Music Mondays - festival high

There's something very peculiar about me...

When I book a trip somewhere, I get super excited about it MONTHS ahead of time, spend all this time researching it and figuring things out and booking stuff, and then when I get closer to the actual event, I stop caring.

It happens all the time, last time it happened was going to New Zealand. In September I was hard-core reading, researching, reading my old travel diaries, looking at photos...it was all NZ, NZ, NZ all the time.

Then I forgot all about it, until it was like a week left and even then when people would be like, "Oh you're going to New Zealand in a week, are you excited?" I would be like "Yeah, I guess."

I'm not sure what happens. It's almost like I'm coming down off of a high that doesn't quite pick up again until I'm on the plane heading for that place. It's like I'm unable to sustain that energy for long periods of time, like the obsession wears off and I go back to normal, when it REALLY should be the other way around.

The problem is, most things I have to plan in advance, so I get pumped when I make those plans, even if they are far off.

Case in point:

In January I learned that Faith No More was playing at the Coachella festival. I had never been to Coachella before, even though at the time the line-up was announced, I was actually IN COACHELLA (well, Palm Springs). But I had never been to the festival.



Well, having FNM play their first US show in 10+ years, plus the fact that I had never seen them before, meant that I was going for sure. And because I had heard rumours about them possibly playing, I actually reserved a hotel room in the area for those dates. VERY pricey hotel room considering it's a Quality Inn, but anyway.

Then I saw the rest of the line-up...Them Crooked Vultures! Muse! Thom Yorke! She &Him! GORILLAZ!

Totally sealed the deal. I was uber excited and quickly recruited friemds to come join me. Aside from Kiersten, who lives in California, no one else wanted to join me though.

That was OK...it didn't seem like we were going to drive down to Cali anyway. I had seen that Tweet from Roddy (of FNM) back in October about playing San Francisco in April and even though it could have meant anything, I totally blew that rumour up and announced it on this website, not knowing if it would turn out to be true.



Soon though people were speculating that perhaps FNM would play a warm-up show in San Fran before Coachella. And thus, I was holding out for that opportunity to happen. Seeing FNM twice would be fabulous, and in San Francisco too.

Well, as luck would have it, FNM announced they were doing a tiny show at the tiny Warfield Theatre in SF a few days before Coachella. I managed to snap up the presale tickets like lickety-split. First show in 10+ years and I was going to be there.



Then, after that sold-out in minutes, they announced ANOTHER show. This time a day before. Well, I felt stupid doing this but I just couldn't NOT be at their first show, so I bought those tickets too. We would already be in SF on that day, so might as well, right?

Then they announced a THIRD show, this time a day before the last one! Well, though I would like to think I am a die-hard fan, I just couldn't do it. My BF wouldn't be able to get the time off work to come a day earlier and I think seeing them FOUR times in one week would be pushing it just a bit!

Regardless, I was super happy about getting these tickets. A small intimate theatre, floor tickets both nights, being with real fans. I booked a swanky hotel nearby, The Powell (well, swankier than Quality Inn) and then rented a car to drive us from SF to Palm Springs and back.



Then last week, Conan O'Brien announced he was doing HIS tour. Well, FNM barely sits above Coco on my love meter, so imagine my disappointment when the Vancouver show was the day we leave for SF, the Seattle show was on the last day of Coachella and the SF show was three days after we leave SF. It was like COCO was purposely torturing me! I felt incredibly bad too because my Bf DOES like Conan more than FNM, so to drag him to their show twice, to miss Coco, didn't seem fair (though I must note, the FNM tickets and Coachella tickets are all part of a massive Bday present for him).



Luckily, Conan heard my cries and added a Seattle show on the Monday that we would be arriving back to Seattle from San Francisco. I moved my flight outta SF earlier (only downside is that we have to wake up super early in Palm Springs to drive to SF) so that we would touch down in Seattle just in time to see Conan (AND ANDY!!) do his thing, before driving back to Vancouver.

WHEW! Anyway, I guess I am getting a little bit more excited about all of this now that I am typing it out. But it just seems like SO MUCH, you know? All the other FNM fans are jumping up and down still, but maybe I just got it out of my system. Maybe I need to just go with the flow and get excited on the plane ride down. Or maybe I'm still a bit stressed about money (damn Coachella hotel!) to be as excited as I should be.

What about you? DO you ever get too excited too early? (haha)

And also, what band would you love to see 3X in one week, if you could?


Stay tuned for next Monday, when I do an iTunes gift card giveaway plus a post all about the wonders that is GORILLAZ :)