It’s good to ease into Sundays at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Two days of festival-going can take a little out of anyone.
Gigi Perez was the perfect tonic when she stepped onto the Outdoor Stage for a set of indie folk anthems, most of them from her breakout 2025 album “At the Beach, in Every Life.”
Her set — played to a laidback crowd, with many fans chilling on the lawn — included the title track and “Sugar Water,” the latter a sweetly nostalgic look at childhood, written with her sister Bella Perez who joined Gigi on stage.
For “Sometimes (Backwards)” Gigi Perez was joined by Noah Cyrus for whom she’s opened on tour. By the time she wrapped up with “Sailor Song,” a yearning song of love, there were more than a few in crowd with tears in their eyes.
Lil Simz
British singer-rapper Lil Simz lets her London accent shine through in her tales of the city but even if she didn’t she’d still be a star.
At her set in the Mojave Tent on Sunday she demonstrated flair for storytelling in “Young,” essentially a young woman’s often humorous musings about her day to day life. “Livin’ out your wildest dreams, yeah, we’re just young and dumb,” she sings in the chorus.
“Venom” and “Mood Swings” showed her skills at solo performance, at the mic and turntables. American rapper JT joined Simz for a pair of songs, after which Simz commanded the audience to cheer for JT’s many feathered outfit. She did look divine.
And “Lion” saw her take a stand, of sorts, singing “We don’t care for what they say, that’s my super power.”
She’ll be back in Southern California as opening act for Gorillaz.
Suicidal Tendencies
The classic Southern California punk-metal band Suicidal Tendencies conjured up Sunday’s mosh pit to go with those that accompanied parts of Geese on Saturday and Turnstile on Friday.
Singer Mike Muir is the only original member of the band born in Venice in 1980, but he’s long had a knack for finding talented musicians to bring to life the band’s songs.
One those was a teenage Thundercat, who went into his own acclaimed career as a singer-bassist, and who returned to the ST fold for the final three songs of their set in Mojave.
They played “Cyco Vision” to a huge swirling pit which grew even bigger as they slipped into the band’s best-known song “Institutionalized.” With “Pledge Your Allegiance” their set wrapped up, though dust from the mosh pit lingered in the air.