The first weekend of the 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival concluded after a wild close by Doja Cat on Sunday night.
Whether you want to catch up on the weekend's highlights or are planning to head to the Empire Polo Club to catch the festival's encore this coming weekend, here are the things worth highlighting from the latest edition of the long-running festival.
The strangest set of the weekend: Doja Cat
Doja Cat's set began with her dressed in a hazmat suit rapping furiously over a sample of the 10cc soft rock classic “I'm Not in Love” and had her dancing in an extremely long blonde wig in the middle of a tribe. of Yetis; featured a giant dinosaur skeleton operated by puppeteers and culminated in her mud wrestling with a group of dancers wearing safety glasses while she rapped her song “Wet Vagina” in the finale, where one might have expected her big pop hit “Say So” (which he never actually did).
This had to be one of the strangest sets to ever happen at Coachella, and that includes Frank Ocean's meta show from last year. —Mikael Madera
Tyler, the Creator headlines the second night of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Saturday.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
Craziest scenario: Tyler, the Creator
What did one of the wildest live artists of his era do for his headlining performance Saturday night? How about fighting a giant sheep puppet, getting torn across the stage in a fake windstorm, and delivering top-notch guest artists for a career-spanning set that demonstrates your unique place in music history? The Angels? – August brown
Best way to avoid the long walk to and from the parking lot: Lana Del Rey
Ten years after her last visit to the desert, Lana Del Rey headlined Night 1 of this year's Coachella festival with an almost radically languid performance that reminded just how singular a figure she is in modern pop music: a slow-motion balladeer with a high-pitched , agitated voice and a deeply bookish lyrical approach. She wanders around a set designed to look like a run-down “Sunset Boulevard”-style mansion, after arriving on stage on the back of a motorcycle. She left in the same way. — megawatts
No Doubt performs at Coachella.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
The best reunion of the 90s that we expected: without a doubt
No Doubt, the beloved Anaheim ska-punk band that broke out with 1995's “Tragic Kingdom” and turned Gwen Stefani into a major pop star before breaking up in 2015, returned to a hero's welcome at Coachella on Saturday. the night. As for the repertoire, the band stuck to the classics – “Hella Good”, “Ex-Girlfriend”, “Underneath It All”, “Spiderwebs” – and turned to the devastating “Total Hate '95” (originally a duet with Sublime) Nowell) and for a cover of “One Step Beyond” by Madness. — megawatts
Ms. Lauryn Hill makes an appearance during YG Marley's set at Coachella on Sunday.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
The best reunion of the 90s that we didn't expect: Fugees at YG Marley
It's no surprise that YG Marley brought his mother, Ms. Lauryn Hill, to join him on stage, but the addition of Wyclef Jean and a handful of Fugees hits that follow create a frenzy among the crowd, who effortlessly they recite every word of “Killing Me Softly,” “Ready or Not,” and “No Woman, No Cry.” —Danielle Dorsey
E for Effort: Sabrina Carpenter
The sun was still high on Friday when she performed, but Carpenter had already put more effort into her performance than some of Coachella's headliners. She took the stage in front of a blue highway motel with a room destroyed by a car accident, plus a dozen backup dancers, a full rock band behind them and a stage worthy of a stadium finale. . Clearly, she learned from the best as a recent opener for Taylor Swift's Eras tour. -AB
J Balvin performs at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Sunday.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
The most out of this world set: J Balvin
What could make J Balvin's intergalactic set filled with neon lasers, alien heads, and chrome spaceships feel even more out of this world? How about a cameo of Will Smith coming out and rapping the song “Men In Black” like it's 1997? -Nate Jackson
The Aquabats will perform during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Saturday.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
Best use of pool floats: Aquabats
The Aquabats' Saturday turn at the Sound Tent may be one of the most fun in the festival's history. The costumed ska-punk band began with “Pool Party,” complete with beach balls thrown into the crowd. Then the “Yo Gabba Gabba” creatures appeared. And when the band played “Pizza Day,” at least four giant floats filled with pizza slices were thrown into the crowd. —Vanessa Franko
Most unexpected guest appearance: Paris Hilton with Vampire Weekend
The band's set mixed old songs from Vampire Weekend and some new, more complicated tunes from their just-released fifth album, “Only God Was Above Us.” An unlikely guest appearance during the set: Paris Hilton, who showed up to play a round of cornhole while the veteran indie-rock band did a country version of their “Married in a Gold Rush.” “I haven't played this game since 'The Simple Life,'” the reality TV personality said, referring to her mid-2000s series with Nicole Richie. — megawatts
The celebrity everyone predicted: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce in Bleachers
Taylor Swift appeared, not as a performer but as a fan, to attend a set by her producer Jack Antonoff's band. The pop superstar and her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, stood (singing and clapping) at the side of the stage at the Mojave Tent as Bleachers performed a characteristically lush set of their post-Springsteen rock. — megawatts
Featherweight performs at Coachella on Friday.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
The unexpected history lesson of Mexican music: Peso Pluma
Towards the end of Peso Pluma's set, he went beyond traditional acoustics. runs to be inspired by the forceful reggaetón and the muscular Latin rap. But he ended the show with a historical introduction of sorts, celebrating the names and faces of some of the greats of Mexican music, including Chalino Sánchez, Joan Sebastian and Ariel Camacho, in front of the enormous Coachella audience. — megawatts
The set that reminded you that, at its core, Coachella is about music: Jon Batiste
The singer's set evoked the early days of Coachella, before it was experienced as a series of Instagram moments, when it was more about letting yourself be moved by the music. Batiste transformed the elementary school chant “If You're Happy and You Know It” into “When the Saints Go Marching In” and then brought hip-hop legend Juvenile onstage for “Back That Azz Up.” Batiste also debuted a new song with Willow Smith, a fun, upbeat, Afrobeats-tinged single that showcases Smith's young soprano ahead of the release of her newly announced project “Empathogen.” —D.D.
The surprise guest who could headline Coachella 2025: Shakira
He may not have been a Coachella headliner this year, but judging by the roars at his surprise set with Argentinian DJ Bizarrap at the Sahara Tent, he might as well have been. His churning trap and hard house were already the dance music highlight of the night, but his cut with Shakira – “BZRP Music Sessions Vol. 53”, an all-time firefight against his ex, who will never recover, was a phenomenon, and he performed it here with a vengeance that earned him the main stage very soon. – A.B.
Chappell Roan performs during the first day of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
Best flex we heard this weekend: Chappell Roan
“This one's for my ex because, bitch, I know you're watching.” That's how Chappell Roan (with long red hair falling over a T-shirt that said “EAT ME”) performed “My Kink Is Karma” near the end of his electrifying performance at the Gobi store. And she was probably right: This proudly theatrical pop singer is on a serious rise right now, having released her acclaimed debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” and wrapping up an opening concert on the current tour. by Olivia Rodrigo. . — megawatts
Most interesting new addition: Quasar Stage
Quasar is 55 feet tall, 235 feet wide and its screens have 660 LED panels and was designed for longer DJ sets.
Late in Michael Bibi's set on Saturday night, the screens looked like kaleidoscopic insect wings as he dropped Nirvana's “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” They then transformed into a beautiful stained glass pattern that looked almost like a church, but still pulsed to the beat. — V.F.
