Attendees share hot takes on which Coachella weekend is the best
There’s a bit of a rivalry between Coachella Weekend 1 and 2, so we asked Weekend 2 attendees why the latter is considered better.
Well, look what the wind blew in.
One week after Anyma’s Friday closing set was scuttled by safety concerns resulting from high winds, the DJ/music producer returned to Coachella Friday, April 17 and finally unveiled his much-hyped new ÆDEN show.
And while it felt touch and go there for a few minutes thanks to another delay that saw the show start nearly 15 minutes late (and surely left some wondering if it was about to be canceled again), I’m pleased to say things seemed to go off without a hitch.
Even better, this show was well worth staying up past midnight for — even if I won’t quite go so far as to declare the kind of world-shattering experience some were probably expecting, or at least hoping for.
“Welcome to ÆDEN,” a voice announced as the show began. “We are the future, we are the past.”
It sounded cool and stirring even as the inquisitive part of my brain I couldn’t quite turn off had no idea what it really meant (or if it was supposed to mean anything at all beyond just sounding cool).
That would turn out to be a fitting introduction for a show that featured some of the most spectacular stage and graphic visuals I have ever seen (at Coachella or anywhere else) but often left me grasping for any depth or meaning beyond the spectacle.
Upon further reflection, however, I think searching for deeper meaning is the exact wrong way to approach this performance. This was something to simply marvel at as a parade of increasingly wild visuals paraded across the screen.
One of the few things that had been publicized about the show is that it would involve a lot of greek sculptural figures and that was, indeed, true. But there were many other amaIng visuals too, including, a Medusa figure, a winged woman and a flaming inferno.
There was also a crazy amount of lasers and huge flames that shot out of the top of the stage. Anyma also looked pretty sweet whenever he would rise many feet above the floor of the stage on a some kind of floating platform (presumably what kept him from doing the show last week).
So, overall, I’d have to say we more than got what we came for in terms of visuals — even if sometimes things got a little too video gamey for my taste.
Anyma, however, also provided some musical fireworks thanks to guest appearances by Matt Bellamy (of the band Muse), singer-songwriter Joji, rapper Swae Lee and K Pop singer Lisa (of Blackpink), the latter of which who came out to sing their new collab “Bad Angel.”
Lisa owned the stage and brought plenty of aura (as she always does) while Bellamy sounded great — though I’d rather have heard a Muse classic than whatever he was singing. Joji’s vocals sounded crisp and haunting on his Anyma collab “Beautiful,” but I’m not too sure what to say about Swae Lee beyond that he was there and he couldn’t have rapped more than a few words over his own recorded vocals (though he did a good job dancing and hyping up the crowd).
One of Anyma’s other big-name collaborators, Ellie Goulding, was not present, but instead rendered herself as a Greek statue who shattered into pieces in one of the show’s most impressive moments.
I suppose I should wrap things up by saying a few words about the music being played by Anyma himself, though it sometimes felt like an afterthought compared to the visual overstimulation.
But I think Anyma largely delivered there too, mixing a variety of otherworldly sounding beats that matched the action/vibe of his stage visuals and more standard mixes of pop and rap hits. As a result, viewers were treated to some wild combos of music and visuals, such as when a spectacular gushing water visual was accompanied by a mix of Kendrick Lamar’s “m.A.A.d city” and its darkly humorous commentary on street gangs.
Before leaving the stage during his brief underwhelming appearance, Swae Lee yelled “Is this the biggest party in the world?” And I have to assume Anyma was probably up there letting out a sigh of relief as he did so, as the DJ got to give Coachella the show he’s said he’s been working on for the past year.
