Blur’s Damon Albarn claims Coachella crowd are “on their own planet”
Damon Albarn’s comments about Coachella, prior to stepping on stage, proved strangely prophetic as Blur’s Saturday night set was met with a low-energy crowd.
Anyone watching the live stream from LA’s Coachella festival will have noticed the very still audience during Blur’s set. Even as the group roared through beloved hits like ‘Song 2’, ‘Boys & Girls’ and ‘Beetlebum’ as they continued their landmark live return, the crowd at the festival didn’t seem connected to them at all.
Perhaps the band didn’t do themselves any favours. Their set list had several glaring omissions that any crowd member who wasn’t the biggest Blur fan in the world and knew the smaller cuts would have been waiting for. They left out ‘Country House’ and ‘Parklife’, instead choosing to end the set with ‘Tender’. Part of the issue could be chalked up to an adventurous set list full of album cuts, but for Albarn, the problem lies fully at the feet of the festival and its clientele.
The singer didn’t seem to have high hopes. When asked about the performance beforehand to radio station KROQ, he said, “I don’t know how it will go.”
“It’s a weird one Coachella when it comes to audience. It’s hard to know,” Albarn continued, claiming that the crowd are “on their own planet.”
Blur headlined Coachella back in 2013 during another comeback moment. Ten years later, however, they’ve fallen from a bill-topping slot to an early evening show with an audience that didn’t seem interested. No Doubt played after them, and they had a slight clash with Jungle and Ice Spice, potentially adding to the lacklustre audience. Either way, the band weren’t happy.
After being met with silence when trying to start a singalong during ‘Girls & Boys’, Albarn hit out at the crowd. “You’re never seeing us again, so you might as well fucking sing it. Know what I’m saying?” he said, claiming that the band will never return to the festival.
At one point during the set, the singer muttered that he would be “walking out” if the energy didn’t pick up. Luckily, during ‘Song 2’, it seemed as if the audience were more on board with the track. However, the singer again didn’t seem pleased with the atmosphere as he mocked, “This song has been so good to us. But I did get shown a TikTok of it being kind of performed by a vacuum cleaner, which is, you know…. It is humbling and inspiring at the same time.”
Only time will tell if Blur ever do return to Coachella, but either way, they’re probably feeling the bruises to their ego today thanks to the poor crowd response.
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