2025-04-28
The first time I watched Coachella from the comfort of my own home was in 2022. I think they have been streaming before then, but Coachella hadn't really entered my consciousness yet.
I chose to watch mainly for one reason: CL, one of my favourite K-pop artists was performing. I have been a K-pop fan since 2009, and I never would have thought K-pop would make it to North America. It was a historic moment, I had to watch! And it certainly was a historic moment. CL is a solo artist but was part of the group 2NE1, which had been disbanded for a few years. In the middle of her set, she brought out the rest of the group. I literally screamed at my computer, I was so excited. It was totally worth it.
But even before that set, I looked at the lineup and I realized that were other acts that I wanted to see, too. I'm a big fan of Japanese Breakfast, and she had just released Jubilee, which I was obsessed with at the time. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu performed that year, and, while I haven't followed her in a while, I that also felt like a historic moment. Also, The Weeknd was one of the headliners, and I'm a biiiiig Weeknd fan.
So, I spent a lot of that weekend on Discord, in a streaming party with friends. I watched Doja, and I think Megan Thee Stallion while we waited for The Weeknd. We also watched a random DJ se,t and would laugh whenever the DJ randomly yelled, "Coachellaaaaa" in the middle of a song.
I also listened to a few acts that I never would have heard otherwise. One of my favourite discoveries was Chicano Batman, a psychedelic indie band. It was a lot of fun!
Coachella in 2023 slipped by me. Even though Björk, one of my ults, was there. I caught wind of Coachella too late in 2024. I really only managed to watch No Doubt, a little bit of Grimes's catastrophic set, and some of Justice's set.
This year, I was late, again. I found out about the streaming on the Sunday of weekend #1 of Coachella. I watched the Green Day replay. While randomly flipping through the stages, I made a new discovery: Rawayana, a funky reggae group from Venezuela. I also watched The Beaches, an all-female queer Canadian rock band. I managed to catch Amyl and the Sniffers, a very punk Aussie pub rock band with a lot of energy. There were more but it would be too exhaustive to list here.
I was really impressed by what I saw and vowed to sit through some more streams for Weekend 2, and watch I did.
Let me tell ya, I'm a Couchella convert. I don't think I'm the type of person to attend Coachella (although I really like attending music festivals in general). But I really like how Coachella lineups are actually pretty diverse. From pop rock to punk to K-pop to pop to EDM to country (shout out to Shaboozey). Coachella has a lot. It's also a cool place to find new music that is up and coming, or, even legacy acts. So, I'm grateful for streaming allowing me to experience some of this music festival.
And I will end this chaotic blog post with a list of acts I watched at Couchella, for posterity and maybe even as a conversation starter: