Backstage before a concert this past weekend, two men huddled closely to their respective bottles of beer making small talk. They did not know each other. One man, largely unkempt, was the bass player in the opening band about to go on. The other was there to see the headliner.

The man who was there to see the headliner asked the bass player what he usually did before he went on stage. The bass player replied, “Usually, I fuck,” then looked up from his beer with an empty, open, and inquisitive gaze.

Suddenly the bass player appeared as he really was: a wet ox in heat. It was monsoon season and he was ready.

There was silence for a bit and the man who was there to see the headliner said, “So when is you all’s next show?” The bass player said nothing. He put his down his beer, went onstage, and played his set.

This year I’ll be attending my first Coachella Festival, which means three days in the California desert watching the likes of headliners Bjork, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine, but also the more hip of college and indie radio, including The Black Keys, Of Montreal, Rodrigo y Gabriela, The Roots, Amy Winehouse, Peaches and Kings of Leon.

A few things strike me as a make last minute preparations for the trip. 1) No band looks cool once you’ve wandered through their MySpace—reading the Kings of Leon MySpace, for example, makes me think that they’re trying to psyche up for a forthcoming high school reunion. 2) Didn’t we need Rage Against the Machine in 2004? Explaining their reunion, Tom Morello told NME that “"It occurred to all of us that the times were right to see if we can knock the Bush administration out in one fell swoop, and we hope to do that job well.” 3) In a few hours, I’ll be watching bands I’ve been listening to for years, (through albums, not, mercifully, their MySpace pages), but I’ll be seeing these icons in the unforgiving California sun while lining up for bottled water. There’s something geeky and pure in that.

You might've noticed a new strip running in The Stranger's comics section; Jon Fischer's Concerted digs into the latent comedy of the live-showgoing experience. This week we start running the strip in Line Out, too. Enjoy.