Ron and Kathy's Mid Life Adventures: Rock On!

Ariel view from a drone (not our photo)

As we soak in the brisk autumn air at an Ashland campground, this post is hard to write because we don’t know how to summarize last weekend’s Desert Trip rock concert in Indio, CA. Four days later, we’re still in awe of the whole experience, basking in a warm happy glow. It will be a weekend we will always remember as one of the most fun and joyous things we have ever done. We’ve been to over 150 symphonies, two dozen operas and many musicals, but probably only about five rock concerts. So this was quite a new experience for us.

Cooling off in the
Beer Tent

Nick Jagger of the Stones called it "OldChella" and the “See them before they croak festival.” The Wall Street Journal called it the “Biggest, Oldest, Over-the-Top Rock Festival Ever.” We have to agree. Spread over two weekends, each with 75,000 attendees, it was huge and quite an experience to share with 74,998 other people from all over the world in a big state of happiness.

Pre-concert fun with
CA and OR friends

However, unless you count the performers (average age 72.4), it probably wasn’t the oldest, as about 80% of the attendees were younger than us, many of them under 40. The festival grossed $160 million before concessions --$10 for a Coors, (much more for Oregon microbrews), $16 Wandering Angus ciders, $10 ice cream cones, $40 T-shirts.

We stayed at a very nice RV park about three miles away, which swelled to near capacity as other attendees arrived Thursday afternoon, in 94⁰+ heat. We’re really glad we didn’t stay in the crowded official campground right on the polo grounds with all of its dust, rules, and booze rationing. (We would have needed to relinquish our treasure Reno purchases if we had stayed.)

Young Mick Jagger inspecting
new Dylan Albun

Roger Daltry
(The Who)

The venue outside of the performance area itself was HUGE, to coin a Trump phrase. It was a 3/4-mile walk from the shuttle bus drop off the entrance. Lots of food booths, countless beers on tap, 1000 toilets, and above all, a fascinating photography exhibit with hundreds of photos of the performers from their early days.

This is just half the audience

The performance area, under the sunset and the moon rise, was magical. We had decent grandstand seats, but as symphony patrons, we weren’t used to the spilled beer, the people coming and going, standing up blocking our view, and the smell of pot and cigarette smoke drifting our way.

The highlights were the performers, except for Bob Dylan. He totally sucked! What a reclusive jerk, who never even once acknowledged the audience. (We heard that the first weekend was worse—glad we didn’t hear him last week!).

The Rolling Stones before the fireworks

The Stones knocked it out of the park and more than made up for Dylan’s dismal performance. Mick Jagger struts like he was 30. Charlie Watts, rarely smiled, but kept the hard-driving beat going. Keith Richards, in spite of the jokes about him, was at the top of his game. We can only wish to be that talented and fit at that age.

Neil Young's stage

The second night featured Neil Young and Paul McCartney. We aren’t huge Neil Young fans, but he surprised us and everyone with his energy and the well-done visuals on the screen the size of a football field. Paul, was simply fabulous, and Kathy’s first choice. He went for 2.5 hours with old Beatles favorites and more recent stuff. He added context to many of the songs, providing us with some history that added new meaning to the songs. His drummer was fantastic. Rhianna joined him for a tune, but the highlight was the encore when Neil joined him for Give Peace a Chance, A Day in the Life, and Why Don't We Do it in the Road, breaking strings near the end.

Paul & Neil young

The third night featured The Who and Roger Waters (formerly Pink Floyd). I think The Who was my favorite of the three days. Their visuals totally synced with their high-energy music. Pink Floyd was a stoner mellow, and the older Canadian couple in front of us asked us if we had a joint to share (we didn’t). Their graphics were spectacular, and I read somewhere that they could be seen from space. Some press accounts said that Roger Waters plowed much of his $20 million paycheck into the production--it showed! It included a gigantic anti-Trump inflatable pig, and some of his political statements got a little old. We left at the encore.

Pink Floyd Set

Pink Floyd's many sets

Everyone was in a good mood, and unbelievably polite. The event was extremely well-organized and well-staffed. And speaking of staff, every one of them from the janitors to the security guards, to the ushers, to the food servers were models of friendly service that would challenge that of Nordstroms.

The Stanford mansion. in Sacramento. We toured this and the
state capitol with Cindy Brockway, Kathy's Assistance
League friend and former board member.

We did this on a whim, but like some of the best things in our lives have been the result of a whim. It was three days of sleep deprivation, energy, hot weather, euphoria, and community. It was three days we’ll always remember with fondness. If you see us next week with a distant look in our eyes, we're still there. Rock on!