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5 tips from the 2025 line-up

Vaseline November 21, 2024

The post Coachella One Day Later: 5 Tips from the 2025 Lineup appeared first on Consequence.

If it feels a little early (or late in the year) to talk about Coachella, that’s because it is.

Normally, the Indio, California music festival unveils its lineup in January, kicking off the year at North American festivals. But this year, the lineup arrived on November 20 – Coachella’s first lineup drop since moving from October to April in 2001. It’s likely an attempt to generate a longer runway for ticket sales, given how hostile it is landscape at the moment is for big festivals. – not to mention that 2024 was more or less a bad year for Coachella.

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Coachella will return to the usual fanfare in 2025 with Lady Gaga, Green Day, Post Malone and Travis Scott as headliners. The festival also features big sets from Missy Elliott, Charli

The 2025 selection follows the trends of the last five editions of Coachella and places a great emphasis on both global acts and electronic top performers. But beyond the usual feeling of getting too old to recognize most of the names on the lineup, Coachella 2025 is deliberately a bit cluttered. It’s now clear that festivals on this side of the Atlantic are experiencing an identity crisis, and while Coachella’s 2025 lineup is stronger than last year’s (or even 2022’s, you might say), it’s still always a collection of names that stand out special randomly next to each other.

Perhaps that is the big theme: less overall coherence in favor of putting together a mosaic, tense between past and future. Or, as we often see in the festival world, it’s becoming harder than ever to work around artists’ touring schedules and financial demands. That means a lot more “Thanks, but no thanks” and a lot less “Yes, of course we’re playing Coachella! ‘- and this arrangement is the inevitable result.

Here are some more thoughts on the 2025 Coachella lineup…

Oldchella is back?

Last year, organizers threw a few bones at the older, California-centric Coachella crowd with a reunited Sublime and No Doubt – admittedly, headlined by Lana Del Rey, Tyler, the Creator and Doja Cat, it was clear that longtime Coachella attendees Those weren’t exactly the target group.

This year, however, there’s definitely a lot for the old heads – both Gen X and (sigh) Millennials. It really shows in the trio of old rock acts: Green Day, The Original Misfits and The Go-Go’s all grace the line-up for the first time, and it’s a wonderful throwback to the three different eras they came from.

As some sleuths have noted, Misfits recently played fellow Goldenvoice festival No Values, meaning Coachella probably could have been on the table for the rare punk act when they signed on. The Go-Go’s are the kind of act Goldenvoice usually reserves for their New Wave-esque festival Cruel World – bringing them in for Coachella is a nice way to continue to pay respect to their name, giving a nod to the OG SoCal rockers in the audience and engage a new generation with their beloved songs.

Green Day has been quite active over the past decade, embarking on two major stadium tours after the pandemic. So if you wanted to see Green Day (specifically in the SoCal area), there were quite a few options. It would seem like a less exciting booking to me if it weren’t for the California connection and the fact that we’ve just entered another absurd era of American politics. Yelling “American Idiot” so loudly that the elderly in Palm Springs can hear you will sound different. Sorry!

But in addition to the rock bands, there are a few other well-known acts that recall the first festival era, where Coachella proudly booked the latest electronic music alongside the rock and rap acts du jour. Kraftwerk has played Coachella twice before (in 2004 and 2008), but after the EDM explosion the entire electronic landscape has been transformed. Now the EDM brothers will finally see where it all started, high-concept staging, costumes and all (unless they schedule Kraftwerk at the same time as Zedd, which would be somewhat insane).

Additionally, Coachella booked The Prodigy (post-Keith Flint, but still very Coachella ’99) and Basement Jaxx (the Jaxx renaissance is upon us, and hopefully they’ll release some new music), as well as Chase & Status and Above & Beyond, two British acts that are more than 20 years old but have continued to expand their audience, especially in recent years.

In fact, it seems like Coachella is actively targeting millennials in a way they hadn’t fully embraced before. Lady Gaga has generational appeal, just like Charli XCX and Missy Elliott. But T-Pain could have been booked for Coachella every year for the last twenty years and it would have been justified – and yet they end up booking him for the first time in 2025. There’s also Ty Dolla $ign, who is past his prime is. but will almost certainly boast a packed set, as will Three 6 Mafia, MARINA and Jimmy Eat World, all evoking different eras of millennial spirit. They even released Yo Gabba Gabba! back, a children’s show that used to be a Coachella mainstay at the dawn of the hipster era.

Bratchella, happy

This debate is sure to continue as the festival year progresses: is Charli XCX a headliner? Coachella says no and calls her Saturday’s bold sub-headliner, but her cultural dominance in 2024 suggests otherwise. Brat received the acclaim and mainstream attention that often results in a major Coachella placement, meaning it would be a seismic snub if she didn’t end up in the lineup at all.

With Green Day and (reportedly) Travis Scott all coming together for that Saturday night headliner, Charli’s big Coachella moment won’t be as ubiquitous as many expected — which is actually a good thing. Brat Charli’s huge second wind was never meant to be. She literally put a song on the album where she talked about how she feels like she deserves mainstream success, but would rather make her fearless, absurd, vulnerable turbo pop instead. She even expressed her frustration last time she played Coachella, where she was urged to perform for the livestream, not the festival audience.

As rewarding as it will be for Charli’s fans to see her have another big moment, the music behind her latest era is better suited for a midnight performance at the LED-filled Sahara Tent, where those not interested in Travis Scott’s ‘ Designs the Desert’ a big budget ragefest on the Main Stage can make their hedonistic dreams come true with Charli XCX. In addition, some crucial figures from the album’s production will make their way to the desert: AG Cook, The Dare and pre-Brat Charli collaborator Arca will all be appearing throughout the weekend (we hope George Daniel and Easyfun DoLab sets complete the set Brat celebration).

Coachella doesn’t know what to do with rock music

Hey, it’s cool that they have Green Day. They’re no Rage Against the Machine, but they’ll technically be the first rock band to headline Coachella since 2017 (if you consider Tame Impala Kevin Parker’s “solo project”). It’s nice to see Japanese Breakfast back on the lineup, who will most likely share some new music soon. Another bright spot on the poster is Sam Fender, who is still smaller in the States than abroad.

But overall, it seems like this year’s “guitar band” choices are completely random. Jimmy Eat World and Green Day make sense, but few undercard acts feel like they’re put together for fans of bands outside of, say, Amyl and the Sniffers and Gel. Clairo, The Marías and Beabadoobee all make big second-line wins, but even these picks feel particularly lonely in the lineup – there are so much emerging indie acts that would be a perfect fit for fans of those artists to attend. Which brings me to the next topic…

Let’s talk about snubs

Of course, no artist ‘deserves’ to play at any festival. But some artists were damn close. The biggest slight is probably Fontaines DC, who had tour dates leading up to the festival, were originally booked to play in 2020 before it was cancelled, and are hitting a career high with their new album. Romance. The same goes for MJ Lenderman, who has achieved significant indie fame with his new album Manning fireworkswould have been a satisfying shot of rocks.

Meanwhile, two electronic acts that were heavily rumored to be playing Coachella 2025 are nowhere to be found: Fred again.. and RÜFÜS DU SOL. Fred was rumored to be the headliner until the lineup’s release on Wednesday, and RÜFÜS opted to do a larger headlining show at the Rose Bowl instead of Coachella. Whether these two acts are really on par with Coachella’s 2025 headliners is up to you, but considering how big the draw of electronic music is at the festival, it’s safe to say they would have drawn a big crowd if they were booked.

There are a handful of other acts that would have made Coachella 2025 look a little sweeter. Confidence Man have taken festivals by storm with their conceptual, mind-blowing live show, and would have fit perfectly into this electronica-focused lineup. Magdalena Bay are once again a major disappointment for pop fans: they played one of the best sets of 2023, and have grown even further since the release of their great new album, Imaginary disk. Fans excited to see Basement Jaxx, Beth Gibbons and The Prodigy would probably also have loved a newly active Massive Attack and Moby, but alas – maybe in 2026.

Where have we landed?

As mentioned, the Coachella 2025 selection feels pretty random. It’s as if artists have been booked in small batches and grouped together to create as much overlap as possible within the most diverse tastes. The international bookings are, as usual, great for this festival’s identity: regional Mexican music continues to dominate with Junior H and Ivan Cornejo, BLACKPINK’s JENNIE and LISA will each play big solo sets, Brazilian star Anitta makes a big return and rapper Hanumankind will bring Indian music back into the spotlight.

While it’s nice that they’ve kept a balance between old and new, Coachella seems to be becoming more deliberate than ever about who gets the April showcase and who is better suited for a standard Goldenvoice SoCal show or one of their other festivals, just like Heaven, cruel world or no values. Chances are that many of the bigger acts they miss will do a Live Nation tour or opt out of festivals altogether. And due to the fraught landscape of live music, the number of smaller indie acts I bent over backwards to see in the early hours of Coachella is sadly dwindling.

Still, organizers have managed to pull off a few surprises, not to mention who might show up for the now annual set times. The fact that in 2025 you can see Charli If you’re an electronic fan attending Coachella, it’s something of a throwback to the genre and its possibilities. For all other genres, however, it’s a mixed bag: a signal of what the future of large, massive festivals has to offer in the coming years.