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Archive Sunday #44

Added 2024-04-14 16:00:07 +0000 UTC

After our show in Pioneertown, we had a day off till our next show at Coachella for its second weekend. It's rare for us to have any extra time in this part of the country as we typically do back-to-back shows in the Southwest and Southern California. But we were excited to use this opportunity to check out the national park we always passed on the road. So we got to Joshua Tree in the early afternoon and had plenty of time to hike and explore some of the cool rock formations. After depleting our limited water supply we decided to call it a day and head back. As we were heading to the car we had to break it to Ethan that the park's name wasn't referring to a specific tree in the middle of the reserve, but rather just referencing the scattered yucca plants. He took it well, but you could tell he was slightly disappointed haha.

On our way back to Indio, we hit up a small Chinese restaurant to grab some dinner together. Here I remember Andrew was trying so hard to convince John to go in on the family-style menu with him. After several minutes of sweetening the pot by meticulously describing the various appetizers and entree options it came with, John finally gave in. Once all the food came out though, we could tell John was second-guessing his decision because he didn't jive with any of the appetizers and really just wanted the main entree. When the bill came and John fully realized how much extra he paid for the family-style meal, he vowed never to split food with Andrew again haha. On our way out, someone in the back of the restaurant must have recognized we were heading to Coachella because they gave us a CD of their band to listen to. I've since lost it, but I remember it being pretty sweet when we checked it out in the car.

The next day, we made our way back to the polo ground fields of Coachella. It was slightly easier now that we knew where everything was and already had credentials. But we still made our way to the stage early in the day to build the drum riser and check that the backline amps were working. Everything seemed good, so we made our way back to the artist area where we had a scheduled photo shoot with the festival organizers. Thankfully it wasn't too long, and we had some time to chill and relax a bit before the set.

We played an afternoon set for another great crowd that came out. We kinda joked to ourselves that the huge tent our stage had over the audience contributed a bunch to our success. Sometimes shade can be hard to come by especially in the deserts of California. But hey, we'll take all the help we can get! I remember in the middle of Drunk Drivers the tube bass amp that we backlined gave in and overheated in the sun. So suddenly both the bass mic and DI from the back of the head fell silent before the last chorus. Thankfully Will noticed something was up and gave me a sec to grab the XLR out of the amp head and run it through the sansamp on my pedalboard. It made the rest of the set especially difficult for me as I was mostly monitoring my own playing through the PA until John could put me through the wedge. But we only had a couple more songs left, so it turned out ok. I always kinda carried that sansamp pedal with me for a quick backup, but it really ended up saving my butt that weekend haha.

With the set over, we celebrated again with a bunch of free food at catering. We caught a bit of Thundercat , Two Door Cinema Club, and Bon Iver as we explored the grounds. But I think we called it a fairly early night as all of us were pretty wiped from the week. So we grabbed the extra merch from the tent and threw it in the car to distribute later as we packed our suitcases. The following day, we headed back to LA to fly home. We had a few more hours to kill before our flight, so we decided to go to a nearby park a do another quick hike in the nice weather. We reached this steep gully that had a pretty huge incline and made our way to the other side fairly easily. But John checked his pocket at the top and realized he must have dropped his phone on the climb. So we all spent an hour or so canvasing the tall grass and bushes in search for his phone. At some point we all figured we looked everywhere it could have fallen to and consoled John the best we could, plus we had a flight to catch so we had to give up. Imagine our surprise as we got back to the car and we see his phone just sitting there on the dash!