Kitty does Coachella
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Someone sent me a link to a news report about the Iggy and The Stooges reunion! Where is this? I HAVE to go – I don’t care if it’s in ICELAND! Quite the opposite — it’s in the Coachella Valley, which is in the middle of the desert. I have never heard of the Coachella concerts, but apparently, they have been going on quite some time and have about 30 bands play each day for two days. All I can see is IGGY! I run with this news to Tony Kowalski, who is going on tour with The Mooney Suzuki. He already knows about it and says that Mooney Suzuki are playing the festival. That seals it! I buy my airfare and start looking for hotels — they are going for $350 a night in Indio – the site of the concert. I look in Nearby Palm Springs and find something MUCH more palatable. Now to take care of the photo pass. I am NOT letting happen to me what happened to me when I went to Inland Invasion! Flew ALL the way out for a once-in-a-lifetime concert only to have my camera confiscated! EVIL Clear Channel! Anyone who reads my column knows I pride myself on my photos. Anyway, Tony confirms that the band will get me a photo pass! If only I can get close to IGGY!
I went to BOTH days and shot at least 15 rolls of film. There was some KICK ASS stuff. I already made friends with a poor security guard in the pit who is roasting. He tells me all he got was a coupon for a free burger, and all he wants is some fruit. He has very dark skin and no hat. I go to catering and get him Gatorade and a bowl of fruit salad. He has my back for the rest of the day! First was The Mooney Suzuki, who has one of the best live stage shows around. These guys run around like their tight black pants are on fire. Speaking of which, they may have been. These guys wear all black, leather jackets and tight black pants and they are playing at 1:30 in the afternoon in the desert! At the end of the Set, Sam Suzuki faints and is dragged off stage, only to be revived to come out and finish out the song! The Donnas were pretty good — they sound better than ever but had trouble filling the arena stage — not a lot going on there visually in terms of energy. Maybe it’s the hotpants, Maybe the heat — maybe it’s kind a hard to play at 2:30 in the afternoon in 80 degree weather.
The Hives were fun and the singer’s Jagger-esque routine is pretty goo, but Pelle Almqvist’s “We are from Sweden and we will show you how to rock and kick your ass” schtick is a little tired after a while. He came out into the crowd and sang with some kids up front I had made friends with. They got there early to get a great spot and it certainly paid off when Pelle puts the mic in their face! They are beaming! I wanted to see Joseph Arthur on another stage, but the timing didn’t work out. Hot Hot Heat from Vancouver were SUPER fun – I’m glad I trekked all the way over to their tent to check them out. Kinda post punk pop rock with keyboards. Good energy and show. Ate some ribs while BLUR played – they were kind of out of place on the main stage – they should have been on the Britpop stage the next day with Primal Scream. It was funny – when they played their big hit Song #2 (the “Woo Hoo” song, as one kid called it), we watched people RUN across the field to see them as they had no idea that song was Blur. Don’t blame them – it’s totally different from anything else they do.
I get back to the pit to make sure I get a good spot for Queens of the Stone Age. I also check on the kids – offer them water and gum, since they have been stuck in the same spot all day! Queens of the Stone Age went on JUST as the sun was setting – it was totally amazing with their light and stage show – they sounded better than ever and played a good mix of stuff from all their albums. They probably SOUNDED the best of any of the bands – it’s hard to do that as a festival. I heard at the other “rock” tent they were having technical difficulties, and Ladytron went on over an hour late, which made me skip the Libertines, who would have gone on after midnight, and I’ve been at the venue since about 10:30 am!
The Beastie Boys TOTALLY rocked – same as they ever were, but Yauch was kind of wandering around stage like Ozzy shuffles around his house on “The Osbornes”. His voice is shot, too. Horovitz and Diamond were REALLY energetic, and Horovitz looked like he was having so much fun, he kept cracking himself up. Nothing but fun, if you ignore Yauch’s political rants (Yauch was saying something about how the US should let the UN take over the rebuilding of the Iraqi government, and I heard a kid yell out, “Shut Up!”). Not that I don’t agree with him, but I like my rock politic free. We are allowed only three songs in the photo pit – you get kicked out when the band starts song #4 – so I walked back to the parking lot as the Beasties were playing to beat the traffic – I could hear them REALLY well and saw what I needed to see – shot two rolls of them, but I’m tired and we have a VERY long walk back to the car because I picked the wrong landmark to find it. Ugh.
NEXT DAY, I needed to sleep, since I got there at 10 am the day before to get my credentials and all that BS. Wanted to get there in time for the Von Bondies – but missed it because I wanted to catch The Mars Volta (ex-At the Drive In). Got there just as the Polyphonic Spree were getting off stage, and from what people were saying, and after meeting the band, I’m REALLY sorry I missed it. Sounds like they are doing something TOTALLY different and cool (Even Josh form QOTSA was like, “I saw you guys and was like, What the fuck!” – In a good way). The funniest description I heard about them was “It’s like Up With People after a bad acid trip”. Shit. Sounds like my kinda thing. I also missed Soundtrack of Our Lives before them. Oh well. Mars Volta also put on an excellent stage show – really cool – photographer’s dream. The lead singer twitches and jumps around like he is hooked up to a car battery. It’s like more energetic stoner rock with some cool jams.
Went over to the “rock” tent to see if I could catch a few minutes of the Von Bondies and was happy to see that they rescheduled The Libertines for that afternoon. Apparently they only played two songs the night before and the cops pulled the plug because they went on too late! They are definitely the Mick Jones style of British Post-punk, but not just by the formula – I’d say “reminiscent of”, not “exactly like”. Fun show. They dragged some kids on stage. Asshole guard wouldn’t let me into the pit as there were, “too many photographers already”! That was a load of crap – the pits were twice as crowded everywhere else. You could tell the guy was one of those “I get off on authority” guys. When the band asked kids to get on stage, they had to go through the pit – the security didn’t stop it but didn’t help either. One girl getting on stage booted a guard in the face, to the pleasure of the guitar player. I went backstage to use the porta-potty rather than wait in the super long line, and ran into the rhythm section of the band, and thanked them for the show. A guy asks if I want my picture taken with them, and I say? SURE! The drummer asks if I want the Lead singer and the guitar player, I say, “Nah! Those are the UGLY guys!” They also tell me they met ANOTHER Kitty. I asked, “You think I could kick her ass?” They say, “Yeah”. OK I’m not worried! I tell the guys I will see them at the New York show next week when I get back!
After that, went RUNNING back to he main stage for The White Stripes. A MADHOUSE. I never thought the White stripes would have this outdoor festival rock crowd so CRAZY. The photo pit was JUST as insane. It was the craziest I had seen it the whole time. The backstage was nuts, too. Everyone was trying to get on stage to see. And ya know, they complained of technical problems – what technical problems can a lo-fi drummer and guitar player possibly have? Jack White had another mike set up right in front of the drum kit FACING Meg so he could cue her, too. They also had trouble “filling” the stage, though I kinda liked them anyway. After I got booted out of the pit, I had to go somewhere else – it was too crazy up front, too crazy by the sides of the stage. Just NUTS. I had to hide behind the stage. Who knew that this guy and girl and their whole minimalist thing would become huge mega rock stars of the festival circuit! Good for them! It was also rumored that QOTSA were having a BBQ backstage, and I was sure hungry. Fuck that I had to get a good spot in the pit for IGGY! This was the whole reason I was there. So I bought a $3 pretzel instead!
So I wait by security for the rest of the set so I could be the FIRST in the pit. I was the first on line – there was ONE other photographer there. This crew were a bunch of DICKS. My security friend that I brought fruit salad and Gatorade the first day was nowhere to be found the second day! One guy has this 14-year-old Red Hot Chili Peppers fan offer to blow him to let her back stage. Little did she know that the Chili Peppers weren’t even backstage – there was this whole “Trailer park” on the side in the back where the “big acts” were hanging out. So I see her whispering in his ear all this 
stuff and her little friends standing there all hopeful. Entertainment. So the White Stripes are off, and they DICK head of security is not letting photographers back. The guy on the other side of the stage are letting press back, so they are taking all the good slots. THEN, the guy starts letting press from backstage in the pit, and I bitched about being the first in line outside the pit – the blow job rejecting guy pulled me through, but kind late. I did get an OK spot. Iggy hits the stage and is like “We are the fucking Stooges” and I am floored. They open with my FAVORITE song, “Loose” with Iggy’s tell-tale “Yeeeow!” Can this get any better? Shit! He comes RIGHT to the front of the stage and I can see every ripple in his chest through my lens and I think I am going to faint. The second song is probably my SECOND fave Stooges song, “Down in the Street” Arrghhh! I run out of film. I’m changing the roll between songs and they start 1969. The Japanese girl next to me starts yelling, “This is my song!”, and THEN I find out my battery is DEAD! I just put in a NEW battery yesterday, and I can usually shoot about 25 rolls! HELL! I put the new one in, and they start kicking us out of the pit! Arrrgh!
I get into the crowd for this one and find my friend, shoving my way through by any means necessary. All the “kids” are just waiting of the Chili Peppers. Too bad they are not enjoying this piece of history the way I am. At one point, I see Iggy put his hand on the button of his jeans, and was like “Holy Shit! Iggy’s gonna whip it out!” which SURELY would have made me faint! Iggy introduces the band and calls Mike Watt, “New Guy Mike”. Funny. He hollers, “And I am fuckin’ Iggy!” Oh, boy, do I know it! They play TV Eye and Now I Wanna Be Your Dog. Iggy says, “Do you ever feel like you are nobody? You ever feel like you are nothing? I have!” I was shocked – Iggy is GOD! He has problems? They start Dirt, but obviously not to Iggy’s satisfaction, because he makes them stop it, and then they restart it! They played No Fun, 1970 (during which they had Steve Mackay play sax just he did on “Funhouse”), LA Blues and I think they closed with Funhouse. The set was SHOCKINGLY short. What, no Search and Destroy? No Shake Appeal? I later heard that they were only doing stuff off the first two albums because Raw Power was a different band – makes sense. Anyway, when I left the pit, I was SHAKING. I hope my photos even come out. I was SO freaked out.
Anyway, after that, the QOTSA BBQ was in full force, so I enjoyed some very Stone Age fare with Texas Terri and MO B. Dick, a friend from NYC that came out for Iggy, too. Made some new ones, like Brody from the Distillers (I missed them at Inland Invasion because I was fighting with security about my camera!) and the guitar player from Hole (I totally embarrassed myself. I said to him. “You look REALLY familiar – I think I know you from somewhere?” to which Terri interjects, “He was in Hole” and I was like “Oops! I though maybe I went to school with you or something! Hahahaha!”), and some cool photographers in the pit like Lisa – who wears the flower in her hair visible in some of my photos – and the girl from the Dedicated Followers of Fashion Web site who also danced on stage with The Libertines. I finished my roll of film, and caught a few Interpol songs on the way out – I figured I would catch them back in New York. I had never heard of them until that night but they were a big buzz band that everyone says is like Joy Division. I just had to beat that Chili Peppers crowd out of the parking lot. Poor bastards have to follow Iggy & The Stooges! All I have to say is I saw God, and his name is IGGY POP.
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