Coachella 2023

Wow. The most people I’ve seen at this festival. I think weekend 2 being more campers/ locals lends itself to having a larger attendance earlier in the day. No more beer jails is just another reason Coachella is the best. Always evolving. I’ve seen people say that this may be the last version with this type of throw back lineup. After Goldenvoice counts the drawer I’d say they will continue this trend into the future. As an old head one can hope!

No particular order.
Headliners
Chemical brothers. First real opportunity for me to see them since 1999. Better than expected. Saw all of Gorillaz. Walked up as it started. Slowly slid across to the middle rail and was able to walk almost to the front. Just excellent!!

Gorillaz. Second time seeing them. Really wanted to come in 2012. Glad I saw this show if I had to have one. Crowd was great where we were. Damon is a treasure. Absolutely a headliner. Just another way Coachella really set itself apart from the NA market this year.

Eric Prydz. Stayed until the end of blackpink and walked straight up the right side to the rail. Like something out of a movie basically walked right to center stage and caught most of the show from center rail. 3rd holo set including ultra this year and probably the only place I will ever get that close. Definitely would have gone over better in the Mojave. should have flipped him and labrinth. I wouldn’t be surprised if labrinth got his chance to sub/ even headline main in the near future. Haters are going to hate. I am biased but I can’t imagine seeing that show from my vantage point and not being blown away. My personal highlight of the weekend.

Blackpink! Watched the first fifteen minutes and was it was just so fun, happy and fulfilling. After underworld decided to come back instead of hitting the prydz crowd straight away. Best choice of the weekend. Caught my favorite two songs to end the set. I understand the criticism that it may have zero originality. Honestly, who cares!! What a moment. The energy, choreography, production. Don’t kid yourselves, they are very talented. If Frank ocean put 10% of the effort of those girls and their crew did into his show it would be heralded as an all time great. May not be your flavor of choice but OMG those girls put on a fucking show.

TBA aka PHM aka four tet and friends. The closest thing I’ve ever felt to being in black rock desert when not at a burn. Was this probably going to happen anyway? Probably, but it would not have been as iconic at a different stage/setup. Even as a casual Frank listener I would have rather seen the rare world class Frank performance. So great full we got this instead of the mess weekend one had. My favorite Sunday closing set since justice 2017.

Rosalia. Same set I saw in November at iii points. Yet somehow still moved me. The screens help but she is an absolute goddess. When she poured the water over her heads the I girls I was with all looked at each other in awe. Apparently that is something of a vulnerable position for a woman and showed them she is truly confident and comfortable in her skin. I felt the same way after her set. I just instantly felt more ok with myself. It was a powerful performance to say the least.

Calvin Harris. I know he gets a lot of heat on this type of platform. I always try to imagine it being the first time I’ve seen an artist like this. Imagine being 21 and wanted to see him for like half your life. He scratched an itch. It was in my opinion the perfect way to end Saturday at Coachella. My whole group absolutely had a ball.

Undercard
Nora en pure. What a redemption from that Sahara snooze fest a few years ago. The only time we made it in the Yuma all weekend (sad face) for my personal taste in music her set was spectacular. She looked to be having the time of her life which always turns things up a notch for me. Really glad my fiancé forced me to check her out again. We missed becky g but it was definitely worth it.

The blaze. Sunday Vibes I didn’t realize I still needed from this year. Caught them their first time around and have been an avid fan since. This show is a huge step up and I love the uptick in energy on their new album. One of those groups I can’t see getting really big. Which is some how sad and makes me happy to know them at the same time. Way way Way underrated.

Cannons. Great placement. Great set. Can’t wait to see this band evolve. Never heard more than a song or two. It felt comfortably familiar. The front woman is special. Reminded me a bit of a young Gwen stefani in the no doubt come up. Not in style or substance necessarily. More in a “she is going to be a huge star herself one day” sense.

Jackson wang. Only hiccup of the weekend was leaving for the shuttle a bit late( long Saturday night!) then we had to wait for awhile for our shuttle. Apparently their was a huge backlog at drop off at that point and none could get back from the grounds. Luckily we hyped up the driver and he skipped the whole line of busses once we finally got to the venue. All this to say I never planned on walking in exactly when we did and if I hadn’t we would have never been in the Sahara for this set. And what a show it was!!! This guy had headliner written all over him. Another great performance, by someone clearly putting extra effort into his opportunity.

Yves tumor. Unexpected. Flat out rockstar. Got this Marilyn Manson voice and vibe that just warped my mind as I watched. Magnetizing. The band was tight and I was really happy I saw this set. Much better than the recordings. Not sure if this hits but if it does I could see it being really big.

Underworld. Only saw the last half of the show. The production was epic and they sounded great. I have no idea the set lists so I could be way off but it felt very much like their last performance here. they are timeless so it makes sense that it would be familiar in that way. If I had to rank them they would be much closer to my tenth favorite set than my top set. Glad we ran over an saw some. Sad I missed Monolink tho.
Sofi tukker. So much fun great sunset one of my favorites of the weekend. Not the most talented ever but sure understand a crowd. Tukker looks like he needs to slow down a bit. Sofi is clearly an angel. Must see them again. Dance party.
worst set I saw!
Blink 182. Really? Admittedly I was never a fan. I am also not someone who anyone would call politically correct. These guys are just douche bags though. I guess I will never get it. The drummer absolutely rocks.
Last but not least. I know this is inforoo, thanks for taking us in! However any one who thinks bonnoroo is in the same class as Coachella at this point is absolutely in a whole different world than I am. I also could not camp at this festival. The valley is perfect and I need a pool/jacuzzi to get these joints back each day. Sunday was harder than ever this time. Will definitely be back again next year! Maybe a bigger meetup is due for this thread. My whole group wants to thank you guys for all the inside info I get from here and how it helps shape our festival each year! Thank you all we love and appreciate you!!!

It was based how Coachella security didn’t search anyone.

Oh they did, just depends when and where you went in. Friday my bag got strip searched in vip, and Saturday my sister had her Motrin bottle (containing another drug starting with M) taken. Sunday was a breeze though.

we got a full two handles worth of liquor into the festival it was unreal

Cant even imagine what two handles worth of drinks would cost inside the fest.

I live three hours away from EF. It’s fucking terrible unless you’re really into the lineup.

We brought in a whole bag of wine on Sunday. The new scanners are a godsend

my buddy walked in on day three of weekend 1 with 8 beers 

2manydjs and chemical bros stream appearances for w2 🥰

I can retire now

Thanks for making this such an incredible weekend everyone. Time for a huge work week LOL 😆 😭😅🤕

Did anyone go to Boris weekend 2? I feel like everyone that was at Fisher/CL packed straight into the Blink crowd in anticipation of PHM.

You went to probably 75% of the same sets I did and stood in approximately the same spots, so I was looking out for myself the entire time (I think I spotted the back of my head once or twice). Cool little walk down memory lane. Thanks for sharing!

Dang

What an absolute blast of a weekend. After having to stay off-site last year it was nice to be in the campgrounds again and be just a short walk away from a quick beer/food run. Getting in late on Thursday night was an absolute drag though. Went into the first day running on fumes/very little sleep. Definitely taking off Thursday next year if we make it back.

I'm still processing a lot of what happened over the weekend. The variety in music and artists I was able to see in that 3 day span was just incredible. Underworld blew me away. Rosalia commanded the entire audience. Charli XCX had incredible stage presence. Seeing The Chemical Brothers back at this festival for the first time since 2011 was just everything for me.

I freaked out when this lineup first dropped but the last minute headliner replacements turned what was going to be a dull ending to the fest into one of my favorite days ever. Closing out Sunday with a run of 2manydjs - Despacio - Bjork - Despacio - Blink-182 - Skrillex/Four Tet/Fred Again was insane. Sorry to the Frank fans but I am so glad he ended up dropping out cause that Sunday night was somethin special.

This was my 14th year going to Coachella (only skipped 2016 and 2018 since 2006) and this year will go down as one of my faves. I just thought they absolutely nailed the curation of artists. There really was something for everyone, even the "oldchella" heads like me. I really hope they continue down this type of curation because I really do feel like this fest shines the most when its able to draw so many different types of music fans together. Crowds/vibes were absolutely wonderful all weekend. 

If they can pull off another insane lineup like this next year I will definitely be back. Might even look into doing Lake El Dorado for the first time as I could use a little bit more of a chill vibe at the end of the day as opposed to the non-stop party of the regular campground.

Top 10:
1. Underworld
2. Skrillex / Four Tet / Fred Again
3. The Chemical Brothers
4. The Comet Is Coming
5. Rosalia
6. Gorillaz
7. DESPACIO
8. Bad Bunny
9. Bjork
10. Blink-182

I will do a full write up later - I have to say, despite having one of the most fun Coachellas ever and really feeling like this festival is somehow getting even more relevant, curated, better, diverse, you name it - far from dead but entering into a new exciting international era - I am still fucking DEAD lmao. I honestly think that might have been my last one just because I am so exhausted and my systems are still destroyed and then having to go straight back to parenting and work has been rougher than rough. I said yesterday that I wanted to go back and part of me does, but part of me is realizing that I don't have the ability to go as hard as I used to. I am definitely at a minimum lineup dependent next year - once again, not because of any bad experience, literally the contrary, this year was just beyond amazing and GV is just incredible at what they are putting together.

The one thing I have not seen aynbdoy mention - holy cow was there a lot of grass left this year. Friday of W2 it was just grass as far as the eye could see. W1 level grass? Probably not but it was really incredible how much was still vibrant green and soft. I had to lay down during the slower parts of Bad Bunny because I was just so tired and it felt luscious and soft. By Sunday, yes, it was to shit but I don't know if it was the wetter weather this year, better fertilizer, or GV attention (in Safari they had entire crews walking around watering the lawns constantly in the early morning before people who didn't have kids and are thus still stuck on 5:45am wake up calls got up - maybe they did this inside too?). This kind of also tracks as I have seen a lot of W1 people say the amazing grass lasted through end of Sunday.

Lastly, anybody know how somebody who is definitely not me can get ahold of some W2 streams?