Talk that the three headliners for this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival weren’t big enough to fill the main stage was always just sour grapes that your preferred pick didn’t get the nod.
Lana Del Rey delivered with a show that made her moody music for sad boys and girls feel plenty big to close out Friday. Tyler, the Creator, was playfully fun on Saturday, roaming over a desert-themed stage set as he kept the crowd entertained with both music and humor.
And Doja Cat, who wrapped up the festival on Sunday? She came not just with a set that featured mostly songs off her 2023 album “Scarlet,” but the most elaborate production of any of the headliners this year.
It was a spectacle that featured Doja and her backing dancers early in the show done up as sexy sasquatch-like characters for “Demons” and “Tia Temera” near the start of the show and ended with her and the dancers writhing in a mud pit on a remote stage as they sang something we probably shouldn’t repeat in polite company.
At 28, Doja Cat has disavowed some of her earlier, poppier albums and songs, and here skipped playing such songs as “Say So,” a No. 1 hit with Nikki Minaj, and “Kiss Me More,” a collaboration with SZA that peaked at No. 3.
“Scarlet” is a darker, more serious affair, and the show reflected that in its design. The 90-minute set opened with her singing “Acknowledge Me” on a remote stage in the middle of the audience, wearing what looked something like a couture haz-mat suit.
By the time she reached “FTG” five songs later, she’d finished the first of numerous costume changes, now appearing like a punk rock android, the long blonde wig of a few songs earlier gone, platinum-dyed hair in an extreme buzzcut.
Her choreography was fierce throughout the night. On “Ouchies,” her male and female dancers pushed and shoved each other as they moved around the stage in a mock street fight. For “Attention,” two stage-wide platforms lifted mysterious dark-cloaked figures above the stage, where they swooped and swirled as Doja sang.
“97” saw the dancers in long fur coats over lingerie, cigarette holders in their hands, while Doja Cat matched the look but in white fur.
The set also scattered guest artists into its mix. 21 Savage showed up first to duet with Doja Cat on his song “n.h.i.e.” Rapper Teezo Touchdown appeared for “Masc,” the song he collaborated on for “Scarlet 2 Claude,” the deluxe edition of “Scarlet.”
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As Doja started to sing “WYM Freestyle,” a giant T. Rex skeletal head emerged from the wings. And continued to emerge until it was revealed as a more or less life-sized dinosaur skeleton, which, propelled by a dark-clad crew beneath it, pursued her slowly out the ramp into the audience. The song is just over three minutes, but for Coachella the singer wanted a T. Rex and she got a T. Rex.
ASAP Rocky, who one night earlier guested with Tyler, the Creator, came out for “Urrrge!!!!!!!!!!” which he did with Doja Cat on the deluxe album.
“Paint the Town Red,” her first No. 1 solo hit, closed out the main set with most in the crowd singing along on its catchy chorus, and at that point, honestly, she could have ended things. But no, there was mud in which to wrestle — and that’s what she and her dancers did.
Only then, most of the mud toweled off, but not entirely, did she walk slowly back to the main stage. Tired? Sure. Triumphant? Definitely.