The xx's Coachella Reunion: A Spellbinding Return After Eight-Year Hiatus
Romy Madley Croft of The xx performed at Coachella in Indio, California, on 10 April, marking a significant moment for the English indie rock band. The trio, consisting of Jamie Smith, Oliver Sim, and Romy Madley Croft, took the main stage for their first festival set in eight years, delivering a hypnotic and atmospheric dance sound that captivated the audience.
A Long-Awaited Comeback
When The xx appeared on the Coachella main stage on Friday evening, the occasion was momentous, yet the band made it feel seamless. Despite not performing together for nearly a decade, save for a couple of warm-up shows in Mexico City, the trio has remained active in the music scene. Jamie Smith, known as Jamie xx, has become a festival mainstay as a renowned electronic producer, while Madley Croft and Sim have each explored solo projects, with Madley Croft's club-influenced Mid Air in 2023 and Sim's horror-tinged Hideous Bastard in 2022.
The childhood friends have continued to collaborate, with Jamie producing Sim's Hideous Bastard, and their Coachella reunion, billed as the start of a "new chapter" and planned festival run, felt more like an ongoing creative synergy than a mere comeback. Dressed in their signature all-black attire, they launched into their 2009 debut single Crystalised as if no time had passed, setting the tone for an immersive experience.
A Rangy and Shapeshifting Set
Over nearly an hour, The xx performed 16 tracks that seamlessly blended their forward-thinking, intimate headphone rock with elements from their solo material. This resulted in an impressively rangy and shapeshifting set, showcasing the veteran genre-bending act they have evolved into. While their traditional sound—atmospheric and intimate, with Madley Croft and Sim trading pensive lyrics in haunting deadpan—is undeniably influential, it might not seem ideal for a festival atmosphere. However, the band's virtuosic sense of vibe and Jamie xx's peerless production transformed even slow-burn tracks like VCR from their 2009 debut and 2017's Say Something Loving into propulsive, hypnotic moments that delighted the crowd, including some British accents heard among the audience.
Perfect Timing and Transformative Production
The Coachella festival programmer demonstrated incredible instincts by scheduling The xx's set at sunset. The performance began in stately grayscale and bloomed into full-color strobe lights as dusk stained the clouds rose-gold, then dark, mirroring the music's shift from pensive to club-oriented. By nightfall, Jamie xx's prismatic production took center stage, featuring an exultant Treat Each Other Right, a searching remix of On Hold, and a juiced-up version of Sim's track GMT, with the singer wandering into the crowd.
Throughout the set, it remained a team effort, with Madley Croft and Sim's aching vocals pairing perfectly and folding effortlessly into Jamie's spellbinding beats. This synergy made it hard to distinguish where solo work ended and band work began, highlighting their cohesive artistry.
A Full-Circle Journey
An extra-pounding edition of I Dare You, perhaps the band's most straightforwardly sunlit song, brought the journey full circle, leading to the final number, the ironically titled and instantly recognizable Intro. In his actual intro, Sim remarked that this set "has felt the most special after so long away." Filmed once again in grayscale, the band tore into what has become their pop calling card as if rediscovering it anew, then deconstructed the hazy instrumental into a thunderous bombast that ricocheted across the now dark festival grounds.
This performance felt both like a statement of return and a reminder that their essence remains intact: the journey goes on and on, promising more to come from this iconic indie rock trio.
