Fred Again. Again.

Around a year ago I wrote this rather over-excited blog post, percolating in characteristically uninhibited and exuberant fashion on a moving experience I had with music at the Coachella festival.

Music Makes Life Worth Living

Long story short: I went to Coachella, saw Fred Again and found myself brought, quite without warning, to tears by a potent combination of the joy of being out of lockdown, a large, happy crowd, Fred’s rather gorgeous mental-health-positive House music and (let’s face it) what was probably a little bit of sunstroke. But it was also bittersweet – there was some sadness in there wrought of the two years we’d all just been through, the toll it had taken on a number of people I care about, and – frankly – the shit scariness of those early Covid days.

It was a show that proved to be something of a watershed moment, both for Fred and myself. In the case of the former, it established him as something of a coming force in popular music, the darling of the Coachella festival and a solid guarantee of a good time. In my case, in addition to being one of the great memorable music moments of my life, it also lead to some noteworthy self-realisations upon which I then went home and acted, to the benefit of both myself and those I love. Wins all round.

12 months on from writing that post, I am here to report on a return trip to Coachella. A trip that began with the expectation that, realistically, the great Fred Again show of 2022 was a singular moment in time that could not be repeated, and ended with what I am going to have to be honest and describe as one of the best nights of my life. In short; I went back and, improbably, real magic happened all over again, and perhaps even moreso.

Before I get started with the festival review, a few background notes. This festival is held over two consecutive weekends, with an identical line up. We were attending Weekend 2 (fewer influencers, fewer tech problems, less grass, more dust). The anticipated headliner for the closing night of this year’s festival was Frank Ocean. Frank Ocean my favourite contemporary artist. Frank Ocean who is super elusive and hasn’t played live in 6 years. Frank Ocean who I have never seen play live. Frank Ocean who proceeded to turn up to weekend 1 and absolutely stink the place out to the point where people demanded refunds. Oof.

We landed in California to the perhaps unsurprising news that Frank would not, in fact, be playing weekend 2 due to a presumably fabricated ankle injury. A once in a lifetime chance to see the great artist, dashed upon the rocks of fate. There was some consternation in my group at this development – this was to have been the undoubted highlight of the festival and the consensus had been that even a terrible Frank Ocean show is still a Frank Ocean show – when else will we get to see that?

Strangely, I found myself relatively unmoved by the development; it’s been my experience that sometimes when life closes a door it opens a window, and besides which it’s daft to get too upset what you have three days of live music and sunshine ahead. The undercard looked stack anyway. Within a few hours, my optimism was provided with greater foundation; the Ocean replacement would be a headline set from Blink 182, followed by a festival closer from Skrillex, Four Tet and – you’ve probably already seen this coming by now – Fred Again. Kismet.

I won’t offer a blow by blow account of the entire festival from here, but instead thought I’d give some thoughts on the ten best acts we saw over the weekend.

10. Jai Paul

The festival’s great intrigue, as recently noted by KFD on another thread. Jai Paul arrived as a supernova a decade ago; his BTSU was the soundbed that inspired a vast number of artists in electronic music and R&B, including Frank Ocean. That ice cold sparseness, that vulnerability. He later released Jasmine, which sounded like a classic 80s pop tune being played underwater through a broken radio and which was later covered by Ed Sheeran, beloved of this parish (heh).

In late 2013 an album full of Jai Paul demos were leaked to the internet, including this absolute banger, and he promptly disappeared from view. No further music releases and he never played a single live show. He left behind a slew of musician admirers and a devoted fanbase, who gradually realised they would probably never be hearing from him again.

Jai Paul’s announcement on this year’s Coachella lineup was a proper jaw drop moment. How on earth had they tracked him down and convinced him to play? His show at weekend 1 was packed, and not without issues: he had literally never played a note in public previously, he was clearly nervous as hell and the expectations were tough to live up to. We ummed and aahed about going to see him at weekend 2 – there were some intriguing acts on offer elsewhere and it didn’t seem worth seeing a mediocre live show just to say you were there. Needn’t have worried – it was absolutely brilliant, he’d found his feet nicely and the set built to a fantastic climax with the large, exuberant crowd singing the “doo doo doo doo doo”s of Str8 Outta Mumbai right back at him. Video here, lovely moment and you could see how happy it made him:

The show was also a great reminder that, beyond all the hype, Jai Paul has written some truly great stuff. There’s a reason we all fell in love with this music way back when.

9. Underworld

Absolutely superb from start to finish. Expectations were high and they were met. Rez/Cowgirl, in particular, remains a thing of absolute beauty. Reflected afterwards that live performance tends to be a game of diminishing returns with rock bands as they age, but an electronic act can reach their 50s and still deliver a show just as full of energy and vim as in their prime. Great to see a large crowd out for them too.

8. Bjork

Performed on the main stage as the sun set with a full orchestra (a Bjorkestra, one presumes). Have to admit to getting a bit emotional during both Joga and Hyperballad – two of the great songs of my youth. Her voice remains a thing of enormous beauty and power. Her wardrobe remains an absolute bag of monkeys. God knows if I’ll ever get to see her play live again, but I’m glad I saw her here.

7. Ethel Cain

One of the festival’s many pleasant surprises.

I’ve listened to Cain’s albums a fair bit and liked them without truly loving them (all that American Gothic imagery, the song/album titles that feel like we’re building to just flat out calling a record Backwater Incest), but this was one of those occasions when you see an artist live and it all just clicks. Her voice is completely gorgeous and she has a fantastic, slow burning stage presence that made it impossible to take your eyes off her (interesting contrast with Weyes Blood, who we also saw and who has similarly marvellous pipes but lacks the presence). She didn’t say a great deal, she didn’t move more than she needed to – she simply sang her ass off to an adoring crowd. And the songs really came to life. In many ways, it feels like she’s self-consciously doing for Middle America what Lana Del Rey does for the coasts, and in her audience I detected some of the same hero worship that Del Rey attracted at a similar stage.

Anyway, she played this country-tinged number and I thought it would probably be Afterword-friendly, so here it is. I would go see her if you get the chance.

6. Destroy Boys

A band that answers the immortal question; what would happen if Hole ate Kenickie? Lashings of Riot Grrrrl posturing, power pop verses and growled Courtney Love choruses. They were enormous amounts of fun from start to finish, they drew gigantic energy from the crowd and their lead singer (who emerged onstage with a mullet dyed half blonde, “Unionize” written across her stomach and a pencil moustache drawn on her upper lip) is completely electric and impossible to look away from. Their vibe was very “the local weirdos have formed a band and now they’re shredding school assembly”, and that’s always a vibe I’ll show up for.

We’d seen Wet Leg the previous day. They were great and clearly having a really good time. But no one we watched was having quite as good a time as Destroy Boys – they were tight, but sloppy, full of teenage energy and bite. They rolled on the floor, they joked with the audience, they curled a lip and strutted their stuff. They started a circle pit and the singer jumped into it and was swallowed by the crowd, barely able to make her way back to the stage.

They didn’t play this, but I discovered it after and I think it’s great. Oh, and 10/10 for the band name, well played.

5. Chemical Brothers

A confession: I had never previously seen the Chemical Brothers. Despite worshipping them as a teenager and being enormously partial to that sort of live experience, they had somehow always eluded me.
On that basis, they were very high up my list of acts not to miss.

Somewhat to my surprise, I found myself seeing them quite literally from the rail. They’d been programmed against Metro Boomin (another act I’d have loved to see), who had brought out an insane list of guests at weekend 1 and therefore drew an immense crowd for weekend 2. As a consequence, the Chems, though well attended, were not the primary on-site draw at that particular time, leading to a crowd that, while still very large, was not quite as packed as it might otherwise have been. Was able to turn up 10 mins before the start and find a spot close enough that I could observe at close quarters the sheer, uninhibited nerdery of Tom and Ed, gloriously unremedied by a quarter of a century of fame. God bless them both, absolute heroes.

Were they any good? What do you reckon. They were amazing. They were always going to be. Regrettably, they didn’t play The Private Psychedelic Reel, but they did play Escape Velocity, and Escape Velocity is my favourite of theirs. The visuals were superb, the crowd were extremely up for it and 90 mins passed in a heartbeat. Magical.

4. Christine & The Queens

I very nearly didn’t attend this one. It was on my list, but I popped in to watch a bit of 2manyDJs on the neighbouring stage and they were so much fun I didn’t really want to leave. As it turned out, I’m very glad I did.

So, big fan of Christine. His album last year was a tad underwhelming, but otherwise he’s not really put a foot wrong so far, and the new stuff that’s come out this year is great. Was expecting the all-singing, all-dancing show of yore, but ended up getting something quite different. No backing dancers, very limited band (guitarist, drums, keyboards). Not much in the way of backdrop either – all the Coachella stages have massive video screens backing them, which are usually put to good use with stellar visuals, but the screens stayed dark for this one. Most of the show was basically just Chris, singing his heart out and occasionally breaking into dance. There may also have been the odd outbreak of poetry, which obviously sounds fucking awful in principle, but somehow worked in this context.

I have to say, I don’t think I’ve ever watched a performer deliver something quite so arresting as this. He was simultaneously terrifyingly fierce and intensely, almost unbearably vulnerable. It doesn’t take too much of a leap to imagine that gender identity was the source of all the angst and passion, and after all the heat and light about “the trans issue”, who should use what bathroom and so on, it was extraordinary and fairly clarifying to watch and listen to someone as they simply delivered a guided tour of their heart. Impossible not to be moved by it all, really – for the second year running I found myself stood at the Mojave stage trying very hard not to cry. Maybe they’re putting something in the air. Or maybe I’m just discovering that, post-lockdown – being in large crowds makes me emotional.

He closed by singing his new one, To Be Honest. I think it’s quite lovely.

3. Rosalia

Another very happy surprise. I really enjoyed Rosalia’s Motomami, and am an even bigger fan of Beso, which she released earlier this year. Nonetheless, I had a pretty fixed expectation of what her live show would be: a relentlessly polished, big Pop production. And it was that. But it was also so much more.

I can’t really do justice to her show, so I’m hoping at some stage they’ll put it on YouTube and I can post the whole thing here.

It had the big dance numbers, and they were very impressively choreographed and performed. But she also managed this weird intimacy, which isn’t easily done when you’re singing to tens of thousands of people. This was achieved partly via her use of the onstage camera, which would sometimes pull out for wide shots of the entire spectacle, and others be brought close enough to feel as if it were in her hand and she was addressing it directly, and partly via enormous force of personality. Flawless as the singing and dancing was (and Jesus, she has a voice on her), she wasn’t afraid to show her emotion, to let the audience see that she was sweating, or out of breath, or stopping for a water break, or overjoyed. It was a show of flesh and blood and humanity, not just style.

There was a particularly lovely moment where she went to the crowd, handed the mic to members of the audience and let them sing a few lines. The first had a voice so awful as to reassure you that this could not possibly be a plant. The second was a young girl who sang along while absolutely crying her eyes out as Rosalia mimed the lyrics along with her, clearly delighted at the magical moment being shared, before snapping back into full performer mode for the finale.

The whole thing was a weird mix of being unbelievably polished, while feeling quite organic. I’m sure it was entirely contrived, but the contrast was unusual, and it landed. Plus, I was blown away by her vocals when she took the stage to sing alone. So full of personality. If you get the chance to go see her I’d say jump at it. Very unusual performer, and the songs are great too.

Here’s a clip. It doesn’t really do the whole thing justice, but it’s all I got.

2. Knocked Loose.

Sunday night was a weird one. I emerged from Christine & The Queens feeling all over the place and headed straight into Bjork, which didn’t exactly settle the emotions. From there I made my way to Knocked Loose, a hardcore band who had been amongst my most anticipated acts of the festival. I’d heard they’re fantastic live and was really looking forward to an hour or so of inhuman screaming and violent riffage.

Or not, as it turned out, because I arrived to discover that I was not the only person who had been alerted to the aceness of this band. There was a queue to get in stretching out of sight, and the set was scheduled to commence at any moment. For a couple of seconds I resigned myself to the unhappy thought that I’d missed them, before something quite magical happened. A couple of feet away, one of the exits to the venue swung open, someone (presumably appalled by the racket) headed out and maybe half a dozen people spotted their opportunity, held the door open and dashed inside. Followed, closely, by me.

We had to collectively evade a couple of security people, but – rather improbably – I found myself in a great spot at the front of the VIP section just as the band hit the crescendo of their first song of the night, and the place was going utterly fucking batshit. Like, scarily batshit. People stage diving feet first, the lead singer throwing people off the stage, and absolute malevolence in the pit batshit. I don’t think I can recall seeing any act go 0-60 quite that quickly, and the energy in the room was fantastic. Again, I can’t find a clip that fully does it justice, but this will have to do:

This might be my new favourite band. They’re absolutely ferocious, and the lead singer’s vocals – which are barely coherent on record – are reduced in a living setting to little more than a series of staccato yelps. Absolutely wonderful.

I emerged from the tent walking on air, feeling that the festival had delivered me a series of magic moments in quick succession and desperate to find the rest of my group (none of whom had shared my desire to see this act) and tell them all about it. But the evening wasn’t done yet.

1. Eminently Predictable

From Knocked Loose, I dashed to the main stage to try to snag a half decent spot for the headliners. I have to admit; I don’t love the main stage. Like most main stages at festivals, it’s a bit sterile, you’re always bloody miles away and its ratio of crowdedness to atmosphere is sub-optimal.

By the time I got there, it was already rammed, and the best I could do was a spot a good distance from the main stage, with my view obscured by one of the technical areas and surrounded by a bunch of guys even taller than me (the odds of which were unlikely). As a consequence, I stood through Blink 182’s perfectly decent set feeling a little like my buzz was fading. They’re not really my band (although they were a lot of fun), I’d been on my feet all day and my legs were starting to ache.

Blink wound up their set, and I wondered to myself from where Fred, Four Tet and Skrillex would emerge. Frank Ocean had built a round ice rink in the middle of the crowd for his set (he never used it), and the rumour going round was that the new headliners would play in the rink, surrounded by the audience. This made it quite tricky to figure out what a decent spot for the evening would look like. There was also some concern about what this set might look like; these headliners are a very accomplished act and have played some large venues together, but they’d had approximately 3 days to figure out what this was all going to like, which isn’t much.

Plus, there was the potential for a weird mood – people had bought tickets for Frank Ocean, and Frank Ocean does not sound like Skrillex (by any means). Finally, I wondered to myself what this was all going to sound like. Last year I turned up to Fred Again expecting an afternoon of crowd pleasing bangers and was instead confronted by a set that was far more true to Fred’s recorded output; moments of let’s all dance, moments of let’s all have a cry together. Was there going to be a similar switch up here? Did I need to worry that I was going find myself hit by all those feelings all over again?

I was stood pondering the above when, for the second time in the evening, true magic occurred. There was an enormous roar and suddenly the three heroes appeared, rucksacks over shoulders, and made their way to their mixing desk… which was approximately two metres in front of me. In a crowd of 150,000 people I had somehow bungled my way to being at the absolute epicentre. All luck, no design – story of my life.

I didn’t have long to ponder my good fortune, because the trio more or less immediately launched into their first track of the night, Skrillex’s Leave Me Like This, and the crowd promptly went completely wild. I mean: completely. And. Utterly. Fucking. Wild. It was like someone had sent a wave of electricity through the floor – all the tension of the previous days, the bad blood about Ocean’s performance and then cancellation – all of it combined to this moment of raw catharsis as the whole place reached for the sky as one. I have been in some very excited crowds in my life, between music and football. I have never in my life known energy like this. It was a whole other level; bodies everywhere, people screaming and shouting, strangers hugging. Chaos. It was last year all over again, except this time there were no emotions other than pure joy and excitement.

The three DJs took turns to man the decks and hype the crowd and proceeded to play 90 minutes of utterly ridiculous, crowd-pleasing destroyers. Four Tet mixed the intro from Smells Like Teen Spirit into HOL!’s Country Riddim. Skrillex dropped his fantastic new single with Missy Elliott, RATATAT (check it out, it’s great). Fred played a remixed version of Love Story by Taylor Swift that had the whole crowd singing along. They played slap bang in the middle of an absolutely colossal crowd and they sent out so much energy into the throng, such a preposterously good vibe, that they just lifted the entire place right into the air.

About ten minutes in, just as things were starting to calm down, they played a remix of Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe and I very nearly died of joy. I bow to no one in my love of Carly, and to be here – back at Coachella – at a Fred Again show, listening to that song…. No words. I could not have scripted a better finale to the weekend.

I could go on about all the other stuff that happened. The insane laser show, the fireworks. Four Tet, having painstakingly worked his way over two decades to the top of the electronic music business, with enormous kudos for his skills and excellent taste, suddenly finding himself playing the closing night of a major music festival and playing as his final track of the night an unmixed, straight up version of Party In The USA by Miley Cyrus (another song for which I have enormous affection). It was all just magic upon magic upon magic. At some stage they’re going to put the whole thing on YouTube and I’ll try to remember to post it here. I’m sure the video will not do full justice to the experience I’m describing above – they rarely do. But it was, quite simply, the best live experience of my life. For now, these will have to do (at least you can see the Nirvana/dubstep collision moment):

Crowd reaction when the first PHM lasers came on
byu/emza555 inCoachella

Halfway through the set, they played Fred’s Marea (We’ve Lost Dancing), the song with which Fred’s set closed last year, and I was sent spinning back to that moment. To emerging into the dying light of the day feeling like something had shifted in the universe, to the preposterous white magic of shared music. Here I was, stood in the middle of this utter chaos, and that same magic was happening all over again, and then some. At moments like that, you have to stop and question the universe and its workings, or maybe just your own dumb luck.

Last year Fred Again played a fantastically well-received boiler room set. He was building on his previous success at Coachella, and that set took him to another level. I know a small number of people on here are also following this stuff and may recall it, but you can find it here:

I have kept a link to that set on my phone all year, because it makes me so happy to watch. Fred’s energy, the crowd’s energy, that amazing music. Well, last weekend he took that same boiler room energy and expanded it out from a single room until it covered an entire festival. And in doing so he cemented his ridiculous rise from playing a mid-sized stage at 6pm last year to absolutely napalming the main headline set this. The guy is an absolute superstar. If there’s a lesson from the weekend, it’s that your favourite musician will always let you down if taken over a long enough timescale, and I’m sure it’ll happen here too, but for now – thank you, thank you, thank you for the most amazing experience.

I couldn’t sleep that night. We got home at 2 and I was still up at 5, bouncing off the walls. I’ve tried to leave it until I’ve calmed down a bit to write all of the above, because I know I get carried away with my own hyperbole at times like these. But it’s been four days since that headline set and I still haven’t come down from the ceiling. Only music can do that, and I suppose I am writing all of this, breathless and childish as it fundamentally is, because I want to be able to look back in years to come and try to remember exactly how it felt.

I’m in my mid forties now. I’m in good nick, and I still have the energy of my teens, but I know now that at some point it will all have to fall away, that the moments like this will slow to a trickle and maybe even dry up completely. But for now, it’s magnificent to know that I can still be taken aback by live performance, feel things this deeply, and to think that there might yet be more of it out there just waiting to happen. I hope I never lose that feeling, and I hope that music makes me this goofy forever.

From Christine to Bjork to Knocked Loose and on to Fred Again, Four Tet & Skrillex. The greatest few hours of my music listening life, running the full gamut from raw emotion to jesus christ am I going to die in this crowd terrifying to you’re amazing/I’m amazing/the universe is amazing euphoria. The memory of it all will stay with me forever and I know that even if I go back again next year there’s surely no way to top this. Or is there?

BL

X

Other acts seen over the weekend: Pusha T, Gabriels (fantastic voice, check them out), Wet Leg, Blondie, Kaytranada, Yves Tumour, Gorillaz, Bad Bunny, Snail Mail, Mura Masa, Boygenius (wonderful), Eric Prydz, Blink 182, The Blaze, 2manyDJs, Rae Sremmurd, Stick Figure, Remy, Paris Text, El Michels Affair, Gordo, Noname, Weyes Blood.

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