Andrew Veeder on April 17th, 2018

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Veeder’s Day 3: Eminem, Migos, King Krule, Princess Nokia, Kamasi Washington, Cardi B, DeJ Loaf, Japanese Breakfast, Snail Mail, Noname, Giraffage, Xie, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

Weekend 1 of Coachella 2018 wrapped with one of the biggest rappers of all time, Eminem, and one of the biggest rap groups of right now, Migos, spitting their way across the energy spectrum to the finish line in a day full of rapt crowds and rappers rapping.

Eminem effectively performed a greatest hits set of over 30 songs on the main stage, backed by The Alchemist on the beats and Mr. Porter on the hype. Perhaps it was the Beyoncé hangover having to follow one of the greatest stage shows in modern history, but Marshall Mathers’ set featuring a slew of his newer material fell a little flat. His muse Skylar Grey assisted on the Beyoncé, Dido and Rihanna parts of “Walk On Water,” “Stan” and “Love The Way You Lie,” respectively, then the set’s second half got a jolt when 50 Cent joined him to rap “Patiently Waiting,” “I Get Money,” “In Da Club” and “Crack a Bottle,” followed by Eminem stopping “The Real Slim Shady” at the line, “Dr. Dre’s dead,” to bring out Dr. Dre for “Still D.R.E.,” “Nuthin’ But a G Thang,” “Forgot About Dre” and “California Love.” Paired with fireworks, the Academy Award-winning “Lose Yourself” capped the show. Over the last two decades, Eminem has proven his tremendous gift of gab, cramming more dense and enunciated articulation into smaller places than most can dream, but without the special guests, the show would have been even flatter. With four more U.S. festivals dates scheduled this year, as well as a dozen dates in Europe this summer, it will be interesting to see how they play with and without Dr. Dre.

Twenty minutes after Migos‘ scheduled start in the Sahara Tent, DJ Durel takes his place and begins warming up the already boiling crowd up for them to take the stage. Feeding a crowd reaching 100’ in every direction of the tent, random recent hits at unstable volume levels can only suffice for so long. Finally, at 10:03 p.m., the Atlanta rap trio, which a girl in line described as “Offset, Quavo and the one that no one knows” (it’s Takeoff, for the record), take the stage, dwarfed by the huge white screens towering behind them and the amount of jewelry they are collectively wearing. While there were numerous musicians onstage with instruments, you cannot hear any of them over the booming backing tracks, and absolutely no one cares. Largely pulled from their ubiquitous albums “Culture” and “Culture II,” they move barely quicker than a crawl and mumble through the hits as they tag-team them in collective Migos fashion, while saving the smashes “Walk It Talk It,” “Motorsport” and “Stir Fry” for the end. Last year, they played “Bad and Boujee” thrice on Saturday (during sets from Future, DJ Snake and Gucci Mane) but were not scheduled; this year, they close out the festival for thousands.

||| Also: Day 1 coverage, Part 1; Day 1 coverage, Part 2; Day 2 coverage, Part 1; Day 2 coverage, Part 2.

On the Sabbath without much rest, here’s how to catch a baker’s dozen acts:

12:20 p.m. — A woman working security on the yellow entrance line asks about Saturday night: “Did you see Lady B?” I told her I did, and that it was everything you would have hoped for, and more.

12:39 p.m. — Australia’s Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever is playing their first show in the U.S. ahead of “a long tour” and their debut album “Hope Downs” out in June. The crowd in the Mojave Tent is sparse but energetic, especially during new tracks “Talking Straight” and “Mainland.” They also tore through the jangly garage rock songs “Fountain of Good Fortune,” “Sick Bug” and closer “French Press,” with the lyrics, “I’m alright / If you asked me / But you never do / Is this thing on?”

1:25 p.m. — This year, the Sahara Tent is located on the south side of the grounds, an open-air looming arched structure with an elaborate octopus-esque light rig mounted above, and the screens and artists on one side near the base, serving as the nexus for unabashed dance moves. Hannah Wants is pumping out some techno-house-something and a couple hundred people mill about.

1:38 p.m. — In the Do LaB, Xie drops a dubstep remix of Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” and then her collaboration with V!RTU called “Just Like Me.” Describing electronic DJs and music can be a bit like describing how wine tastes, so Xie’s set had hints of gruff vocal samples, drum beats that fell down the stairs, and a cacophony of blips, whirls, wobbles, toggles, pulses, roars and digital throat clearing, that was rather lively with a crisp aftertaste.

1:53 p.m. — Back at the Sahara Tent, Giraffage plays his collaboration with guest Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast, “Maybes,” before she plays later in the Gobi. His set is lively with fuzzed-out 4-4 squeal drops, an bass-y subway car on approach to the station, snares, cascades, and electronic smooches, as well as his remix of Tinashe’s “All Hands On Deck” and Jaded’s “Pancake (The Sauce VIP).”

2:22 p.m. — “I just rapped about how I got did for the first time in front of a bunch of strangers, that’s so awkward!” Chicago rapper Noname comments after a new song in the Gobi Tent. She also notes that she hasn’t put out any new music in two years, but performs “Diddy Bop,” “Casket Pretty,” and “Reality Check” from 2016’s “Telefone” with a trio of guest spots from Chance the Rapper, Mick Jenkins, and Smino. She asks the crowd to choose between an introspective song or a lit song — introspective wins on a Sunday, so she sits, takes a drink, and begins the heady, lyrically coiled “Bye Bye Baby.”

3:03 p.m. — With an uptick of humidity from cloud cover, two girls walk away from the Sonora Tent, and one of them says, “Wonder how it feels to be Snail Mail playing Coachella and have it be like 6 people at your set?” to add even more shade.

3:11 p.m. — To be fair, there are a few hundred people in attendance for Snail Mail, who plays “Dirt” from the 2016 EP “Habit,” full of clever and earnest lyrics, like they should be scrawled out and sent via their namesake. She says the Sonora tent reminds her of a fever dream she once had, and that they’ve got some more sad ones before they end rocking.

3:30 p.m. — Back in the Gobi, Philadelphia quartet Japanese Breakfast kick off with the six-minute “Diving Woman” and other cuts from last year’s “Soft Sounds from Another Planet,” such as “Road Head, “The Body Is A Blade” and “Boyish,” with charming and emotive shoegaze riffs. They also play a cover of Cranberries’ “Dreams,” dedicated to Dolores O’Riordan, but also lead singer Michelle Zauner’s two best friends who flew in from New York and Portland for this show, and for dyeing her hair purple when she was 12 and hoping her mom wouldn’t notice.

4:30 p.m. — As the sun start to dip, Detroit rapper and singer DeJ Loaf takes to the Outdoor Theatre and cruises through a greatest-hits-thus-far set with “At the Club,” “Hey There,” “We Winnin'” and “We Be On It,” in addition to the title track, and more from her debut album “Liberated,” coming later this year.

5:13 p.m. — FIDLAR still rules, and the comfortable ruckus is a great respite from the late-afternoon sun.

5:38 p.m. — Before Jessie Ware takes the stage on the Outdoor Theatre, Mama Haim is in the crowd, rocking a t-shirt that says GO HAIM OR GO HOME.

5:58 p.m. — In one of the only sets that started early, Cardi B’s 30-minute main stage party is turning into a near-flawless showcase of her debut album “Invasion of Privacy,” her introduction to stardom and proof that you have to take her seriously. Her second trimester cannot stop her from dancing on and against things through the set and was a great reason to lighten the load with a handful of guest spots — G-Eazy for “No Limit,” YG for “She Bad,” Chance the Rapper for “Best Life,” Kehlani for “Ring” and 21 Savage for “Bartier Cardi.” She closes with her smash hit “Bodak Yellow” and much of the packed polo field raps along, forcing white people to again play the “Am I Going To Rap the N Word Really Loud or No?” game.

7:00 p.m. — They don’t just book any jazz band to play the sunset slot on Sunday. “Do you want to go on a journey with us?” saxophone Jedi Kamasi Washington asks the Outdoor Theatre guests as dusk descends, and his 32-piece band (trombone, flute, 2 bassists, 2 on keys, 4 percussionists, 8 choir members and 14 orchestra members) take their places. What follows are five sprawling songs over the course of an hour, three of which are taken from his forthcoming double-album “Heaven and Earth,” out on June 22, including the roughly 13-minute “Fists of Fury,” featuring Patrice Quinn and Dwight Trible singing the chorus, “Our time as victims is over.” The third song had Brandon Coleman just absolutely destroying a keytar, and the best 2 1/2 minutes of the day as Miles Mosley’s hands danced all over his upright bass for a mind-blowing solo that had multiple bandmates nodding their heads along.

7:52 p.m. — Princess Nokia caps off the night in the Sonora Tent, blazing through a bevy of “1992 Deluxe” tracks like “Kitana,” “Green Line,” “Saggy Denim” and “Flava.” “Tomboy” gets a lot of girls moving and rapping along, “With my little titties and my phat belly / My little titties and my phat belly / My little titties and my phat belly / That girl is a tomboy.” Later, she starts lighting joints and handing them out to kids up front.

8:35 p.m. — UK’s King Krule is leading the charge in the Mojave tent through his vast and warped psychedelic rock sound, culled mostly from 2017’s “The Ooz” and full of his gruff growl and hazy soundscapes.

9:35 p.m. — Time to play tag-team rap …