Every spring term, I have the choice of whether or not to squeeze an ultra fun trip to Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival into my midterms weekend. Of course, if I do, I have plenty of work to make up when I come back, but hopefully the experience of seeing all my favorite bands at once is more than worth it.

Coachella is a two-to-three day weekend in the desert where rock bands, DJs, and other big name performers play for the whole entire day. Typically, the number of attendees reaches upwards of 25,000 people. Where do you put that many people, plus four performance stages, eatery areas, shade tents, film tents, life-size art pieces, etc? A polo field!

Yes, nothing like acres and acres of flat grass to have a weekend party for 25,000. Coachella has been often compared to the Woodstock of yore; in fact, in its inaugural year, it was the "anti-Woodstock," promising to make up for the shortcomings and disastrous happenings of Woodstock '99.

Thanks to Coachella creator and front man of Jane's Addiction, Perry Farrell, Coachella always seems to boast the best lineups of the year. In the past, it's had Bjork, The Strokes, Weezer, The Cure (who had not officially played as a band since the 80s), Kraftwerk, Coldplay, Radiohead, The Chemical Brothers, and the list goes on.

Furthermore, Coachella seems to have the magical power of reuniting legendary bands like The Pixies and most recently, Rage Against the Machine.

This year, due to my stupidly full schedule and unwillingness to fork over hundreds of dollars for a three-day pass, I decided to come to a compromise and go for one out of the three days, specifically, on Saturday. The big headliner for Day 2 was the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a band I've never seen in concert, but have heard marvelous things about.

After driving two plus hours into the desert of Indio, California without air conditioning (to prevent overheating the engine and to save on fuel), at 1 PM, I arrived at Coachella a sweatier, crankier version of myself. We waited in line for a very short amount of time and were checked through security very quickly, compared to the previous Coachella that I went to. They didn't even fight to take away my water bottleÑa point they made very clear to do in 2004. I'm guessing that the event planners did a better job streamlining the process over the years, and it was a nice change from the hour-long lines from last time.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers weren't scheduled to go on until near the end of the evening, so my boyfriend and I had plenty of time to kill. There were plenty of lesser-known acts to explore, so we moved from tent to tent in the horrendous heat to watch DJ Steve Aoki, DJ Heather, The Frames, and a few others.

Another cool thing was this station where you could charge your cell phone by riding a bicycle-powered charger! It was part of a power-conservation themed exhibit that had solar panels and other stuff to look at. I would have tried the bikes out but exercise in the desert seemed like a really bad idea. To be frank, the heat was killerÑperhaps I wasn't well prepared, but I felt fainty every now and then; and it wasn't helped much by the sweaty, "wet butt" smell of the audiences in the stage tents. So goes the Coachella experience.

At dinnertime, I settled on a veggie burrito that turned out to be a big mistake. Festival food is questionable at best, but my "better judgment" said, ÔYes, go ahead and eat that burrito that has been sitting on that table in the warm sun for a very long time. It costs seven dollars, you will be fine.' The next few hours were accompanied by a headache and the plaguing urge to *reject* my dinner, which ended when I finally stopped by the first aid tent for Tylenol. Hooray, best time ever.

Fast forward to evening, I was finally feeling normal again, and it was right in time for the Chili Peppers. Now, being the tamed concert-goer than I am, I no longer seek the "pit" area of the concert to get kicked, punched, and pushed by my sweaty "pit" neighbors. I'm happy to say that I've outgrown my desire to get within spitting distance of the rock band, and get pummeled in the process.

Instead, I was satisfied to stand a distance away from the stage, but still in good view of the stage and the very useful jumbo-tron screen.

From my view, I enjoyed a very good RHCP concert, which started with "Can't Stop" from their 2002 album, By The Way. I think one of the great things about watching a more seasoned band like the Chili Peppers play is that they have a large range of songs to pick from for their playlist and they can't seem to do any wrong with pleasing their audience. They lack the self-conscious rambling between songs that many younger bands will exhibit, and they don't get bent up over small snafus, like a wrong note here or there.

In other words, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have ascended into a zen of performance-dom, where the day to day rigors of touring, the labor of rehearsals, and the rigmarole of sound checks don't seem to take the toll that they used to.

They float on the philosophy of music for music's sake. For example, when they played their first hit "Under the Bridge" from 1991, I was thrilled to hear it from the first chord to the last, just as they were thrilled to be playing it.

This would be analogous to the current-day Radiohead playing their song "Creep", or the late-stage Beatles playing "I Want to Hold Your Hand"Ñbands just don't want to play their first hit because it's boring for them and they will probably have requests to play that song until they die. It's a paradigm of how some bands may have a more self-centered attitude about playing to their audience, in contrast to a band like the Chili Peppers, who have the audience as their main concern. It seems to me that they really relish the act of playing music together, no matter what the song is and if this is the 3000th time they've played it.

The concert was superb. World-famous bassist, Flea, was ultra-friendly and chatted with the audience, even ruining a joke and getting embarrassed about it.

Singer Anthony Kiedis, although now rotund and adorned with a facial hair style made popular by 1970s pornography, was as energetic and glowing in his performance. I have to admit that the most interest I had in the Red Hot Chili Peppers before this concert was minimalÑI've never bought their CD, or anythingÑbut I can appreciate their musical talent.

But in a brief hour and a half of watching them perform, I understand why the Chili Peppers have kept a huge, and still-expanding fan base and have gained a timeless reputation for being one of the world's greatest bands.

Someday in the future when I have grandkids that listen to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I can brag to them that I once saw the Chili Peppers live in concert. Yes! Put a check next to future Cool-Grandma status!