Lady Gaga gave a spectacular headlining performance on the first night of Coachella weekend two, running through all the highlights from her discography, including “Poker Face,” “Die With a Smile,” and “Bad Romance.” Day two of the festival is set to include many more unbelievable performances from Green Day, Charli xcx, Ed Sheeran, and Travis Scott.

Together Pangea

One of the main bands of the Burger Records era, the slacker rockers, Together Pangea, heated the Sonora stage for an early set. Filled with crunchy guitar solos in every song, Together Pangea brought fun, surf-rock vibes to the festival’s second day.

Ed Sheeran

One of the day’s first sets was from the English singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran. He was a last-minute surprise addition to the lineup and could have easily been placed on the main stage with how massive of an audience he pulled into the Mojave tent. Everyone came to the festival early to see the red-headed pop singer play his acoustic guitar through a looper pedal. Ed appeared blazing out of the gate with the snappy, “Castle on the Hill.” As the set continued, it was evident that Sheeran is a wildly talented musician and a naturally charismatic performer. He also has a discography stacked with hits that the entire crowd knew like the back of their hands. It was inspirational to hear that this was Ed Sheeran’s first time at Coachella, and he was welcomed with open arms. A few standout songs from the set included “Thinking Out Loud,” “Photograph,” and “Shape of You.”

Jimmy Eat World

As the heat got to its peak, the Arizona natives, Jimmy Eat World, took to the main stage. Placing them at the Coachella stage allowed for all the emo veterans to relive the good ol’ days with songs like “Sweetness,” “Pain,” and “Bleed America.” Through bright, power chords, crisp drums, and Jim Adkins’ distinct vocals, Jimmy Eat World is more pristine than ever before and demonstrates that emo music was never a phase.

Yo Gabba Gabba!

A rather peculiar booking on the entire Coachella lineup, the musical children’s show, Yo Gabba Gabba!, had a surprisingly fun and colorful set that people of all ages enjoyed. Known for their goofy but insightful songs, the characters from the show, Muno, Foofa, Plex, Brobee, and Toodee, along with Kammy Kam, performed hits such as “Party in My Tummy,” “Don’t Bite Your Friends,” and “Hold Still.” Even more surprising than having a bunch of characters from a children’s television show at Coachella was all the musical guests that showed up for the set. Public Enemy member, Flavor Flav did some beatboxing as a tribute to Biz Markie who was a prominent part of Yo Gabba Gabba!, bass extraordinaire Thundercat joined the gang to perform “The Orange Cat’s Special Time Outdoors,” and the grand finale of “Rainbow Connection” with Weird Al Yankovic, Paul Williams, and Portugal the Man.

Japanese Breakfast

Perhaps one of the loveliest sets of the entire weekend belonged to the Michelle Zauner-fronted project, Japanese Breakfast. The set was filled with gorgeous instrumentation, including horns, beautiful guitars, and even a large gong during “Paprika.” The Outdoor Theatre was the perfect placement for this set as the slight wind made the palm trees sway as sunset neared. Zauner’s vocals are delicate yet precise. Her stage presence is ethereal, one could say mesmerizing. It is essentially impossible to watch Japanese Breakfast and not be filled with instant joy and peace. Aside from hearing a few tracks from the album For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women) such as “Orlando In Love” and “Picture Window,” a highlight from the set was the cover Donna Lewis’ “I Love You Always Forever.” 

T-Pain

In a steampunk-inspired outfit, the king of auto-tune, T-Pain, performed radio hit after radio hit during his main stage performance. Not only did he perform plenty of his featured verses, massive hits from his discography like “Bartender” and “I’m Sprung,” T-Pain also showed off his vocal range by performing a few covers, including Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Tennessee Whiskey.” His backing band was phenomenal and made this performance one to be remembered. 

Gustavo Dudamel & LA Phil

This year, another rather unconventional booking on the festival lineup was the Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel & the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The Outdoor Theatre stage held enough space for a full orchestra, including a string section, horns, winds, percussion, and many more. As predicted, Dudamel conducted several recognizable pieces from Star Wars and “Ride of the Valkyries.” Still, this set was an unexpected revolving door of guests, including Natasha Bedingfield singing the iconic “Unwritten,” Laufey returning from weekend one to perform two jazzy songs, and Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso bringing some Latin hip-hop. The surprises didn’t end there, though. Dave Grohl appeared on stage to perform orchestral renditions of two Foo Fighters songs: “The Sky Is a Neighborhood” and “Everlong.” The final surprise of the set was when Wicked star Cynthia Erivo performed her new song, “Brick by Brick,” and a cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain.” It’s one of a kind moments like this that make Coachella such an unforgettable festival. 

Charli xcx

Returning to the main stage two years later is the Brat icon, Charli XCX. The Brat movement during summer 2024 was impossible to escape, and in many ways, is still lingering and stronger than ever. The “Sweat Tour” with Troye Sivan was an unbelievable feat for the pop superstar; Coachella had no choice but to bring her back to the desert. With her nonchalantly cool and sexy style, Charli ran through an hour of club bangers, including “Club classics,” “360,” and “Guess.” The minimal stage design allowed for the audience to simply appreciate the music for what it is and celebrate how far Charli XCX has gotten in her career. Although the surprise guests from weekend one did not return for this set, there were still a few surprises, including Bowen Yang from Saturday Night Live doing the iconic “Apple” dance and Addison Rae joining Charli for their remix of “Von Dutch.” Overall, Charli put on a show-stopping performance that left festival goers stunned. Her energy was nonstop and is destined to headline the entire festival in no time. Charli ended her set displaying a list of artists on the screen, indicating it is going to be their summer, including Lorde, Haim, Turnstile, and many more. 

Clairo

Another fantastic performance at the Outdoor Theatre was the incomparable Clairo. Originally known for her bedroom-pop aesthetic, this current Charm era of music has a slight 70s, vintage flair with velvety smooth instrumentals with Claire Contrill’s signature, soft singing. Although not a powerhouse voice, Claire’s charming vocals stand out as she sings over sparkly keys, lush bass lines, and extremely tight drumming. The stage design was reminiscent of an old-school talk show with a sparkly backdrop and provided the perfect way to present these new songs, such as “Add Up My Love,” “Sexy to Someone,” and “Juna.” A personal highlight of the set was hearing Clairo’s side project, Shelly’s song “Steeeam” live. The guitar lick on that track is infectious and hits so much harder in the flesh. They ended the set with the lovely “Sofia,” which was a giant sing-along for everyone at the Outdoor Theatre. 

Green Day

Probably the strongest set of the night belonged to punk rock legends Green Day. The set began with a playback of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and The Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop” and Flava Flav hyping up the crowd. Still looking youthful, Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool, and Mike Dirnt blazed through “American Idiot” sounding just as amazing as ever. The lyric change to “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda” was a nice touch for the current political climate. Green Day ran through so many hits, including “Holiday,” “Know Your Enemy,” and “Welcome to Paradise,” all sounding explosive, fitting perfectly for the Coachella main stage. Aside from playing songs from their discography, Green Day had incredible stage presence, interacted with the crowd the whole show, even bringing up a girl to play guitar on an Operation Ivy cover, “Knowledge,” and leading the audience in numerous chants throughout the set. 

In addition to the music, there were plenty of fireworks almost at the end of every song, an inflatable plane flying around the Dookie era, and a silly moment of Billie Joe wearing a fan’s Brat hat. Towards the end of the setlist included “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” the magnum opus, “Jesus of Suburbia,” and the last song, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).” 

The Original Misfits

Closing out the Outdoor Theatre was The Original Misfits. The punk band originally from New Jersey fired through a bunch of fast and loud tracks from their discography, such as “Death Comes Ripping,” “20 Eyes,” and “Violent World.” Although not everyone’s cup of tea, The Misfits still reeled in a decent-sized crowd who were extremely passionate, moshing the entire time. 

Travis Scott 

Closing out Saturday of Coachella was the rapper, Travis Scott. His concerts are known to be “ragers” and extremely “lit.” For the most part, this set had plenty of energy and contained tons of bangers. But there were also so many theatrics and things happening surrounding the performance that it felt difficult to truly focus on what Travis was doing. It almost felt distracting with all the pyrotechnics, lights, and floating backup dancers. Even though it was entertaining to witness all these different things for a Coachella set, it brought up the question of whether these things were included in the performance, would this Travis Scott set still be as impressive? Not that the set was bad, but some moments felt underwhelming and incredibly forced with all the gun sound effects and screeching of eagles.

A few fun aspects about this setlist were hearing a few new songs from the JACKBOYS, Sheck Wes, and Don Toliver. Travis also hinted that Jackboys 2 is on the way soon. Another thing I thought should have been incorporated into more songs was the marching band Scott had on stage to perform a couple songs from his discography including “SKELETONS,” “SICKO MODE,” and “FE!N.”

The set felt rather short for an artist closing out the entire day, but there were still plenty of people in the crowd raging and going hype during the whole set. The last few songs included the huge hits “goosebumps” and “TELEKINESIS” from the newest album, UTOPIA. Overall, this Travis Scott set was fine, but there were just a few things I was bothered with, but it could have easily been different if he had just focused on the music.

Travis Scott Setlist

CRUSH

BUTTERFLY EFFECT

Antidote

Mamacita

HYAENA

THANK GOD

MODERN JAM

TOPIA TWINS

DUMB

KICK OUT (with JACKBOYS)

Mo Bamba (with Sheck Wes)

BANDIT (with Don Toliver)

Skyfall

HIGHEST IN THE ROOM

Upper Echelon

STARGAZING

MY EYES

SKELTONS

90210

I KNOW ?

NO BYSTANDERS

FE!N

FE!N (played again with marching band)

SICKO MODE

goosebumps

TELEKINESIS

The last day for Coachella includes performances from Post Malone, JENNIE from BLACKPINK, Zedd, and Megan Thee Stallion.