Traveling For Concerts

My friends and I often take trips all over the country to see the Red Sox. They're always fun, and it's awesome seeing a different part of the country (even if it is just for one day). What I've always wanted to do though, is take a trip to see a concert in another part of the country. No one seems to be down for that. I'd want to see a country show down south, or a grunge show in Seattle. Or how about a cool indie show in New York or something? How awesome would it be to see a punk show in the UK? Maybe it's just me, but I think it would be awesome seeing music live in a place where it was born.

This year I'm kicking myself rather hard for not making a trip to Indio, CA to go to the annual Coachella festival. Looking at this year's line-up, and previous year's, it appears they always have a mostly stellar line-up. Noteables (for me at least) this year were:

April 27
Arctic Monkeys
Björk
Interpol
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Sonic Youth
Amy Winehouse


April 28
!!!
Arcade Fire
Blonde Redhead
The Decemberists
Ghostface Killah
The Good, the Bad and the Queen
LCD Soundsystem
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Regina Spektor


April 29
Air
CSS
Explosions in the Sky
Willie Nelson
Placebo
Rage Against the Machine
Ratatat
Damien Rice
The Roots

Seriously, how sick of a line-up is that? If it's even CLOSE to this good next year you can bet I'm definitely going. My question is, who wants to go with me? It will be a commitment, but it will also be one of the greatest concerts ever. There were a lot more bands that played that I'm just curious about, like the Kooks, Jose Gonzalez and Kings of Leon.

That's not the only awesome show I missed (or I will miss in 2 days). What about the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, TN? Another AWESOME line-up I would love to go and see. If it's good next year, I'm there, that's all there is to it. Check out my noteables from the line-up:

The Police
Tool
The White Stripes
Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
Wilco
The Flaming Lips
Franz Ferdinand
The Roots
Damien Rice
The Decemberists
Wolfmother
Regina Spektor
Aesop Rock
Dierks Bentley

What an awesomely ecclectic mix. Like I said, next year I'm just going to go. I need people to go with though so let me know.

The last festival I want to discuss is SXSW. I've heard of this festival but never really gave it much thought for some reason. Stupid me, because I'm missing another awesome show in Austin, TX. It was March 14 - 18 this year, and these are the noteables:

Scott Lucas of Local H
The Stooges
Kings of Leon
Interpol
Bloc Party
The Bravery
Armor for Sleep
Amy Winehouse
Badly Drawn Boy
Conference speakers included David Byrne (of the Talking Heads) and Pete Townshend (of The Who)


There are a lot of bands on there I am interested in, a lot I love, and a lot I've never heard of. I think it would have been a great place to hear them.


So in conclusion, next year I'm going to try to jet set around the country to go to these 3, provided they are at least HALF as good as they were this year. I can't believe I've been missing this!