our wonderful modern digital age

So I'm sitting in a fairly luxurious hotel room in Incehon, South Korea reflecting on last weekend.

After a marathon 23 hour drive down to Redlands CA, my friend Corinne and I got to stop and have a sleep, and better yet, I got to see allyson again before I disappear to the Gobi for the summer. Next morning we left to drive the last hour into Indio, CA for the Coachella Festival.

Out of all the shows I was able to see, top four are Rage against the Machine, Arcade Fire, The Black Keys, and Gogol Bordello. Notable mentions are Kings of Leon and the Fratellis. The whole weekend was a blast. We arrived early and got prime location right at one of the first camping sections, closest to the entrance of the festival, and immediately found out we were surrounded by other Canadians and Australians. Our entire group eventually arrived around 5 and we set up camp and spent the evening meeting people.

The Concert started up on Friday, and unfortunately only Corinne and I had our tickets, everyone else had to go to the Will Call line which was about 4 hours long. Corinne went to stand with them, but I really couldn't waste the day (and I had just met all these very cool people) so I went in to see what I could see. Arctic monkeys were ok, Silversun Pickups were very rad...definitely the highlight of the day was Gogol Bordello. They really put on a great show, very lively, very crazy, very fun.

Saturday was good as we managed to get everyone in at the same time. Definitely Arcade Fire for top band on Saturday, though the Black Keys afterwards were very very much w hat I hoped for. They genuinely rocked as hard as they could, and were very amiable with the crowd, knowing that everyone there had a choice between them and the chili peppers (who I don't think put on a great show....)

Sunday was all about Rage. I saw some good shows during the afternoon, but to be quite honest I barely remember them. Manu Chao was great, Kaiser Chiefs were good, despite the crowd not knowing the words to the song when the singer yelled out "You all know this one" and then nooooo onnnnneee sang. I managed to get to the very front for Rage for about half their show. Before they started I had started weaving my way as close as possible by following other like-minded crowd pushers. When they finally came on I was at the separating fence section (divides the crowd up, I imagine to make it easier to control), and during the second song (Bulls on Parade) managed to get myself surfed over the barrier and walked down the central aisle with a full view of Rage all to myself with no crowd. Needless to say I walked slowly. The exit back into the crowd was right at the front of the stage, so that's the direction I went, and rocked out the whole time. as soon as I was back outside the barriers, I pushed directly into the crowd right at the front stage and stayed there for 5 or 6 songs, but eventually it was too much, too many large angry guys pushing around and falling on your head to really watch the show with any kind of enjoyment. Once again I someone got myself surfed out of the crowd, enjoyed a short view of the band unobstructed until security had me moving out to the crowd (I'd really like to thank that guy who threw the bottle of water on me as I walk past..that was a godsend..so hot in that pit). I managed find the Aussie friend of Corinne's (and I guess mine) Mike back near the very first fence near the sound stage, and enjoyed the rest of the show from there, luckily still in a group of people who were very actively enjoying the show.

I have to say..being a part of that...was amazing. And I think if I hadn't tried to get to the very front...I may have regretted it for a loooong long time.

Monday morning around 5am, since no one could sleep, we packed up and left back for Vancouver. It was a great drive, good weather, good tunes, good people. Only thing that went wrong was when Mike forgot to put the gas (petrol) cap back in the tank. Do they not use those in Oz? So we drove most of the way back to Vancouver without one. oops.

ok, so now, what is my title about? a sarcastic praise of our digital age?
well, really it's about the amount of people and cameras that I see throughout concerts I go to these days. It seems that people can't just go and watch a show anymore, or snap a couple of photos. With digital technology you can take as many as you want, instantly deleting the ones that suck. Well, whatever happened to watching with your own eyes and capturing the memory in your brain? Not to be labeled as a hypocrite, I have absolutely no problem with a few pictures here and there, I took a few myself when i could, but I didn't hold my camera up in the air for the entire concert. I think the worst example was during the black Keys. some guy (kid) in front of me was basically recording the whole show on his camera, switching out cards when one was full. While I appreciate that this is how I get to see bootleg recordings of bands...I think it's shitty to watch a show through the screen on his camera as it's right in front of my face.

Dear concert-Goers,

Take a couple shots, record key moments, but for [insert deity here]'s sake, put the fucking thing away at some point and just enjoy the music for yourself. I'm tired of watching shows through camera screens, and worse yet, camera phones. Fuck camera phones.

Thanks,
Alex


That said, thanks mike for the (short) video and photos from Rage (only a few, because he didn't over do it!)