Sia’s Coachella Set With Kristen Wiig, Tig Notaro And Paul Dano Is Today’s Happy Place
"The concert performance of a generation."
Our Deputy Prime Minister is holding Hollywood movie stars hostage in rusty old sheds. We still don’t know what the fuck Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ is. New Game of Thrones is still not here. Life has been better. And because of that, this seems like an ideal time to mention Sia last night performed an already legendary set at Coachella and the whole thing is now available to stream online.
Ditch work/uni/any responsibility you may have today. You have my permission. Consider this the adult equivalent of that dodged-up note you pretended your mum wrote to get your out of PE years 8-11.
In what was a relatively rare full stage show, this performance saw the Australian star team up with a huge array of A-list actors and comedians alongside her regular talented young dancers Maddie Ziegler and Stephanie Mincone. Fresh from his latest film role alongside Daniel Radcliffe’s corpse, Paul Dano made cameos in ‘One Million Bullets’, ‘Cheap Thrills’ and ‘Bird Set Free’. Other songs saw appearances from Tig Notaro, Gaby Hoffman, Ben Mendelsohn, and Kristen Wiig — the latter of which even fully wigged up.
Pretty stoked to see one of my favorite comedians and singers up on stage together / epic performance ???❤️ #coachella #sia #kristenwiig #thisisacting @coachella @siathisisacting A video posted by rayray ✌?️ (@nicoleray3) on
As most of these cameos were performed via pre-recorded video while being acted out by others on stage, Sia has described the set this morning as “a live music film”. It seems to be a concept fans are excited about. Some of those who were in the crowd have described the event as “the concert performance of a generation” and critics are widely praising the inventive format.
“At a Coachella defined by surprise pop-star cameos, Sia’s performance Sunday night cleverly flipped the script,” Mikael Wood wrote for the LA Times. Yahoo’s Lyndsey Parker was even more glowing in her review. “To call Sia’s set a ‘concert’ does it a massive injustice,” she wrote. “This was theatre, challenging the very notions of what a live festival experience can be. To borrow a phrase from Sia’s recently released sixth album, this was acting. This was performance art.”
It’s undeniably interesting — a considered and complex addition to the artistic work we’ve come to expect from the singer — but as with all performance art, you should probably prepare yourself for things to get a little weird.