The electronic-music dream team of Skrillex, Fred Again and Four Tet — which recently played a rapturously received five-hour set at Madison Square Garden — will close out the Coachella festival this weekend, a rep for the trio has confirmed.
The group will follow Blink-182, who Variety revealed will fill the slot vacated when Frank Ocean announced he will not play the second weekend, on the main stage Sunday night, in the slot marked “TBD” on the schedule the festival shared on social media earlier on Thursday. Ocean’s set, his first in six years, was marred by controversy when a huge planned production involving an ice-skating rink was called off at the last minute, leaving the singer to play an at-times musically solid but uneven and low-energy set.
Last year, Coachella also doubled down when scheduled headliner Kanye West pulled out shortly before the festival’s opening day: Swedish House Mafia, who were already on the bill in a headlining but unlisted time slot, played a tag-team set with the Weeknd in his place.
The tag-team set is likely to be energetic and long. Variety wrote in its review of the Skrillex-Fred Again-Four Tet show: “Although Skrillex was arguably the biggest performer in terms of social media reach and Spotify listeners, it’s clear the trio has come together like an EDM Voltron, spending much of the set laughing, singing along, hugging, gassing each other up and getting the crowd to scream their names. Their tastes blended into one overarching sound as they passed off control of the boards to each other, echoing the community spirit that so often overtakes the crowds at dance shows. As the set wrapped around midnight, chatter focused on topics like ‘I didn’t know Four Tet’s stuff coming in, but I need to check him out,’ or, ‘I wasn’t a big Skrillex fan, but working with Fred has really opened him up for me.’”
