Día y Noche de Los Muertos returns to Hollywood Forever, creating a cathartic experience with Ed Maverick, Hermanos Gutiérrez & more

Día y Noche de Los Muertos 2022By Iván Fernández //

Día y Noche de Los Muertos featuring Ed Maverick, Hermanos Gutiérrez, Son Rompe Pera, Thee Sacred Souls //
Hollywood Forever Cemetery – Los Angeles
October 29th, 2022 //

Typically, there’d be cause for serious concern when thousands of people congregate in a cemetery on a Saturday. The last thing we need in our not-quite-post-pandemic world is a mass gathering of a demonic cult or an apocalyptic scenario previously only imagined by the likes of the creators of the “Doom” video game franchise.

However, when the reason turns out to be the 23rd annual Día y Noche de Los Muertos event at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in LA, the main concern is searching for a place to sit to eat between performances. The festival is one of the largest Day of the Dead-related events in the world outside of Mexico and Latin America. Attendees over the years have been regaled with impressive lineups of Mexican and Latin American artists along with the dozens of altars built by community members in honor of their departed loved ones.

For many years, the event at Hollywood Forever and the Día de los Muertos event at Self-Help Graphics on the other side of the county were the only large-scale celebrations of the cultural holiday in LA. In our post-“Coco” and “The Book of Life” world, they are national torchbearers for a region with the largest Latin American diaspora in the country.

The festival’s first edition in 1999 was a small affair featuring some live music, a couple of altars and roughly 300 people. At its peak about six to seven years ago, 40,000 people were dancing along near the memorial and burial sites of celebrities (one half of the original Ramones lineup, Johnny and Dee Dee, are laid to rest here along with Mel Blanc, Mickey Rooney, Burt Reynolds, Jonathan Gold, the DeMilles, the Chaplins, etc.) and non-celebs alike, some who were laid to rest in the late 19th century. Since 2021, the festival has pulled a Coachella of sorts and split into two separate events at the same location: a daytime cultural event dedicated to families and kids to learn about the history and specific cultural practices of Day of the Dead followed by a nighttime event featuring three stages of live music.

The 2022 edition welcomed over 20,000 people to the cemetery grounds for a day of music and remembrance. This year’s theme was dedicated to Mayahuel, the Aztec goddess of fertility and maguey (agave), the plant where pulque, mezcal and tequila are derived from. There’s a tragic backstory about the romance between Mayahuel and Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, that ends in her death. His tears fall on her grave and create the agave plant, “producing pulque and mezcal to forever lesson our miseries and lift our grief,” to quote the event’s press release.

Día y Noche de Los Muertos 2022 - Thee Sacred Souls


Thee Sacred Souls

There was certainly something of that in the air this year. Though it was still a fun celebration of life, perhaps the weight of these past two years has made people’s sentiments heavier. You could see it in the elaborate altars placed along the pathways from the cemetery to stages and art exhibits.

Everywhere you looked, there was an old portrait of a married couple as well as photos of an infant, boys, girls and teens whose lives were all tragically cut short. The beauty in the Day of the Dead event is how these portraits are also adorned with items that reflected the warmth of their lives, however short or long. Creating an altar takes time and an emotional effort by their builders that helps them confront their grief. There may not have been much pulque or mezcal on the grounds, but the miseries of recent times were certainly lessened through these public displays of grief and love.

The performers for the night also did a wonderful job of bringing people together and lessening their miseries while lifting their grief. The night began with San Diego’s Thee Sacred Souls. The trio of singer Josh Lane, drummer Alex Garcia and bassist Sal Samano have seen their star rise quickly over the past year-and-a-half thanks to a combination of Lane’s Marvin Gaye-esque vocal styles and their mesmerizing take on Chicano soul and R&B.

Día y Noche de Los Muertos 2022 - Son Rompe Pera


Son Rompe Pera

Thee Sacred Souls were joined onstage with a pair of backup singers, a guitarist and a pianist/organ player to fill out their sound. Though the trio has just one full-length album to its name so far, songs such as “Can I Call You Rose?”, “Weak For Your Love” and “Love Comes Easy” have become instantly recognizable by the band’s growing legion of fans. Tears flowed, kisses were planted and lovers hugged as the band gracefully swung from one love balled to the next.

Son Rompe Pera, on the other hand, were the exact opposite. If you’re ever curious as to what a combination of cumbia and marimba music from Mexico’s southeastern coast sounds like when fused with the ethos and energy of hardcore punk, then you must make it your mission to watch these guys live.

At the heart of Son Rompe Pera’s sound is not an accordion, a guitar or a drum, but the graceful xylophone! Never have I seen so many people lose their minds over watching a guy who looks like Edward Munson’s Mexican twin rocking out on a minutes-long xylophone solo. Never have I also seen a mosh pit start thanks to a xylophone solo, and even less have I ever encountered a mosh pit where a man felt comfortable enough to run circles in it with his very young daughter cheering him on while riding on his shoulders.

Día y Noche de Los Muertos 2022 - Hermanos Gutiérrez


Hermanos Gutiérrez

The Mexico City outfit from the town of Naucalpan is also an example of how to restructure your recorded music for a live setting. Songs such as “Calculadora” and “Tortuga del Arenal” have a danceable, yet mellow rhythm to it on the album. When played live though, the songs take on a faster rhythm, with the marimba and cumbia accents ceding ground to the group’s punk vibe.

This is where I question the order of the artists on the lineup. Hermanos Gutiérrez went up next and played beautifully. Brothers Alejandro and Estevan Gutiérrez are two talented musicians who play guitar together, swapping between acoustic, electric and slide guitars during their shows. The Zurich-based duo’s instrumental music swept me away, carrying me into a mystical world soundtracked by their cinematic, western style.

Unfortunately, some in the crowd were still riding the high from Son Rompe Pera and jarred by the switch in energy and music, prompting me to wonder if it would have been better if Hermanos Gutiérrez performed before Son Rompe Pera. It’s a shame really, but it was wonderful to hear songs from their latest album El Bueno Y El Malo (The Good And The Bad), which they recorded with Dan Auerbach and released on The Black Keys frontman’s record label Easy Eye Sound, along with a few older cuts. There was something about listening to title track, “Tres Hermanos” and “Hermosa Drive” live in a cemetery that added to the experience and aura of the night’s festivities that no other performer had.

Día y Noche de Los Muertos 2022 - Ed Maverick


Ed Maverick

The evening’s headliner Ed Maverick was a smart choice to close things out. I knew the fest had taken a somber and introspective turn when the promoters announced him to lead the lineup. In fact, the “Sad Boy Supreme” of Chihuahua, Mexico, was stopping through LA on his first-ever world tour — and he did not disappoint.

Even from a distance, it’s easy to tell that his sad-boy schtick isn’t a performance but who he truly is. It also shouldn’t be a surprise considering he titled one of his albums Mix Pa’ Llorar en Tu Cuarto (A Mix to Cry in Your Bedroom). And yes, he performed his sad-boy anthems, but he and his band gave the songs an aura that matched the grief-lifting vibes of the night.

Maverick and his band adapted other songs from Mix and his 2021 LP Eduardo to give them a larger presence live. “Hola, ¿cómo estás?,” for example, filled the event like an anthem meant for a stadium as opposed to the recorded version’s floating, atmospheric vibes. Meanwhile, “Fuentes de Ortiz”, “Acurrucar” and “Quiero” became cathartic sing-alongs for thousands of fans in attendance.

Maverick didn’t have too much to say between songs and let his music do most of the talking. However, when he did speak to the crowd, he had to pause with a smile and wait for the lull between screaming and cheering fans to be heard. He ended the night with a lengthy guitar solo that cemented his newfound status as a rock star and new king of the sad boys.

Whatever grief guests carried with them into the event, they certainly left feeling weightless after a long, fun and most importantly, cathartic experience.

Surprise! Coachella offers a big twist while revealing 2022 set times as Arcade Fire joins the party unexpectedly

Coachella 2022

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival //
Empire Polo Club – Indio, CA
April 15th-17th & April 22nd-24th, 2022 //

Well, Coachellans … if you thought last week’s news that saw Swedish House Mafia and The Weeknd replace Ye (fka Kanye West) as Sunday’s headlining acts was the only change before you head out to the desert, think again.

The three-day, two-weekend music and arts festival has surprised us all in revealing set times for its 21st edition just a little more than 24 hours before it begins — the latest they have ever been released — and casually including Arcade Fire, which was not listed on the official lineup poster, at the Mojave Tent on Friday. If you’re hoping to catch what should be an epic performance from Win Butler, Régine Chassagne and company during “magic hour” and likely hear some new tunes off their upcoming sixth studio album WE that arrives in May, we would recommend getting there early before 6:45 p.m.

And while there are always hard decisions to make at Coachella, it only gets tougher with the Grammy-winning band added into the mix.

Don’t be shy, though … what’s your biggest conflict this year and who are you most excited for?

WEEKEND 1 SET TIMES

Coachella 2022 - Weekend 1 - Friday set times

Coachella 2022 - Weekend 1 - Saturday set times

Coachella 2022 - Weekend 1 - Sunday set times

UPDATE (April 16th): We’re only one day into Weekend 1, and there are already some shake-ups to the schedule starting with Madlib being unable to join Freddie Gibbs at the Gobi Stage due to personal reasons. Gibbs, nevertheless, will still perform solo at his scheduled start time of 9:35 p.m. Meanwhile over at the Sahara Tent a couple hours earlier, Tchami will now begin at 7:03 p.m. instead of 7:15 p.m. You can peep the latest set times for Saturday in the tweet above.

WEEKEND 2 SET TIMES

Coachella 2022 - Weekend 2 - Friday set times

Coachella 2022 - Weekend 2 - Saturday set times

Coachella 2022 - Weekend 2 - Sunday set times

Arcade Fire are most notably missing from the Weekend 2 set times, but that’s not the only change that stands out if you’re comparing them to Weekend 1. Besides some changes to the early-afternoon slots as well as slowthai moving up and The Marías moving back to compete with Grupo Firme for some odd reason, another notable adjustment is Run the Jewels moving to Friday at 8:10 p.m. in the Mojave Tent after taking the Coachella Stage on Sunday at 4:35 p.m. during Weekend 1.

And as we saw last weekend with Shaina Twain, Justin Bieber, Damon Albarn, Snoop Dogg, Post Malone, Diplo, Khalid, Tyga, Saweetie, Metro Boomin and more all making cameos, Coachella has become a breeding ground for live collaborations and special guests so we’ll see if Weekend 2 has more surprises in store for fans after a star-studded return to the polo fields.

MAP

Less than four hours before the gates officially open at the Empire Polo Club, Coachella has finally shared this year’s map and it looks a lot like what we saw in 2019. But one change to the map that sticks out is the relocation of the Yuma Tent, which has moved farther away from the main entrance (though only slightly) and closer to the 12 Peaks VIP section adjacent to the Coachella Stage. Also, there’s only one way to access the Sonora, Gobi and Mojave Tents now as compared to prior years when guests could walk directly from the Sahara Tent to any of them, and while that might create for less foot traffic in the area near The Do LaB Stage, it will be a longer walk than before.

Coachella has long been considered to be one of the world’s best-run music festivals (and rightfully so), yet with Goldenvoice running behind schedule this week on the release of set times and other pertinent information, we’ll see how smoothly things go after a three-year hiatus for the concert promoter.

Coachella 2022 - map

So whether you’ll be in Indio or watching the YouTube livestream on your couch, let’s hope there aren’t any other artists or bands canceling at the last minute.

Happy Coachella!

Goldenvoice brings back Coachella sideshows for 2022

Goldenvoice Presents: April 2022

It’s Valentine’s Day once again, and Goldenvoice is honoring its long-running tradition now of unveiling Coachella’s sideshows in and around the greater Los Angeles area.

With the three-day, two-weekend music festival returning to the desert this April for the first time after a three-year layoff due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the concert promoter has lined up a slew of gigs over a stretch of more than two weeks. And although most of the venues hosting will be the same as before outside of the newly added Sound Nightclub, two in Pomona — the Fox Theater and The Glass House — will be the home for a good chunk of them starting April 12th with King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.

The festivities, meanwhile, will officially kick off a few days earlier on April 9th when Rina Sawayama performs at The Fonda Theatre. In addition to the Japanese-born singer-songwriter, the following acts will also take the stage inside and outside of LA County:

Epik High, Chicano Batman, Denzel Curry, Pabllo Vittar, Role Model, 100 gecs, Molchat Doma, Honey Dijon, Arooj Aftab, BADBADNOTGOOD (with Freddie Gibbs and Madlib aka MadGibbs), Beach Bunny, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Masego, MEUTE, Wallows (with The Regrettes), Amber Mark, beabadoobee, Chelsea Cutler, L’Impératrice (with Inner Wave), Purple Disco Machine, Still Woozy, Code Orange, Crumb, Damian Lazarus, Måneskin, Mika, Spiritualized, Viagra Boys, Ed Maverick, girl in red (with Holly Humberstone), Hot Chip (with Ela Minus), Koffee (with Mariah the Scientist), Michael Bibi, Nathy Peluso, Nilüfer Yanya and Altın Gün, PUP (with Skegss), The Marías, Dixon, Yard Act, Fred again.. and Omar Apollo. See the full list of sideshows in the poster above.

Unlike in previous years, no TBA dates are listed this time or a special showcase like there was back in 2017 at the Palm Springs Air Museum the night before Coachella’s first weekend.

Since 2012, Goldenvoice CEO Paul Tollett and company have made a point of monetizing off Coachella more and more by adding these sideshows to its portfolio and despite the number of them falling to 34 in 2019 after scheduling as many as 53 in 2018 and 62 in 2017, this year’s slate has climbed to 44 in total even with an average of 160,000 new coronavirus cases being recorded in the U.S. each day. But while Goldenvoice may have finally found a “sweet spot” when it comes to how many sideshows to book each spring, it has always showcased an eclectic array of genres and 2022 will be no different with a Brazilian drag queen (Pabllo Vittar) and a self-described “techno marching band” (MEUTE) on the bill.

Other highlights worth sharing include LA four-piece Chicano Batman at the Fox Theater Pomona, two nights of Canadian instrumental trio BADBADNOTGOOD with Freddie Gibbs and Madlib at The Novo in downtown LA, 28-year-old R&B singer-songwriter Amber Mark at the El Rey Theatre and London-based producer Fred again.. at The Fonda Theatre.

Tickets for the sideshows go on sale here this Friday, February 18th at Noon PT with the rest of them available on Friday, February 25th at Noon PT or Friday, March 4th at Noon PT.

Goldenvoice

Coachella unleashes a new group of headliners after three-year hiatus as Harry Styles, Billie Eilish & Ye spearhead 2022 lineup

Coachella - 2022 lineup

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival //
Empire Polo Club – Indio, CA
April 15th-17th & April 22nd-24th, 2022 //

The wait is officially over.

Just a year after celebrating its 20th anniversary with Childish Gambino, Tame Impala and Ariana Grande at the top of the poster, Coachella was primed to make another splash in 2020 with Rage Against the Machine headlining for the third time in the legendary band’s career and Travis Scott scheduled to make his headlining debut on the polo fields as well as Frank Ocean.

But the three-day, two-weekend event became one of the first large-scale music festivals in the U.S. — along with South by Southwest and Ultra Music Festival — that was forced to postpone its plans when the COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm almost two years ago. Goldenvoice worked to quickly reschedule Coachella for October, though with coronavirus cases and deaths spiking out of control all over the country, another delay came in June, signaling the unfortunate reality that there would be no festival in the calendar year for the first time since 2000.

With the state of the pandemic in flux and the U.S. still operating without a vaccination program in place by early January last year, Coachella in 2021 quickly became a fantasy. Fast forward another year, and the famed California fest is finally ready to give it another go in April.

However, none of the previously announced 2020 headliners are still booked for its 21st edition in less than three months. Rage Against the Machine, for starters, dropped out despite the Los Angeles Times reporting last summer in an exclusive interview with Goldenvoice CEO Paul Tollett that the band would still headline and Scott was also pulled following his disastrous Astroworld Festival — or as some might like to call it, Disastroworld — performance back in November while Ocean is now expected to perform in 2023, according to the aforementioned LA Times report.

Instead, Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and Ye (fka Kanye West) will spearhead the 2022 lineup after reports circled last week about Eilish and Ye being in talks to headline and another surfaced only hours before the roster was unveiled regarding a commitment from Styles.

Swedish House Mafia, in the meantime, will return to Coachella for the first time in a decade since the electronic supergroup’s closing set on the main stage in 2012, although their appearance is not all that surprising thanks to this tweet back in October. Which day they’ll perform, however, is anyone’s guess right now.

Coachella has had a penchant for booking more international acts — from BLACKPINK to Bad Bunny — in recent years, and 2022 will be no different with Grupo Firme, Anitta, Joji and Karol G on the bill. But this year’s undercard showcases plenty of other talent too, including Lil Baby, Flume, Doja Cat, Daniel Caesar, Megan Thee Stallion, Phoebe Bridgers, Disclosure, Jamie xx, Big Sean, 21 Savage, Run the Jewels, Danny Elfman, Maggie Rogers, Louis the Child, Stromae, Ari Lennox, Baby Keem, GIVĒON, Banda MS, Still Woozy, BROCKHAMPTON, Fatboy Slim, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Rich Brian, Måneskin and more.

Tickets for Weekend 1 are already sold out, but there is a wait list that you can jump on here while three-day GA and VIP passes for Weekend 2 will go on sale here during a presale this Friday, January 14th at 10 a.m. PT.

UPDATE (April 6th): With less than two weeks to go, Coachella has revealed some changes to its 2022 lineup after reports surfaced earlier this week indicating that Ye (aka Kanye West) would not perform this year. Ye won a pair of Grammys a few days ago at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards and was scheduled to headline the festival on Sunday over both weekends but will be replaced by the previously announced Swedish House Mafia, who had yet to be assigned a specific day on the initial poster that came out back in January, and newly added The Weeknd — after his last appearance in 2018 — as co-headliners who will perform together as a new collaboration and something that neither Coachella nor many other music festivals have done before at the very top of the poster. That, of course, is the beauty of Coachella after all as Goldenvoice always finds a way to keep the programming fresh with new and exciting surprises.

Headed out to the desert this spring? Look back at our coverage of Coachella over the years here.

Coachella

Coachella locks down Rage Against the Machine, Travis Scott & Frank Ocean to headline in 2020

Coachella - 2020 lineup

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival //
Empire Polo Club – Indio, CA
April 10th-12th & April 17th-19th, 2020 //

Well, if your New Year’s resolution was to see Rage Against the Machine perform at Coachella, it’s time to start packing your bags.

After the legendary rock band posted to Instagram on Halloween that it would be performing in Indio this April and multiple reports surfaced over the last few weeks confirming the news, the California festival made the announcement official with the release of its 2020 lineup.

It marks the third time that RATM have been booked to headline Coachella, with the previous instance dating back to 2007 when Zack de la Rocha (vocals), Tim Commerford (bass, vocals), Tom Morello (guitar) and Brad Wilk (drums) reunited following the group’s unforeseen break-up seven years prior.

Joining Rage at the top of the fest’s famed poster will be Grammy-nominated rapper Travis Scott and enigmatic crooner Frank Ocean, both of whom will be headlining the three-day, two-weekend event for the first time (though they each have played Coachella before).

And in what was nearly an unprecedented move by organizers, 2016 headliner Calvin Harris has retreated to second-line status. It’s just the second time that’s occurred in Coachella’s 21-year history, with the only other artist being Beck when he headlined its inaugural edition in 1999. But the rest of the undercard boasts some highlights like Flume, Lana Del Rey, Run the Jewels (with a de la Rocha cameo as we once witnessed likely), Thom Yorke, Disclosure, Rex Orange County, Daniel Caesar, FKA twigs, Danny Elfman, Louis the Child, BROCKHAMPTON, Fatboy Slim, Caribou, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Charli XCX, Jai Wolf, Madeon, Yaeji, Chicano Batman, Hot Chip, Mura Masa, Duck Sauce, GRiZ, DJ Koze, Carly Rae Jepsen, Peggy Gou, Duke Dumont, Floating Points, J.I.D, IDLES, BADBADNOTGOOD, Daphni, Weyes Blood, Steve Lacy, (Sandy) Alex G, slowthai, Big Wild, TOKIMONSTA, Noname, Friendly Fires, Altın Gün, Crumb, Cashmere Cat, Sampha the Great and girl in red.

Like in more recent years, many of the acts on the bill lean in the hip-hop, R&B and electronic direction while rock continues to get phased out. Nevertheless, it’s worth mentioning that two of Dan Snaith’s projects are listed in Caribou and Daphni, the latter of which will assuredly be a DJ set in the Yuma Tent.

Coachella’s first weekend is scheduled for April 10th-12th, with its second weekend slated for April 17th-19th. With Weekend 1 passes already sold out, tickets for Weekend 2 will go on sale this Monday, January 6th at 12 p.m. PT here.

UPDATE (March 10th): Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Coachella 2020 has been rescheduled for October 9th-11th and October 16th-18th. All passes purchased for the festival’s previous dates in April will be honored in October, with refunds available to those who are unable to attend. Coachella becomes the latest major event to be affected after South by Southwest and Ultra Music Festival were both canceled last week.

UPDATE (June 11th): As coronavirus cases continue to spike in certain parts of the U.S., the sad and unfortunate likelihood of Coachella not occurring in 2020 has now become a reality. Goldenvoice instead has marked some 2021 dates down on the calendar — Weekend 1 will be April 9-11 and Weekend 2 follows April 16-18 with all 2020 passes purchased being honored — though sadly there’s always the possibility that Coachella could be postponed until October again as we near the New Year, when the festival usually reveals its annual lineup.

Ready to take the desert by storm? Look back at our coverage of Coachella over the years here.