Frank Ocean drops out of Coachella weekend two
Following a somewhat disastrous performance last weekend, Ocean says that an ankle injury will prevent him from doing it again
Coachella isn’t turning into the party hangout Frank Ocean hoped. For his first concert in six years, Ocean finally headlined the festival he was supposed to lead in 2020, but Ocean’s set was a major disappointment for festivalgoers. On top of the show starting an hour late, Ocean’s vibe was all off. He spent much of the show sitting down as professional hockey players and Olympians walked in a circle around him. In the middle of the performance, there was a DJ set that motivated Ocean to stand up and bop around a little, but, yeah, even Justin Bieber was caught nodding off during the show. It wasn’t a great look.
However, after days of complaints and reports of an ice skating extravaganza being canceled minutes before hitting the stage, Ocean says that a leg injury will prevent him from performing next weekend. The injury answers some questions about his performance but raises others, like was Frank Ocean going to ice skate during this thing?
According to a statement [via Variety], Ocean injured himself in the week leading up to his performance, and the show was “reworked out of necessity” within 72 hours. Never mind that, per The L.A. Times, a bus of skaters was “ready to rock” when management told them they had been cut from the show at the last minute. Nevertheless, if you’re hurt, you’re hurt, and doctors say that he has “two fractures and a sprain in his left leg.” For his part, Ocean said in the statement: “It was chaotic. There is some beauty in chaos. It isn’t what I intended to show but I did enjoy being out there and I’ll see you soon.”
While we wish Ocean a speedy recovery, it seems as though the lack of communication between his people and the skaters was something that could use improvement. On their podcast, “Empty Netters,” Chris and Dan Powers, two skaters hired to perform during Ocean’s set, say that Ocean didn’t want to do it anymore. Instead, 90 skaters were cut from the show while another 30 were asked to circle Ocean on stage for five minutes. They described the performance as a “nightmare” but had nice things to say about Ocean, who they found “incredibly level-headed and respectful.”