Coachella headliner Frank Ocean slammed over ‘trainwreck’ set

“Pure chaos,” was the verdict after elusive R&B star Frank Ocean took to the stage an hour late for his first live performance in six long years.

Frank Ocean performs. Picture: ANGELA WEISS / AFP

Elusive R&B singer Frank Ocean performed his first concert in six years on the weekend, headlining the iconic Coachella festival outside Los Angeles – but his set has been labelled a “trainwreck” by disappointed fans.

Ocean, who has not released an album since 2016, was the much-anticipated Sunday night headliner for the festival, performing live for the first time since August 2017.

But fans’ disappointment started before Ocean even took to the stage, with the star’s set scrubbed from the Coachella livestream schedule.

Ocean at the 2019 Met Gala. Picture: Neilson Barnard/Getty

Earlier, the festival had been promoting Ocean’s set as part of the official livestream, with thousands of fans around the world ready to tune in remotely to watch his live comeback. It’s been reported that Ocean himself “personally pulled the plug at the last second on the live stream”.

When Ocean did take the stage, he was an hour late, eating into his stage time as Coachella has a hard curfew for the closing act.

By the time he took to the stage, the impatient crowd were chanting “Come on, Frank!”, reports the Guardian.

His resulting set was described as “messy, loose, and a near-disaster” by Variety.

“The first five minutes were comprised of people walking in a circle,” the outlet reports, before Ocean and his band took to the stage – but were barely visible to the crowd, with the lighting down low and fixtures obscuring the view.

Ocean performs in 2017, his last performance before the six-year break. Picture: AFP

“Ocean and his band were largely invisible to the crowd, save for some lucky fans in the first few rows. When the camera did show him, it was often the back of his head, or his face was obscured by shadows,” said Insider.

It was nearly 10 minutes into his set before Ocean performed his first song – and from then on, there were lengthy silences between songs, as the star left the stage for long periods at a time. Videos on social media show Ocean dancing along to his music, rather than singing it:

Frank ocean so unserious, he was having a listening party😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/z49i5uUK7d

— NATE (@NATERERUN) April 17, 2023

Midway through the set, a DJ started to play unannounced, leading some in the crowd to assume Ocean’s time on stage was over – then, 15 minutes later, the DJ finished and Ocean returned to the stage. “It felt like pure chaos,” was Variety’s verdict, and many fans agreed:

I’m just so happy I got to witness Frank Ocean perform live at FYF FEST 2017. That performance was absolutely beautiful and incredible. 🥲

After last nights train wreck, I’m probably not going to bother on seeing him anywhere else (if he even gets booked at that) 🤷🏽‍♂️ lol

— GDE (@GlobalDanceGDE) April 17, 2023

woke up very sad about that frank ocean performance being real… my brain couldn’t comprehend the train wreck while standing there last night and left me with zero hope for next weekend, was truly hoping it was a bad dream

— idk (@mindfulpanda) April 17, 2023

frank ocean coachella was a train wreck, unreal i’m ok to wait another 6 years

— jetfink (@JETfink) April 17, 2023

People are pissed. Yelling. A true train wreck of a performance from Frank Ocean. We expect more from our millionaire heroes.

— Philip Cosores (@Philip_Cosores) April 17, 2023

Frank Ocean wrong as hell for that. Utter chaos and confusion from start to finish… and didn’t even finish.

— DJ GOT.A.LOT (@DJGotALot) April 17, 2023

I have never been happier that I didn’t waste money to see Frank Ocean end Coachella like this…horrific lmao pic.twitter.com/WeoGRHqnQS

— yllireally (@whydee__) April 17, 2023

As fans digested the head-scratching performance, insider reports suggest there was a lot more chaos happening backstage.

TMZ reports Ocean suffered a “serious ankle injury” days before Coachella, which forced a major last-minute change to his production.

The outlet reports Ocean’s team had spent weeks organising an ice rink to be installed onstage, with over 100 hockey players cast to skate during his performance.

“They rehearsed on an elevated ice rink at Paramount Studios, and even got bussed out to Coachella for a dress rehearsal the week before Frank’s show,” claims TMZ.

The 100-odd skaters arrived at Coachella on Sunday – to be told that the entire skating element of the performance had been scrapped.

Music festival outlet Festive Owl reported on Twitter that the skating rink was nixed at the last minute, and had to be melted down as Coachella organisers scrambled to come up with a plan B for Ocean’s staging.

Coachella had to deconstruct the approved stage (that had been planned and signed off on for months in advance) + melt the entire ice rink and then set it up how Frank decided today with no warning. Which is what you ended up seeing, and caused the hour-long delay,” the outlet tweeted.

And Festive Owl claimed fans aren’t the only ones unhappy with Ocean right now: “Don’t expect to see any coverage from the festival about the set. Something that is unprecedented in the history of Coachella. The relationship is not in a good place right now.”