The Coachella festival probably has more top-shelf musical talent in one place at one time than any other event in the world, and 2023’s day one was no exception: All three Boygeniuses — Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus — joined Muna for an afternoon finale, the two surviving members of De La Soul united with Gorillaz for their 2005 joint hit “Feel Good Inc.,” and Metro Boomin’s hour-long set featured more guests than a DJ Khaled album, with the Weeknd taking the stage for six songs and features from Future, 21 Savage, Diddy, Don Toliver, Mike Dean and more.
Less successful was a hotly rumored team-up of main-stage headliner Bad Bunny with Post Malone, which was hobbled by major sound problems — “Something happened to el cabron cable!” Bunny fumed — but his duets with Jowell & Randy and Nengo Flow and Jhay Cortez were more successful (hey, there’s always next weekend). Elsewhere, Kaytranada brought out Kali Uchis and Amine, and the National’s Aaron Dessner joined Taylor Swift at — wait, that was a different concert…
As usual, the YouTube copyright police were out in full force, smacking down unauthorized streams almost as fast as they could be posted, but you can watch excerpts on the festival’s social and full replays on YouTube’s awesome, six-channel livestream until Saturday’s program starts rolling at around 7 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. PT (head here for set times and livestream info, and you can find all six livestreams on the home page here).
Viewers are advised not to make a drinking game based on the number of times they hear the words “Coachella! Let me hear you make some motherfuckin’ noise! Hands up! Let’s git it!” unless they want a trip to the emergency room.