Byrne-ing Down the House at Coachella

Or Couchella, for us hermits

David Byrne and company perform at Coachella 2018. (They’ve since adopted a more colorful wardrobe.) Photo CC BY 2.0, Raph_PH.

I’m a lifelong music fan and amateur musician, but I’ve never been into big music festivals. The noise, crowds, expense, and logistics are all off-putting to me, especially as I’ve become increasingly introverted since the onset of the COVID pandemic. Fortunately, with advancements in technology and broadband access, livestreamed concerts have become commonplace, allowing hermits like me to enjoy big-name acts from the comfort of our living rooms.

While my popular music preferences fall primarily in the classic rock era of the 70s and 80s, I have also enjoyed more recent offerings. One favorite is the 1999 album Play by Moby, an artist I appreciate for being a fellow vegan animal rights advocate. Possibly because I’d watched a number of his videos, on Friday I saw a notification on YouTube that they were streaming Moby live on stage at the Coachella festival. I was delighted that he performed several songs from Play, including my favorite, “Porcelain”.

Seeing that all of the stages were being livestreamed, I consulted the website schedule¹ to see if there were any other performers I might like to watch. While I recognized some of the big names, like headliners Justin Bieber and Sabrina Carpenter, the only artist that really interested me was David Byrne, former lead singer and…