Being from Toronto, the closest thing we get to a big music festival is 8-10 band lineups at Olympic Island or Molson Park in Barrie, with poor organization and $4 dollar water. I had no idea what to expect traveling out to the desert to see a show that spanned over two days with over 90 bands. After long flights and delays and getting luggage lost, we entered the "golf capital of America" to be greeted by gorgeous weather, mountains surrounding us and palm trees at their feet. We rented a boat of a car, fought with American Airlines over my luggage, and headed off to the Empire Polo Grounds, which would serve as our campground home for the next couple days. Rather burnt out from the heat and exhaustion from being up all night driving and on planes and in airports, the sight of the camp ground and setting up our tent still made me ridiculously excited. Tons of friendly faces surrounded us; our camping area was with fellow Canadians and a British couple, all really great people.

The first night was essentially a huge party with 11,000 other music fans, but being exhausted, grumpy over my lost clothes and underage, I opted to pass out in the tent until morning. Second year Coachella-goers had warned us about the 6-7 am wake up that was inevitable with the heat and sun, which I had been skeptical about, but unfortunately, came true. Saturday morning just before 7 I was wide awake, but had slept much better than expected in a 7 x 9 tent (with my boyfriend and myself both being 6 feet tall). The rental car ended up being a must-have, as the morning bathroom and shower lines were endless and the heat was inescapable. A bunch of us headed into town to the not-so-welcoming locals for some insanely expensive breakfast, but air-conditioning and real washrooms made it well worth it. By the time we got back to the campsite it was just about time to pack up and head into the venue. I was brimming with curiosity about what the inside was like, as a thick line of palm trees separated the camp site from the stages.

We got in with little to no wait, a minor search, and none of the many water bottles we had purchased thinking we could make last the day. What I found most interesting about the whole thing was that everyone you seemed to meet was there for completely different reasons. I had assumed going into it that it would be nothing but rocker types, maybe some goth and indie kids. But a couple of the guys we spent most of the weekend with were heavy into underground hip hop and had come solely to see all the hip hop and DJ acts, most of which I'd never even heard of. Our British friends had come for mostly dance acts and DJ sets as well, and it seemed we were the unusual ones for just wanting to see Depeche Mode or Wolfmother.

From the influence of the aforementioned friends, the first act we checked out was Brother Ali, an albino rapper who was catchy, but we split quickly to go see The Section Quartet. They are a four-piece string band, that includes a cello, violin and a couple other fancy symphony like instruments I'm not sure the names of, and they cover mainstream rock songs. I was not only impressed by their talent and the precision they had covering the songs, but the fact they wore corsets in the nearly 100 degree weather. Playing hits from The Clash, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Radiohead, Queens of the Stone Age, Franz Ferdinand and many more, they had a great set. It became more of a game to name the song they were playing first, since sans lyrics, our tired little minds were having difficulties figuring it out.

We had a bit of a gap after this, used to check out the plethora of merch and food tents. We headed over early to get up close for Wolfmother; luckily they played a covered tent so we got out of the sun temporarily. Their set exploded with "Dimension" and their 70s hard rock vibe had the whole crowd moving. They didn't talk too much, but they sure as hell delivered, and not a note was missed vocally or musically. We skipped out of their set a tad early to go check out the Duke Spirit, who after having their equipment stolen and their guitarists arm recently broken, had cut their set short so we showed up for the last 20 seconds of their last song. Disappointed, but still with so much to look forward to we headed back to the tents for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. They had an enormous crowd, and we ended up listening from outside (which in a sense was better, more room for dancing!) and watching kids tear open the velcro of the tent sides to get in where the press was. Naturally, this was quickly put to a stop by the event staff, but was amusing at the moment. It was a good set, I mumbled along to all their songs where I can't exactly tell what he's saying but made sure to yell "My yellow country teeth!" every so often, when appropriate, of course.

Again, we skipped out of this set a tad early to head over to catch the end of Deerhoof and get a decent place to watch Imogen Heap. Deerhoof was their unusual, quirky selves, which the crowd really seemed to dig. I didn't think they would get a very positive response, but their noise rock off beat style seemed to get people moving. We got fairly close for Imogen Heap's set, who started off with a number of inevitable technical difficulties, which I was pleased to see she came out and dealt with herself. That was another aspect of the show I really enjoyed, most bands seemed to lose their rock star attitudes and were out on the stage doing their own sound checks and tuning their own instruments. Imogen Heap played well, I wasn't sure how she would go about it, but with all her keyboards and mixers and fancy machines she had that she introduced as "her family" everything sounded fantastic.

Once again, we skipped out of her set early (yes, we developed a very good dance-walk as most others did from running from set to set) to catch Ladytron. I've been a fan of Ladytron for years now, and they recently set a Toronto date, which I'm unable to attend since it's 19+. I was sorely disappointed about this, but thrilled to see I'd be able to catch them here. Unfortunately, about three songs into their set, a couple of guys decided to push me right out of their way so I nearly fell over, and plant themselves directly in front of me. After some words with them I decided it was best to get out of there, as Ladytron's stage presence was about as exciting as watching golf. They all got on stage, took their positions and did not stray one bit from them, which didn't make for much of a show. The sound was spectacular, but I expected a bit more excitement from such a fun electro-dance group. After the Ladytron experience, we headed off to Eagles of Death Metal, which definitely lightened the mood. With two drummers, one of which being Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme and the other Samantha Maloney of Hole and Motley Crue fame, who drummed in synch throughout the show. This in itself was impressive, but the drumming could have been phenomenal having two drummers working together, alas it was still a good show. Front man Jesse Hughes was his amusing self, reminding the audience every couple of songs that he was "really nervous, and this was a huge fucking crowd, and he was so scared he was losing his voice" although they kept on rocking, and he would get a cheer for the ladies and for rock n roll every two minutes. The crowd seemed a little hesitant about getting into them, but after they got through the first bit of their set everyone was really moving. Surprisingly, Jesse really dominated the show, despite having other more famed members of the band that I expected to shine through much more. With their mixture of rock n roll and humour, their set was a great way to almost finish off the night, after which we headed over to Depeche Mode.

By this time the fact the sun had been sucking my energy supply dry all day was really starting to catch up with me. The crowd for Depeche Mode was overwhelming and had us back near the food tents, where I spent a good portion of the set sitting and getting kicked. I was terribly excited to see them, but wasn't exactly blown away by the performance. Okay, I wouldn't even really say I enjoyed the performance all that much, which was disappointing. They played a good portion of their newer material that no one really seemed to be into, the classics like "Personal Jesus," "Walking in my Shoes," and "Enjoy the Silence," which was really the highlight for me. Dave Gahan decided to strip down to his skin tight pants and show off his surprisingly fit self and prance around for a little while, but aside from this display, there was no real excitement to be had. This could be chalked up to my exhaustion, but everyone I spoke with afterwards about their set seemed sorely disappointed as well.

Although I was more than ready to call it quits after this dragging set, we decided to check out She Wants Revenge. I figured it would be a fun dance show, and a nice way to end the night. The boyfriend wasn't too pleased about extending our night even further, but we were both very pleasantly surprised with SWR. They didn't talk too much, wearing their black faux-army style get ups head to toe, they just pumped out the tracks off their debut record which was more than enough. The entire crowd was moving, the sexiness of their music getting everyone bumpin' and grindin' all over the place. The crowd wasn't too big since they were slotted in at the same time as Daft Punk, but they were very well received. The energy of their set was a fantastic way to end the first night, although the mood was ruined by attempting to get out of the grounds and back to the campsite, which was horrifically organized. Finally getting back to our tents we were sufficiently sleepy and I wasn't sure if I could do it all again, but little did I know the next day had much more in store for us! (More to come on Day 2!)