Yola is an English soul singer and Orville Peck’s a Canadian country crooner and they share something in common: They are this year’s desert music festival Triple Crown winners, booked for both weekends of Coachella and Stagecoach, too.
And on Sunday at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, they were both highlights of the afternoon musical performances.
Yola played first and was done no favors by early afternoon set time, which with the higher temperatures Sunday left her with barely 200 fans on hand to see her deliver a stellar set of original soul and R&B songs.
Songs such as “Dancing Away the Tears” and “Break the Bough” landed with a ton of emotion thanks to her powerful voice, as was her finale, “Stand for Myself,” the title track of her new album.
Orville Peck, by comparison, had a packed Gobi tent for his late afternoon set. He’s known for a gimmick — he always wears a black leather mask with long fringe to obscure his face. His deep country baritone, though, is all he really needs for songs that are crafted in an old-fashioned country roadhouse style that’s terrifically fun.
On songs such as “The Curse of Blackened Eye” and “Lafayette,” he carried listeners into the narrative of songs, backed by his ace band of cowboy hat-wearing musicians. Peck, we should note, was himself resplendent in a shiny gold outfit of a vest over his bare chest, pants and chaps.
Here’s what else we caught while the sun still shined:
• The garage rock band Surf Curse played early on the Main stage; coming out dressed as characters from “The Wizard of Oz” — the drummer the Cowardly Lion, the bassist Dorothy in pigtails and a blue checked dress and the guitarists as the Tin Man and the Scarecrow.
A pit opened up as they played “Midnight Cowboy,” and voila, the moshers became a very rowdy meeting of the Lollipop Guild.
• Atlin Gun is a Turkish-Dutch band that plays songs inspired by Anatolian folk music, ‘60s psychedelia, and ‘70s Turkish funk. Their set in Sonora was another of the wonderful musical moments one can find here.
• Beabadooboo is a 21-year-old Filipino-born British singer-songwriter with a deep love of ‘90s guitar rock. She was terrific in Gobi with songs from her acoustic debut of “Coffee” to her new single “Talk.”
• Viagra Boys is a Swedish band that’s kinda punk and very fun. They had the largest crowd I’d seen in Sonora all weekend, which was delighted with by hard-rocking yet humorous songs such as “Sports” and “Worms.”
