R. Kelly joins Phoenix on stage at the 2013 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. (Denis O’Regan/Coachella)
Phoenix headlined Coachella Saturday and the French indie rock band brought out a special guest, too.
It wasn’t Daft Punk, despite wild speculation about the French DJ group’s possible appearance and apparent sightings on the festival grounds.
But, it was a surprise and possible the least likely guest of all (or at least since 2012 when Tupac Shakur came back from the dead)–R Kelly.
And then together they performed “Trapped in the Closet, Parts 1-136.”
Well, that’s not exactly true. R. Kelly was there and he did sing, but it was a mashup of “Ignition (Remix)” with Phoenix’s “1901.”
I don’t think a single person on that packed field expected it.
During the set, I kept thinking back to 2010, when Muse made their presence known as a stadium band with a Saturday night headlining performance at the Coachella Festival.
Saturday night’s Phoenix performance, which included new material off forthcoming album “Bankrupt!” was the proving ground for the band.
Sonically, the band was impeccable. Singer Thomas Mars was spot on, as was the rest of the band.
The early 1-2-3 sequence of new single “Entertainment” followed by “Lasso” and “Lisztomania” put the band in position to deliver a strong set.
The highlight was at the end when Mars took his neon microphone cord and walked into the crowd and climbed atop the scaffolding and then crowd surfed his way to the front.
But seriously, can someone explain “Why R. Kelly?”