Coachella 2019, Day 1: Anderson .Paak, Janelle Monáe own the main stage, BLACKPINK really pops

Kevin Bronson on April 13th, 2019

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Janelle Monaé on the main stage (Photo courtesy of Coachella)

Spotted at Friday’s first day of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival were three T-shirts with variations on the same slogan. One read: Hating What I Like Does Not Make You More Interesting.

Indeed, Coachella is no place for old curmudgeons, or snobs of most any kind. The 20th bender in the desert is now a poptimist’s dream, a 5-star resort for autotune and a wellspring of Instagram moments, where style not only trumps substance but has become it. On Friday, it was a place, as Rosé Park of Friday’s breakout group BLACKPINK, said, to celebrate “music that brings us together.” *

Even with Childish Gambino turning out to be slightly overmatched as a headliner Friday, a feeling of oneness prevailed. Donald Glover, in his final go-round in his Childish Gambino guise, gave a magnificently produced and filmed performance that started with a church choir and peaked with “This Is America,” but ultimately felt light on content, owing, naturally, to his light catalog. Loose though it was, it proved grand theater. “This is not a concert, it’s church,” he gamely told the audience while exhorting everyone to put their phones away and “feel this shit.” Later, he proceeded to light a blunt, walk into the crowd and share it with a bemused fan. There were fireworks 30 minutes into the set. And a guitar solo. And a lot of people, curiously, leaving early.

While certainly no reason for shame, it was not exactly the eargasmic, eye-popping theater of Janelle Monáe or Anderson .Paak & the Free Nationals, who preceded Childish Gambino on the main stage.

Other scribblings from Day 1:

Best hyped act

South Koren girl group BLACKPINK were devastatingly charming during their energetic and tightly choreographed set in the Sahara Tent, which included an intermission (of all things) and peaked with “Boombayah,” their debut single. Near the end, they took turns being gracious — a sentiment that was returned by the crowd’s high-decibel adulation for their brand of K-pop.

Easiest way to make sure you get your money’s worth

The main-stage lineup of Kacey Musgraves, Anderson .Paak & the Free Nationals, the 1975, Janelle Monáe and Childish Gambino could have satiated anybody who simply wanted to plant roots for the day. The songs from Musgraves’ Grammy-winning album “Golden Hour” went down as easily as the postcard-perfect desert sunset, but a couple of lighter moments made it memorable. For one, Musgraves brought out octogenarian internet darling Baddiewinkle. And she tried to get the crowd to do a call-and-response of “yee” and “haw,” but this was clearly not Stagecoach.

.Paak’s set, on the heels of Friday’s release of his new album “Ventura,” was a marvel, whether holding forth from behind the drum kit or prowling the stage. He performed his collaboration with the late Mac Miller, “Dang!,” saluting both Miller and the late Nipsey Hussle by asking fans to put one hand in the air for each. Home run of the set: “King James,” which he performed live for the first time.

The 1975’s 12-song set was a perfectly-diagrammed journey through their harder and poppier material, and Monáe proved again to be a force of nature, welcoming Lizzo and Tierra Whack as guests during her physical and wildly-choreographed 10 songs, complete with the double-bird she flipped at current political leadership.

Best social media post

The festival itself takes home the trophy, and this was the best thing about the set:

The Smiths pic.twitter.com/lEkGKwh5d6

— Coachella (@coachella) April 13, 2019

Best place to catch up with friends of … an older demographic

Compared to the electronic music elsewhere — the migraine music of DJ Snake at the nearby Outdoor Theatre and the pop robotics of Nina Kraviz in the adjacent Mojave Tent — Charlotte Gainsbourg’s set in the Gobi Tent was disco lite. And that was fine. Gainsbourg reprised the stage production of last summer’s tour, performing a handful of songs from her 2017 “Rest,” “Such a Remarkable Day” from last year’s “Take 2” EP and the closer, “The Songs That We Sing” from 2006.

Best reason to arrive at Coachella before sundown

Can nü-calypso be far behind? Seventy-eight-year-old Calypso Rose wowed — the oldest Coachella performer ever — wowed the Gobi Tent. A native of Tobago, she was doing female empowerment songs when most Coachella attendees weren’t even an idea. To all who were wearing “The Future Is Female” T-shirts on Friday (and there were lots), take in some of the past.

Best place to see an actual four-piece rock band

That would be the Sonora Tent, and potty-mouthed SoCal quartet the Frights did not disappoint. Coachella tweaked the festival layout this year, moving the Sonora from a lonely corner and situating it between the Outdoor Theatre and the Gobi Tent. Not only was the Sonora more accessible, but its new home all but eliminated sound bleeding from the Outdoor and intruding on the Gobi.