Saturday headliner Green Day rallied the crowd at the main stage with mix of hard-hitting melodic punk rock, good-natured humor, and the kind of political commentary best explored on their 2004 album “American Idiot” from which much the set was pulled.
The title track of that album kicked off their set, with “Know Your Enemy” right behind it. Green Day has long been one of those bands that reach out to connect with fans, and that sense of we’re-all-in-this-together continued on Saturday, with singer Billie Joe Armstrong pulling a young woman from the crowd to sing with him on “You Know Your Enemy,” and for the final song, inviting a fan on stage to play guitar with him on “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life.)”
Other highlights in the show included the early hits “Basket Case,” “Wake Me When September Ends,” which opened with a snippet of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” and fire. Seriously, the pyro during Green Day’s set was over the top all night, so much say that in the final blast of fireworks, a blast gone astray lit a palm tree backstage on fire for a few minutes until it was extinguished.
Green Day might have headlined Saturday but the Original Misfits and rapper Travis Scott technically closed out the day with late-night sets after Green Day finished.
The Houston rapper, making his first Coachella appearance since 2017, a brass band welcoming him to the stage 15 or 20 minutes late. Instead of starting his show on the main stage, Scott opened on a remote stage out in the crowd, performing “Crush” and “Aye” on a platform that rose high about the crowd. When he finally made it back to the main stage the brass section returned as dancers descended from the ceiling while he played “Skyfall” and “Highest in the Room.” Just before 1 a.m., he wrapped as fireworks erupted with his biggest hit “Sicko Mode.”
The Misfits played just before Scott on the Outdoor Stage, blasting through the horror-pop that singer Glenn Danzig, guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Frankenstein, and bassist Jerry Only have been grinding out for four decades or so. The set opened with “Death Comes Ripping,” “I Turned Into a Martian,” and “Vampira,” which pretty much sums up the Misfits’ main interests.
Other late-night sets of note included The Dare, the stage name of dance-punk musician Harrison Smith, whose grimy riffs and heavy beats had fans in the Mojave Tent dancing almost ’til midnight with songs such as “Girls,” “Sex” and “I Destroyed Disco.”
Singer Beth Gibbons played an eclectic folk set in Gobi which suffered only from the much louder roar of Green Day halfway across the festival grounds. Her 2024 album “Lives Outgrown” is a meditation on aging, mortality and grief — bleak topics rendered beautiful in the hands of Gibbons and a band that included strings and other unexpected instruments. As a treat for fans of her work in the English band Portishead, she also slipped in that band’s classic tune “Glory Box.”
Earlier on Saturday, Coachella served its usual smorgasbord of sounds for fans of every genre.
You want the Brat Queen of dance pop? Right this way to Charli XCX! Maybe you like your hip-hop served with a side of the Los Angeles Philharmonic? Gustavo Dudamel and LL Cool J will see you now! Dreamy pop with a dollop of politics? Bernie Sanders would like you to meet his younger friend Clairo.
Charli XCX, whose album “Brat” was one of the biggest hits of 2024, drew the largest crowd of the day to the main stage, many of them dressed in the neon green and black hues popularized by Charli and the album art.
She opened her twilight set with “365 (Party Girl Remix)” and “360,” dressed all in black on a minimalist set that nods to the late-night club scene out of which she comes. Her “Brat” remix albums included plenty of guests, and some of those big-name friends joined her on Saturday. Troy Sivan came out for “Talk Talk,” and later Lorde arrived for their “Girl, So Confusing.” The biggest response came a few songs later when Billie Eilish walked out to perform their remix of “Guess.”
Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic brought the most instruments to any stage on Saturday, performing at the Outdoor Stage as the sun started to set. The program mixed classical standards such as Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” and Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony” with a wide range of guests that included jazz-pop singer Laufey, Americana singer-songwriter Maren Morris, and Latin pop singer Becky G.
It wrapped with rapper LL Cool J performing hits such as “Mama Said Knock You Out” and “I Need Love,” with Cool J and Dudamel sharing a hug at the finish, and the rapper giving the conductor one of his signature bucket hats as a gift.
Singer-songwriter Clairo was introduced by probably the last person any festivalgoers expected: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had been in Los Angeles for a Fight Oligarchy rally with New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others. Sanders gave a quick speech condemning the billionaire class, insurance companies and President Trump’s inaction on climate change.
Clairo then took the stage, which was curated to feel and look like a vintage studio jam with friends performing hits “Second Chance” and “Thank You” from her latest album “Charm.” That made the next bit with her best friends and collaborators in her side project Shelly feel perfectly on par with the theme. Clairo’s performance alongside a full band is an experience in its own right, showcasing her vast musical range from melds of jazz, pop and R&B that showcase her artistic abilities.
The afternoon sets had an equally quirky array on offer.
Over at the Do LaB stage, drag superstar and musician Trixie Mattel turned the heat up with a glitter-soaked disco set that was equal parts comedy roast and queer liberation dance party. “Alright people, you need to scream like white trash at a Willie Nelson concert or your dad seeing a non-gender bathroom,” she teased, strutting onstage to “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.”
Trixie traded her signature indie-folk sound on Saturday for pulsing remixes of Charli XCX’s “Apple” and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Taste,” and even threw in a sparkling cover of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love.” “You better clap, you homosexuals—and the friends who drove them here,” she shouted, keeping the energy hilariously high. It was campy, pink and dazzling—pure Trixie.
LL Cool J wasn’t the only old-school rapper to turn up at Coachella on Saturday. Public Enemy’s Flava Flav also popped up in the wildly fun performance of Yo Gabba Yabba, the colorfully eccentric kid’s TV show. Flava first led the packed Mojave Tent in singing Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend,” a song the late rapper performed on the first episode of “Yo Gabba Gabba” more than a decade ago.
He then stuck around to sing a “Yo Gabba Gabba” original, “I Love Bugs,” with the monster mascots of the show who also led the crowd at other times in songs such as “Party In My Tummy” and “Don’t Bite Your Friends.” The set closed out with “The Rainbow Connection,” for which the guests included songwriter Paul Williams, who wrote that number, Weird Al Yankovic making his Coachella debut, and the indie rock band Portugal. The Man.
Viagra Boys are about as punk rock as it gets in the desert. Frontman Sebastian Murphy came out shirtless, tattooed and with a White Claw in hand without a single care in the world. He facetiously told the crowd he was working on his “Coachella bod” while rubbing his protruding belly, announced the band as Benson Boone, and endearingly called the crowd “freaks.” With songs such as “Sports,” the band urged listeners to embrace their true selves.
Weezer, who were announced a week before the fest as special guests for Saturday, delighted a packed Mojave Tent with a run-through of hits such as “Beverly Hills,” “Undone (The Sweater Song),” and “Buddy Holly.” The performance came just days after bassist Scott Shriner’s wife, author Jillian Lauren, was arrested and charged with attempted murder for pointing a gun at LAPD officers. On Saturday, only the music mattered as no mention of their real-life situation was made.