Almost exactly a year after Coachella closed in 2025, Post Malone returned to Indio's Empire Polo Club on Sunday night to headline the final night of last weekend's Stagecoach festival.
“Who's thirsty tonight, ladies and gentlemen?” he asked shortly after the show: the way Malone introduced his song “Pour Me a Drink,” for which he opened a can of his beloved Bud Light by smashing it against his head.
Stylistically, Malone's 90-minute set was in line with the shows he's been playing since releasing his first official country album, “F-1 Trillion,” in 2024; The sound was brilliant, Nashville-style, provided by a top-notch group of musicians, including violinists and background singers.
He made “What Don't Belong to Me” and “Wrong Ones,” both from “F-1 Trillion,” as well as that album's hit single, “I Had Some Help,” for which Malone got a little help from Shaboozey, who appeared at the end of the song to shout a few lines in the chorus. (On the recording, “I Had Some Help” features Morgan Wallen, whom Malone quickly made clear had not made the trip to the desert.)
Malone also offered country renditions of some of his older songs, including “Circles” (it's his favorite form, he noted), “Rockstar” and “Sunflower,” which sounded especially lovely in this rootsy setting. And he did a ton of covers, including “Give It Away” (the George Strait hit, not the Red Hot Chili Peppers one), Garth Brooks’ “Rodeo,” and John Michael Montgomery’s “I Swear.”
Guests? Malone brought out Jake Worthington and Braxton Keith, not exactly the high-octane names some Stagecoachers might have been expecting. And while the show was perfectly competent, it definitely had a cash-the-check vibe, as if Malone was doing as little work as possible to satisfy his commitment.
It closed with another cover: the once-controversial “Courtesy of Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” by Toby Keith. But while Keith found a complicated mix of pride and outrage in his original (an indelible work of post-9/11 American art), Malone seemed happy to let people think what they wanted about his choice: Maybe he was taking a risk; maybe he was looking for something else safe.
