Damon Albarn is British and somewhat legendary in the music industry because of Blur and Gorillaz. He’s genuinely one of the most talented musicians/producers/songwriters to come out of the UK in decades. Unfortunately, he’s also really grumpy and pretty sexist. In recent years, he’s talked a lot of sh-t about Adele and Taylor Swift for some reason. So… maybe there’s some Snake Fam Revenge happening right now. Albarn and Blur performed at the main stage of the Coachella festival this weekend and the crowd gave them absolutely NOTHING. So much so that Albarn issued a threat/promise that he would never return to Coachella.
Blur’s Damon Albarn has slammed the crowd at Coachella, while fans branded the festival goers as ’embarrassing’ after their apathetic reaction during the band’s set. The iconic Britpop band played a 13-song set at the California-based music festival, including 90s classics like Girls & Boys, Popscene and Song 2. They also brought out the Torres Martinez Cahuilla Bird Singers, a group of tribal singers from the Mojave Desert, where Coachella is held.
However, the audience at their set was less than enthusiastic, with their apathy becoming apparent to the band onstage. Lead singer Damon could be seen looking increasingly irritated as he attempted to engage with the crowd to no avail.
For their 1994 hit Girls & Boys, the musician tried to get everyone to sing along to the chorus multiple times, but it was radio silent. Frustrated he declared that the band would not be returning to the festival, saying: ‘You’re never seeing us again, so you might as well f****** sing it’.
Clips of the toe-curling moment were soon circulated on social media, with many fans slamming the Coachella crowd as having the ‘worst vibes’ and declaring they ‘did not deserve to be graced by the presence of blur’.
They wrote: ‘this coachella people do NOT deserve this blur setlist you’re joking; lord please take away all my suffering and give it to the blur crowd at coachella; Why does everyone at Coachella lowkey want Blur dead; the crowd for blur at coachella was so embarassing damon im so sorry i wasn’t there’.
I’ve seen some clips of other Coachella performers trying to encourage the crowd to sing along or give them some energy. Like, No Doubt had a huge crowd but they weren’t giving Gwen Stefani much energy from what I saw. Same at the smaller stages too. It might be a generational thing? As in, the rich youths at Coachella think singing along is “cringe”? I also think that even thought Albarn is somewhat legendary in the UK, younger (American) music fans might not know every Blur single from the ‘90s.
Ir al Coachella 2024 y que un grupazo como BLUR no genere entusiasmo y que la gente no coree un himno como el Girls & Boys para asombro de Damon Albarn es bastante preocupante.
Como diría Dylan… “Los Tiempos Están Cambiando” pic.twitter.com/U5AUc7SMpr
— David Webb (@DeifWebb) April 14, 2024
Photos courtesy of Getty.