Coachella: Dre, Lamar top 2nd Saturday surprises
INDIO, Calif. — Ice Cube came out full energy for his second Saturday performance at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and packed the set with surprise guests, including Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre and an encore appearance by MC Ren and DJ Yella. He spaced the surprises far enough to keep festival-goers eager to the end.
He performed California Love with Dre and Alright with Lamar. The famed gangsta rap hit Straight Out of Compton was performed by a reunited N.W.A. to raucous cheers from the crowd, as was F--- Tha Police.
Dre was absent from Ice Cube's set for Weekend 1. To introduce the Dre surprise, Cube yelled: "Wait, something is missing here. Is there a doctor in the house?" The crowd sang in unison: "California knows how to party, California knows how to party." Later, cheers broke out as Cube and Kendrick led the crowd in "We gon be alright, do you hear me, do you feel me, we gon' be alright." There was no appearance by Common or his son, O'Shea Jackson Jr. But the crowd didn't seem to miss it.
Before the surprises, Cube dedicated the performance to Prince, "one of my idols," as the background screen illuminated in the color purple. A portrait of Prince brought the audience to cheers and applause. "We love you."
The festival at large turned into surreal tribute to the Purple One, who died Thursday at 57.
Coachella producers Goldenvoice shone purple lights against the perimeter of palm trees surrounding the Empire Polo Club. A Prince memorial was assembled near the iconic Ferris wheel with purple and red flowers and purple ribbons surrounding a poster featuring Prince as a 2008 Coachella headliner, when he sang Radiohead’s Creep as part of a hit-filled set and made it his own. Another memorial featured purple flowers attached to a wooden beam like a remembrance of a fatal traffic accident.
Mavis Staples, the 76-year-old gospel and R&B legend, told a midafternoon crowd Friday that Prince resurrected her career after she was dropped from Warner Bros., the same label Prince rebelled against by changing his name to an androgynous love symbol and calling himself the Artist Formerly Known As Prince. She recorded two albums for Prince’s Paisley Park label. Gallant opened his set with Prince's Let's Go Crazy and had Jhené Aiko join him for Diamonds and Pearls.
Main-stage artists kept their energy high during the second weekend as well, with Chvrches bouncing around the stage to popular tunes like Never Ending Circles and Keep You on My Side.
Despite the clean sound and enthusiastic performance, singer Lauren Mayberry acknowledged that Coachella's first weekend and dusty air had taken a bit out of her.
"I feel like I have swallowed an entire desert, to be honest," she told the crowd. "So if there's a little gravel in there, it's because I'm literally eating the ground."
Run the Jewels, which last weekend had a video introduction by Bernie Sanders, brought on guests from all over the musical spectrum: DJ Shadow, Travis Barker, Big Boi, Phantogram, Rage Against the Machine vocalist Zack de la Rocha and Gary Clark Jr. all made an appearance during the rap duo's set.
Saturday night closed the same way as last weekend, with Guns N' Roses rocking out for another historic set.
Contributing: Bruce Fessier, Shad Powers, Xochitl Pena and Sarah Day Owen