The big draw on Saturday was ... oddly, not Guns N’ Roses, but Ice Cube. While the partly reunited hard-rock act lured many a body as expected, it paled next to the dense and enormous throng that descended just 90 minutes prior for the SoCal rapper. Surely many of those in attendance decided to finally see an iconic performer they would never have paid to see separately, while others with any knowledge of pop culture or Coachella history were expecting guest appearances from at least some of Cube’s former NWA bandmates.
Naturally, that happened during a brief (though incomplete) reunion segment, when MC Ren and DJ Yella appeared, following a father/son performance by Cube and his son, O’Shea Jackson, which might’ve been more surreal than watching Jackson play Cube in last year’s Straight Outta Compton. The four performed NWA classics “Straight Outta Compton,” “Dopeman” and “F*ck Tha Police,” but it felt a little incomplete without Dr. Dre, who would have made the occasion a bona fide Coachella moment.
Later, Cube performed “Gangsta Nation” with his other outfit, Westside Connection, and also rapped alongside Common (promoting the upcoming Barbershop sequel) and Snoop Dogg, who had to wonder if he was looking at a gathering even larger than his memorable 2012 headlining set with Dre. As for Cube’s performance, he worked both levels of his stage presentation (which included stage-wrapping visuals) and forcefully projected throughout his set—including when he shouldn’t have, like during the closing “It Was a Good Day,” which requires a more relaxed delivery to sensibly convey the narrator’s sense of relief and peace. Nonetheless, Cube rose to the occasion, and with the Sunset Strip-born Guns N’ Roses following, it was a good day for those who came of age in Los Angeles between 1987 and 1991.
Speaking of 1987, 2ManyDJs dropped their Soulwax remix of one of that year’s biggest singles, INXS’ “Need You Tonight,” inside their much-busier, vinyl-only Despacio tent set on Saturday afternoon—or did LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy mix that platter in? The three worked in tandem for a while, mostly working in either classic, disco-flavored jams (like 1978’s “Sensation,” by Chilly) or remixes of classic pop hits. I’m no Hall & Oates fan, but somehow, the DJs made what sounded like a minimally treated version of the Philadelphia soul-pop duo’s “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” a truly evocative experience in a room lit by only an illuminated mirror ball and the level meters of the tent’s seven speaker towers. That darkened atmosphere may have been why Murphy worked the ground-level booth with minimal disturbance from the crowd—stunningly, dancers focused on each other and the music, a tradition all but destroyed by EDM’s peak-a-minute and superstar-DJ culture—and when I finally witnessed an attendee approach him, Murphy happily returned the fan’s thumbs-up, furthering the good vibes of Coachella’s best (though likely not permanent) addition.
It has been hard this year for the lineup at the Mojave and Gobi tents to pack attendees in—partly because of the waning interest in the indie-rock participants that used to be the bread and butter of Coachella—but Grimes at least filled (and kept) the former stage for her second appearance at the festival. The 50-minute set, assisted by another musician and two dancers, was a blur of spastically flailing limbs, choreographed routines and the performer herself racing between the front of the stage and the sequencer that triggered the synthesized portions of her music. It was exhausting just following Grimes, who never broke a sweat or sounded out of breath despite singing throughout, or even taking the guitar for last year’s hit “Flesh Without Blood.” Equally tiring was keeping up with the constantly pogoing crowd, which particularly delighted in numbers like “Kill V Maim” and “Venus Fly,” which got an assist from a magnetic Janelle Monae. All in all, Day Two’s best performance.
Shamir, the fourth Las Vegas-affiliated artist to be billed at Coachella, had the unfortunate task of following that 25 minutes later. But once he arrived onstage, he and his four-member band smartly launched into his most pulsating and groove-enriched material. Songs like “Vegas,” “In For the Kill,” “On the Regular,” “Sometimes a Man” and “Hot Mess” were so reflexively danceworthy, it gave fading festivalgoers a necessary, post-midnight second wind (though he lost many of them when he opted to play back-to-back ballads “Demon” and “Harvey”). And Shamir himself seemed much more focused and less anxious during this performance than either of his previous Vegas showings. There were still moments when he didn’t seem to know what to do with himself as he sang (which, coincidentally, was some of the best vocal work I’ve heard him exhibit to date, especially during “Sometimes a Man”). But he compensates with the force of charm and, of course, the infectiousness of his songs. As I exited the festival grounds, I had either of his closing tunes “Call It Off” and “Head in the Clouds” looping in my head ... and, thankfully, keeping me awake for the 30-minute drive from Indio to Palm Springs.
