Blur rocked day two of the first weekend of Coachella 2024 last night (April 13), with a set spanning their long career. Stream the whole thing below.
The Britpop greats played a 13-song set, ranging from ‘90s classics like ‘Girls & Boys’, ‘Popscene’ and ‘Song 2’ to tracks from their 2023 album ‘The Ballad of Darren’, including ‘The Narcissist’ and ‘St. Charles Square’.
They were also joined by the Torres Martinez Cahuilla Bird Singers, a group of tribal singers from the area local to the festival’s Mojave Desert, California setting. They sang ‘Death of a Party’ together, as well as a song from the Singers’ repertoire, ‘Bird Song’. The choral group then returned to round off the set with a stirring version of ‘Tender’.
Find Blur’s whole set below on the official Coachella Day Two stream below:
Frontman Damon Albarn attempted to lead a singalong during the bridge of ‘Girls & Boys’, leading him eventually to say: “You’re never seeing us again so you might as well fucking sing it, know what I’m saying?”
People were so boring 🙁 #Blur #Coachella pic.twitter.com/PVRZl0wgv6
— €thie☆ (@stfu11364) April 14, 2024
Introducing ‘Song 2’, which was met with a huge reaction from the crowd, Albarn said: “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.”
See the TikTok in question below:
Damon Albarn introducing Song 2 at Coachella: “This song is being 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.” 😂
Here’s the tiktok.https://t.co/MckbIeF8ne pic.twitter.com/0ECm0h6RKH— Damon Albarn Unofficial (@DamonUnofficial) April 14, 2024
Blur – Song 2 live at Coachella. pic.twitter.com/4PrhV7Dgb3
— Damon Albarn Unofficial (@DamonUnofficial) April 14, 2024
Good to have ya back at #Coachella, Blur🌴
(📸 Arturo Holmes/Getty Images) pic.twitter.com/MCilMlv2wR— The World Famous KROQ (@kroq) April 14, 2024
Blur setlist from @coachella Weekend 1
via @enbreakfast (thank you!) pic.twitter.com/AGLRjhDi8q— Damon Albarn Unofficial (@DamonUnofficial) April 14, 2024
Blur played:
‘St. Charles Square’
‘Popscene’
‘Trouble in the Message Centre’
‘Beetlebum’
‘Goodbye Albert’
‘Trimm Trabb’
‘Out of Time’
‘Bird Song’ (with the Torres Martinez Cahuilla Bird Singers)
‘Death of a Party’ (with the Torres Martinez Cahuilla Bird Singers)
‘Girls & Boys’
‘Song 2’
‘The Narcissist’
‘Tender’ (with the Torres Martinez Cahuilla Bird Singers)
Last week, Blur played a warm-up gig for the festival at the Fox Theater in Pomona, California, with support from Jockstrap.
That night, Damon Albarn and co. treated the audience to a huge 20-song setlist, and broke out some of their biggest hits including ‘Song 2’ and ‘Parklife’.
Other highlights of the set include the live debut of their 2012 song ‘Fool’s Day’, the first live performance of ‘Death Of A Party’ in 10 years, and inviting a crowd member on stage to help perform ‘Parklife’.
The announcement that Blur would be performing at this year’s edition of Coachella came as a surprise to some, as it came shortly after comments from Albarn, where he was pretty adamant that the band would be slowing down for 2024. “It is time to wrap up this campaign,” he said back in December. “It’s too much for me. It was the right thing to do and an immense honour to play these songs again.”
In other Blur news, it was recently revealed that the Britpop icons are set to release a new documentary and concert film charting their huge 2023 reunion. The projects will document the recording and release of their first album in eight years, ‘The Ballad Of Darren’, as well as the huge shows that followed – including the two headline shows at Wembley Stadium in London last summer.
In other Coachella news, Grimes has apologised after her set was mired in technical difficulties, The Last Dinner Party stunned fans with their debut festival set, while Vampire Weekend closed out their last-minute Coachella set with a surprise appearance from Paris Hilton during their country “Cocaine Cowboys” medley.
For more live updates as it happens, check out NME’s liveblog for Coachella 2024 here.