Coachella 2015 Closes With Surprises From Kanye & Nicki, a Hobbled But Undaunted Florence
Coachella 2015 closed out with another flurry of guest appearances, but unlike Kanye West’s Saturday night guest spot during the Weeknd’s set – or Madonna’s buzzed about Drake tongue-lashing on Weekend 1 – Sunday’s guest appearances were mostly limited to the tents.
Kanye, who apparently never met a stage he doesn’t want to hop on, turned up during Belgian singer Stromae’s Sunday night set in the Mojave tent, appearing on “Alors on Danse,” a track he remixed, while Nicki Minaj dropped in on David Guetta’s set in the Sahara tent to do “Hey Mama,” her new cut with Guetta and Afrojack.
The Pink Barbie also showed up during Drake’s set, but it was only for a hug. Drake called her the “love of my life,” offered her congratulations, possibly for her engagement to Meek Mill and performed his verse from her song “Truffle Butter.” He also gave a shout out to the Young Money crew with a version of “Who Do You Love?” while insisting that rumors of the label’s demise are greatly exaggerated.
The Toronto-spawned MC implied that his opening-weekend show didn’t come off exactly how he’d hope, suggesting the “6 God” rapper was upset that his lip-lock with Madonna got more attention than his actual performance, so this week there was no hanky panky – at least on stage. Not only was the Material Mom absent from the stage, “Madonna,” the Drake song named for her, was gone from his set list.
During his hour-plus set, Drake showed how he’s managed to become a main-stage attraction with his mix of thug-like rhymes, on tracks like “HYFR (Hell Yeah F*cking Right)” and “6 God,” and humble and sweet crooning on jams like and “Hold on We’re Going Home."
While Drake steered clear of guest performers, Florence and the Machine singer Florence Welch felt she owed a special appearance to the crowd, since a broken foot she suffered during her Weekend 1 performance when she leapt from the stage left her hobbled Sunday night and sitting and a stool. "Father John Misty has agreed to come and sing a song with me in support of my right foot,” she said, before launching into a duet cover of the Everly Brothers’ hit “Love Hurts,” with the folk-rocker who performed his own set Saturday night.
While it was a nice gesture, it wasn’t the highlight of Welch’s set. That honor went to “Dog Days Are Over,” her breakthrough single – and the song she was performing last week when she made that foot-breaking leap. “Just because I can’t jump and dance doesn’t mean you can’t,” Welch said before launching into the song, which took on a celebratory feel, as the injured but undaunted singer delivered a stunning, but abbreviated set. Before leaving the stage, she vowed, “Next time I’m coming back on two feet."
Florence wasn’t the only femme fatale that put on a killer set Sunday night. Just prior to the Machine’s beautiful but brief appearance, St. Vincent literally owned the Outdoor Theatre with her quirky woman-who-fell-to-earth vibe. Beginning with a disembodied voice seemingly ripped from Radiohead’s OK Computer, urging concert-goers not to transmit digital transmissions, the woman born Annie Clark put on a performance that was part female Bowie, part Prince-cess with a massive heaping of Robert Fripp and 100 percent magical. With her jet-black curly bob, orange eye-shadow and sexy and chic little black dress and heels, Clark cut a stunning figure on stage, with her robotic movements, sweet voice and monster guitar freak-outs that would have given the previous nights’ guitar gods, Jack White and AC/DC’s Angus Young, a run for their money. Simply put, if you have a chance to see St. Vincent, run – and not the other way.
Also stunning at the Outdoor Theatre was co-ed combo Fitz & the Tantrums, strutting their feel-good soul-pop vibes in irresistible hits such as "Out of My League,” “MoneyGrabber” and the feel-good whistler “The Walker.” Earlier on the same stage, Ryan Adams and Jenny Lewis also put on impressive sets with their respect bands.
Adams, wearing a Smiths T-shirt, mixed it up with heart-breaking acoustic ballads and electric rockers. The fanboy in him couldn’t resist pointing out that Grateful Dead singer/guitarist Bob Weir was in the crowd, watching from the soundboard and serenaded him with his own “Peaceful Valley,” a song that’s been performed live by Weir in Dead spin-offs Phil Lesh & Friends and Furthur. He also served up the rock with the set-opening “Gimme Something Good” and tore at our heart strings with the tender “Come Pick Me Up.” Before saying goodnight, Adams said he had to go to make way for other artists, joking that “Drake is going to make out with Madonna or something” and then quipping that he wanted to see how the sign language interpreters, working the main stages, handled that action.
Lewis, in a home-made rainbow jumper, offered a mix of her sweet-voiced solo material, including songs from her most recent album, The Voyager, as well as a few throwback tunes by her former band, Rilo Kiley. As he did at Weekend 1, Lewis’ former R.K. bandmate Blake Sennett joined her on guitar on a few songs, including the standout “Portions for Foxes."
Aside from those major attractions, Coachella also continued to deliver some pleasant surprises from those acts you may have heard of, but never actually heard – or at least never seen live. Among those who impressed us on first glance were veteran punk combo OFF!, who gave us a mid-afternoon jolt worthy of a double-shot of espresso or stickling a paperclip in one of the festival’s many phone charging outlets. Dreadlocked and balding Circle Jerks shouter Keith Morris came off like a punk rock godfather, urging the crowd to "wear sunscreen and drink plenty of water” in between his aggro-vocals on songs like “Time Is Not on Your Side."
Country outlaw Sturgill Simpson won the award for Coachella performer most likely to play Stagecoach – and he actually is – with his mix of earnest country and bluegrass, which picked up such velocity at the end of the set it almost sounded as if his band were going to break into T. Rex’s "Bang a Gong (Get It On)” at any second.
Desaparecidos, Connor Oberst’s rock band, played with an almost Clash-like fervor and came off like a kick in the nuts to anyone who thinks Oberst is too twee as a solo artist or with Bright Eyes. Brit brother act the Cribs also put on an energetic set, wearing cut-off jeans that exposed their toothpick-thin legs. Perhaps the most impressive tent act we caught on Sunday was Philip Selway. The man who’s headlined Coachella in the past drumming in Radiohead, put on an intriguing set that at times echoed the haunting experimentalism of his other band, as he battled the aural onslaught of Kaskade coming from the main stage. Before leaving the stage, with the Beatlesque-closer “It Will End in Tears,” the wise singer/multi-instrumentalist may have offered up the most fitting summary of Coachella. “I hope you all had a good weekend and go home with lots of new favorites and earworms,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about,” he added, with a pause. “Partially."
