In a Sahara tent known for sensory overload and cut-loose fun, the Long Beach rapper Vince Staples delivered a bracing jolt of the reality behind Coachella’s traditional escapism.
“See this weight is on my shoulders, pray Jehovah lift me up / And my pain is never over, pills and potions fix me up,” he rapped on “Lift Me Up,” one of the best songs from his breakthrough LP “Summertime ’06.”
The kids understood the pills and potions part, but there was a lot of real pain underneath those lyrics that set the tone of the day so far: a sense that something is wrong in the world. And by naming it (or building giant sculptures about it) we can try to fix it.
That sentiment started early Saturday when Run the Jewels played a congenial introduction video from Bernie Sanders. It was the first potential-president cameo at the festival, and RTJ’s Killer Mike is one of Sanders’ most outspoken advocates. RTJ’s set was rowdy and upbeat, with a buddy-comedy verve (El-P apologized for wearing shorts onstage and making the crowd stare at his legs) and guest turns from Nas and a spectacularly bawdy Gangsta Boo.
But as topics like police brutality and failed institutions crept in, RTJ’s political radicalism turned from endearing to pointed. The party was in full swing, but there was work to be done.
Elsewhere, the same sense popped up in SZA’s moody but vigorous R&B. She’s the only woman signed to Top Dawg Entertainment (home to Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q), and her songs move at a narcotic crawl but are filled to overflowing with tough emotion. She closed with “Babylon,” one of her best and darkest singles, which she said she wrote as a bit of revenge track against her family and all the boring jobs she had while drifiting through her post-college years. The sound went from jazzy and intimate to bass-bombed and overwhelming. With any luck, she’ll finally achieve the same renown as her labelmates soon.
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Axl Rose onstage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Vince Staples performs in the Sahara tent at the Coachella Arts and Music Festival.
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Two women wear lights on their bodies as they listen to a performance at Coachella.
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Festival-goers take photos of the Katrina Chairs art installation at Coachella.
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Zhu performs in the Sahara tent at Coachella.
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Zhu performs in the Sahara tent at Coachella.
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Grimes performs in the Mojave tent at the Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival.
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An artwork image of Bernie Sanders is projected on the screens during a performance by Grimes at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Art installations and the ferris wheel light up the horizon at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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The “Tower of Twelve Stories” and the ferris wheel light up the night at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Vince Staples jumped off the stage and stood near the crowd as his last song ended in the Sahara tent.
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A worker at Backyard Bowls dances to Ice Cube performing in the distance as he makes smoothies and acai bowls in the VIP food section at Coachella.
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Fans watch Ice Cube’s performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Girls enjoy slices of watermelon in late afternoon at the Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival.
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Brian Sneed, 27, and Claudia Jerez, 27, jump for a photo being taken by a friend in front of the Katrina Chairs art installation at Coachella.
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A young man plays in the light being tested between performances in the Sahara tent at Coachella.
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Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose onstage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Axl Rose and Slash with their band Guns N’ Roses onstage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Guns N’ Roses’ Slash onstage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Guns N’ Roses’ Slash onstage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Guns N’ Roses onstage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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A young woman swings lighted balls as she dances to music coming from the Gobi Tent at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Kaila Lehr, 20, of Santa Barbara poses for a friend at Phillip K. Smith III’s “Portals” at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Smoke from an effects machine creates a gauzy scene at the Gobi Tent during the Coachella Music and Arts Festival.
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Victor Montoya, 27, of San Diego rests against Jimenez Lai’s “Tower of Twelve Stories” at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Ice Cube on stage.
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Ice Cube on stage.
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Ice Cube, right, on stage with Dub-C, left.
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Ice Cube on stage.
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Electropop singer Halsey performs.
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Electropop singer Halsey performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival on Saturday.
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Roadies prepare the Outdoor Stage for a performance by electropop singer Halsey at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival.
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Fans of electropop singer Halsey wait for a performance.
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Fans wait for a performance by the electropop singer JHalsey.
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Australian singer and songwriter Courtney Barnett performs.
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Australian singer and songwriter Courtney Barnett performs.
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A dancer performs with electropop singer Halsey.
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A couple pause to rest as night falls on the festival.
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Bat for Lashes performs.
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Misting fans provide some relief from the heat.
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Misting fans provide some relief from the heat.
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Coachellans head toward the headliners as the sun sets at the festival.
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Fans watch Chvrches perform.
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Lion Babe joins Disclosure on stage.
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Lorde joins Disclosure on stage.
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Sunset draws near.
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A young woman photobombs the photographer.
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Lion Babe joins Disclosure on stage.
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Disclosure on stage.
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Lion Babe joins Disclosure on stage.
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Lorde joins Disclosure on stage.
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Lorde joins Disclosure on stage.
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The lights of the Sahara tent are reflected in a woman’s sunglasses as she dances to Vanic’s performance at Coachella.
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Matthew Brinkley, 26, and Kari Calhoun, 25, both from L.A., at Coachella.
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Fans dance as Vanic performs at Coachella.
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A girl hoisted onto someone’s shoulders talks on the phone during Vanic’s performance.
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Festivalgoers chill out as Black Madonna performs.
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Festivalgoers rest as Black Madonna performs at Coachella.
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Fans cheer, dance and sing along to Vanic’s set at Coachella.
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Fans cheer, dance and sing along as Vanic performs at Coachella.
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Fans ride on people’s shoulders as Vanic performs at Coachella.
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Fans ride on other people’s shoulders for a better view of Vanic.
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Jack U performs at Coachella.
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A woman holds a flag as Vanic performs at Coachella.
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Fans cheer, dance and sing along as Vanic performs at Coachella.
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A couple listens as Algiers performs on day two of Coachella.
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Algiers performs at Coachella.
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Black Madonna performs at Coachella.
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Umbrellas are a cool accessory on a hot day at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival.
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A group of girls keeps cool with wedges of watermelon as they watch a performance by Jamaican reggae artist Chronixx at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival.
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Colors and styles of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival.
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Coachella goers dance at the Heineken House during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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DMA’s vocalist Tommy O’Dell performs in the Gobi tent at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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A backup vocalist works some dance moves as Proteje performs his style of contemporary reggae at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Chantelle Garrett, 25, of Sherman Oaks see-saws and charges her phone at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Oje Ken Ollivierre, better known Proteje performs his style of contemporary reggae at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Jamaican reggae artist Chronixx performs at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Members of Proteje’s band back up the contemporary reggae singer at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) Even Halsey and the Damned, about as diametrically opposed as two acts here can be, tapped into their own veins of dissatisfaction. The Damned’s no-future UK punk thrash sounded gritty and immediate; Halsey’s electro-pop was much bigger but still rooted in, as she described it, the feelings of a “19-year-girl from New Jersey with no clue.” Her hit single “New Americana” is a cumbersome, awkward song, but she’s got real vocal talent and a genuine eye on the tides of millennial misgivings.
But Staples captured the unsettled mood best, even as he ribbed the audience for getting too stoned to really hear him out. “Hang N’ Bang” and “Smoke and Retribution” (his collaboration with the Aussie downtempo producer Flume) documented a life at the margins of L.A., and the taxing ways we escape it.
Staples has a vicious wit and an even more unsparing sense of indignity, and it’s a rare rapper who can make a crowd laugh and dance, and then turn it inside-out against them.
Ice Cube, who is due onstage shortly amidst rumors of an N.W.A. reunion, would be proud.
Follow @AugustBrown for breaking music news.
