Night one of Coachella had the back to back combo of YOASOBI and Hatsune Miku. Coachella, out in the deserts of Indio, California, has been bringing over a number of Japanese talents for the past few years. Previous years have featured Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Perfume, Joji, Utada Hikaru, and more.

The Mojave stage played host to both acts tonight, with YOASOBI leading things off.

YOASOBI, first formed in 2019, is composed of producer Ayase and singer-songwriter Ikura. The duo came to be as the product of Ayase collaborating with Sony Music's website Monogatary.com (monogatari is Japanese for "story") and his approaching Ikura, another Sony Music artist, to be part of the project. As Ikura proudly proclaimed, "We make novels into music!"  YOASOBI's songs, including their anime songs, hold true to that original concept and each song is based on another story.

The duo started with "Yoru ni Kakeru," (English: "Racing Into the Night"), their first song together. Based on the short story Thanatos no Yuwaku, this song is what put the project on the map and served as a springboard for everything else. Most importantly, it proved the concept as viable.  They followed this with "The Blessing," which was used for the anime Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch of Mercury and based off the story Yurikago no Hoshi. One of the next songs, "Biri-Biri," was a collaboration between the duo and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. The song itself is based off the story Kimi to Ameagari wo. They quickly followed up with "Yuusha," the opening for Frieren, "Kaibutsu," a song from the anime Beastars, and "Gunjo," which was inspired by the artistic manga Blue Period and based on the story Ao wo Mikata ni.

And while the bulk of the set list was composed of anime and manga songs, they still have others like "Moshimo Inochi ga Egaketara," based on a stage written by Osamu Suzuki, and "Tabun," which is based on a story of the same name.

Of course, no set could be complete without the hit song "Idol" from Oshi no Ko. Prior to tonight, I had wondered whether or not they would be leading with it to kick things off at full speed, or closing with it to end with a bang, and they've gone with the latter option. As I have previously mentioned elsewhere, the song is played practically everywhere in Japan and I heard it every single day of a trip spanning one corner of Japan (Fukuoka) to the other (Tokyo) last year. During the annual NHK Kohaku Uta Gassen, the group performed a special New Year's rendition featuring many idols, singers, actresses, and dancers.

YOASOBI's next performance will be on April 18 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, CA. They'll return to Indio for their second Coachella date on April 19, and will then travel north to San Francisco for April 21's show at The Warfield. On a side note, April 21 is the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival's final day and the day of the Grand Parade, if you're looking to go into the city a little early.

EDIT: looks like they'll also be performing on Sunday as part of 88RISING FUTURES.  YOASOBI played at 88RISING's Head in the Clouds festival last year.

Setlist:

Racing Into the Night
The Blessing
Mister
Biri-Biri
Tabun
Moshimo Inochi ga Egaketara
Yuusha
Kaibutsu
Idol

Photo credit: Hatsune Miku Official Twitter

Hatsune Miku was up next, also on the Mojave stage. She is currently in the middle of her Miku Expo tour run, and although it's had a bit of controversy she still delivered some solid songs tonight.

While I doubt any of you on this website fall into this category, I will explain Miku for those of you who are unfamiliar. Miku is part of the Vocaloid voice synthesizer, specifically a voice bank, created back in the late 2000s by Crypton Future Media. The Character Vocal series, of which Miku is the first, features the iconic green twin-tailed design. She caught on like wildfire in Japan and has hundreds of millions of listens attributed to her name. She is not an AI, which I've seen written in another article recently (for shame).

One of Miku's strengths is that she is not married to one genre, given that Miku is "all of us." Miku is a voice for those who do not have one, and any number of producers can use her talents. Electronica, rock, metal, pop, Miku has been used for all of them and then some. A music producer might be able to create a melody but lacks a vocalist, and that's where Miku comes in to provide her voice.

Japan's creative forces gathered together in droves. One person would create a song. Another would create art. Another an animation. Multiple artists would flock to create all number of followups based on the initial art compounding on that initial success. Many Vocaloid projects have been made on the fly with no clear direction from the onset and no set staff by amateurs in their bedrooms. Miku allowed people to create music as a solo effort.

There are bands that were born of Vocaloid and producers who can count her as one of the reasons to their success. And, in reversal, there are Vocaloid songs that have been picked up by human vocalists (the so called "utaite," like Ado, who I saw not too long ago, and will see again in a few weeks in Japan).

Everything is created under the flag of Miku.

Miku was first announced as being part of Coachella back in 2020, but for obvious reasons, was delayed. Fast forward to 2024 and she finally graces the stage at Coachella.

In the past, a Miku concert meant a projection on a translucent screen. This translucent screen along with being backed backed by live musicians help with the illusion that she's there in person. We've seen it multiple times like at Anime Expo 2011's Mikunopolis concert and many of the prior Miku Expo shows in year's past. Unfortunately for the current tour, Coachella included, Miku is now on a solid LED screen (perhaps as a cost saving measure). A bit of a weird choice given that we've seen Tupac on stage at Coachella via projection technology, and this year Lana Del Rey did the same. Miku fans were a bit miffed as you might expect. One line of reasoning for the Miku Expo shows having a LED screen (with the Vancouver, Portland, and San Jose shows having taken place before Coachella) was that they were saving the projection screen for Coachella. Clearly that was not the case. If you've got some time, you might even want to check out the #mikuchella tag on Twitter which has some comedy gold in it.

Coachella's cameramen had no idea how to handle a virtual act and their choice of angles and zoom were less than ideal. Going to the extreme sides on a 2D screen is not something that works very well, and neither is zooming to the point where you could count the screen's different diodes. Crowd shots and close-ups of the actual musicians were the only ones that worked. I'll admit Miku is a bit of a unique case and until you have some Virtual YouTubers on stage, they won't have to worry about that again.

For all the complaints about the screen, the music was great. Miku songs are numerous and Crypton had plenty to choose from.

But how do you choose a setlist when you've got so many good songs? I've alluded to this problem before, and it's infinitely harder for Miku because there are so many songs created by myriad producers and bands. There is not just one songwriter or group of musicians contributing under the flag of Miku.

Given that all you've got is a fourty-five minute set, you are faced with quite the conundrum.

Crypton decided to lead off with Anamanaguchi's "Miku" before transitioning to the classic "World is Mine" by supercell. Sadly, the crowd was not composed of enough Miku fans to sing along to the opening line of "Sekaiiiiiiii de ichiban ohimesama" that you would hear at some of her other concerts, but you can rest assured that plenty of others at home were filling in.

The Japanese contingent is well-represented with many of Miku's hits like "Unknown Mother Goose" by wowaka (RIP) and "Tell Your World" by kz. Many of the other songs come from Miku Expo itself, and included "Ten Thousand Stars" by CircusP, winner of the Miku Expo song contest 2016, "Lucky Orb" by emon, theme song for Miku Expo 2019, "Thousand Little Voices" by Vault Kid & Flanger Moose, winner of the Miku Expo song contest 2021, and "Highlight" by KIRA, theme song for Miku Expo 2021." "Hyper Reality Show" by Utsu-P stood out for me as a metalcore banger and shows just how versatile Miku is. She can be used for anything. The final song was Yunosuke and CircusP's "Intergalactic Bound," which is also one of the newest songs in the set having been released earlier this year.

I'd like to point out that Miku is not locked to just one language. While many of her songs are written in Japanese, English speakers have also adopted her. "Miku" and "Thousand Little Voices" are just a small example of that.

While the crowd might have been stunned by what they were seeing in front of them, by the end of the set you could hear people clamoring for one more song.

If you are intrigued by Miku, well, there's a whole rabbit hole you can go down. I mentioned Miku was the first of the Character Vocal series. There are many more where that came from including Kagamine Rin and Len, Megurine Luka, and their predecessors, Meiko and Kaito. Fans have created entire ecosystems with these characters from scratch. Vocaloid as a whole has become a powerhouse phenomenon that shows no signs of slowing down. The annual Magical Mirai festival in Japan and Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage are just a couple of other elements that show its strength.  I'd give Colorful Stage a whirl if you're open to rhythm games as a route into Vocaloid.  

The Miku Expo tour continues in Arizona on Sunday and Monday (and you can pick up some criminally cheap tickets for Monday, I'm talking $2) before heading to Los Angeles on Wednesday.  They then circle back to Indio for the second week of Coachella before moving on to Denver, Texas, and beyond, all the way to the east coast before swinging back to Michigan and Illinois.  One final show in Mexico caps off the tour on May 21.    

Setlist:

Miku by Anamanaguchi
World is Mine by supercell
Unknown Mother Goose by wowaka (RIP)
Ten Thousand Stars by CircusP
Thousand Little Voices by Vault Kid and Flanger Moose
Lucky Orb by emon
Tell Your World by kz
Highlight by KIRA
Intergalactic Bound by Yunosuke and CircusP

We're not quite done with Japan just yet. On Sunday, April 14, YOASOBI will take part of 88RISING FUTURES at 5:20PM on Mojave and Atarashii Gakkou will take the stage at 9:40PM on Gobi. Make sure to check them out, and I'll see you again for another report.