Kamasi Washington – outdoor theatre
Kamasi Washington’s meandering and expansive jazz might not seem like a good fit at a festival where half of the acts sit somewhere between EDM and trap. There was a small but interested crowd to see him and his band (replete with two drummers, bass, keyboard and singer Patrice Quinn) explore and play with songs from his triple album, The Epic. In the searing sun he brought out his father to play flute on Henrietta Our Hero,which was dedicated to his grandmother. That lengthy track – which took in a flute solo, vamps from Washington and vocals from Quinn – was typical of a set in which few songs clocked in under seven minutes.
During the set the crowd slowly grew to the point where it had doubled by the time bass player Miles Mosley played his track Abraham. Abraham morphed from a bass solo to a funk track, with Mosley singing with Washington and the rest of the band adding horns to flesh it out. There was also time for a drum battle and for DJ Battlecat to attempt, as Washington said, to be the first person to scratch in 7/8 timing. That didn’t quite work, but by the time closing track The Rhythm Changes finished, the band had got back to what they do best: astral jazz that’s accessible but never dull.
Meg Myers – Gobi tent
Before the festival there had been excitement about Myers’ performances, and talk of her songwriting being able to take her from niche indiepop concern to a wide audience. She has a skittish delivery, somewhere between the histrionics of Shakespears Sister and the controlled pop of Sarah McLachlan. At Coachella, there were also hints of screamo in the mix, with Myers delivering lines with a highly strung abandon. Tracks such as Feather and Sorry were presented as theatrical vignettes, with Myers eyeballing the crowd with a thousand-yard stare. Between songs, she mumbled phrases and mimicked the howls from the crowd – there was no slick banter,marking Myers out as someone who wants to operate on her own terms. Heart Heart Head, which finished with her screaming and wailing, was a fitting end to a set that melded pop and anguish with none of the added polish that can make the latter seem manufactured.
Hudson Mohawke (Mojave tent) and the 1975 (Coachella stage)
Hudson Mohawke’s ability to switch codes is becoming increasingly impressive. One minute he’s a beatmaker for Drake and Kanye West, the next he’s delivering a barrage of drops to a festival crowd who are throwing around an inflatable sheep. That was the accessory of choice on Sunday afternoon, when he ran through a set of brazenly straightforward trap, which veered close to the sickly sweet emotion of happy hardcore, with moments that felt like a tribute to the Bonkers compilation series. It was at times shamelessly functional and nothing like the complex and decidedly untrap output he came to prominence with when he signed to Warp. When those tracks do make an appearance, they are welcome respite from the next drop, but the drops are what the inflatable sheep crowd came for. On the main stage, the 1975 presented their brand of 80s-inspired pop with singer Matty Healy delivering an insouciant performance, during which he wheeled about the stage during Girls and Undo looking decidedly unimpressed with life in the Coachella heat. His performance chafed rather than charmed.
Chris Stapleton – Gobi tent
Away from the EDM and pop contingents, Coachella also offered one of country’s most soulful artists: Chris Stapleton. After writing for Luke Bryan and Thomas Rhett, his debut album Traveller marked him out as a star in his own right and he duly cleaned up at the many country awards shows. At Coachella his sunset set was a laidback slice of country soul, with Morgane Stapleton joining her husband on stage to help out. The set turned into a mass singalong, and despite this being a Californian festival the mentions of the southern states in the songs were cheered. Before he went into The Devil Named Music, Stapleton introduced his band by singing their names and managed to make even that potentially horrifically cheesy moment charming. The set’s closing song, Tennessee Whiskey, saw Stapleton at his best with a tale of redemption mixed with a defiant swagger.
Sia – Coachella stage
An ensemble cast including Kristen Wiig, Paul Dano, Gaby Hoffman and Ben Mendelsohn helped Sia to create a cinematic and intriguing performance. Appearing on stage and on the big screens while Sia sung, her guests provided avant garde dance, mime and more straightforward acting in support of a set that combined Sia’s soaring pop with experimental theatre. Cheap Thrills saw a dancer clad in a beige leotard throw herself around the stage, while Dano appeared playing a put-upon customer service rep who appeared several times in the narrative. Sia stood in the background, coming to the fore only momentarily for hits such as Diamonds (which she wrote for Rihanna). By the time she got to Titanium and Chandelier, no more cameos were needed. It was pretty close to as good as it gets for an adventurous pop performance.
Calvin Harris – Coachella stage
Calvin Harris’s task on the festival’s final night was to transfer his lucrative Las Vegas residency to the coveted Sunday night headliner slot. Arguably the biggest crowd of the weekend had gathered for the Scottish DJ/producer’s set and he went for tried and trusted weapons as he tried to get the crowd on-side. He supplemented his own back catalogue of huge EDM hits – Sweet Nothing, Outside and I Need Your Love – with some incongruous choices. First Rihanna’s Bitch Better Have My Money, then Adele’s Hello and Daft Punk’s One More Time, none of which went down as well as his own tracks or seemed necessary. Special guests started to come out, including Big Sean, but the real excitement was reserved for Rihanna, who sang We Found Love. That was the high point of the night, with Rihanna bringing real star power to the stage, yet it wasn’t the end of the show. On a night of big build ups and breakdowns, that running order felt like a bit of an anticlimax on an otherwise impressive showcase for one of pop’s most savvy producers.
