That’s rock and roll.
This is not an arena show, this is not a stadium show, this is not Coachella, when you headline the Stagecoach Mane (Main) Stage you’re playing to NINETY THOUSAND PEOPLE!
Now I wish every American could come to Stagecoach, because then they could see how we’re more alike than different. Everything is perceived to be tribal in the U.S. today, but when we forget about politics what you get is…
Boobage.
That’s what you notice immediately. Which is kind of astounding if you grew up in the relatively prudish sixties. Yes, we skinny-dipped, but we didn’t exhibit our bodies quite the same way. The women are dressed to kill, but not like influencers, not like the Coachella crowd, they’re more…normal. They may be showing off their assets, but above the cowboy boots they’re all wearing jeans. Most people wouldn’t look out of place anywhere in America, other than in the major metropolis. There were no brand names, it was not about posting as a fashionista online, then again people were shooting photos, but almost always in groups, you don’t come to Stagecoach alone, you come with your posse, and you come to hear country music.
Now I was watching Elle King play the Mane Stage and… You don’t see screens that big anywhere else. They’ve got to be visible all the way to the back row. And on stage it’s all human, there are no hard drives, which is extremely refreshing.
No dance steps, no perfection, just guitars and drums and…
It’s not a whole hell of a lot different than it was in the aforementioned sixties. When you watched the Beatles on “Ed Sullivan” and were inspired to form a band. The songs were not syncopated to a beat, there were no drum machines, the music was organic, human, it didn’t slide off of you, it was far from disposable. And every song had a chorus.
In other words, Stagecoach/country music is the antithesis of Top Forty, and the biggest recording act in America will be headlining Sunday night, Morgan Wallen.
I was listening to Buzz Brainard on the satellite on the drive in, he was interviewing Stagecoach attendees, asking them where they were from and who they wanted to see. They all wanted to see Wallen.
We don’t have this kind of ubiquitous star in traditional pop, nobody everybody loves. As big as Drake, Kendrick, Taylor and Beyoncé are, not everybody likes them. But everybody in the country sphere likes Wallen. And if you listen to the record… You don’t need a comprehensive course in country music to understand it. Listen to today’s metal and if you haven’t been paying attention for decades, it’s incomprehensible. Fast and noisy. Hip-hop… It has haters. But the country songs are traditional, the singer may twang, there might be a pedal steel guitar, but the essence is rooted in the Great American Songbook. You can sing the songs at home, never mind relate to so many of the lyrics.
Now watching Dwight Yoakam in the Palomino tent I wasn’t sure if the packed audience knew his material or not. You’ve got to know, at these giant festivals, it’s more akin to a sporting event than a concert, in that the assembled multitude is never completely quiet, there’s always an undercurrent of conversation. But then I moved back up front and the twenty and thirtysomethings knew every word, they were singing along. This man of color was slapping me on the back as he sang to the heavens.
But really what blew my mind was the Mane Stage.
Now at Coachella there are ten stages. There are essentially fewer than half of those at Stagecoach, because everybody wants to see the same acts.
At Coachella, the area in front of the main stage can accommodate forty thousand people. But everybody, all ninety thousand attendees, can sit or stand and watch the headliner on the Mane Stage.
And that’s power.
I’m standing there contemplating what it must feel like to be performing to such a vast audience.
And then it occurs to me, you can’t get this many people to see either Biden or Trump, no political figure. Only music can draw this many enthralled customers at once.
This was not a show that comes through town on its way to somewhere else. These are all one-off gigs, you stand there on stage and the audience is READY! They want to engage, they’re waiting for you to play, they want you to light the fire.
Now Eric Church performed a confounding set. On acoustic guitar with a gospel choir and even a trumpet, this is not what people came for. And according to the press, many only stayed for fifteen minutes. I couldn’t quite figure it out, I thought that Church was trying to pull a Beyoncé, do something special for this one-off, I thought the acoustic number would end, the gospel singers would leave the stage, but…
That’s not what happened.
Honestly, it was more like an Andy Kaufman performance than a traditional Eric Church show, which rocks pretty hard. Then again, that’s the thing about live, it is. As in it’s one shot, you go out and perform and the audience resonates…
Or it does not.
So I’m looking at the crowd, mostly smiling, digging the music, and I’m wondering whether they’re Republicans or Democrats. Used to be country music was a bastion of the right, but many Dems are fans today. And a certain percentage of the audience was working class, or close to it. In other words, they’re working for a living. This contingent used to be Democrats, but now many are Republicans. If you’re struggling, you resent those who think they’re better than you.
But there was absolutely no tension. I’ve been to indoor shows and experienced more fear than I did last night, outdoors, mostly in the dark. It was weird, but I felt safe.
Once again, is this the America we read about in the press?
So what we’ve got here is genuine stars playing to people who need to hear their music, in many cases parking their rear ends in front of the Mane Stage from the moment they get there.
We haven’t had this power since…
At least the eighties.
Where everybody’s on the same page, everybody knows the music, everybody’s all together as one.
And the draw is music. Not made by machines. Believe me, you couldn’t even get a thousand, or even a hundred to listen to a concert of AI generated music. But real people, who’ve built careers over time…
You can’t headline having started yesterday. Jelly Roll was the pre-headliner, and got vast applause, but this guy has been around forever, he’s pushing forty, whereas in pop music we listen to the songs of adolescents who’ve experienced almost nothing.
So the performers seemed relaxed. They were out there naked, sans production. But when they started to play…
It was the same as it ever was. Akin to the past as opposed to the present. Madonna and Mariah Carey were a diversion, the latter engendered the singing TV contestants, Madonna made people want to be ubiquitous, in-your-face, known by everybody. But today’s country music is more laid back, it’s not about the penumbra, the brand extensions and the corporate endorsements, it’s about the music. And every performer has an identity, and they’re all different. Sure, you can listen to country radio and hear imitation, sameness, but out in the field, live, that’s not how it plays.
So if you were young and there last night, your greatest desire would be to take the stage yourself, to be a music star.
For decades people wanted to be billionaire techies, conversation was about stock options and trigger points. But you won’t get ninety thousand to show up for Elon Musk, maybe if Steve Jobs came back from the dead, but still, most people would stay at home and watch the stream. But for music, you have to be there. And believe me, with ninety thousand, you’re not up close and personal.
And the reason people need to be there is because the music speaks to them in a way nothing else does, no politician, no television show…
It was palpable. I’m standing in front of the Mane Stage and I heard and felt the music, I perceived the power of the performers, and we were all there together, as Americans.
This is not Glastonbury, this is not an EDM show, this is not a slice of the public, Stagecoach attendees cut across all demos and walks of life.
This is the world I grew up in. And if you don’t agree…
You weren’t there.
“Stagecoach-Day Two
It was all about Post Malone.
People say they wish they were young again, not me. Maybe I wasn’t good-looking enough, maybe I didn’t have game, but when I think of all the time I spent at shows and bars alone, wishing I could connect with others, I cringe.
But now I have status. Not on Wall Street, but in the small world they call the music business. I saw Michael Chugg backstage and the night before I connected with Lana Del Rey over a favor she did for a friend of mine, I was the intermediary (yes, that sounds like a name-drop, but there’s no way to tell the story without her name).
So I feel pretty good about myself, except when I feel bad about myself. And my social anxiety has me running away from encounters as opposed to leaning into them, but the people in attendance…
They’re young, they’re not famous, so they’re flaunting what they’ve got, their bodies and their outfits, hoping they will impress others, and that’s a game I’m glad I’m past.
Now at least half of the attendees were women, I’d say more. And like that old song by the Marvelettes which the Young Rascals did a great cover of, there were short ones, tall ones, find ones, kind ones…
As well as overweight ones. And those who did poorly in the genetic lottery. No one could see their bank account, without talking to them you couldn’t perceive their personality, it was all about their look and that’s a tough game to play.
There wasn’t a lot of interaction amongst the groups, there never is. So you’re alone, until you’re together. You spend your whole life trying to find a significant other, certainly if you’re a man, women support each other, converse, whereas men will talk sports and not much more, most won’t even reveal major problems, never mind give support to others who are experiencing them.
So the people watching was nonpareil.
There are just so many people in the world. You realize it when you walk amongst the assembled multitude. This is not like a sporting event, where you go to your seat and stay there, you wander and see thousands of people and wonder what their story is, what made them come.
I spoke with four twentysomething Asian women from Pasadena who love country music.
I talked to a group of SMU graduates who told me they don’t like the Coachella people.
Yes, I sat at a picnic table eating an overpriced and substandard lobster roll which was sold to me by a woman who was the picture of “carny” and I saw an empty space and I engaged the others in conversation. Other than that, I didn’t speak to a single person out on the field all day, for hours. There were tons there, but I was alone. And I’ll be honest, for a minute there, longer, it was kind of depressing. We all need context. At least I had some backstage.
Once again, at Stagecoach it’s all about the headliners. They had a drone shot of the crowd in front of the Mane Stage on the screen and it was overwhelming, huge.
And the country headliners have broader support than the pop headliners, despite getting less publicity and respect. And although the absolute headliner was Miranda Lambert, the performance by Post Malone on the Mane Stage right before was the hit of the night.
Now if you’re a baby boomer, you can’t get over the face tattoos. And the thing about tattoos is once you get one or two, many cover their bodies with more. It’s not only his face that Post has inked.
And he seemed to come from nowhere, and had success in the hip-hop world, and I didn’t give him much respect until I saw a YouTube video of him playing some Hendrix material. First, he could really play. Second, the group’s performance gelled, it was a good facsimile of Jimi, with the forceful energy of “Are You Experienced.”
And Post got a ton of press, he was everywhere. But then he was living in Utah and despite the hype, his last two albums haven’t had anywhere near the amount of commercial success of the hits before them.
But the guy didn’t fade away. That’s the strange thing about the new era, for all the one hit wonders who can’t sell a ticket and disappear, there are others who have anemic recording careers who continue to do good live business and sustain in the marketplace.
And now, suddenly, Post Malone is everywhere. He’s on the Taylor Swift single and he’s at Stagecoach doing a “Country Covers” set.
Now my knowledge of country is an inch deep and not even two inches wide so if you play classics, I don’t know them. And I didn’t know almost any of the songs Post Malone played tonight, you can check the set list and see how you do here: https://t.ly/N-p6m
But the performance was so engaging that it didn’t matter. There was the energy of the band. And Post’s personality and delivery. He related like a friend without pandering. There was no “Hello Cleveland!,” but quieter conversation, in many cases with a humble character, other than when he was praising the special guests, Dwight Yoakam, Brad Paisley and Sara Evans. He praised them like a fan, it was not perfunctory, there was emotion.
The whole set had emotion. And I’m standing there thinking this guy has got a career, he’s never going to be broke down and busted, apply for a straight job and not get it because of his face tattoos.
And Post looked scraggly, he had an untrimmed beard, was wearing regular clothes, it was akin to the rock stars of fifty years ago as opposed to the spandex of the eighties and the sparkles seen on stages at Stagecoach.
In other words, Post Malone has a strange charisma, he’s likable, he’s a star.
Today all the press is about the recording industry. Sure, there are stories about Taylor Swift’s grosses, but most of the conversation is about Spotify Top 50 hits, what AI will do to the business, there’s a lot of doom and gloom.
But not in the live business. Yes, it’s hard to sustain yourself on the road, but I’d wager more acts than ever are doing so. It’s hard to build an audience. Think about it, you’re starting from zero and the goal is for people to notice you and pay you money? That’s a heavy lift.
But in the live business there’s big money. Headline in the desert and you could be paid eight figures. And ever since Beyoncé, one special show can pay endless dividends, boosting your career. And when you see someone live a bond is created that can never be achieved with a recording. And the promoters…are keeping you alive.
So in the end it’s a matter of whether you can sell tickets and whether you can deliver on stage, whether you’re a PERFORMER or not.
Performance is a skill. I saw Miranda Lambert back in 2010 in a club. Believe me, she delivers a far superior show today. And you can learn how to perform, but some people are naturals.
Like Post Malone.
So you can graze and catch the undercard at Stagecoach, but really it’s about the big names. It’s less about discovery than a victory lap.
And when these stars take the Mane Stage there are so many people there that you can feel the energy, it’s palpable, you’re thrilled to be there, to be included, that feeling is why you pay to go. When the act is on stage and the music surrounds you and you see them on the big screen…there’s a lot of technology involved, but the essence is humanity.
So the reason you live life is the surprises, the unknowns. If you walk out the front door you never know what will happen. And my mood completely changed when I encountered Post Malone’s performance tonight. Didn’t matter whether you were short or tall, good-looking or less attractive, even what you were wearing, it was about a bond between your brain and what was on stage, and if it worked…you can’t get that hit anywhere else.
What we’re selling is music. But it’s more than that. We’re selling life, dreams. When done right a performance is unforgettable. The only thing better is sex. We search for these peak moments. And Post Malone surprised me and delivered one tonight.
