Coachella 2012: In pursuit of Oberhofer
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At Coachella, sometimes the bands you remember best are the bands you missed. With more than 100 musicians playing during a three-day period, it’s easy to find yourself running toward a stage just as a particular artist -- whom you really, really love and swore you wouldn’t miss -- is saying goodnight.
Which is exactly what happened Sunday as my friend Emily and I found ourselves stuck in traffic in our tiny red rental Fiat, trying to catch the indie band Oberhofer’s 1 p.m. set.
COACHELLA 2012 | Full coverage
It’s not that we didn’t get up early enough. We did. It’s just that the act of getting ready for Coachella on a super-hot day is a feat in itself. There is the long shower, the decision to be made about how many -- or how few -- clothes to wear, and whether a swimsuit underneath is appropriate. There is the whining about how hard it is to eat breakfast when it’s so hot, and the debate about what kind of traffic you might hit on your way there.
And then you blow it.
For us, missing Oberhofer was a tough pill to swallow. We had been listening to its CD, ‘Time Capsules II,’ on repeat since we drove to the desert Friday. The band’s name is the surname of lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Brad Oberhofer, who has barely cracked drinking age, if at all. But his inexperience only makes his tragedy-tinged love ballads all the more poignant.
Your heart breaks best -- and most -- when you’re still very young, and if you happen to be Oberhofer, you know how to write about the experience in a way that makes grown women cry.
Which is exactly what we did when we realized we would miss his early set. We’ll catch you next time, Oberhofer. We’ll never be uber, over, Oberhofer.
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-- Jessica Gelt
