A big question hung over the final night of Coachella 2023’s second weekend: What now? Seven days earlier, on April 16, Frank Ocean had closed out the festival’s first weekend with a performance that he himself acknowledged as chaotic at best. Some fans were devastated by it, while others found it off-handedly brilliant; either way, it added up to one of the weirdest headline sets ever.
By the middle of last week, we knew there would be no opportunity for redemption. On Wednesday, Ocean pulled out of the second weekend entirely, saying a doctor advised him not to perform due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg. Behind-the-scenes intrigue was rampant, as Ocean was replaced by Blink-182, whose classic lineup had reunited with a set on Friday of Coachella’s opening weekend, and by an electronic-music All Star team of Skrilliex, Fred Again.., and Four Tet. Though both have devoted audiences that justify prime placement at a festival like Coachella, this wasn’t a normal headlining opportunity. Could they pull it off?
Last night, Blink took the stage to the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey, setting an appropriately momentous tone — it’s the classical piece that most says “some serious shit is about to go down.” Then the reunited pop-punk pranksters let the vulgarities fly, slamming into their 1999 deep cut “Family Reunion” and its George Carlin-quoting “shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker” refrain. Travis Barker was a punk-rock hurricane on drums, as always, and when Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge screamed the punchline — “I fucked your mom!” — fireworks erupted and flames licked the crowds’ faces.
Hoppus and DeLonge, together again
Christopher Polk/Variety
Despite the teenage energy, the set had huge emotional stakes. Blink’s members are all in their late forties and early fifties, and they’ve been through enough major life experiences in the past few years to give the words “I guess this is growing up” a little more weight. The band’s reunion with DeLonge after nearly a decade apart followed Hoppus’ 2021 lymphoma diagnosis (the singer-bassist was later proclaimed cancer-free). Barker has had his own health struggles, getting hospitalized for life-threatening pancreatitis, then more recently breaking a ring finger, pushing back the start of Blink’s world tour.
Even in middle age, though, these guys are still teenagers at heart — and their relentlessly high-energy set proved the band could connect with a crowd a generation or two younger. “Who here has done drugs this weekend?” they asked what was perhaps the most Gen Z Coachella audience ever. “You just admitted to a felony,” they added (a joke that may or may not have landed in present-day stoner heaven California).
Blink’s set list was nearly the same as the one from the previous weekend, though Sunday they broke out the 2004 tearjerker “Always” for the first time since 2017. They also took advantage of the bigger stage, with increased pyro and more vibrant visuals than their Weekend One set.
Mostly benign mosh pits popped up sporadically. The band aimed quips at each other between songs:
“Something’s fucking burning… It’s my guitar playing.”
“Your pubic hair is fucking gone, motherfuckers.”
“Deez nuts into your mouth!”
“You guys like yeast infections?”
“I’m emo in my heart.”
Some of the banter may have felt a little cringe, but it’s hard to deny the band’s cultural impact when the entire crowd is screaming every single word to “All the Small Things.”
The night then swerved, following those nostalgic pop-punk antics with a brand-new EDM supergroup. After thrilling dance music heads when they teamed up and sold out Madison Square Garden in February, Skrillex, Fred Again.., and Four Tet got back together for something otherworldly. Coachella’s main stage blasted a light show while the trio appeared on a smaller stage in the middle of the crowd, in the spot rumored to be where Ocean had wanted an ice-skating rink to be. Dozens of light beams shot straight into the sky around the trio, making it look as if they were about to be beamed up into outer space.
The trio had a little somethin’ somethin’ for the EDM diehards and the more casual listeners, playing bits of Skrillex’s “Cinema,” Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” and even some Ice Spice over a dancehall beat.
Their set wasn’t without a few emotional knife twists. Fred Again..’s “Marea (we lost dancing)” mourned the loss of dance clubs during the pandemic. To hear it now, surrounded by a few hundreds of thousands of people, swirling and twirling and swaying, was euphorically surreal. The trio also honored Blink-182 with a quick remix of ”I Miss You.”
“I grew up going to festivals,” Fred Again.. told the crowd. “What the fuck, this is kinda crazy.” For the last Coachella performance of 2023, he added, “we gotta show the world.” Then they played Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA,” in full. The screams were so loud the ground shook and the fireworks lit up the sky and one of the strangest Coachellas ever turned into history.
