Frank Ocean will not be performing his scheduled headlining set at Coachella on Sunday, according to a representative for the vocalist. According to a source close to the situation, Blink-182 will replace him.
The statement reads, “Frank Ocean will not perform at Coachella’s second weekend.”
“After suffering a leg injury on festival grounds in the week preceding weekend 1, he missed the first weekend.” Frank Ocean was unable to perform the planned show but was still determined to perform, so the performance was reworked in 72 hours due to necessity.
Due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg, [Ocean] cannot participate in weekend 2 per the doctor’s orders.
The note concludes with Ocean’s declaration, “‘It was pandemonium. There is beauty in disorder. It’s not what I intended to show, but I enjoyed being out there and hope to see you shortly.’ — Frank Ocean.”
The announcement follows days of outrage over Ocean’s polarizing performance during the festival’s opening weekend, which was musically competent if uneven and plagued by significant production issues.
A scheduled elaborate performance on an ice rink with dozens of skaters was abruptly canceled. According to multiple sources, the major production was abruptly canceled on Sunday, just hours before Ocean’s scheduled performance, because he decided he didn’t want to do it. However, according to the statement, it was canceled due to an ankle injury he sustained earlier in the week.
While recordings of the concert show that he performed innovative new arrangements of several of his songs, the energy was low; he and the band were obscured by a battery of people walking in a circle around the stage (a revision of the original plan to have him surrounded by ice skaters); and the pacing was bizarre: a seemingly random DJ set was dropped into the middle, leading many attendees to leave.
According to sources, the one-hour delay was due to a last-minute production modification.
The original configuration of Blink-182 performed during the first weekend of the festival, making their first appearance together since Tom DeLonge’s departure in 2014. According to Variety’s review, the band “wasted no time reembracing the juvenile, fun, ridiculous double-time punk-pop that made them breakthrough radio stars in the late 1990s and early 2000s.”
“DeLonge and [bassist Mark] Hoppus cracked jokes about genitals, the Dalai Llama, and UTIs as they blasted through their set with the same Jackass-style ease that they did in their prime 20 years ago.” Although drummer Travis Barker injured a finger earlier this year, delaying the band’s tour, “there was no sign of injury here — his playing felt crisp and precise, and the band felt tight and well-rehearsed,” the review states.
Fans hoping to see what would have been Ocean’s second concert since 2017 are likely to be disappointed, but Coachella 2023 will likely end with a flourish.
