Coachella 2024’s best immersive performances, from the subtle to the stunning

Coachella has been home to artist performances that will live throughout history.

Daft Punk’s Pyramid in 2006; Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s performance with a Tupac hologram in 2012; Beyoncé’s marching band of students from Historic Black Colleges and Universities in 2018.

These sets stand out among the California festival’s countless legendary performances as immersive audiovisual experiences.

Coachella is among the most revered music festivals on the planet. And it’s outshined other events because the artists who perform at Coachella are accustomed to matching their musical mastery with a visual spectacle.

For over two decades, artists have brought their A-game, musically and visually, to Coachella. 2024 didn’t have a Daft Punk, Beyoncé or Dr Dre & Snoop Dogg moment, but a few acts still stood out amongst the lineup. Here are the best sets we saw from the ground.

Khruangbin

When one listens to the lofi, heavily instrumental sounds of Khruangbin — the band comprising bassist/vocalist Laura Lee, guitarist/vocalist Mark Speer, and drummer DJ Johnson — it may seem unlikely for their minimalist sound to fill a large stage.

Khruangbin is a band that supports studying and sleeping as much as dancing. But when they took the Outdoor stage at Coachella (the second largest at the event), their relaxed approach provided a comprehensive sensory experience.

Speer’s guitar was precise and rhythmic, but not overpowering. Lee did not play a single bass solo, but rather she extended her basslines to match the movement of the music. Johnson’s drums were dry and tight. He laid down beats in between the other instruments, holding everything together as if the other two members were floating in water and he was a life jacket.

To match this musical grace, their stage setup took cues from their 2024 album artwork, A LA SALA. The artwork presents a window — onstage, there were three windows, each one representing a band member. It’s like we got a glimpse into who they are as human beings as well as musicians. Khruangbin is about playing the music, not flexing their talent.

Instead of taking centre stage under the spotlight, Lee and Speer slowly slunk around. Step by step. Their movements aligned like their playing. Not identical, but perfectly in time. They played together through the basic parts and the complex parts. Johnson was, of course, stationary as he tapped the beats, but he was angled evenly between the audience and the rest of the band. Keeping an eye on both.

It was an exercise in humility. There were no lasers or flashing lights. Instead, Khruangbin invited everyone to chill with them.

Kenya Grace

So often when an electronic artist is performing, the audience asks “What are they doing up there?” They see the artist in question standing behind a table, presumably with a cockpit of machinery.

Kenya Grace, the South African-born, British-raised, singer, producer, and groovebox expert, dispelled this illusion. She showed the audience exactly what she did on stage.

If she wasn’t singing live and interacting with the crowd, she was tapping her Native Instruments Maschine, creating the beats in the moment while also inserting impressive improvisation. Her tactile skill became a core part of the performance.

Young Fathers

Young Fathers had very little traditional production, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t put on a hell of a show.

The Scottish alternative hip-hop group gathered six musicians who were all intensely engaged with one another.

Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole, and ‘G’ Hastings are the longstanding members of the group. They didn’t have a series of pre-determined graphics behind them. Instead, they leaned on each other, literally. Howling their vocals in an intimate embrace, they were hugging, kissing, dancing, and demonstrating the connection music can create between human beings.

Eric Prydz X Anyma

One of the most exciting additions to Coachella this year was the new stage, Quasar.

For the first, time Coachella had a dedicated home for DJs playing extended sets of up to five hours. The visuals matched these epic journeys, no more so than for the progressive, melodic masters Eric Prydz and Anyma.

To complement the long sets, the stage, which was largely constructed of LED walls, created a skyscape that matched that of real life. If the sun was still high (as it was when Prydz and Anyma started their set at 5PM), the screen reflected a clear blue sky. If the sun was setting, the screen matched the pink and orange hues against the surrounding Santa Rosa mountains.

Eric Prydz and Anyma are known for bringing their bespoke visual identity to their performances. Anyma features his unmistakable automaton and Prydz morphs his visage depending on which project he’s visiting (either the progressive sounds of Pryda, Cirez D techno, or a dance music amalgam of his own name).

During their turn at Quasar, each artist had their visual turn on the massive LED screens. Sometimes Prydz sent cubic matter flying against the sky. Then Anyma summoned cryogenic chambers where a series of automatons laid dormant.

It was a beautiful gesture of compromise. Neither of the main-stage-worthy acts needed to dominate the display. They shared their aesthetic, just like they shared tracks for five hours.

Clown Core

When the anonymous clown-masked duo known as Clown Core took the stage at Sonora tent (with a massive line waiting to get inside), they projected a tongue-in-cheek video series of people reviewing their music.

Some reviewers said they were disgusted by their forceful mix of jazz and metal. Some were completely oblivious to how they mixed these two seemingly opposite genres together. Some wished they would make a grand return.

Well, anyone who wished for a grand return was completely satisfied by their Coachella set. One second they’d be playing lounge beats. The next they’d shift to raucous, distorted, free jazz where the sense of rhythm was only apparent to them.

To match the unpredictability of the music, the visuals went from reworkings of the clowns themselves, to flashes of medical debauchery, to direct instructions to the crowd. The final words to hit the screen were: “THANK YOU FOR YOUR MONEY. PLEASE LEAVE.”

No one wanted to. But we did.

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