Towards the top of No Doubt’s Saturday evening efficiency on Coachella’s essential stage—a efficiency that was the topic of near-endless rumors in regards to the presumably astronomical price the lengthy disbanded group will need to have commanded for a pair of one-off gigs—Gwen Stefani supplied the evening’s lone detectable lie. After knocking out 10 fast push-ups, and earlier than launching into “Only a Woman,” the 54-year-old Orange County native noticed, “We’re completely sooner or later proper now.” A pleasant thought, possibly, however one which was powerful to sq. with the onslaught of nostalgia that outlined their set, the remainder of Saturday’s invoice, and post-COVID Coachella writ massive.
Earlier this spring, a lot was made within the press in regards to the pageant’s slower-than-usual ticket gross sales. Normally, the primary weekend routinely sells out inside hours of wristbands being made obtainable, all earlier than the lineup is even introduced; this yr, it took virtually a month. Final week, Billboard reported that solely about 80 p.c of the 250,000 tickets obtainable throughout each weekends of Coachella had been bought.
With that in thoughts, Coachella staked this yr’s lineup on a sure eager for the previous. The pageant has, after all, welcomed AC/DC and Weapons N’ Roses as headliners, however these bands evoked the previous by blasting it within the crowd’s face. No Doubt, in distinction, went for sentimentality, taking part in soft-focus footage of their early days as they carried out onstage. And Billie Eilish, in a shock DJ set on Saturday evening on the Do Lab stage, spun some late-2000s/early-2010s pop hits. Performances like these may turn into suffocating, particularly when scheduled shut to 1 one other, however it didn’t essentially scan as regressive. As ubiquitous as “Don’t Communicate” or Tyga’s “Rack Metropolis” had been after they had been launched, they nonetheless sound odder, extra alluringly alien than a lot of the music emanating from the large levels.
At instances, this celebration of the current previous turned uncanny. Elegant’s late-afternoon set on Saturday’s essential stage was well-attended, and the band sounded sharp and engaged. However Elegant’s music is an odd vessel for Jakob Nowell, who took over as frontman for his late father, Bradley. If Jakob, Bud Gaugh, and Eric Wilson discover their exhibits collectively significant, and even merely enjoyable, I sincerely hope they proceed to play collectively. However the group’s music capabilities finest when it has stamped out any lingering sense of self-consciousness, an inherently unimaginable ambiance to keep up when Jakob Nowell ad-libs, “I like this half,” earlier than he sings the top of “April twenty ninth, 1992 (Miami).” I discovered it troublesome to look at the set with out considering of demise—however I’m only one Californian amongst many.
