By Phil Gallo

Is Desert Trip blowing its wad this weekend and next or is it possible this gathering of boomer-era tribes has a future as a franchise?

There’s not a working band from the 1960s with an audience reach stronger than the six acts Paul Tollett has booked for the initial “oldchella”; Roger Waters and Paul McCartney still fill stadiums, and The Rolling Stones have spent the last three decades deftly touring to maximize profit, fan accessibility and surprise factors. The Who, Bob Dylan and Neil Young are consistent concert attractions, and both have been well-received on their most recent tours.

But where to go next? Goldenvoice is out of superstar options from the 1960s. Sure, it would be nice to see Led Zeppelin reprise the O2 show of a few years ago, but they already turned down an eight-figure payday to perform at the first edition.

Desert Trip II would have to move into the 1970s. There’s a guy named Springsteen whose presence on a bill could drive the whole enterprise.

Beyond the power of Bruce, the biggest act from the era still together is obviously Fleetwood Mac, who could certainly headline one of the days, and a double bill with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers would make excellent sense. It’s easily as close to the spirit of the booking for the next two weekends as we’re likely to see.

Making that the starting point, Goldenvoice would need to fill the bill with acts that possess cultural relevance akin to Dylan and Young: Paul Simon, Van Morrison and Cat Stevens seem to be the logical choices. A bonus is that Simon has said he intends to stop touring in the near future, Stevens has been returning with a light schedule and VanMo has a band together for a current tour behind his new release.

Another artist reportedly on the brink of retirement is Eric Clapton, who could potentially headline, but is most likely an opener. What if Tollett worked his magic and reunited Clapton with Steve Winwood to play Blind Faith and Traffic songs or pair Slowhand with Derek Trucks for a 21st century version of Derek and the Dominos? Beats having to hear “Lay Down Sally” for the zillionth time.

And in the spirit of Waters’ tour of The Wall, it would be great to get another act to do an album—or two—in full. Steely Dan is playing Aja and Countdown to Ecstasy in their upcoming Beacon Theatre run in New York; why not add them? And considering how well ELO’s shows were received in New York and LA, why not get Jeff Lynne to reprise those shows in the desert?

One thing Coachella has become famous for is being a launching pad for reunions. Could they reunite Ray and Dave Davies? Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck? Stewart and Ron Wood? Faces and Kinks reunions have to be on more bucket lists than mine. I’d add Talking Heads to that reunion list, but were that to pass, it would more likely occur at April’s Coachella. And it’s not far-fetched to think The Kinks or Faces would fare better at Coachella.

Desert Trip II would also be a prime place to see the Eagles concept Don Henley fantasized about in a recent interview: Henley, Jackson Browne, Glenn Frey’s son, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit. But as he said in the interview, which has been widely misquoted, everyone has their own project their working on.

Unlike this year, though, the lineups need more than two acts per night.

And since this is all about nostalgia, let’s return to the days of Bill Graham’s Fillmore Auditoriums and go with triple bills. How perfect would this be:

Day 1: Fleetwood Mac/Eric Clapton with Steve Winwood & Derek Trucks/

Van Morrison

Day 2: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band/Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers/Cat Stevens

Day 3: ELO/Paul Simon/Steely Dan

Now you can start singing “Dear Mr. Fantasy.”