The following is purely speculation that derives from an extremely naive state of wishful thinking, but, goddamnit, it’s possible. Hear me out:

According to a story-post on the festival’s official Instagram account, an unknown Desert Daze affiliate/organizer attended the highly exclusive Grizzly Bear show Wednesday night at the Moroccan Lounge in Los Angeles; a relatively small venue with a mere 275 person capacity. This particularly intimate performance comes as an anomaly for a band of this caliber, who sold out a night at The Wiltern Theatre (1,850 cap) within a few days of the tickets going on sale. The show was announced alongside a sister date at the Zebulon just two weeks prior to the performance. This is seemingly a result of the band’s visit to LA for a late night talk show performance on Jimmy Kimmel (an important detail in the investigation that I will call upon later).

None of this seems like it has any relevance to a Desert Daze secret lineup addition until you take’s a look at the fine print written in said Instagram story. The aforementioned culprit responsible for this show-offy update felt inclined to include a caption that reads, “@grizzlybear was incredible last night. Thank you Ed and crew! See you soon” with a motherfucking WINKY FACE EMOJI!

I understand that a simple ‘see you soon’ could mean a number of things… maybe they are hanging out with the band this weekend; maybe they have tickets to the Wiltern shows in December, or maybe…just maybe… they will be performing in Joshua Tree for a secret set in October. What’s with the winky face, bro? Either y’all want to fuck each other, OR, you have a secret you are hiding. A secret that cannot yet be disclosed, but can be hinted towards for overly-speculative assholes like me to pick up on.

After the initial ear-perking Instagram discovery, I immediately stifled my irrational hypothesis as I thought to myself, “Nah, they can’t be playing. They’re out touring all around the world right now.” But here’s where my unsubstantiated theory gains a little traction.

Grizzly Bear’s tour makes an abrupt stop on October 13th in the Netherlands, the first day of Desert Daze weekend, and doesn’t resume until November 1st in Boston. If we’re talking about a possible DD appearance, this leaves at least a full day of travel for the band to return to LA, where they can then make the short 3-hour commute to J-Tree to close out the festival on Sunday night.

Why is there a break in their tour this early on? It just started, doesn’t seem to me that the band would be worn out or tired enough to necessitate a break. Perhaps they need the time to make more TV appearances or utilize other promotional efforts in LA for their new album, Painted Ruins? And during that downtime, maybe put on another one-off show, JUST LIKE THEY DID EARLIER THIS WEEK!  I don’t know, seems fishy to me.

It would also serve as a perfect last-ditch effort to push more tickets out on the festival’s end. Despite their incredibly unique and impressive line-up, the micro-festival still has yet to sell out. Dropping a name like Grizzly Bear when they release the set times a week before the festival’s commencement could easily boost them over that edge.

I will continue my investigation and add any updates as I see fit. However, we shall know the real verdict soon anyway.