Coachella 2026: Finding Your Jam
The Festival Has Artists For Everyone's Tastes
Last weekend, we went to our third consecutive Coachella. Given how much I love live music, I can’t even recall why we never went before. We used to go to Jazz Fest a ton around the time we moved to San Diego, so it wasn’t an anti-festival thing. It probably had more to do with having triplets and an older son all at once.
In any case, this was round three. While I was not super psyched about the top headliners going in, the weekend turned out to be pretty amazing. Unfortunately, we only do the first two days. This year, that meant missing Wet Leg, Iggy Pop, and Fatboy Slim. We ended up watching all three from the couch back home while recuperating, and they were all pretty damn good.
Going into the weekend, I was super psyched to see Geese, and the last-minute announcement of Jack White made me pretty confident it was going to be a great time.
Rather than a blow-by-blow recount, I thought going top-to-bottom made the most sense. Here are my top acts:
The Top Tier
Jack White A 3:00 PM slot on Saturday was not ideal since I had to get to the grounds pretty early, but man, Jack White never disappoints. I saw him last year at the Palladium in Hollywood (which was a mind-blowing show), and this was more of the same. He ripped through an amazing set—his first at Coachella since 2015 when he was the Day Two headliner. Honestly, he 100% could have headlined on this current tour. I am hoping to see him in San Diego next September.
Nine Inch Noize It was hard to pick between this set and Geese, but for sheer spectacle, this was incredible. I wasn’t sure what to expect. The reviews for the recent Nine Inch Nails tour were fantastic, and we almost saw them in Nashville and then in San Diego, but didn’t pull the trigger. Missing NIN was a mistake. At Coachella, collaborating with Boys Noize, they brought an unreal sound and visual show to the Sahara tent. God knows how many people were there—20,000? 40,000? We saw the NIN/David Bowie tour back in 1995 (one of the best shows I’ve ever seen), and in all fairness, this new sound and setup was not too far off.
Geese Geese was really great to see. They are a super buzzy band of 23-year-olds out of NYC—probably the hottest band out of the city since The Strokes in the early 2000s. The fans were so pumped up. They played a strong set off their new album, Getting Killed, along with some older songs and a Justin Bieber cover. I’ve included a clip of their last song, “Trinidad,” made famous by the “There’s a bomb in my car” scream, which sent the crowd into full mosh-pit mode.
Moby I have been a Moby fan since 1995’s Everything is Wrong. I saw him at an album release concert in NYC in 2002, and he was amazing then. I was pretty sure he would be amazing again, and arguably, he was probably better this time. He started off with an energetic performance of “Bodyrock,” and the party just went from there.
The xx I love this band and was super excited to see they were playing the main stage. The band hadn’t played together in eight years, and they sounded amazing. With a stripped-down style, they played their hits and really seemed to enjoy the moment, as did the mass of fans. They previously played Coachella in a similar slot back in 2017.
David Byrne Honestly, I’d have to put Moby, The xx, and David Byrne all in the same tier for me. David Byrne was just so good. They started late due to some technical difficulties; then, the empty stage filled up with his musicians in marching-band-style setups. They played through an amazing set of his solo work as well as Talking Heads classics. Having never seen Talking Heads or David Byrne live before, this was an absolute joy!
The Rest of the Best
The other bands were also very good, but the above were by far my highlights. Here is the rest, in order:
NewDad: Hailing from Ireland, they gave me the vibes of a next-generation Cranberries, but updated for today’s sound.
The Strokes: The band was tight, and the lead singer was on point when he was singing, though he was absolutely off-putting in between songs. Good music, strange frontman.
Wednesday: They had one of the top albums last year. I had mostly heard their Americana songs, but they are very much a punk band live. Very good show.
Teddy Swims: Great singer, great show. It’s not necessarily my style of music, but he was solid and brought out some great special guests, like David Lee Roth.
Die Spitz: An all girl metal band from Austin that brought the thrash. I was up front, and when they told the crowd to clear out the middle, I knew exactly what was coming and I got my butt out of the way for the youth slam dancers.
Joyce Manor: A great LA-based punk band. I’m sure I would have loved their set even more if I didn’t have a scheduling conflict.
So that was it for us. A great weekend, and I can’t wait for next year. I am sure this second weekend will be as memorable as our weekend. For those of you who are put off by the headliners, just know that there is something for everyone—and the people-watching is almost as good as the music!