Coachella 2023: Sleaford Mods perform anti-Coachella set in the Sonora
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival features many acts from around the globe. Some are quirky, rollicking and unrestrained. The British rap/punk duo Sleaford Mods check all those boxes — but they're no joke.
In fact, Sleaford Mods is the anti-Coachella band serving up straight truth.
During the band’s performance in the Sonora tent on Sunday, vocalist Jason Williamson belted out lyrics to songs such as “Nudge It” attacking superficial musicians pretending to be among the working class, calling out people obsessed with image and status in “Trendy,” and railing against narcissism, selfies and desensitization in “Tweet, Tweet, Tweet."
As Williamson appeared slightly hunched over and slowly pacing back and forth, producer and beatmaker Andrew Fearn was dancing the entire time and only pausing for a few moments to press play on the next track. The dance moves didn’t change and neither did his energy level, which is impressive considering the performance was almost an hour long.
The turnout for the band's performance was light during Weekend 1, but saw a bigger crowd on Sunday. But some of those relaxing in the tent's air conditioned environment and sitting on the couches couldn't handle Sleaford Mods, and headed to the exit.
Sleaford Mods are tossed into a group of bands such as IDLES (a band the duo has an ongoing feud with), Shame Fontaines D.C. and more that are labeled as a new British punk movement. Even though the political messages and working-class quintessence is the same, none of these bands have anything in common with the old guard of British punk groups such as the Sex Pistols or The Clash.
In 2021, NPR did an analysis of this growing scene and headlined the article “The Post-Brexit New Wave,” describing the sound as “Franz Ferdinand crashing together with spoken-word soliloquies.”
There was nothing flashy at Sunday's set except the many strobe lights. There were no special guests, and Williamson’s stage banter with the audience was kept to a minimum. What Sleaford Mods lack in stage production, however, is made up for with often quite catchy beats, humor and acidity towards life in the Austerity policies of the UK.
After a three-day music festival filled with social media influencers, celebrities and music acts promoting a party atmosphere, a contrarian point of view coming from Sleaford Mods might be what festivalgoers needed on Sunday to snap them back into the daily grind.
Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @bblueskye.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Coachella 2023: Meet Sleaford Mods, the anti-Coachella band
