Festival season officially kicked off this weekend with the granddaddy of them all in Indio, CA at Coachella. Lots of big dogs came through and brought the heat - Sublime on Saturday with the former lead singer's son, No Doubt, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were grinding all over the dance floor, and Jaden Smith appeared to go in for the make out on Bieber. But there was one performer the people were most hype to see: Lana del Rey.
Going to Coachella is not easy logistically - unless you're a big dog and can afford one of those sweet cabanas for the week that's basically a whole house, not really worth it in my estimation (give me a few years of media moguling to get to that level). Shower situation looks tough (saw a video of a shower line this weekend, no thanks), lots of people, and I can barely survive a day at OutsideLands right down the street from OTM HQ, never mind 3 straight days in the middle of the desert. I watched the performance live Friday night and I very much enjoyed - she began her resurgence last year headlining OSL on Saturday while Producer Reese was out watching the Irish knock each other's heads in. Here is what we saw this past weekend in screenshots:
Queen/goddess vibes from the start - she rolled in with her crew of dancers via motorcycle with some guy rocking an awesome helmet. Festival performances are going to be different than normal concerts, definitely a lot of focus on the pageantry.
Walked on stage, quick soundcheck and BOOM we are live with the hits. Lana is very alluring - sultry in voice, presence, and ambience. She seemed a bit dazed to begin, but picked up as the show went on. Or perhaps that was just me getting sucked into her spell with her siren song(s). Kicked it off with 'west coast' and 'without you', then came in with a cover of 'Doin Time' by Sublime - interesting choice. Sneaky better than their actual performance on Saturday, and I guess she sings it regularly? Didn't know.
Lana seemed a bit out of it at times, but that's alright because it's part of the performance - I never really understood why singers throw their mics towards the crowd at times, and this was during the bridge of 'summertime sadness' which is not easy lyrically even for her biggest fans, but hey it's all love here at the Lana propaganda machine that is OneTake Media.
Her dancers were bringing the energy, as were backup singers. This was during 'Born to Die' or maybe 'Ride' - don't think it was the chemtrails song but I could be mistaken.
Then she had her piano - wielding guest come on in Jean Baptiste and decided to make a hologram of herself - awesome!
Ok next picture up was her with Billie Eilish - ocean eyes duet was a banger - probably the highlight of the night.
Here is the hologram photo... sneaky funny in retrospect when she's already on the stage but I dig it.
And just like that, the motorcycle guy came back on and picked her up without a helmet this time around and she was gone into the night at Indio. She did wrap it with a rendition of 'young and beautiful' which is arguably my favorite of her songs - people forget 2013 summer with the Leo/Baz Luhrmann version Great Gatsby, but I do not. That's where I found an affinity for suits/men's fashion - indeed still feeling the ramifications of that some ten years later with Sartoro keeping the lights on. 19 year old Dan would approve.
Long day to be out and jamming at show after show - 1:00 AM finish time after an 11:20 start is tough, but credit to those who hung tough and battled through the night. in SF all acts wrap by 10:30 - and I like that. Feel like anything later and the proper gremlins will come out in Golden Gate Park.
Overall enjoyable - impressed by how well produced the concert was for non attendees on the Coachella livestream - I thought it would just be one camera angle on for the whole time, pretty sick. Check the same thing next weekend! Almost as electric as this guy:
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