Joe Lester used to hear the desert's legendary bands at house parties and generator parties while attending Indio High School in the early 1990s.

He went to Mario Lalli Jr.'s Rhythm 'n Brews nightclub in Indio and heard “amazing” music — “everything from the Riverside-era ska bands to all kinds of crazy stuff” during its two-year life span.

Most amazing of all, he heard Pearl Jam play at the Empire Polo Club his senior year in high school in 1993.

“A friend of mine's family owned a date farm that backed right up to the polo field and half of my friends snuck in over the fence,” Lester recalled. “That was the big thing. Everyone my age was like, ‘Dude! We've been dying out here and now there's a huge concert.'”

Lester played guitar in a garage band. Like many, he couldn't wait to graduate to get out of the desert. He went to UCLA and played bass in a band called Pine Martin.

Then, in 1999, the strangest thing happened. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival came to Indio. He thought, “My mom lives 10 minutes from there. Why couldn't this have been happening when I was in high school?”

Eight years later, Lester returned to Coachella as keyboard player for one of L.A.'s hottest up-and-coming bands, the Silversun Pickups.

They'll make their second appearance tonight on the Outdoor Theater, their set ending just before Paul McCartney takes the Stage.

After two years of world tours to support their critically acclaimed “Carnavas” CD, and an eagerly anticipated sequel, “Swoon,” out this week, the Silversun Pickups are hot.

But Lester and the band still view fame like the local bands he grew up with did.

“We've never been one of those bands where, ‘We've got to write a three and a half-minute pop song to be a hit,'” he explained from his Silverlake district home in L.A. “We just came together because we were a bunch of friends. This is the music that came out when the four of us sat in together. I mean, all of our songs are like seven minutes long.”

Each band member was excited about playing Coachella in 2007. “That was one of the first really big festivals we played and we got to play on the main stage,” Lester said. “The g-normousness of it was awe inspiring. We had a lot of fun.

“The artist area is like a mobile home park with the little picket fences. We're sitting in the back having a beer and, ‘Oh, look, Amy Winehouse is climbing a tree! Wow, that's weird.' She and her husband were climbing a palm tree in their front yard. The whole experience was kind of odd.”

It was especially exciting for Lester. His mother, a counselor at Indio Middle School, and desert friends were in the audience. “My mom was all excited that we were playing in town,” said Lester. “It was kind of surreal because I had been to the polo field before and we actually were playing. Sunday, before Willie Nelson played, we went to my mom's and went swimming, walked back and went to the show.”