Coachella 2024: Grimes set cut short due to major technical issues
With Coachella 2024 well underway, fans everywhere gathered to see new and old music spread out over various genres. People were generally excited about Grimes, given that she is always proficient at exceeding expectations and providing a spectacle for her sets. That certainly seemed to be the case when she first came on stage, but the set was quickly cut short due to technical problems.
Grimes entered the Sahara Stage on a futuristic-looking walking vehicle. The robotic contraption walked across the stage like a spider while Grimes sat in the back. Certainly, she was on brand for being a futuristic artist; however, technology doubled up as her downfall as she started performing.
Technical difficulties started to send the set into decline as the songs were being played faster than needed. It got to the point that Grimes had to restart the song ‘Music 4 Machines’ multiple times because she could not get the bpm right. She made attempts to rectify the problem on stage but to no avail.
“This is a difficult thing to explain, but we’re having a major technical error,” she said, “Don’t judge me for being bad at calculating things.” She tried to do the math on stage to work out the bpm that songs needed to be played at, but it wouldn’t work; in the end, she abandoned her setlist for new material.
In between each track, even though the songs she was performing were going well, Grimes wasn’t worried about letting out her frustration as she screamed angrily, saying it wasn’t her fault. “I’m trying to think. I’m not good enough at math for this shit,” she said. Ultimately, she decided to call her set early and left the stage.
Grimes wasn’t the only person with technical difficulties during the festival. On day one, several different artists faced technical issues. The Japanese House had to leave the stage halfway through their set, refusing to play any more songs until the technical issues impacting them were fixed. “You know what,” she said, “We’re going to pretend this never happened… We’re going off stage, get this fixed, and come back on.”
Also facing technical issues was the jazz outfit Kokoroko. As one of the first acts of the weekend, they had their set delayed because there were continued problems with the sound, which meant they couldn’t begin. Late Night Drive Home also had issues and had to do their entire first song without a microphone. Sabrina Carpenter had problems during her set as she had continued issues working the pedals on her piano, although she did put this down to her heels.
It wouldn’t be a festival without some tech issues here and there; it’s just a shame for fans who have paid so much money to go and don’t get to see some of their artists in full form.
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