DESERT TRIPPED OUT

By Tracy Dietlin

It’s been such a “Trip” the last 2 weekends, both attending Weekend 1, and hearing all my friends share their experiences and even more, watching everyone’s’ video posts from Weekend 2. I love the way that some of the bands made sure to hold some hits for Weekend 2, like The Rolling Stones doing “Angie” and “Paint It Black” only on Weekend 2, and Neil Young doing “Old Man” and Paul McCartney bringing out Rihanna for “FourFive Seconds.”

I don’t think any festival will ever come close to the whole “Desert Trip Experience” for many folks. So many families attending together (Cathcarts,) that have shared generations of music with their children. Kudos Goldenvoice! For everything you did to make this a lasting memory and indelible mark on all who attended. And now for my picks for Desert Trip 2017:

So many people have shared their picks for what might be a Desert Trip 2017. I shared mine with friends, Phil, and time dated it a few weeks before the show. Looks like I was in good company.

Weekend 1:

(John Mellencamp, Bob Seger or Pearl Jam)

Bruce Springsteen

Weekend 2:

Eric Clapton

U2

Weekend 3:

Fleetwood Mac (or Aerosmith)

Led Zeppelin

I’ve seen everyone on this list at least once and several of these bands I’ve seen many times, with the exception of U2.

There are several others that could also fill a slot or two (Tom Petty, The Police, Billy Joel, but putting the right 2 bands together is most important. But, hey, Goldenvoice already knows this. They just handed us the best festival weekend ever!

And now for a peak into the Cathcart’s Weekend 2: (Bruce Cathcart is a Real Estate agent at LQ Palms Realty and RE columnist for CV Weekly, his wife Lora is a tenured Teacher, daughter KT Zapcart is also a teacher and the drummer for the CV Music Award winning band Bridger, and son Jim Cathcart is an Account Executive at APM Music in LA and Frontman for the punk band Bridger.)

Desert Trip Weekend 2

By Bruce Cathcart

So many of my friends and fellow writers at CV Weekly have added such great posts and reviews from Desert Trip that I am encouraged to add some of my own experiences that may have been overlooked so far. First day observations: Traffic and parking… What traffic and parking issues? We arrived early and left just after the final bows… no traffic. I should add that our car was parked within 100 yards of our seats in the grandstands though. And speaking of seats… comfy, cushioned with a back, for when we did use them (for all of Dylan and once or twice to rest from jumping and dancing to the Stones). Within 10 minutes of sitting down I had 20 new friends from all across America and British Columbia… all from my own generation and so excited to be here. Once the topic of who would you want to see here next year was brought up the friend circle just kept getting bigger and bigger, although I must admit some suggestions were less than stellar… but then everyone had their favorites! I had to break the news to a few that David Bowie, Glenn Frey, and Freddie Mercury were all dead, but for that small detail Bowie, The Eagles and Queen were all really good suggestions. The bathrooms were unbelievable! Air conditioned trailers with “flush” porcelain urinals and toilets, granite counter tops, glass bowls, real wood privacy stalls.

The food was hit and miss the first night. I really liked the lobster tacos and bacon wrapped hot dogs… definitely a cut above what this “fair food” junkie would have been happy to eat… but the mac and cheese, monster fries, and portions of the “Korean BBQ Take-out platters” did not really measure up. I’m not a drinker, but I was told that the margaritas, mules, and beer all were worth the price… water at $2 for the first bottle and free refill stations worked for me. I spent an hour in the air conditioned photo gallery and only saw about a third of it. I love museums and art galleries and take my time to enjoy each photo and reading the entire caption… then our family either makes jokes, shares history, points out interesting details or just oohs and aahs in harmony before moving on. We are a little weird that way, but it works for us. Like I said, there have been some great reviews of the music, but for me, I will say I thought it was all great. Sure Dylan croaked like a toad impersonating Louie Armstrong and never addressed the audience, but the guy got a noble prize for his poetry. With that in mind I am sure that the one song that sealed the deal was the lyrics from “Everybody Must Get Stoned.”

The band I really went to see was the Stones and for me it was epic! Transcending to times long forgotten and the epitome of what a true rock and roll band means to me. Mick did engage the audience with his two most memorable lines, “If you remember last week’s show you weren’t really here” and his labeling of this as the “Catch’em before they Croak Festival”… different than the Dylan version of croaking of course. Tonight, (Saturday) we have a full harvest moon for Neil Young (who I last saw back in the early 1970’s with CSN&Y) followed by Paul McCartney (who I last saw in 2013 at Bonaroo in Tennessee). I’ll eat more, explore more and share if anything seems worthy.

(for space we’re only able to print day 1 and 3)

Weekend 2 Day 3 at Desert Trip. It’s Tuesday evening and I am still enjoying my “Music High” from the Desert Trip Weekend. The word “EPIC” gets tossed around pretty freely these days but for me this was an EPIC weekend. (Even the title of last week’s CV Weekly article about Desert Trip was: EPIC) Of course the music was amazing. I related to each artist and their music differently as their songs evoked within me memories of different emotions, times and places. So as I sat in my bleacher seat awaiting the start of the Who I looked over at what was once a vast teenage wasteland, now made up of mostly 50, 60 and 70 year olds with gray hair (if any) and flagging muscles, united in spirit… yeah, I’m talking about my generation! You gotta love a band that announces that “We are all friends up here and no one is out to blow anyone off the stage,” and then proceeds to do just that! I found myself closing my eyes several times over the weekend just trying to absorb the music and the spirit of the festival. But as I have said in my last two posts, there are plenty of posts from writers far more eloquent than I about the music so let me get to “the other stuff”. By Day three at any festival the Cathcarts pretty much know where all the good stuff is hiding so we hit Jack-A-Lope Ranch grass fed beef cheese burgers and beer battered fries right off the get go. Special thanks to Marshal Karlquist for helping out with the burgers! Beverages included craft beers, margaritas and mules for the crew and strawberry lemonade for me (I think I paid extra because they were “hand squeezed… or so the sign said). We upgraded from popsicles to full blown double scoop ice cream cones. But the walk back to our seats was so long that I needed to stop by the Vietnamese stand for a few more spring rolls and fried shrimp. We hit the merch store again, took photos in front of the big album covers, tried to sneak into the Photo Gallery… but got caught (twice) and made a pit stop in the luxurious bathrooms that I described in my previous post.

By now we knew all of our neighbors by their first names and we acted like we were long lost friends reuniting after a long absence, which in this case was about 15 hours! It’s funny how the first night folks tend to be a little tentative, but having the same seats and the same friends around you each night really added to the bonding experience. By the third night everybody was talking about hip replacements and knee surgery, kids, grandkids, you name it. The familiarity, shared generation of experiences and the music seemed to tie us together in the same way a corporate retreat is intended to do. I must admit, at the end of the night we all shared a very emotional good-bye. Traffic and parking were never an issue for us and Goldenvoice and the City of Indio did an incredible job pulling this festival off seemingly without incidents. So Monday morning I drag myself out of bed and try to catch up on my chores that I neglected over the weekend. I laugh at myself for putting on a dust mask before mowing my lawn… especially after snorting a pound or so of grass and dust at the Polo Grounds! But it was worth it! We’ll definitely be back next year!!!