’t really go wrong. Especially when you back them up with bands like New Order, Nine Inch Nails and Weezer.   While Coldplay failed to impress with their bass player sounding like he had made friends with a peace pipe backstage, and two incidents involving either fists or water bottles and my face, Coachella was most certainly a fitting start to my international festival season.         Jacko's thoughts: Coachella Starting our trip in L.A. first things first, transport.  Now being in the US of A where bigger is better we went straight to the R.V. park where we set about hiring a juggernaut of a vehicle, 32’ long v10 beast with all the luxuries of home.    On making it to Indio, the home of the festival via some beautiful scenery and tremendous driving from Cookie and myself we set about finding somewhere to make camp.  After spending most of the day driving around Indio only to find out all R.V and caravan parks were full.  But, refusing to be beaten we thought about asking some of the locals for a bit of hospitality.  Which is where we met Warren and Barbara, a wonderful couple who took us in for the festival.  Not only allowing us to park in their yard but lending us a car, Mercedes no less, cable tv hook up, and this is where we had to draw the line, Warren was going to inflate a swimming pool for us, that’s just going above and beyond we thought.  In return we cooked an aussie BBQ and filled Warren in on the finer points of cricket over a few ales.    The festival itself was fantastic, very laid back much like Splendour in the Grass (Byron Bay Australia), but without the aussie vibe, you know what I mean.   I had a great time watching the Stereophonics, Weezer were a high light for me and I’m sure for the rest of the crowd that turned up, just a non-stop sing along.  New Order put on a great show, and well I think everyone of us love Donavon Frankenreiter, not only for a killer set but for smacking Cookie in the head with a water bottle, a focal point for the festival, ha ha, get it Cookie.   Love catching Snow Patrol again, one of my favourite bands and I was totally worn out just watching the Fiery Furnaces who put on another sterling set, that I have grown accustomed to from them.  Trent Reznor and NIN had it all going off, great light show, great sound, hell yeah.  From this first festival I left feeling great and ready for the next.  The only bum note was Coldplay, not at their best, be it bad equipment, engineering, mixing, etc or they just had a bad night, whatever, but one thing was for sure this wasn’t the last we heard from Chris and the boys.
www.comprehensiveadventures.blogspot.com Official Coachella Festival website: http://www.coachella.com