The 2023 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival began its first weekend yesterday at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California. Headliner Bad Bunny delivered a history-making set, Gorillaz and Metro Boomin brought out tons of guests, Blink-182 kicked off their reunion tour, and so, so much more. Here are the highlights and noteworthy sets caught by Pitchfork’s staffers. We’ll be on the ground for all three days of the festival, filling you in on everything you need to know.
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Bad Bunny Plays Teacher
For a brief moment during his headlining set Friday night, Bad Bunny teased a pivot to English, asking the crowd—in that language—whether they would prefer he switch to it or stick with Spanish. Fans roared for the latter. Much has been made about his being the first Coachella headlining performance to be delivered primarily in Spanish. In the past in the English-speaking world, that might have been characterized as evidence of an artist “crossing over,” but here, it simply meant that Coachella is rushing to keep up. Bad Bunny is by many measures the most popular artist on the planet—as evidenced by the mass of people who seemed impervious to the unusually late start time for a Friday headliner and to the almost unbelievable desert cold.
All of which could tempt those with their eyes on ticket sales or streaming numbers to describe Bad Bunny as an isolated phenomenon, an aberration. Instead, the superstar went to lengths to dispel that notion by placing his work in a long lineage of musical genres and iconic artists from across Latin America, interrupting his tremendously captivating set with two short videos detailing the stylistic splintering and reconnection of various Spanish-language genres and their political utility. This was complemented by what was essentially a surprise dance revue, and by a setlist that—while uniformly contemporary—seemed to taunt those hoping to settle into a cozy rhythm by taking hairpin turns of mood, tempo, and instrumentation. Bad Bunny was so poised and so magnetic that his two-hour bacchanal couldn’t even be tamped down by protracted technical difficulties during an attempted Post Malone duet. –Paul A. Thompson
Blink-182: What’s Their Age Again?
A surprise last-minute addition to the Coachella lineup, Blink-182 delivered their first performance since reuniting with guitarist/singer Tom DeLonge. A lot has changed over the last two decades since blink’s heyday—bassist/singer Mark Hoppus battling cancer, drummer Travis Barker marrying into one of the most famous families on the planet, DeLonge peddling alien conspiracy theories—but one thing is certainly intact: their, erm, sense of humor. Hoppus played a dual role of disappointed dad and impish pervert, joking about (deep breath): the number of UTIs and pregnancies about to happen; “fingers in your butt” (that’s it, that’s the whole comment); eating it from the back; balls (what are they good for?); the wetness of DeLonge’s mom’s pussy (life-giving hydration, apparently), and a whole lot more. Look, together these three sound as sharp and riffy as ever—or as DeLonge kept saying, “You can’t do what we do, fuckers”—but I wish they’d stop with the aggressively middle-school stage banter and, well, leave that to the songs. The final three tracks— “I Miss You,” “All the Small Things,” “Dammit”—at least cleansed the stage. —Jill Mapes
Gorillaz’ Family Affair
During their second-to-headline set, Damon Albarn and his enormous band of collaborators both human and cartoon moved smoothly from style to style and guest to guest, adapting easily to Thundercat’s bass or Del the Funky Homosapien’s sly authority. But the most arresting collaboration came toward the end of the set, when he welcomed the surviving members of De La Soul to the main stage for “Feel Good Inc.,” the massive hit from 2005 that credits the Long Island trio but essentially features Trugoy the Dove, who passed away earlier this year. Just weeks before his death, it was announced that De La’s catalog, long absent from digital streaming platforms due to legal battles over the rights to its innumerable samples, would finally be available online. Who better than Gorillaz to underline the permeable borders between here and gone, innate and constructed, comfort and provocation? –Paul A. Thompson
Muna Debut New Song, Bring Out Boygenius
Muna’s early evening set was energetic like a dance party, cathartic like a country gig, and all-around exceedingly gay. Performing before a crowd heavily sprinkled with boys in chaps and glitter, frontwoman Katie Gavin and guitarist Josette Maskin relished playing their respective roles: the campy dom femme and the rock-star strutter. Gavin, looking like a long-lost Judd sister with her own line of latex gloves, pranced and twirled and line-danced to much delight; Maskin penguin-walked across the stage wearing red snakeskin flares and a shirt that said “HARD” on the front in diamonds and “ROCK” on the back. In addition to highlights off last year’s self-titled LP, like “Home by Now,” the trio played a new song, “One That Got Away,” which is “about someone fumbling the bag.” The vibe was early Gaga meets peak Paula Abdul. Introducing “I Know a Place,” Gavin gave a heartfelt speech about how it was one of the first songs they ever wrote, “just three queers in a college dorm room,” then dedicated it to their queer and trans fans. The set ended with a rousing cameo by Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus of Boygenius, essentially Muna’s rock counterpoint, for the Bridgers collab “Silk Chiffon.” “I hope everyone’s doing safe drugs,” Gavin told the crowd, “and having safe sex.” —Jill Mapes
Metro Boomin’s Justice League
Even the rumors didn’t prepare us for the stacked guest lineup at Metro Boomin’s Sahara stage headlining set: Future, 21 Savage, the Weeknd, Don Toliver, John Legend, and Diddy, plus Mike Dean on keys and sax. Metro scored with a creative comic book-style intro video, but lost focus in an overall production design that, like so many of those blockbuster superhero movies, felt so intensely stylized that it was sometimes hard to follow. (I somehow missed John Legend’s appearance completely.) But the highlights were undeniable: Future doing “Mask Off” (despite the weird shout out to Covid-19) and the Weeknd’s six-song finale, including a heartfelt rendition of Mario Winans’ “I Don’t Wanna Know” (aka the current hit “Creepin’”). –Anna Gaca
Kaytranada’s Got It
Kaytranada’s sunset set at the Outdoor Theatre made a strong case for the Canadian DJ/producer as one of the current moment’s most central creators of celebrated auteur pop. It featured work with Kelela, remixes of the Weeknd, Janet Jackson, and Sade, and walk-on appearances by Kali Uchis and Aminé. He even included the cheeky little Beyoncé flip he’s been spotted with recently– if that track’s not official, it should be. Kaytranada’s booth was way up high, with an open desk so you could see his feet moving even from way back, showing the crowd that he can really dance. The sole set piece: a faux marble head with laser eyes, like a brand new type of classic sculpture. –Anna Gaca
Pusha T Narrows the Lens
Pusha T has made a career as a specialist, finding variation after minor variation on the same style, verse after verse, year over year. That makes him the ideal foil for A-list producers’ most experimental beats. To this end, his last two solo efforts, last year’s It’s Almost Dry and 2018’s Daytona, have stripped away everything extraneous and deepened the grooves of Pusha’s already well-worn drug kingpin persona. However, this occasionally walks right up to the brink of caricature. See the graphics on screen before Pusha took the main stage Friday afternoon that welcomed his fans to “Cokechella,” or recall the line from “Let the Smokers Shine the Coupes,” which opened his hyperkinetic set, where he calls himself “cocaine’s Dr. Seuss.” But as on the tour supporting Dry, Pusha’s set confirmed how engaging he can be, whether threatening through gritted teeth on the muted “Just So You Remember” or exulting over “If You Know You Know” and its cacophony. –Paul A. Thompson
Magdalena Bay Level Up
The last time I saw Magdalena Bay play, about 18 months ago, they didn’t have a live drummer and their stage presence felt a little hesitant. But Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin have been touring a lot, picking up panache and touring drummer Nick Villa. They’ve leveled up to become a perfect Coachella band: playful, candy-sweet, and fond of kitschy matching costumes. They commemorated this year’s festival appearance with a tape released Thursday, mini mix vol. 3, and debuted a few of its songs live on Friday night. No spoilers, but Tenenbaum has a keytar solo on “Secrets (Your Fire)” now. –Anna Gaca
