Updated April 27, 2026, 2:19 a.m. PT
This actually wasn’t Post Malone’s first Indio rodeo.
The rapper-turned-country-star has been no stranger to our truthful valley’s mega music festivals in (very) latest years. He first performed a preferred cover- (and guest-) stuffed set that served as his nation popping out get together at Stagecoach 2024, solely to return for Coachella to play a set of headlining gigs that felt much less unanimously well-received.
So, when this yr’s Stagecoach lineup dropped with Post Malone’s identify prominently displayed because the Sunday headliner, there was greater than a little bit grumbling from some who appear to have grown bored with our heavily-tattooed frequent home visitor and would’ve most popular to have spent the final night of competition season with anybody else.
But whereas I nonetheless can’t essentially endorse what I imagine was an unprecedented choice to have Malone headline each festivals in back-to-back years , I can say this: I believe previous Posty lastly discovered a competition groove that basically works for him throughout his fourth weekend as a competition performer on the polo grounds.
While Malone’s Coachella present provoked criticism for every part from the nation fried twang with which he delivered a few of his rap hits to a stage presence that typically felt over-the-top in its aw shucks humbleness, the musician packaged his schtick Sunday, April 26, in a manner that appeared completely pitched to Stagecoach’s nation loving crowd.
That crowd, in flip, appeared to eat up a present that appeared to completely embrace a lot of what labored about Malone’s beloved first Stagecoach present — the informal, even intimate vibe and Post’s incapability to withstand masking his favourite nation tunes — whereas dishing out with among the features that made the Coachella present much less profitable.
Among the latter was that present’s comparatively elaborate set and truck cease theme, which, for Stagecoach 2026, had been jettisoned in favor of a easy setup that used pyrotechnics and occasional fireworks to generate a extra old school spectacle that felt appropriately Stagecoach.
Then there was the music itself. The Coachella crowd appeared extra within the bangers like “White Iverson” and “Circles” that made Malone certainly one of America’s most streamed artists — and are a part of the rationale many turned uninterested, even aggravated by, Malone’s nation evolution.
Somehow, Malone appears to have discovered a method to successfully merge all sides of the Post expertise right here — or not less than an viewers that was extra sufficiently open to them. I felt this was significantly illustrated by one part close to the tip of the set that noticed Malone play three songs in succession that felt like a great sampling of his many sides and earlier polo floor reveals (and that delivered an expertise that was uniquely Post Malone, in fact).
First up was the duvet of a contemporary nation basic, Kenny Chesney’s “How Forever Feels.” Then got here the immortal Post Malone rap banger “Sunflower,” and at last, the nation anthem that feels so completely Stagecoach, “I Had Some Help,” which he memorably debuted with Morgan Wallen throughout the latter’s headlining set in 2024.
There was no Wallen this time — let’s not neglect that Ella Langley instructed us throughout her Friday Mane Stage set that he was on “dad duty” this weekend and could not come — but it surely was irrespective of, the gang appeared lots glad to belt out the phrases alongside with Post.
In a manner, even Malone’s option to primarily spotlight lower-billed Stagecoach artists (Jake Worthington and Braxton Keith) as particular friends somewhat than one of many many celebrity collaborators from his nation album “F-1 Trillion” felt oh-so-Stagecoach provided that the competition extra sometimes eschews eye-popping visitor surprises in favor of getting the billed artists be a part of each other on stage.
There did appear to be one try at including some increased star wattage when Shaboozey all of a sudden joined Malone on stage and danced round (however didn’t seem to sing a lot or in any respect) throughout “I Had Some Help.” But even that transient look felt extremely informal (maybe an excessive amount of so) — although Malone did appear to mutter one thing about him and Shaboozey engaged on one thing collectively.
Heck, even Malone’s somewhat aggressive product placement of his Post-branded mini Bud Light cans (which have been closely marketed on the competition, from airplane banners overhead to a mini pop-up bar solely promoting that one merchandise) appeared to land properly sufficient with the Bud Light loving crowd.
But if Malone’s Stagecoach debut in 2024 marked the beginning of his transformation into a rustic artist, this appeared to be the one the place he totally assumed all the trimmings of a rustic star.
Those would come with the symbolic and political ones, as Malone pointedly ended his present with a canopy of Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.”
That fist-pumping, unapologetically militant anthem was famously launched by Keith within the wake of 9/11, and has change into among the many extra polarizing nation songs in latest reminiscence due to its vengeful, jingoistic message. The music’s notoriety solely appeared to develop throughout the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that may observe, when some would come to see it as the last word patriotic anthem whereas others got here to treat it as summarizing every part that was incorrect with the considering that led the US into these wars within the first place.
So, for Malone to not solely finish the set by taking part in the music, however to pause for dramatic impact within the center to loudly bellow its most contentious and memorable lyric, “and you’ll be sorry you messed with the US of A ‘cause we’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way” — in a second that felt like an exclamation level — was an unmistakably pointed selection at a time when the US finds itself in one other battle within the Middle East.
It was an unsubtle selection that felt particularly notable provided that Post Malone had by no means, till now, struck me as a really political artist. But I do not assume anybody would say that now, as Malone beamed from ear to ear and, with the US once more in a controversial battle, declared “and the eagle will fly and it’s gonna be hell when you hear mother freedom start ringin’ her bell and it’ll feel like the whole world is raining down on you.”
If nothing else, it was undoubtedly the sort of message you will not often get at Coachella, delivered by a star who now appears totally at dwelling each on the planet of nation music and its greatest competition.
