Music

Vampire Weekend’s set started off conventionally enough, with the band (a late addition to the festival) delivering a tight, lively performance of songs like “Cousins,” “Unbelievers” and “A-Punk.” As they did at an Austin show celebrating the solar eclipse earlier this month, they ended the set with a prolonged “Cocaine Cowboys” jam that included parts of their own “Married in a Gold Rush,” Larry Gatlin’s “All the Gold in California,” Gram Parsons’ “Sin City” and the Grateful Dead’s “Cumberland Blues.” And then, during this final stretch, who should appear but Paris Hilton, who played a round of cornhole during her brief time onstage (“Do you mind if I cheat?” the reality star-turned-DJ joked before dropping a bean bag directly into the hole). As quickly as Hilton appeared, she was gone – only to be replaced by a man dressed as Abraham Lincoln, who himself played a short round of cornhole before making his exit. The strange juxtaposition of the blond heiress and a man cosplaying as the 16th president of the United States was certainly unexpected, and a welcome dose of weird at a set that could easily have been a run-of-the-mill performance of Vampire Weekend’s greatest hits. — Chris Eggertsen

Alongside her older brother/collaborator Finneas and a few dozen friends, Billie Eilish threw a combination club night-slash-listening party, debuting snippets of three new tracks (sample lyric: “I can eat that girl for lunch”) from her forthcoming album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, on the Do Lab stage. “Billie wanted to throw a party,” said the set’s emcee prior to her emergence onto the stage – and that she did, with the attending DJ playing a number of old favorites (presumably chosen by the singer herself) that included such party-starting bangers as 2Pac’s “California Love” and Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz’ “Get Low,” along with tracks such as Gotye’s 2014 smash “Somebody That I Used to Know” and The Killers’ enduring sing-along classic “Mr. Brightside.” The result evoked an all-night neighborhood block party presided over by one of pop’s reigning stars. — C.E.

Jack Antonoff seemed to channel Bruce Springsteen’s ferocious, life-affirming stage presence at Bleachers’ no-holds-barred set at the Mojave tent, with the band performing such exuberant songs as “Rollercoaster,” “Modern Girl” and “Don’t Take the Money.” The frontman — now perhaps best known for his affiliation with Taylor Swift (who was spotted enjoying the set alongside boyfriend Travis Kelce) — sprinted, prowled and leapt across the stage, at one point imploring the crowd to “get up” on each others’ shoulders ahead of his bracing performance of the band’s “I Wanna Get Better.” It was a thrilling set that proved (if it even needed proving) that outside of his writing and producing work with Swift, Lana Del Rey and other major artists, Antonoff is a star in his own right. — C.E.

When Olivia Rodrigo was tasked with choosing her “18 favorite songs” to celebrate her 18th birthday back in 2021, No Doubt’s “Bathwater” made the cut. Fast-forward three years, and Rodrigo — wearing a cropped white tank top that read “I [heart] ND” — popped up on the Coachella stage for a surprise duet on the Return of Saturn single, trading verses and sharing the chorus with Gwen Stefani. The two were playful throughout the song, with Stefani saying ahead of the bridge, “Olivia Rodrigo, why do the good girls, like me and you, always want…”

“…the bad boys!” Rodrigo finished with a theatrical flourish. Stefani even summoned her fellow singer/songwriter over at the end of the song by calling, “Come here, my little Vampire!”

Rodrigo has had quite a streak recently of paying homage to her heroes, from Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morissette to Jewel and the Breeders, and this latest stop on her appreciation tour couldn’t have been a better fit. — Katie Atkinson

Read our full No Doubt performance recap here.

The megastar rapper — performing beneath a giant Ice Spice-styled balloon at the Sahara stage — brought the fire in a compact, fast-paced performance that featured hits like “Gangsta Boo,” “Barbie World,” “Boy’s a liar Pt.2” and “Deli” along with her latest (hilariously titled) single, “Think you the Sh– (Fart)” and a brand-new rapid-fire track that samples Sean Paul’s hit 2002 single “Gimme the Light.” One major highlight came when the rapper shouted out her most famous friend, “Taylor motherf—ing Swift” (who was in attendance at the show alongside boyfriend Travis Kelce) before launching into a performance of “Karma” to a delighted roar from the overflow crowd — though the slightest twinge of disappointment rippled through the audience when it became quickly apparent that the superstar herself wouldn’t be taking the stage. — C.E.

To say that Jakob Nowell had a big assignment would be an understatement, with the singer and musician doing his first ever festival performance as the frontman of his late father’s band, Sublime, with a sunset hour set on the Coachella main stage.

The show started with “April 29, 1992 (Miami),” although the volume of Nowell’s mic was turned down too low to really hear him properly. That issue was remedied quickly, with the shirtless and tattooed Nowell gaining confidence over the course of the set as he and the band — bassist Eric Wilson and drummer Bud Gaugh — worked through Sublime classics like “Pawn Shop,” “Wrong Way,” “What I Got,” “Date Rape” “Badfish” and “Doin’ Time.” By the end, Nowell’s voice had fully warmed up, sounding rich, full and, in fact, a lot like his dad’s. Fittingly and joyfully, the show ending with a crowd-wide sing-along of the band’s beloved “Santeria.” — Katie Bain

It was a hero’s welcome at the festival’s new Quasar stage during an extended set by Michael Bibi. The London-based DJ/producer was playing Coachella for the first time since 2022 and also the first time since undergoing treatment for cancer, which he announced he was in remission from this past December. While the artist was doing his thing with a tough and groovy house and techno set that found many people in the packed crowd wearing their sunglasses at night, it was of course especially poignant to hear Bibi play an edit of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” — K.B.

After ATEEZ’s Friday set, LE SSERAFIM held it down for K-pop on Saturday night in the Sahara Tent, and they were feeling especially feisty on the massive stage. “Coachella, are you ready to shake some f—ing ass?” Yunjin saucily asked the crowd – and judging by the screams, they were ready. The five-piece girl group gave fans lots of opportunities to dance through the 10-song set, but an uptempo highlight was the live debut of a new song, seemingly titled “Hot and Fun.” “1-800-HOT-N-FUN, that’s my number, hit my line,” they sing in the chorus. It looks like a “Hot and Fun” new era for the group is upon us. — K.A.

Wearing a chrome mask, a very well-fitted gray suit and altogether dressed like a flight attendant on the Death Star in Star Wars, the French producer was in full dark mode, playing a deliciously pummeling set of industrial techno. The spare dark, light and laser match the vibe, with the entire production feeling like an extension of the musical conversation started by Gesaffelstein’s compatriots Justice during their set on the same Coachella stage the night prior. In fact, Justice was spotted in the crowd watching Gesaffelsetin, as were other producers including Bonobo and SG Lewis. — K.B.

Playing in the newly expanded Sahara Tent, Grimes cut a striking figure as she crouched on top of the decks with an ornate mask on and her long, blonde hair blowing in the desert wind. The sound was heavy and industrial electronic music, with the visuals on the tent’s massive screens featuring animated figures that were hybrids between fairies and vixens.

But at about 30 minutes into the show, she stopped the music entirely, announcing that “this s— always f—ing happens, all my tracks are twice as fast so I’m not mixing very well, so I’m going to keep trying, and I appreciate you being here. There has never been a Grimes show without a major technical difficulty. But yes, it will continue.”  And it did, with the producer staying cheerful despite the issue and amping up the heavy electronic vibes until stopping the show again, then starting it again, then stopping it again and then starting it once more. The issue may have affected the energy in the tent, but most everyone still stuck around to see how it would end. — K.B.

Anyone heading to RAYE’s debut Coachella set in the Mojave Tent expecting to hear “Escapism” and “Worth It” — her pair of My 21st Century Blues singles that she performed on Saturday Night Live last week – found what they came looking for, plus a hell of a lot more. The set took a serious and empowering turn when she introduced Blues’ “Ice Cream Man,” which she wrote about the sexual assault and rape she faced at the hands of a producer, calling it “the saddest song I’ve had to write and sing.”

“I went on for very many years and I didn’t tell anyone and I didn’t deal with it and eventually, that sh—catches up to you. So when I sing this song, I just want you to know: It’s not an easy song for me to sing,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes. “I’m going to sing this song because it’s important to be loud and it’s important to be brave. And you know what this song does? It allows me to be loud about something I was quiet about my entire life.”

The song’s heartbreaking lyrics turn triumphant in the chorus as she sings, “’Cause I’m a woman/ I’m a very f—ing brave strong woman/ And I’ll be damned if I let a man ruin/ How I walk, how I talk, how I do it/ Man, I’ve been broken for a moment, I’ve been through it/ It’s even harder to be brave alone/ Was a girl, now I’m grown, I’m a woman/ A very f—ing strong woman.”

The crowd had RAYE’s back the whole time, cheering on her strength in performing the song, wiping away their own tears and wrapping their arms around their fellow crowd members. There wasn’t anyone within my eye-shot who wasn’t visibly moved by her speech and the performance.

After seeing the audience’s reaction, RAYE adjusted the final line of the song: “I see some very f—ing brave strong women with me.” — K.A.

Nelly Furtado and Dom Dolla have been making loads of appearances together since releasing their 2023 collaborative single “Eat Your Man.” But none of these performances have found either artist actually bleeding for each other, until tonight.

While onstage during Dolla’s night closing show in the Sahara Tent, Furtado took a bad fall while performing the aforementioned track, hitting the floor of the stage with a thud. She got back up immediately and, like a pro, kept singing. And ever graceful, she met the situation with a sense of humor, posting on Instagram after the set that she “literally left it all on stage, including my blood. All for you, Dom Dolla.” — K.B.

Blur returned to the Coachella Stage, for the first time since they headlined back in 2013, for a 12-song set that peppered in hits (“Song 2,” of course, as well as “Girls & Boys” and “Beetlebum”) among a greater cause. To honor the Coachella Valley — which is home to Indio, Calif., where the festival takes place on the Empire Polo Field — Blur invited the Torres Martinez Cahuilla Bird Singers, part of the original indigenous tribes of Coachella, to perform on their stage. They first did a traditional Bird Song, along with tribal dancers, and then joined the band for “Death of a Party” from their 1997 self-titled album, as well as “Tender,” the lead single from 1999’s 13. The final song’s core message – “Love’s the greatest thing that we have” – was especially poignant with the choice of backing vocalists. — K.A.