I’m currently staring at five pages of notes and capsule reviews compiled over last weekend, when we broke out the projector and settled in for three straight nights of livestreams from the Coachella Valley. Somewhere along the way, however, I lost sight of what I truly appreciate about this event: watching artists from across the globe strive to show off their best stuff at the biggest content curation festival in the world, from the comfort of my living room. No sunscreen or specially acquired festival outfits required. No anxiety-inducing crowd crushes to navigate. Bathroom breaks at my leisure. Snacks and supplements galore. Couchella 2022.
The livestream for Coachella is historically a mess, but I’m sure I’m getting my money’s worth, regardless. Here are some random thoughts and notes from the performances I watched.
The Livestream
It’s pretty clear that the Coachella creative team had no cohesive concept design for their interstitial segments on the YouTube streams this year. Brief ‘documentary’ clips with superfans and those who have built careers around the festival play out in weird, fetishistic ways, and the overwhelming mood is that the last few years were a tragedy to anyone who was yearning for Indio in the spring. Poorly animated dancing cacti set to stock music loops are one thing, but interspersed with twee Scrabble and jigsaw puzzle bumpers and incessant ads for hair care products nearly made the moments between actual performance footage nearly unbearable. On top of that, most of the short artist interviews were dull and lifeless. A lot of time was spent on ensuring viewers understood the diversity of performers at Coachella in 2022, and for as well and good as that is, so little time was devoted to actually discussing their work that every artist was disenfranchised by the whole tepid exercise.
The Performances
Friday
Ari Lennox – caught the last half of her set while getting the projector set up. I don’t know any of her songs beyond “Shea Butter Baby,” but she appears to be a consummate professional.
Carly Rae Jepsen – Canadian national icon, natch. Bullshit that she was regulated to the tiny Mojave stage, but the crowd seemed primed for her in a way that was generally unmatched throughout the rest of the weekend (cheers to the dude screaming “CARLY SLAY JEPSEN!” right after her first song). Felt like I detected a bit of a drawl in her vocals early on, but it didn’t translate into a full folk outing on her new single like the artwork for “Western Wind” might have suggested (big Folklore vibes) – instead, that track was pure SoCal indie pop. Carly always seems to be having a blast with her band on stage, and it was wonderful to see that in this performance as well.
The Marias – yikes to the Britney Spears cover, but I was pretty into the rest of the set. According to their Spotify bio, the lead singer and drummer live on a commune in the Hollywood Hills, and yeah, they sound like they live on a commune in the Hollywood Hills.
Slowthai – CRJ’s set seemed plagued with in-ear monitor issues (or, at the very least, she kept adjusting them throughout), and it was clear from the jump that things weren’t technically working for Slowthai’s set – honestly, it felt like a lot of artists were plagued with tech issues throughout the weekend. It also seemed like a majority of the crowd was there for whoever was up after, so he got rude and lewd and (wisely) stacked the front half of his set with bangers, including several tracks from the A-side of TYRON (“Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury” braggadocio hits different on a sea of confused faces under the Gobi tent). Broke a wireless mic by slamming it against his forehead, absolute nightmare fuel for a sound tech. Closed his set, shirtless and frowning, with a solid performance of “Doorman,” then commanded his DJ to play Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” in its entirety. Legend.
Arcade Fire – so, full disclosure: I didn’t realize Win and Will were different people until I hit up their Wiki page during their set. It’s been a very long time since I’ve given any kind of shit about this band. My wife turned to me at one point: “You mean to tell me that Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem aren’t the same band?” Well, I’ve never seen them in the same place at the same time. Reflektor has been brutally (rightfully?) memoryholed, “Everything Now” and its ABBA worship are maybe the peak for this group, and I doubt I’ll muster the energy to be any sort of excited for their upcoming album.
Lil Baby – at this point we’re just waiting for Harry, but I liked the set design here.
Phoebe Bridgers – [snoring face emoji]
Louis The Child – this is when the psilocybin capsule started to kick in. Their Spotify bio says they’ve only recently started doing “live production” for their sets, which is hilarious. Hiring the whitest kids you know to DJ your foam party, I guess.
Harry Styles – Harry Fucking Styles, man. An icon-defining performance. Have to imagine that touring has taught him to keep his vocal register low; he successfully avoided every falsetto riff until his duets with Shania and saved the pipes to go off on set closer “Sign of the Times.” The whole thing was just completely infused with joy, and yet I couldn’t stop thinking about the trailer to Baz’s new Elvis biopic that we saw before Ambulance the other day, how dour and traumatic it all seemed… it was delightful to marvel in performance and spectacle and really fucking solid songwriting. Anyway. Always hitching up those pants, so many sequins. I love the new tracks, can’t wait for the album, and the four-track finale of “Late Night Talking” to “Watermelon Sugar” to “Kiwi” to “Sign of the Times” was sublime. This is Harry’s House, we’re all just living in it.
Saturday
Wallows – boring, competent, unengaging SoCal indie pop with the guy from 13 Reasons Why.
Emo Nite – I’m sure I know someone who is legitimately upset about this, but then again, I appreciate the bit where two dudes in Dickies shorts and bowling shirts emblazoned with the words “WE’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE” across the front play OG versions of My Chemical Romance songs for a sizable crowd. Which begs the question: why wasn’t Ye’s abandoned Sunday night slot offered to MCR? The mid-2000s shift where pop-punk and EDM began to collide was mostly awful, but the apex of that joint venture was Fall Out Boy’s “Young & Menace,” a track likely underplayed at emo ‘nites’ across this godforsaken country. In conclusion: Papa Roach is not emo.
Japanese Breakfast – the gong is fun! Band sounds just like the recordings, vibe lost after two songs.
Cuco – I’m bored.
88Rising – a bit disjointed but a solid sampler of the 88rising roster. Really enjoyed Milli’s energy and I support any song about mango sticky rice.
Rina Sawayama – my wife: “it’s giving Evanescence.” As for myself, I hold fewer roles in higher esteem than being part of a duo back-up dance crew for a pop star. Can imagine few things as exhausting as that requirement for constant movement. Rina’s lead guitarist has significant Soccer Mommy vibes.
Caroline Polachek – watched her perform the TikTok song.
Brockhampton – all good things must come to an end, indeed. Saturation heavy set for the OGs – not really my favorite parts of their discography, but allows for a slew of Dom verses (solo BH albums ranked by most excited to least excited for: Dom, Matt, Joba, Bearface, Merlyn). Still going hard on “DISTRICT” even though it always sounds like a clusterfuck live. We had tickets to see them locally before their tour was canceled, bringing the count for ‘albums we’ll never see toured’ to four (Roadrunner, Science Fiction, Notes On A Conditional Form, Radical). Fingers-crossed they’ll stream the entire week two performance as well, with some later-era cuts.
Disclosure – heard the Sam Smith song and the Khalid song.
Flume – set intro might as well have been baby’s first power electronics set.
Danny Elfman – 50 Shades OSTs > Nightmare Before Christmas OST.
Rich Brian – I respect Brian because he’s willing to go out on a huge, empty stage and put steps in across the entire square footage.
Megan Thee Stallion – earning her rap bonafides on the Coachella stage, if that’s even a thing anymore. A clean, consistent, and strong set with really smart stage design and tons of energy.
Billie Eilish – “NDA” and the beat-heavy When We All Fall Asleep… tracks go super hard. I imagine trying to dial in Billie’s mic gain is like flying an airplane for a sound tech. Billie has restructured conventions of pop whether or not you’re a fan of hers; where her 2019 set was left-field reinvention, this year’s set was the establishment of the new pop benchmark. Somehow tracks from both albums are seamlessly blended into the set list; “You Should See Me In A Crown” into “Billie’s Bossa Nova” sounds impossible on paper but is executed flawlessly here. The whole Gorillaz bit was a minor fiasco and derailment of the set’s momentum. “Happier Than Ever” is a blast to watch Billie and Finneas rock out to (*sibling magic*), but the AV team went a bit batshit with the video effects here.
Sunday
Yola – absolute grooves in what I can only imagine to be the unbearable afternoon heat.
Run The Jewels – [extremely Bernie voice] “yeah, okay.”
Beabadoobee – I haven’t seen a lot of live footage of Bea & Crew, mostly stage performances from the pandemic (like her release concert for Fake It Flowers), but my initial thought was “yikes, they seem pretty stiff up there.” A few tracks in, however, I had to second-guess myself – everything was dialed-in musically (although, both guitars were criminally low in the mix, super unfortunate), all players posturing on stage with some sort of gen-z ironic detachment, which makes sense given the heavy 90s influence on Bea’s songs since her debut LP. “Talk” is a great track that has some sort of earworm in the chorus that reminds me of a late 90s Christian alternative band/sound (I want to say Switchfoot, but I’m also pretty sure that’s not it at all).
Vince Staples – maybe my favorite set design of the weekend. Vince is so unafraid to engage with and clown on his audience, demands they know who they’re seeing and what they’re in for. Constantly underrated, always incredible. “Norf Norf” has been stuck in my head for days.
Maggie Rogers – switched over for the last segment of her set, and was genuinely blown away. I’d listened to Heard It In A Past Life when it was released, but never came back around to it afterwards. Lots of Lilith Fair/Sarah McLachlan energy in the set, which is honestly what I’d want more of from Coachella instead of buzzy dreampop bands on the poster because of the algorithm. Also immensely fascinating to me: Rogers is currently enrolled at Harvard Divinity School, "studying the spirituality of public gatherings and the ethics of power in pop culture."
Dave – big sincere energy; I have to guess this is one of his largest crowds outside of the UK. Brought a kid up on stage and seemed genuinely impressed that he knew all the words to his song. Hopefully this Coachella showcase continues to support his visibility stateside.
Doja Cat – if any one performance were to be considered “the greatest” over the entirety of the weekend, it would be this one. Doja Cat is unstoppable, a consummate performer, never shying away from the mic even as she busts out intense choreography for song after song. I would be surprised if a headlining slot wasn’t in her future come next album cycle.
Swedish House Mafia X The Weeknd – we fell asleep at some point during this. The Weeknd is always solid but it felt obvious that everything for this slot fill was considered last minute; his Super Bowl performance was leaps and bounds more entertaining than this. Also, if you’ve made it this far, you have to now deal with my final dad joke: Swedish House Mafia is just a euphemism for IKEA Department Managers. There. Couchella 2022 wrapped.
