Coachella 2023 recap: Best performances from last year

Coachella 2024 is almost upon us. Running for 2 weekends from Friday, April 12th until Sunday, April 21st, the esteemed festival promises unforgettable performances yet again. While we await the festival’s start, let us look back at some of the most iconic shows of Coachella 2023. In this article, we will mainly try to focus on electronic music acts.

Four Tet x Fred Again.. x Skrillex

Let’s start with the obvious one. Serving as one of our favorite sets of last year, the massive performance from the fan-named Pangbourne House Mafia left everyone in total awe and cemented itself as the favorite set for many people. Following the last-minute withdrawal from Frank Ocean, the Coachella organizers faced a grisly task. Luckily, their decision to call upon Four Tet, Skrillex, and Fred Again.. proved to be one of their best ones ever as the trio completely filled up the festival ground which shook with tectonic energy throughout. From the first second the specially curated Coachella 2023 intro version of Rumble started playing, the crowd was in for a treat. Playing some of their most well-received singles of the last year, the trio maintained the energy with relative ease. Fred Again’s Delilah (Pull Me Out Of This), Skrillex & Bobby Raps’ Leave Me Like This, and the trio’s incredible Baby Again.. were only a fraction of an incredible hour and a half which also produced one of the funniest troll moments of all time. As Four Tet mixed in the evergreen Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana no one would’ve predicted that he would actually drop the dirty Country Riddim by HOL!. All in all, Frank Ocean would’ve never predicted canceling his Coachella performance would give electronic music one of their greatest moments ever.

Metro Boomin

Arguably one of rap’s greatest producers of all time, Metro Boomin dropped a stellar performance at last year’s Coachella. The producer is best known for his most recent work We Don’t Trust You alongside Future and his 2022 album Heroes & Villains which saw him feature some of the globe’s finest artists including The Weeknd, Chris Brown, 21 Savage, and more. During Coachella 2023, Metro managed to bring out esteemed guests including The Weeknd & Mike Dean, Future, Offset, and Don Toliver. The producer played out a set consisting of some of his most successful tracks ever like Knife Talk with Drake & 21 Savage, Low Life with Future & The Weeknd, and Too Many Nights with Future & Don Toliver. The St. Louis-born producer rarely performs but when he does it leaves a lasting impression on the hip-hop and trap scene.

Eric Prydz presents HOLO

Most of us already know what the breathtaking HOLO show by Eric Prydz looks and sounds like. One thing is certain: most of us also didn’t have Eric performing the show at Coachella on our bingo card. Like he always does, the Swedish legend blew every single expectation out of the water with his already iconic audio-visual show. Gracing both weekends of Coachella 2023, he played out a set consisting mainly of his unreleased material, like his EDC Mexico 2023 IDs and a debut of a fresh Coachella 2023 ID. One of his IDs even stretches back to 2019 when he played a show in London. Couple all that with his out-of-this-world visuals and you got yourself an all-time Coachella performance.

Calvin Harris

Prior to his Coachella 2023 set, the last time Calvin Harris played at the festival was in 2016. For his “return to the desert”, the Scotsman came out full guns blazing, equipped with some special remixes for some of his biggest hits such as Outside with Ellie Goulding, One Kiss with Dua Lipa, or Giant with Rag’n’Bone Man. One of the standout moments came at the very end of his set when he invited Ellie Goulding to perform Miracle live, coupled with the fantastic Hardwell remix. One could argue that his most recent Ultra Miami set is the upgraded version of his Coachella 2023 set. All things aside, his return to Coachella was definitely one for the books.

Gorillaz

Gorillaz lit up the main stage and the festival as a whole. With a slew of special guests and iconic hits, the English virtual band gave their all for a stellar performance full of jubilant vibes and special moments. Damon Albarn and his band performed in support of their most recent album Cracker Island and brought out Bad Bunny for a joint performance of Tormenta, as well as De La Soul for a live performance of the band’s biggest hit Feel Good Inc. The lead member of the quartet, Damon Albarn, even shared the stage with Billie Eilish in which he presented his rendition of her song Getting Older, as well as Feel Good Inc. Billie herself described the moment as one of the craziest things she ever did in her prolific career.