Danny Elfman’s #coachella2022 set was very cool and took the audience on a journey through his long and varied career. He promised the crowd a weird set & it was, veering from his new prog metal songs (the opener Sorry from his recent album began with a nicely discordant squall of feedback) to Nightmare Before Xmas, short sharp punk numbers to his iconic Batman theme, Oingo Boingo to the Simpsons theme.
The set moved effortlessly between the rock band (featuring Josh Freese on drums & Wes Borland on guitar) to the orchestra. Danny showed no signs of having been offstage for 30+ years & was in fine voice & form (dude is more ripped & tatted than a Chili Pepper).
One of the best moments came when OG Boingo guitarist Steve Bartek (who was also acting as the conductor) strapped on his gat for a Boingo song. He is 70 & was beaming at Danny like a proud grandpa. And it was cool to hear Elfman’s underrated theme to Alice in Wonderland - one of his best scores to an utterly average film.
If anything the set could have done with another 20 mins of orchestral music just to nail that epic feel he conjures with his scores. I hope he pulls a Hans Zimmer & takes this show on the road sometime soon.
I'm liking how Coachella has begun booking composers for their main stage (Zimmer a few years ago was epic). They just need to get John Williams up there before he retires.
* watched on the Coachella Livestream *
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