Arcade Fire Close Out Coachella With Fake Daft Punk, Real Beck
Last night, Arcade Fire headlined the last night of this year’s second Coachella weekend. The previous week, they’d brought Debbie Harry to the stage and covered Blondie’s “Heart Of Glass,” and their stage show also included Aaron Paul in a pope costume. But on the second weekend, Arcade Fire did something considerably more curious. Every year, we get a new pile of rumors of a Daft Punk Coachella appearance. And so the prank that started off Arcade Fire’s set was a pretty cruel one. As Billboard reports, the band started their set by introducing what appeared to be a pair of costumed Daft Punk impersonators, playing a screwed-and-chopped, intentionally awful version of “Get Lucky,” before Win Butler interrupted them and started the set off for real. It’s possible that it was the real Daft Punk in those helmets — neither Arcade Fire nor Daft Punk has confirmed or denied yet — but given that Butler dedicated a song last weekend to “all the bands at this festival playing real instruments,” it seems more likely that this was them taking a shot at the EDM that dominated much of the festival. So: Major-league dick move or not? Discuss in the comments. The Arcade Fire set did include one genuine guest, though: Beck, wearing that same pope costume and singing on a cover of Prince’s “Controversy.” Watch the Daft Punk moment below.
Arcade Fire just announced that they’ll be back in California for two shows at the Forum in L.A., going down 8/1 and 8/2.
[Photo by C Flanigan, via Getty Images]