IT HAS BEEN AT LEAST FIVE YEARS since I last picked up a pen to write an article for any publication; after attending last weekend’s much-ballyhooed Stage Coach Country 2008 Music Festival in Indio (promoted by veteran SoCal company Goldenvoice), I felt compelled to speak about what took place.
I’m a rock n’ roll old-‘ster that has attended (actually, as a longtime, onetime music journalist, covered and reviewed) concert events as far-reaching and notable as the Jamaica World Music Festival (1984), Monsters Of Rock (1988), many Lollapaloozas and countless music festivals both in SoCal and back East where I’m originally from. That said, I was nonetheless excited to check out the stellar three-day lineup (Eagles, John Fogerty, Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts, et al) as well as being able to get out of L.A. for a weekend.
GETTING THERE was half the battle! Starting from the South Bay, we departed around 4 p.m. Friday – which, as anyone from Southern California knows, is the worst time of the day to drive L.A.’s always-crowded freeways!! From the 405 (called that because, as anyone knows, it takes 4 or 5 hours to get anywhere when you’re driving on it) we connected to I-10, which was just as bad almost all the way through the San Gabriel Valley. Only stopping for a quick Tommy’s burger stop and one for gas, we finally arrived in Indio at approximately 9 p.m. and began to see signs for the Festival along the main drag in the town (Monroe Ave.). Of course, we had a line of cars also trying to get to the festival in front of us that stretched as far as the eye could see. After what seemed to be a good half-hour, we finally were ushered into a parking lot that I knew was nowhere near Stage Coach’s Main Stage just by the amount of driving we had done.
I was soon to find out just HOW far: Our lot was at least a half-mile from the entrance to the facility; worse yet, there were no shuttle buses provided to get people to and from the many parking lots. With all the money the promoters made – tickets for the three-day event were priced at over $200.00 a piece for general admission, and over $500.00 each for V.I.P. seating – how hard would it have been for them to provide shuttles to and from the parking lots? By the Grace of God, we got there in time to catch the Eagles set, and they were terrific (even unpredictable guitarist Joe Walsh brought his A-game that night!).After the show, we had a bit of a tizzy finding our vehicle, as we had rushed in when we got there so as not to miss the Eagles set. Big mistake – we couldn’t tell one lot from the other, and it took close to an hour to find our car. Yikes!!!!
Saturday provided a much more difficult challenge: Making the half-mile-and-more trek from parking lot to venue in the desert heat, which even by 12 noon was already close to the 90 degree mark. All I can remember thinking as we trudged the long distance in the heat, folding stadium chairs flung over our shoulders in tow, with all the other poor souls -- many of whom, I should point out, were either youngsters and/or older folks, since this was billed as a family event – was, “am I going to make it out of this event in one piece”? In the heat, the long line of people resembled more of a Tibetan Death March than anything else. We luckily flagged down one of the too-few Bike-N-Carriage riders who you could hire for prices ranging from 10-20 dollars, to take us the remaining part of the way to the venue.
Once there, Stage Coach was a sight to behold: At least 20,000-30,000 people spread out over the mass confines of the Empire Polo Grounds, enjoying music on three stages along with a huge assortment of food, clothing, and souvenir vendors (did I mention the humongous Beer Garden area?). It all made for a mini-Woodstock-style environment, and people there were as friendly as any large concert crowd I can recall being among. Staying out of the blazing heat (and avoiding being sunburned by the unrelenting desert sun) was the biggest challenge, which we succeeded pretty well at doing (and the cold beers we chugged didn’t hurt ?). I really enjoyed The Judds reunion, and they did a cool cover of Foreigner’s “I’ve Been Waiting.” Worst Act of the Day: Teeny-Bopper country sensation Taylor Swift, who sounded like a little girl when she “sang” (and much younger than her 17 years of age), and was off-key during her entire set.At the end of the day, it came time to make “The March” again back to our vehicle, with souvenirs (Stage Coach sweatshirt, Coffee Mug, Cowboy hat, etc.) in hand, we were now grizzled veterans; we promptly (and luckily) flagged down a Bike-N-Carriage rider, who took us all the way from venue to parking lot for only ten bucks – by far, the best deal of an otherwise expen$ive day at Stage Coach.
In summation: Stage Coach is a great concept and wonderful time that was only soured by the promoter’s failure to provide shuttle buses to and from the venue to the parking lot and back. That, however, was a big blunder that will hopefully not be repeated in future Stage Coach shows, which there surely will be.
