Bad Bunny headlines opening night of Coachella, which will also feature sets from alt-rock favorites Blink-182, Blondie, Gorillaz and the Chemical Brothers.
April 15, 2023
“It was amazing. Coachella’s incredible,” Lusk said in an interview after the performance. “It’s special to finally be able to do it. To be from L.A., from Southern Cal, to do it, it was great.”
Take an inside look at how the band’s Coachella debut came together.
The group spent time rehearsing at their practice space in Los Angeles in the week leading up to the festival, by far their biggest gig to date. Last year, the band played some dates opening for 2022 Coachella headliner Harry Styles.
The project began in 2016 when filmmaker Ryan Hope started working with producer-composer Ari Balouzian. They found Lusk through his church choir.
The best looks from the 2023 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, from homemade masterpieces to eye-popping ensembles.
April 15, 2023
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A dynamic performer, Lusk wore a tuxedo topped with a long brocade overcoat.
He said he planned the outfit months in advance and went fabric shopping to have it custom made.
During the band’s well-received set, Lusk showed off his powerhouse voice and led the audience in a call-and-response to spread a message of love.
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“They say if you love somebody, baby — come on, say it with your chest — baby, you should tell them every day,” Lusk called to the crowd as they repeated after him.
From boygenius’s joyful harmonies to Bad Bunny’s history lesson to Blackpink’s declaration of superstardom, it was a wild and rewarding Coachella.
April 17, 2023
After the performance, Lusk ditched the tuxedo for a more desert heat-friendly ensemble of shorts and a Dodgers jersey, with the logo written in blue sparkles as he, Hope and Balouzian posed for photos.
“Seeing my old co-workers [during the show], that was amazing. Seeing my family and friends out in the audience, that was the most special moment,” Lusk said in an interview after the set.
Gabriels’ second album, “Angels & Queens Part II,” is expected this summer, when the band is playing a number of European festivals, including Spain’s Primavera Sound, before coming back to the U.S. for a date at Outside Lands in San Francisco in August.
Assistant editor Vanessa Franko oversees audience engagement for the Los Angeles Times’ Entertainment and Arts section. She was previously the digital director of entertainment and features at the Southern California News Group.
Christina House is a staff photojournalist with the Los Angeles Times. She officially joined the visual journalism team in 2017 after 10 years as a freelance photographer. House grew up in Long Beach and is a graduate of Cal State Fullerton. Her love for photography started when she visited the Philippines, her mother’s native country, at age 7. That unforgettable experience inspired her to pick up a camera. House won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography and the 2022 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Domestic Photography for “Hollywood’s Finest,” an intimate look into the life of a pregnant 22-year-old woman living on the street. She received the 2021 Cliff Edom New America Award and was honored in the portrait series category for her work on “Game Changers: A Celebration of Women in Sports” from the 2021 National Press Photographers Assn.’s Best of Photojournalism awards.