
Well there we have it, after being announced sometime in the middle of the night the 2016 Coachella lineup is officially here. The first of the Big 4 Festivals (the others being Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza) is the trend setter and all other festivals lineups, both big and small, will be compared to this one. Easily the biggest and most influential, it has people looking for bands who have made it to the big leagues, reunion tours, surprise special guests and who will be the next hot act coming out Coachella in the Los Angeles desert over two weekends in April. Going on its 16th year, the festival has been making headlines for months now. The polarizing online publication Consequence of Sound staked its reputation on the reformation of LCD Soundsystem headlining Coachella months ago, even when the band absolutely denied it and tried to get them to appear to be baseless rumor mongers. But hey look at this, LCD Soundsystem is indeed headlining! CoS is also claiming that LCD will be headlining a few other North American festivals, which gives credence to the Bonnaroo rumours flying around too.
The real news was that Guns and Roses are indeed getting back together with the original lineup (Axl Rose on vocals, Slash on lead guitar, Duff McKagan on bass, Dave Kushner of Velvet Revolver on guitar, Richard Fortus on guitar, Frank Ferrer on drums, Dizzy Reed on keyboards, and multi-instrumentalist Chris Pitman all according to Ultimate Guitar). The rumours went into full force only a few weeks ago and after a few quasi-confirmations from big publications it appears that the lineup announcement was moved up slightly from the original supposed release date of Friday the 8th to the wee hours of the 5th. GnR and Axl Rose have been horribly inconsistent over the years, bailing on gigs, lackluster shows and generally pissing off everyone. While the internet probably isn’t overly excited for their return, expect a very large crowd to watch what might be an epic show or a huge train wreck. People are already joking about how the group will break up before they do the second weekend of the fest needing a new headliner for the Sunday night.
Lastly we have the newest headliner Calvin Harris, the EDM pop wizard looking to build on his last record momentum that was released way back in 2014. Look for him to bring out a ton of special guests to keep the audience on their toes and to feel validated by him topping the bill. He puts on a great live show with plenty of spectacle as I got to witness firsthand at last year’s Veld Festival the power he has, which hopefully he can bring a life changing lighting rig. I only worry that Coachella spent all their money on LCD and GnR and Calvin Harris is their cheap fill in headliner, as it seems curious as to how he managed to jump to the top of the biggest North American festival and he hasn’t released any new music in almost two years.
If there is a theme this year it appears music that makes you dance is it. With such big names like Diplo’s Major Lazer and Diplo and Skrillex’s Jack U topping the list, the two weekends will be a nonstop rave. Other traditional EDM names include Zedd, Bob Moses, RL Grime, Tchami, The Chainsmokers, Maceo Plex and Baauer among others. While the pop/rock influenced Ellie Goulding, BORNS, Robert DeLong, Miike Snow and Matt and Kim will have people dancing to a more straightforward, non-bass dropping beat. Then you have acts like Rae Sremmurd and Shamir bringing Hip Hop and RnB to the dance world, Disclosure, Flume, ZHU and Parov Stelar are reinventing the dance floor image.
Being that this is a Canadian site, I would be remiss to not point out all of the great acts that are making a name for themselves south of the boarder. Last year Coachella had Sloan hidden way down near the bottom of the lineup, a band that we Canucks know were worthy of a higher spot. This year the top billed act from north of the border is Grimes, who put out one of the most critically acclaimed pop albums last year and hopefully looks to cement her indie cred with mainstream audiences. Look for this to be her coming out party. Purity Ring is also billed fairly high, especially considering their last album was a bit of a dud and that they have no new music coming out this year to the best of my knowledge. Baby makers Rhye, jazz hip-hop masterminds BADBADNOTGOOD, indie pop darlings Alvvays and up and coming RnB pop singer Alessia Cara round out the big Canadian names playing.
There are plenty of hidden surprises to find out about, but some of the other big names need to be mentioned here too. For indie rock there is Sufjan Stevens, Of Monsters and Men, CHVRCHES, Courtney Barnett, Beach House and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. For the hip hop lovers A$AP Rocky, Run the Jewels, Death Grips and Ice Cube are all present. For the people who like to dance you have return of M83, Halsey, Sia and the 1975. But if straight up rock is your thing, Coachella has you covered with Foals, The Arcs, Rancid, The Kills, and Gary Clark Jr.
The biggest takeaway is we now know what bands are in play for all the other festivals. I imagine there will be plenty of crossovers with acts on this lineup and the lineups for Wayhome, Osheaga, Bestival, Field Trip, TURF and more, especially the names on the lower half of the bill.
Who are you most excited about for this lineup and who do you hope comes through at one of the Toronto festivals? Look for continued festival coverage right here as we enter the greatest time of the year, Summer Festival Season!