The Big 4

I'm still at a loss to explain what it is about Indio which drew Slayer, Megadeth, Metallica and Anthrax to the Empire Polo Club to perform. Not that there's anything wrong with Indio, but there's a reason that so few people go there. There's not exactly a list of things that you could point to that would put it on the map.

Not that the Empire Polo Club doesn't do its best to try. The place is huge, which I really didn't appreciate when I was driving down there. I've been to Indio a handful of times before and had visited a few local places but none of them the Polo Club. I think that I've been missing out. The facility is gigantic, much larger than any other concert event I've gone to before. I think the largest theater I've seen a show at was in Phoenix at the Sun Devil stadium, but this place could probably fit two "Sun Devils" back to back. It's perfect for a concert, especially one that drew the crowd that the Big 4 did.

I don't think I've ever seen so many tattered black t-shirts gathered together in once place before. It was really something to see.

Now this concert was taking place on 04-23, but that didn't mean that 04-20 wasn't still in full swing in the parking lot. The moment your car comes to a stop on the hard packed grass field, a wave of metallic smoke assaults you from all sides. The cloud hovered over the concert for most of the afternoon and didn't fully dissipate until about 10 miles out of town. If 7-11's ran out of Slurpee's in the greater Indio area for the next few weeks, I think I know the reason.

The only drawback to the concert was the sun which beat down all day. The concert gates opened at 2:00pm, which meant that I was broiling under the Southern California sun for hours before it finally went behind the mountains and gave the crowd some relief. I'm crispy today, but very happy. If there's one thing that is guaranteed to get the blood flowing it's listening to Metallica and Megadeth very, very loudly!